Playing the Star Ocean Among my favorite video games are the Star Ocean series for the Sony Playstation consoles. I'm on my third time playing through the series. This is my fan page for the Star Ocean universe. (I also love Valkyrie Profile, Final Fantasy VIII and X, Gurumin, and Trails in the Sky.) I'm an elder gamer; sixty years old and retired. Creating this page is one of the things I do to keep busy and placate my inner graphic artist; I don't expect it to be of much use to anyone but myself. <— Rena from Second Evolution. Art and photos on this page are my own. More art at the bottom of the page.

This page is both a record of my collection and a repository for my thoughts about the games. For purely factual information, check out the Star Ocean Wiki and the Square-Enix page.

I'm not a collector, per se;  I play the games, listen to the music, watch the anime, read the manga, and enjoy the figures. I want as much of the Star Ocean  fantasy world as possible.

Latest update: March 2012. (As I replay games, I add to and revise this page.)

The Star Ocean  Universe

Star Ocean is a mix of science fiction and fantasy, with an under story that doesn't become apparent until Till the End of Time. Though action on planets usually involves a mix of medieval society and magic (heraldry or symbology), make no mistake, these games are space opera on a grand scale.

These are complex games. Characters level up, but there is also a skill system that allows tailoring individual capabilities. There are shops, which are useful at low levels and later for buying raw materials. Item creation is an important part of the game, especially for Till the End of Time  and The Last Hope. There are "private actions" that influence the story and the endings. There are side-quests and optional (pre-ending) dungeons. There are bonus dungeons post-ending. There are odds and ends you unlock, and battle trophies in TLH.

My playing times the second time through the games, once I understood how things work, were about: 50, 75, 100 and 125 hours. One can spend much more time than that if one becomes obsessive about item creation. (If you're not into item creation and want to just depend on the shops and a lot of fighting, you can make it through that way, too.) The third time through TET took only about 80 hours, as I knew exactly what I wanted to do and not do.

As is not unusual with RPGs, all is not fun and games with the story line. Bad stuff happens, not infrequently to good people (though no player characters die). Till the End of Time uncovers something rather unsettling about our universe, and The Last Hope, which occurs in Earth time before the other games in the series, is downright grim in places, beginning with an accidental but thoroughly devasting World War III on Earth and ending with something unpleasant for the entire universe. (The science fiction aspect means that, except perhaps in the first game, one is never completely certain what happened once a game is over. But then one can say that about Final Fantasy VIII, which I also adore.)

First Departure – FD (PSP)

Original release in 1996; takes place in 346 SD. Original Super Famicom game was never released outside Japan; 2007 remake for the PSP released in North America in 2008. I also have the one volume "anthology" Japanese manga, the Brady strategy guide, the Japanese language strategy guide and the original sound track with DVD.

Thoughts about game play

Contains spoilers. Synopsis: A good, solid game with a large cast of sometimes mutually exclusive characters that increases the replay value.

Takes place essentially on one planet, though in two different times. Introduces the series staples of a mix of star-faring and medieval civilizations with magic (symbology), time/dimension travel, skill system, item creation system and battle system.Small world map, but different monsters in different terrain. Large cities and dungeons. Bunnies . . . and Welch Vineyard.

As with most of the games, the initial party is separated for one reason or another close to the beginning and does not come together again until later in the game. Evil but unknown forces are afoot, causing chaos and monsters everywhere.

There are many story branches depending on character choices. There are a total of about 12 possible player characters, some of whom you can have on a temporary basis until you make final decisions. The maximum party size is 8, with 4 used in combat at any one time. The AI is very good at physical combat; not quite so good with symbology, and rather wasteful of MP in all-out attck mode.

Second Story/Evolution – SE (PS, PSP)

Released in 1998 as Second Story; takes place in 366 SD. Playstation game released in 1999 in North America; 2008 remake for the PSP released in NA in 2009 (I have both the PS and PSP NA versions, and the Japanese 2008 PSP version). I also have three volumes of the Second Story Japanese manga, the NA release of the Star Ocean EX anime, the Prima Second Story strategy guide, the original sound track with DVD and the "arrange" CD.

Thoughts about game play

Contains spoilers. Synopsis: One chooses to play either as Claude or as Rena, with the story and possible characters being different depending on that choice. I love this feature! PSP game play is almost identical to the PSP First Departure because they use the same engine.

Claude is the son of a playable character in First Departure; Rena is . . . not what she initially believes she is. Takes place on two separate 'planets' and perhaps different times. In this game it first becomes clear that the universe is not the simple thing that humans and others believe it to be, and once the game is over you're not totally certain what has happened.

The PSP version uses the same game engine as the PSP version of First Departure. The graphics, cut-scenes and voice acting was completely redone. Gameplay was rebalanced, and Welch was added as a hidden PC, making a total of 13 possible player characters, though not all are available on either the Claude or the Rena tracks.

The NA Playstation version runs fine on a PS2 but is a bit buggy on a PS3. I think this version is really cute, with its pixelated graphics. The story is identical to the 2008 remake. There's no voice acting except for exclamations in battle. The music is pretty much the same in both versions.

Blue Sphere – BS (GBC) Released in 1998; takes place in 368 SD and is a continuation of Second Departure, with all 12 player characters. Game Boy Color game cartridge, never released outside of Japan. There was a later remake for mobile phones in Japan. I also have five volumes of the Japanese manga. As of October 2011, I finally own a used but mint condition copy of the game, and a used GameBoy Advance on which to play it. Reading kanji on a GameBoy display is a challenge, though, so I don't yet have much to say about the game other than that the look and feel is not dissimilar to the Playstation version of Second Departure. (The manual, which is © 2001, is pretty comprehensive and has furigana, so that's a big help!)

Till the End of Time – TET (PS2)

Released in 2003 for Playstation 2; takes place in 772 SD. Director's cut international version released in 2004. I also have the Brady strategy guide, the original sound track, the director's cut sound track, the voice mix CD and last but not least, the Motoi Sakuraba Live Concert: Star Ocean & Valkyrie Profile DVD. (And the Valkyrie Profile games, but I digress.)

Thoughts about game play

Contains spoilers. Synopsis: I have a love/hate relationship with this game. The mechanics are very different from FD/SE. The first time I played TET, I gave up half-way through and bought a strategy guide because the item creation scheme is essentially impossible to use without help. However, the story and the characters are probably the best of all the games, though there are only a few choices with characters, and half of them enter the game annoyingly late, at annoyingly low levels. There aren't as many private actions.

The battle system is essentially the same, but the size of a combat party has been reduced to three, making it impossible to have both an offensive and defensive symbologist along with a team of fighters, which is very frustrating. Item creation becomes a whole complex sub-game in which one must hire and manage inventors, find a complex set of supplies, spend large sums of money, and essentially gamble during the invention process. Making it through the game without mastering item creation is difficult, so this makes the learning curve very steep the first time through. Having major characters enter/re-enter the game half-way through with their stats at level one, forcing you to spend hours leveling them up, is insane.

So first time I gave up half-way and bought a strategy guide for item creation, then played through, figuring everything out. By the next time I played through, when I fully understood everything, I really liked the game. But this is probably not the game to begin with!

The Last Hope – TLH (PS3)

Released in 2009 on Xbox; takes place in 1 SD. Playstation 3 game released worldwide in 2010. It has been officially stated that this is the last game in the series. I have both the European and North American PS3 releases, the Brady strategy guide, the Japanese language strategy guide, the original sound track with DVD, the "arrange" CD, and the Edge and Reimi figures.

Thoughts about game play

Contains spoilers. Synopsis: The graphics are great and the game play problems of TET have been fixed, but the character development and story are weak in places. I love that the Japanese voice track is included! (And subtitles and text in multiple languages.)

The graphics are stunning. This is one of those games where you just want to walk around the world and the towns and look at the scenery and the people. Cut-scenes are many and sometimes quite lengthy; always well done. (I wish they had used a little of that effort to allow showing the current battle leader as the character on the world map.)

The battle party is back to four people, and you can swap out people while a battle is in progress, which makes the entire party so much more useful! Damage and healing can also affect the entire party, which is realistic. The AI is less than wonderful and doesn't have enough options for symbol users. Item creation is very sensible and easy to understand, driven by available recipes and materials, not directly by money. Havesting and mining become explicit character abilities that primarily support item creation but also yield experience and party-wide skill points.

Reimi can do harvesting from the beginning, but you need Bacchus to mine. So even though you encounter mining points in the first part of the game, they cannot be used yet. A few item creation recipies are found or given to the party, but most are developed by groups of up to three characters, depending on their skills and skill levels. Item synthesis, which also can be used with armor and accessories, not just weapons (yea!) is not possible until you have Sarah, the final character to join the party.

New characters join the party at reasonable levels, but there is no choice at all in playable characters, and no true story branches. Perhaps encouraged by the better graphics, this game contains some irrelevant and what seems to me to be out of character anime-style fan service and jokes. For whatever reason it seems like it doesn't always take itself seriously, which I really do not like.*

Many of the private actions feel incidental, obviously added to allow fan service and jokes. Too few of them offer insight into the characters or have any effect on the game pre-ending. This is mainly in contrast to TET, which took itself dead serioulsy throughout. Perhaps it's because the graphics are so realistic that I expect the characters to behave realistically, too. The silliness in the PSP games doesn't bother me near so much. **

Did they ran out of money before development was finished? The towns and scenery are rendered in extensive, loving detail, even where little if anything ever happens. After a certain point you know nothing new is going to happen with the PCs or NPCs, though you still have to spend hours and hours completing side quests and opening chests you cannot open until just before or even after the ending. This does not appeal to me, especially when my characters are essentially trapped in hell, surrounded by the dead and dying.

For all my criticism, let me be perfectly clear: I love this game and am enormously grateful that the developers worked so hard on it. Thank you! I purchased a PS3 specifically to play TLH. It was totally worth it.

* I think it's fine that Welch is in all four games and knows more than an NPC should know; one can easily posit a reason for that: she's a playable character for one or more 4D players, and there are hints to support this hypothesis.

** It's possible that because TLH follows TET, in spite of taking place before TET on the Eternal Sphere timeline, that the behavior of some NPCs and a few odd things that are salted here and there in the game are done explicitly to support the big revelation in TET.

Thoughts about the overall series

Contains spoilers. Synopsis: I love this series of games (and Valkyrie Profile), even more than I love Final Fantasy. I'm sad there won't be more of these games.

Looking at the series from beginning to end, it's very difficult to escape the conclusion that as more effort was put into graphics, less effort went into characters and story. The later games have fewer characters, fewer character/story branches, less character and story depth. I've noticed this with all the series I play that span several generations of consoles. I'm not alone among RPG gamers in preferring older games because of this.

I know there's a drive to be new and different and next gen and hooo-haaa, but for me I see RPGs as playable stories. I'd gladly buy another game just for a story or a continuation of a story with the exact same gaming engine and mechanics (even one with the problems of TET). Personally, I'd way rather have PS2-quality graphics with good characters and story than PS3-quality graphics with lame characters and a weak story.

Suspension of disbelief is a difficult art. Maybe it's because of my age and the fact that I grew up with books and story-telling, but I find the almost photo-realistic graphics of current generation games to actually be a turn off. I have a really good imagination, and I'd like to be allowed to use it as I please. Same thing goes for full voice acting; if it happens to fit my own image of the characters it's okay, but if it doesn't fit or isn't done well, it ruins the game. (I couldn't play TLH at all if I had to listen to the English dub.)

Grumbling aside, I thank everyone involved in the creation and production of the Star Ocean games for their effort and hard work! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ありがとうございます。 本当にありがとう!

More fan art

Welch Vineyard, FD

Peppita Rossetti, TEOT

Sarah Jerand, TLH