Released in July of 1996 for the Super Famicom, the original Star Ocean was a late-gen title that pushed its home hardware to its limits. One of the best looking and sounding games on the SNES, Star Ocean was a fantastic debut title for Tri-Ace– a studio composed of several key developers who worked on Tales of Phantasia just one year prior. While Star Ocean may not share the same success as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, Tri-Ace’s flagship franchise enjoyed a long history of high quality JRPGs.
The first Star Ocean never came out west as a result of its late release, but The Second Story on the PS1 quickly solidified the series’ western presence and most entries have released internationally since. Unlike most RPGs, Star Ocean isn’t known for its storytelling, instead pioneering some of the best action in the genre– but some titles are better than others.
7 Integrity And Faithlessness
Even at its absolute worst, Star Ocean managed to pull through thanks to incredibly tight gameplay. Until Integrity and Faithlessness, that is. The fifth mainline entry in the series, Star Ocean: I&F makes a number of notable changes that end up depriving it of Star Ocean’s charm. For starters, Integrity and Faithlessness continues The Last Hope’s trend of a static party (something that flies in the face of how the series approaches party composition,) but with one big change: everyone fights.
No longer to players even need to think about their party. Everyone fights at once, and battles no longer take place in dedicated arenas but in the overworld– so as to keep the gameplay constantly flowing. This philosophy is also applied to cutscene direction, with Integrity and Faithlessness opting to make everything happen in real-time.
It’s an ambitious project for sure, but Integrity and Faithlessness does not use its gimmick well. If anything, all this insistence on real time does is prevent the core combat from living up to previous entries. Complete with a painfully dry story, and Integrity and Faithlessness has almost nothing going for it. Quite frankly, the Star Ocean franchise was better off on a silent hiatus after The Last Hope.
6 Blue Sphere
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is something of an oddity within the franchise, at least in the west. Although not a mainline entry– instead a direct spin-off of Star Ocean: The Second Story– Blue Sphere remains the sole entry in the series locked to Japan. There does exist an English translation, but it’s surprisingly difficult to find outside of reproduction carts. While not a game worth purchasing a repro cart for, it is worth playing and a relatively inexpensive import.
Blue Sphere’s combat is fairly similar to Tales of Phantasia’s on the Super Famicom, which is fitting considering Star Ocean’s roots. The dungeon design is solid as well, and Blue Sphere is a fairly expansive RPG for the Game Boy Color, all things considered. It’s really a shame it never officially released in the west as Blue Sphere is almost to the Game Boy what Star Ocean is to the Super Famicom.
5 The Last Hope
Star Ocean: The Last Hope’s story is very clearly a response to Till the End of Time’s ultimately controversial narrative. The Last Hope is far safer with its plot, has a fairly generic cast to go along with it, and features some of the most aggressively bland storytelling in the franchise. What few ambitious moments the game does have are handled so poorly in execution, it’s hard not to want to skip every cutscene after a certain point.
Terrible character development and one of the worst depictions of depression in gaming hold The Last Hope’s narrative back, but the actual gameplay is some of the series’ absolute best. Dungeons are wonderfully layered and make use of memorable setpieces; the music is fantastic, and the visuals still hold up. Best of all, the core combat is the absolute best Star Ocean has seen.
The main party is bland in terms of characterization, but they’re extremely fun to control– protagonist Edge Maverick, especially. The Last Hope is also home to some of the best post-game in the series, but the story really is that bad.
4 First Departure
A remake of the original Star Ocean using Star Ocean: The Second Story’s gameplay engine, The First Departure is an excellent modernization of its source material– but it’s not necessarily better. The Second Story’s core combat is fantastic and lends itself nicely to The First Evolution, but the original Star Ocean had a rather unique battle scheme.
More importantly, Star Ocean’s visuals and audio were designed with the Super Famicom in mind. The First Departure does not look bad whatsoever, but when compared to one of the best looking games on the SNES, it just doesn’t compare.
Really, it’s not that The First Departure is a worse game or a bad remake– it isn’t either of those things– it’s that dressing up the first Star Ocean as the second misses what made the original special. The end result is still a fantastic RPG worth playing (especially its newest re-release, First Departure R,) but playing The First Departure is not analogous to playing Star Ocean (1996.)
3 Star Ocean (1996)
Speaking of, it’s worth discussing the RPG that started it all. Developed by staff members who had worked on Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean elevates its predecessor’s presentation and arguably ends up a better RPG in the process. While the story is a bit lacking, a plot that centers around a pandemic rings more poignantly these days and the general premise remains unique even in the context of the series.
Beyond being a technological marvel for the Super Famicom, Star Ocean is home to an incredibly unique battle system that mixes real-time combat with a light mix of strategy (comparatively, The Second Story onwards would opt for mostly pure action.) Notably, only four party members are mandatory, giving players free four slots to fill with four of the games’ many optional party members.
Replaying Star Ocean is not only rewarding, but the game’s inclusion of Private Events allows the cast to end up far more developed than the average party for the era– even if they aren’t the most compelling group in the world. The original Star Ocean is very much worth revisiting today.
2 The Second Story
As unique and engaging as the original Star Ocean’s combat is, it’s hard to deny that The Second Story’s isn’t just downright better. In general, The Second Story is an obvious improvement over its predecessor. Not only is the story far more novel, it’s better told and Claude & Rena make for more compelling protagonists than Roddick.
Being able to choose either character as the story’s focal point results in two unique playthroughs (along with unique party members for each character.) Claude and Rena are the only mandatory party members this time around, giving players plenty of room to experiment with party composition. Even with a mainly optional party, the cast is far better developed than the original’s.
Villains are more compelling, the level design is much stronger, and an emphasis on fast paced, gripping combat is what ultimately defined Star Ocean as a franchise. The Second Story doesn’t push the PlayStation in the same way Star Ocean pushed the Super Famicom, but it’s nonetheless one of the best RPGs on the console.
1 Till The End Of Time
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is an extremely controversial game, in large part due to its twist and its changes to the core combat. In regards to narrative, Till the End of Time’s twist completely recontextualizes the franchise while combat now requires diligent MP management lest party members die. With parties cut from 4 to 3, Till the End of Time’s changes can be hard to stomach.
But they really are for the better. As uncomfortable as Till the End of Time’s twist is, it remains one of the best commentaries on religion & the nature of God in the genre, filled with more nuance than the franchise is used to. More importantly, needing to monitor MP forces players to think carefully, in turn helping you refine your skills over the course of the game.
Till the End of Time is filled with combat depth, and features some the best revisions of the series’ ancillary features: cooking, crafting, etc. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the best game in the series, and the standard all future entries should be held to.
NEXT: 10 Games To Play While You’re Waiting For Tales Of Arise
