Star Ocean is a franchise of role-playing video games developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (originally Enix). A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create narratives. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Formed in 1995 by former Telenet Japan employees Yoshiharu Gotanda (programmer, today tri-Ace President), Masaki Norimoto (game designer) and Joe Asanuma (director), tri-Ace (three aces) is a Japanese video game developer. ... SQUARE ENIX (Japanese: スクウェア・エニックス) is a Japanese producer of popular video games and manga. ... Enix Co. ...

Content

Currently there are three main games in the series:

• Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey (Super Famicom, 1996: Japan, 2003: fan translation)
• Star Ocean: The Second Story (PlayStation, 1998)
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PlayStation 2, 2003: Japan, 2004: U.S.)

Also, there is a side story game, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere for the Game Boy Color. It is a direct sequel to Star Ocean: The Second Story, taking place 2 years later and features the return of all 12 main characters in a new adventure on the planet Edifice. Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey is the first of the Star Ocean video game series, made for the Super Famicom. ... This article should be merged with Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Famicom design differed from that of the American SNES, though the controllers are almost the same. ... STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY Categories: Stub | PlayStation games ... The PlayStation is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ... Introduction Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the third game in the Star Ocean video game series. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The Game Boy Color came in a myriad of different colors, as did earlier incarnations of the Game Boy. ...

There was also an unfinished manga by Mayumi Azuma, and later a similarly unfinished anime series, Star Ocean EX, which were both based on Star Ocean: The Second Story. The manga was never released in the US, but can be found via peer-to-peer networks in a fan-translated version. The anime is currently licensed by Geneon Entertainment USA and is being released on DVD. The anime covered the events in the first disc of the Playstation game and the planned second season was canceled. However, Star Ocean EX was continued and finished on Drama CDs. In all, a total of 26 episodes were shown on Japanese television. Star Ocean EX is a popular anime that is based off of the Star Ocean: The Second Story videogame. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... A fan translation is an unofficial translation of a computer game, video game, manga, or an unofficial dubbing or subtitling of an anime, into a language that it was never marketed in. ... Geneon, formerly known as Pioneer Entertainment (or Pioneer LDC) and also a former subsidiary of Pioneer Corporation, is a home entertainment production and distribution company. ...

Signature Features

Star Ocean games are known for their real-time battle engines. Battles take place on a separate screen, but all characters are fully mobile in three dimensions, can dodge and chase foes, and must cast their spells and deploy attacks despite enemy harassment. Magicians have spells, whereas fighters have special physical attacks called "Killer Moves"; both are learned after passing certain level requirements (or through specific items and sidequests) and cost MP to use. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A side-quest is an optional section of a computer or video game, usually a role-playing game. ...

Star Ocean games also take an all-encompassing approach to items. Party members can create new objects or improve existing ones through crafts like metalworking, alchemy, writing, painting and cooking. The strongest items and equipment are only available via Item Creation, and many others can be sold for a profit or provide strong benefits (books can be used to transfer skills and abilities; cooked foods can be used to circumvent the 20-of-each-item inventory limit), placing great importance on Item Creation. Turned chess pieces Metalworking is the craft and practice of working with metals to create parts or structures. ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... see also Creative Writing Writing may refer to two activities: the inscribing of characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other constructs that represent language or record information, and the creation of material to be conveyed through written language. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. ...

The series draws heavily from Star Trek: there is a Federation called the Pangalactic Federation, there is warp speed space travel and people wear communicators that can translate any language, to name a few examples. Star Ocean even uses a plot device reminiscent of Star Trek's Prime Directive, dubbed the Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact (UP3 for short), forcing characters trapped on "underdeveloped" worlds to forego their high technology and fight enemies using primitive weaponry like swords and bows. The introduction of the first game also bears a striking resemblance to that of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, with a scene aboard a starship, an exploding planet causing a shockwave that the ship gets caught in, and even a referrence to a "cup of coffee", reminiscent of the teacup which shatters in Star Trek VI. Star Trek collectively refers to a science-fiction franchise spanning six unique television series, 726 episodes and ten feature films in addition to hundreds of novels, computer and video games, fan stories and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the... The Enterprise-D goes into warp. ... In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Prime Directive, Starfleets General Order #1, is the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. ... Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Paramount Pictures, 1991; see also 1991 in film) is the sixth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. ...

Finally, both the second and third games were somewhat notorious for the renaming of characters whose names contained religious references, which some fans found unusual given the recent association with Square and other RPGs (most famously Xenosaga) who do not omit such references. Xenosaga (ゼノサーガ Zenosāga) is primarily a series of video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco. ...

Star Ocean gameplay is often compared to the Tales series of video games by Namco, which is not a coincidence: after the release of Tales of Phantasia, practically its entire design department left to found tri-Ace. The Tales series is a franchise of role-playing games published by Namco. ... Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ... Tales of Phantasia (or sometimes Tales of Fantasia) (Japanese: テイルズ オブ ファンタジア, Teiruzu obu Fantajia ) is a Super Famicom game in the RPG genre created by Namco and released in 1995. ...

Regional record

Of the four games in the series, two have been released outside Japan. Star Ocean: The Second Story was the first game to be published in the USA, by Sony Computer Entertainment America. However, the localization (translation) for Star Ocean: The Second Story was translated rather literally, without correcting for cultural differences, which detracted from the game's experience. The game is also frequently cited, along with Resident Evil, as a shining example of the power of bad voice acting. Sony Computer Entertainment is a division of Sony Corporation which produces PlayStation, Playstation 2 and PlayStation 3 hardware and games including online games. ... Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (バイオハザード) in Japan, is a successful franchise of survival-horror video games developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami. ...

With the most recent installment -- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time -- Square Enix hoped to attract more gamers, especially in the United States, where the franchise has not been very popular. The Director's Cut 2 Disc version of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has been released in North America, with more playable characters, more games and additional storyline tangents. As of July 2005, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a part of Sony's Greatest Hits line, indicating that the game had done reasonably well in North America. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... These are the games that Sony has made Greatest Hits games. ...

Star Ocean was fan-translated into English through emulation by DeJap Translations. A fan translation is an unofficial translation of a computer game, video game, manga, or an unofficial dubbing or subtitling of an anime, into a language that it was never marketed in. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A console emulator is a program for a computer, or other computing device, that can emulate a video game console or handheld, so a computer can be used to play games that were created for that console or to develop games for that console. ... DeJap Translations is a group of game hackers dedicated to translating Japanese video games into English, by means of applying a patch to a dumped ROM. They are best known for their fan translation work on Tales of Phantasia, Dragon Quest V, and Star Ocean. ...

External links

• English product page from tri-Ace
• Ocean Ultima - A Star Ocean forum
• Lloyd Owns Fayt - A Star Ocean joke site