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Gameplay

Star Ocean games are known for their real-time battle engines. Battles take place on a separate screen, but all characters (rather than waiting in one spot and taking damage) are fully mobile in three dimensions, can dodge and chase foes, and must cast their spells and deploy attacks despite enemy harassment. In earlier games, magicians had their symbols, whereas fighters had special physical attacks called Special Arts; both are learned after passing certain level requirements (or through specific items and sidequests) and cost HP or MP to use. In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, all the characters are able to use spells and battle skills.

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.

The characters of the series were designed to be anime-like. A feature consisting in changing the characters’ appearance when changing their equipment was considered in the series but was scrapped because of the large amount of characters to design. However, in the later installment of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time the appearance of the characters did in fact change to reflect the type of weapon they were using.

Featured Games

  • Star Ocean: First Departure
  • Star Ocean: Second Evolution
  • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
  • Star Ocean: The Last Hope
  • Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness
  • Star Ocean: The Divine Force