I first came across the Star Ocean series with Star Ocean: The Second Story on the original Playstation. Why start on the second game in the series, you ask? Because the first one was never released in English. And wouldn't be for some years yet to come. I grabbed it because it was released by Enix (before they bought out Squaresoft) and I'd had good times with games by Enix in the past, namely the Dragon Warrior (Quest) series. I was treated to a pretty ambitions story that was a direct sequel to the first game, but didn't require you to play it for it to make sense. It combines fantasy and sci-fi in a pretty interesting way. You have your choice of two protagonists. You choose Rena and the story is told from a more fantasy point of view, you choose Claude and the story is told from a more sci-fi point of view. It's the same basic story, but the point of view changes everything. It made a very compelling argument for multiple playthroughs. It's basically a story in a fantasy world with some very high concept sci-fi ideas. I LOVED it. That's exactly the sort of genre bending fun that I really, really enjoy. And it had GREAT music There were so many characters you could recruit, all of them with their own little stories, and this huge epic story that melded my two favorite genres together.
I looked for the first game on the fledgling internet, and to my annoyance, I couldn't find it. I wanted more, but there was no more. Fast forward a few years and Star Ocean: 'Til the End of Time, the third game in the series came out. I jumped all over that as soon as it released. It was even more epic than the previous game, with some even more mind-bending high concept sci-fi ideas and more interesting fantasy worlds. I also used to joke that it was subtitled "'Til the End of Time" because that's how long you'll be playing it. It is a very, very long game.
Fast Forward a few more years and Star Ocean: The Last Hope was released. As an Xbox exclusive. WTF? I bought an Xbox 360 for the sole purpose of playing this game. But I ended up playing it more than the PS3 that generation because, like, ALL of the RPGs seemed to be coming out for it, while the PS3 didn't have much of anything for quite some time into it's lifetime. The Last Hope clearly had a very large budget. The graphics were the bleeding edge for the time. There were long elaborate cutscenes of amazing fights and really cool space battles. The story leaned much harder into the sci-fi elements and much less into fantasy, but I really enjoyed it still. It was a very good game.
And then they FINALLY released Star Ocean on the PSP with pretty much full on remake called Star Ocean: First Departure. (They also released a similar remake of Second Story as Second Evolution). It was... Okay. I really hadn't been missing much. It had the customary melding of sci-fi and fantasy, but the story was a bit sparse and the characters were pretty bare bones. But, I mean, it was a game that originally released on SNES so I wasn't exactly expecting a lost Shakespearean sonnet or anything. It was entertaining enough for what it was.
I'm not sure what happened with Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It must have flopped HARD, because its obviously massive budget was nowhere to be seen in the fifth installment of the series, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. The graphics received a considerable downgrade. The amazing cutscenes were COMPLETELY removed from the game. All the story scenes consisted of the characters talking while you run around doing things. If you happened to accidentally switch areas or initiate a battle, the current conversation would cut off and never resume. Where The Last Hope leaned more into sci-fi, Integrity and Faithlessness leaned more into fantasy. And chose what is quite possibly the least interesting, most cliche fantasy story possible to tell. I was not pleased with this game. To come off of The Last Hope which was so good, and so epic, with such amazing graphics and cutscenes and go into Integrity and Faithlessness and have all of that gone was a real let down.
I thought that was the end of the series. Integrity and Faithlessness seemed like a series killer to me. So, I was extremely surprised when, ten years later, I saw that there was a sixth Star Ocean game coming out for the 25th anniversary of the series, called Star Ocean: The Divine Force. And I've just finished playing it. While the story and characters are a considerable upgrade from Integrity and Faithlessness, it's clear that the game had a pretty low budget. The graphics are pretty dated, and while cutscenes made a return, they're awkwardly animated, and character movement especially looks really clunky in them. It's also clear that they didn't really have a lot of money to spend on big flashy cutscenes, so the ending battle of this game shows nothing of the actual battle, and has all of the characters on the bridge of their ship describing what's happening outside, which is pretty lazy. If you don't have enough money to animate the battle, maybe don't have one and find something else climactic for the end of your story? The annoying bit where the characters just randomly start talking as you're running through the world is back, but this time they keep talking if you get pulled into a battle, which is a VAST improvement over the previous game. The battle system is really fun, the story is decent, the characters are okay, the fantasy mixed with high concept sci-fi is back. It's just very clear that there just wasn't enough money to make a true AAA game out of it. It looks more like a low budget indie game than a Tri-Ace developed, Square-Enix published blockbuster. I did quite enjoy it, but it did have its shortcomings.
So, anyway, you might be asking where can I play these amazing sounding games?
Well, Star Ocean First Departure can be found on PSP or on the Playstation store for PS4/5 and the Nintendo Eshop for Switch.
Star Ocean: the Second Story is ONLY available on the original Playstation, and its remake Second Evolution is ONLY available on PSP. Both versions are very expensive. Your only viable way of playing this game is probably to *ahem* sail the high seas if you know what I mean. I suggest the PSP remake, it has more voice acting from better actors.
Star Ocean: 'Til the End of Time is available on PS2, or on the Playstation Store for PS4/5.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope is available on Xbox 360, or on the Xbox store for Xbone/series. An HD remastered version is available on the Playstation store for PS4/5, and on Steam. I suggest this version, as it also has added content from the Japanese special edition that didn't make it into the original North American release.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is available on the Playstation store for PS4/5.
And finally Star Ocean: The Divine Force is available for Xbone/series PS4/5 and on Steam.
My rankings for the series from best to worst are:
1.) Second Story/Second Evolution
2.) 'Til the End of Time
3.) The Last Hope
4.) The Divine Force
5.) First Departure
6.) Integrity and Faithlessness (it really was a crap game)
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