Written in 2024 by vio81
Title #6 - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Title #8 - Infinite Undiscovery
Title #9 - Star Ocean: The Last Hope
RPGs can take you from medieval village to space stations or from cozy home to dystopian techno-future over the span of 20 hours, and if there's one company that excels in sending you on missions to deep space, it is tri-Ace!
Strap in the for a ride to the Stars, Deep Space, Fantasy, Nordic Gods and Clockworks!
One of the last games to be released by Enix, this game takes a special place among its predecessors, and not just because it is a third part that doesn't even bother to put a III or 3 in its title: Random Encounters are out, enemies clearly visible on the field are in.
HP dropping to 0 can kill you? So do MP dropping to 0!
For good measure, put a Bonus Gauge on top that you have to keep filled for special effects like multipliers, extra items et al. And as a pre-cursor for things to come, it also got a "Directors Cut" Re-release with some extra content thrown in for good measure.
And then there's the story:
Going on a vacation (planet), some advanced technology alien race decides to play spoilsport and launches an assault on the planet - forcing Hero and BFF to flee. Crash-landing on some medieval backwater planet, you have to find your way back to civilization and befriend a wild bunch of characters that will keep you company in a galactic war that quickly snowballs out of control and takes some _wild_ turns along the road.
And most impressive is the technological development unfolding on the screen - it felt that the developers got more and more comfortable with the PS2 hardware and started to push against the upper limit of what the PS2 can handle:
Where the medieval planet was looking pretty standard PS2-era RPG-esque, later set-pieces were visually so vibrant and high quality (look, we still had CRT TVs back then, 640x480 resolution felt like HQ to us!) that you started to wonder how the devs managed to make the areas look so good.
Icing on the cake was a soundtrack that matched the technical prowess, including some new takes on well-beloved tracks of the series.
In hindsight, this game introduced 3D gameplay-traits that stuck around until the latest Star Ocean title, and generally laid out the framework that locked the series into a certain plot-structure that spans all other games of the series. Pretty good for a swansong release!
Is there a tougher act to follow than Star Ocean 3 ... well, how about following up on Valkyrie Profile then?
This prequel takes place a few hundred years before the original VP, and brings back side-scrolling platforming with faux-3D environments, though with a more action-focussed turn-based battle-system embracing real(TM) 3D:
The player can move characters around a 3D arena while a "line-of-sight" indicator of enemies and party-members must be considered for performing actions. In-Battle-Time progresses when the player moves characters, and stops if there are no inputs. Attacks require AP-points, and in good ol' VP-fashion, you can daisy-chain attacks for max damage.
A few familiar faces turn up, and you can enjoy the polish that comes with SQEX, compared to the original VP: Be it background-stories, beautiful visuals or yet another original soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, who seemingly started to feel more comfortable to experiment a lot more than with former OSTs - you can tell that the budget has been higher the second time around.
Beware though:
This game is a _tiny_ bit more difficult than you'd expect, and it feels less "snappy" than the first one. Also, in good old tri-Ace fashion, it stacks systems onto systems, it took me roundabout 40-50 hours until i felt that I had a good grip on most of them.
Speaking of tough act to follow - this game takes place in a world where the Order of Chains tied the moon to the earth, using gigantic chains. Plot-wise, the game feels at most times also leaning deliberately into comedy-territory, with a botched english VO that became (in)famous thrown in for good measure. Do yourself a favour and hop over on youtube, and search for "Infinite Undiscovery dinner dance". Yes, that _actually happened_.
When you are out on the fields, you command a party of four, and in a few cases will see the other members fighting alongside you (literally). Thing is, where you have to manage HP/MP-usage, the AI-controlled members just don't care, meaning that spells being cast all.the.time no matter how big or bad the foes actually are.
Of course, Motoi Sakuraba is back on OST-duties, and shows some real restraint here - and there are a few real gems hidden in this OST, "Pure Alabaster" being one of these tracks. It's such an epic trainwreck that you should check it out at least once, because they don't make 'em like this any more ...
Speaking of tough act to follow - wait, somehow this feels like a deja-vu...
Again, why bother to put a IV or 4 in its title, "The Last Hope" is part four in the Star Ocean series. For good measure, this one starts off with World War III on earth, and provides a quick-fire history lesson how the Spacedate calendar (S.D.0001) came to be. We are then jumping right into the first mission of the Space Reconnaissance and are off to a wild - and I mean _wild_ - trip. You have to play it to believe it, because a recap would sound like you're making things up as you go ...
Thankfully, this game again benefits from the SQEX polish, meaning when compared to SO3, the battles are more snappier, the soundtrack (again: Motoi Sakuraba) has some epic tracks in store, there are some gorgeous set-pieces - and if you've played SO3, you'll enjoy the drama even more.
In short: It really is a Space Opera - if you crave exactly that, give it a go!
Addendum by docower: Check out this games' intro on YouTube. This is one of the most intense experiences ever watching a game intro.
SEGA publishing a tri-Ace RPG? Count me in!
... if that didn't sell you on this game - let's give it a second try:
Steampunk!
Guns!
Action Points!
A mixed Real-Time and Turn-Based battle-system!
... still a tough sell?
Third time's the charm then:
Imagine if we all would live in a wold where pollution has driven humanity into a single tower acting as an air purifier, and its mechanical core dictates the life of all inhabitants. Think Snow Piercer (the movie), only as a tower .... OK, let's be honest:
This game banks on you, the player, enjoying the _vibe_:
Similar to Valkyrie Profile, you traverse faux-3D parts of towns, and instead of a world-map, you can clear fields on Hex-Based grid on the "overwold" of the tower. You can switch floors and progress through the tower, also with a day-night cycle thrown for good measure (not sure though if that was fixed or dynamic).
The battle system is - complicated, even for tri-Ace standards. So much so that it kind of makes no sense to try to describe it. Still, I'll try:
You move a marker mapping out the movements of your characters in the next round, then executing your move. If you pass by an enemy, you switch to attack-mode:
During attacks, you can deal scratch damage (marked blue iirc) and direct damage (marked red iirc), depending on the type of weapon you have equipped. Throw in some hero actions and some bezel points, a complicated upgrade system for your weapons and you may see why I said - it's REALLY that complicated.
Last but not least - OST: a collaboration from Motoi Sakuraba and Kohei Tanaka, with Motoi basically providing the battle themes, and Tanaka providing the rest. Depending on your performance in battles, the game dynamically cross-fades between two to three versions of each battle-theme - a "normal" version, an "action"-version and a "danger"-variant that gets dissonant tones thrown in.
Only recommended if you really - _really_ - have played all the other tri-Ace titles recommended here, but there's nothing else like it.
Time to take a rest in our sleeping pod on a spaceship on our mission to deep space:
We've left earth for finding rewarding gameplay among the stars, and what gems have we found:
Five titles from tri-Ace, taking us to some of the most wacky yet memorable places, fighting mandragoras, mannequins, Norse Gods, mecha-robots or Alien Lifeforms, and all accompanied by Motoi Sakuraba tunes.
Tune in next week, when we turn the dial on the steering console to put a spotlight on more odd/unhinged titles.
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1999 - 2024 Florian Auer. Contents written by me CC-BY-SA 4.0. Details: Copyright / Impressum. Version 13.3
