Star Ocean

Star Ocean began in 1996 on the Super Famicom in Japan as a project by studio tri-Ace under the Enix banner, and from the start it built on blending a science-fiction frame with fantasy worlds — its heroes travel between starships and medieval kingdoms. The series' defining trait became its real-time action battle system, a departure from the turn-based JRPGs common at the time, along with so-called Private Actions, short optional scenes that deepen relationships between characters outside the main story. The music for every entry has been composed by Motoi Sakuraba from the start, giving the series a consistent sound across generations.

The series' widely regarded peak is its second entry, Star Ocean: The Second Story for PlayStation (1998), which offered two different playable lead characters with their own versions of the story — either Claude C. Kenny, a young officer of the Pangalactic Federation, or Rena Lanford, a girl from the fantasy planet Expel — plus elaborate crafting and dozens of possible endings. The third game, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (2003, PS2), built on that foundation with a metafictional twist in its plot centered on the student Fayt Leingod, and the Symbology system, while also standing as the last entry to be received with broadly consistent acclaim.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (2009, initially an Xbox 360 exclusive, later also on PS3), chronologically the earliest game on the series' timeline, returned to the beginnings of humanity's colonization of space, but met mixed reception from critics and fans over its dialogue and character designs. Meanwhile tri-Ace also released remakes of the early games, First Departure and Second Evolution for PSP, bringing the older titles to a new generation of players, and in 2023 the very first game got a modern remaster too, First Departure R, for PS4, Switch and PC.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (2016, PS4) rather hurt the series — a small cast and a sparsely populated world disappointed both critics and players. A return to a more ambitious approach came only with Star Ocean: The Divine Force (2022) for PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC, which tried to bring the series back to its roots in a mix of action combat and interstellar travel, without abandoning what longtime fans expect.