Star Ocean series

[Del Murder]

I'm looking for a new game to play and I'm considering this series. What I want to know is if I need to have played the other two games before Till the End of Time, and also what this series compares to (in terms of other games).

[TheAbominatrix]

While the games do reference eachother, it isnt heavily in the least, so you dont need to have played previous installments to know what's going on. They're easily stand-alone games.

As for comparisons... they always reminded me of the 'Tales of...' series, though I do prefer that to Star Ocean.

[Aphelion]

I think you should get Star Ocean (SNES) first. I've beaten it, and it's pretty good (in fact, one of the best RPGs in the SNES era)... Star Ocean Till The End of Time has a few crazy loops, so you should start with SO to understand more about the planets and such, and proceed to TTEOT, where you'll find many references about the races and planets that appeared in the first game. SO The Second Story (PS1) is kind of a direct sequel (it's the closer in the SO timeline, I'd say), it features the son of one of the characters in the first game, and this game has another direct sequel: Star Ocean Blue Sphere (GBC): it's a pretty good game (for GBC standards, of course)...

So, I'd rather not start with TTEOT, but with SO (SNES). It's your choice, of course. Hope it helped...

[spartancode117]

good luck finding a good rom!

[TheAbominatrix]

There's only a Japanese version. It was never released outside of Japan. Any English version has been translated by fans.

And while there are plenty of references and neat things to learn throughout the series, the games are still comprehensible when made to stand-alone, unlike, say, the .hack series.

[-N-]

I played Star Ocean II and I wasn't too thrilled with it, to be honest. It had a decent story, and a pretty cool combat and leveling system, but it was somewhere near the end of the first disk or the start of the second disk that I just got tired of it. There are a couple of dramatic moments that were just poorly dealt with, in my opinion. In any case, I got all the way up to the final boss and then stopped, because my friend hijacked the game to go level everyone up to 255, and I never started again. *shruggles*

[Dreddz]

Ive only played Star Ocean II and Till The End of Time and I enjoyed them for the most part, Most of teh problems I had were with Till The End Of Time. The beginning is painful, after that it gets pretty good, but I found it to be false advertised. It promised a Cool Sci Fi feel, but all of Disc 1 was in a medievil setting, and for the larger part of Disc 2 it was more medi, duno if thats bad to others but I was looking for a change at the time. Battles are fast and fun and make you more active but I found that you could simpley get through them with button bashing.
ST 2 was better in my eyes in almost everyway, get that first and if you like it get Star Ocean 3
Im not sure about ST1 But I can imagine that it would be good.

[XxSephirothxX]

I played the translated rom of the first game and loved it. Download it, as it's definitely the best in the series. I didn't get what the fuss was about The Second Story. It seemed a pretty average RPG to me. Till the End of Time was fun, but defininitely not great. I'd wait till you can get it for about 20 bucks. Playing the games in order will give you a few neat insights, but there won't be any moments where you say "Man, did I miss something?"

[crashNUMBERS]

Del, If you ever want a ROm for the first Star Ocean game you can just talk to me on MSN and I can send you it!! :)

[* White Aeris *]

i started with Star ocean till the end of time .

[TurkSlayer]

I've played SO2 and Till the End of time. I prefer SO2, its pretty good. The stories pretty good, and I thought that all the characters being optional (Besides Rena and Claude, of course) was a pretty cool feature. Overall, I really like it. SO3 is okay, but not quite as good.

[Dignified Pauper]

Is there a translation patch of star ocean Blue Sphere?

[Aphelion]

There is one in progress, I think, but it wasn't released yet.

[Sepho]

The only tidbit of information that springs to mind when I think of the Star Ocean series is that the ROM for Star Ocean is huge (seriously, it's like 5-some MB).

I'll have to give it a shot one o' these days.

[Mirage]

Yeah, the SNES game was ahead of its time :p, it even had voice acting here and there :p.

Anyway, I started with SO3, and I had no problems understanding what was going on. There were a lot of references, but there's a dictionary that explains most terms. There is also a big invention system, where you can hire inventors or invent stuff with your playable characters. You can invent lots of things that can aid you in battle, like potions, weapons, items to refine equipment with and lots more. There is also a lot of sidequests and extras, like alternate costumes, cameo bosses from other tri-ace games, 4 different difficulty settings, etc etc.

And sure gibbi, you can get through it with mindless buttonbashing, just like you can get through FF by keeping the confirm button depressed, if your level is high enough. However, that's hardly the most effective way. And try getting the "Defeat Luther at level 1" battle trophy that way :P.

[Black Mage]

The main story playthrough is merely half of the game, anyway.

After you beat the game, three dungeons open up, and provide an extended experience. In fact, I'd almost go as far to say as I enjoyed the end-game more so than the actual story. Plus, Valkyrie Profile fans get a little something from it. :)