Tri-Ace deja vu

Written in 2006


This company is full of traditions and pays homages to their own games and characters a lot. Another very "repetitive" aspect in tri-Ace games is the return of many music tunes well-known among the fans. There is no other developer team that includes so many cameo appearances and other deja vu experiences in the RPG business than tri-Ace. This page is meant to give you a little overview what you can see where and from which game it originally was.

Music - a mission to deep space?

Most tri-Ace soundtracks have been composed by Mr. Motoi Sakuraba, and somehow it became tradition that some of the tunes he composed in one game are being used in the following games as well. Even in Radiata Stories, where Mr. Noriyuki Iwadare did all the scores, there were some of the well-known tunes. Here is a "top list" of tunes that were used in various games:

  1. Mission to deep space (4x).
    First introduced: Star Ocean 2
    Also played in Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 3 and Radiata Stories
  2. An Incarnation of devil (4x).
    First introduced: Star Ocean 2
    Also played in Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 3 and Radiata Stories
  3. Confidence in Domination (3x).
    First introduced in: Valkyrie Profile
    Also played in Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria

Tunes that also have been used two times are "Beast of Prey" (Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile), "Mighty Blow" (Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile), "Star Ocean forever" (Star Ocean 2 and 3), "Highbrow" (Star Ocean 3 and Radiata Stories) and "The True Nature of All" (Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean 3)

Cameo Appearances

Claude C. Kenni

he was originally the 50% main hero of Star Ocean 2. However, he can be seen in later tri-Ace games as well. In Star Ocean 3, there's a costume sphere for the main hero, Fayt Leingod, which makes him look like Claude. In Radiata Stories, you can see his clothes worn by Gantz Rothchild.

Fayt Leingod

Fayt himself, being the main hero of Star Ocean 3 is a victim of tri-Aces cameo policy as well. He appears not only in his main game but also in Radiata Stories, where the main character Jack Russel wears the same outfit as Fayt does after a certain event. (Please excuse the poor image quality of Jack in Fayt's outfit, I got that from a YouTube-Video recoreded and put together by "Jaime".)

Lenneth Valkyrie

She is the main heroine of what is most probably the most renown tri-Ace game, Valkyrie Profile. She also appears in Star Ocean 3 where she acts as a bonus enemy (The bad ending of Valkyrie Profile tells you why), and in Radiata Stories, she wants to convince Jack Russel to become an Einherjar.

Lezard Valeth, who is some sort of hype character in Valkyrie Profile, has also various cameo appearances. A small boy in Star Ocean 3 is named Lezard - and people say about him that "he is a good boy beyond the surface". He is also a bonus boss in Radiata Stories.

Bonus boss galore

tri-Ace is a very sadistic company. Often enough, even the standard enemies are hard to deal with, the final boss is pretty hard... and still there are bonus enemies in almost all the games being released after Star Ocean.

Bonus Bosses in Star Ocean 2:

  1. Gabriel Celeste: Final Boss of the Cave of Trials (1.000.000 HP)
  2. Iselia Queen: Final bonus boss (3.300.000 HP)

Bonus Bosses in Valkyrie Profile:

  1. Gabriel Celeste: Boss in the Seraphic Gate
  2. Iseria Queen: Final bonus boss of the seraphic gate

Bonus Bosses in Star Ocean 3:

  1. Gabriel Celeste: Final Boss of the Cave of Tribulations
  2. Lenneth Valkyrie: Boss in Sphere 211 (7.000.000 HP)
  3. Ethereal Queen (they spell it differently in each game, don't they?) - Boss in Sphere 211 (10.000.000 HP)
  4. Freya - Final bonus boss (20.000.000 HP)
  5. Tidbit: The final story boss has only 400.000 HP. And it is quite funny that Nibelung Valesti, your super attack in Valkyrie Profile gets used against you. And it is not the only time you have to face the wrath of lenneth

Bonus Bosses in Radiata Stories:

  1. Lenneth Valkyrie - wants to get you.
  2. Lezard Valeth - Bonus boss in Shrine of Frei
  3. Gabriel Celeste (they get this one correct all the time) - Bonus boss in the Shrine of Frei
  4. Ethereal Queen (whoa, they've used the same name twice in a row) - final bonus boss

Bonus Bosses in Valkyrie Profile 2:

  1. Lenneth Valkyrie - wants to get you.
  2. Lezard Valeth - Bonus boss in Seraphic Gate (here called Obsessed Ex)
  3. Gabriel Celeste - Bonus boss in the Seraphic Gate
  4. Ethereal Queen - Bonus Boss in the Seraphic Gate

Bonus Bosses in Star Ocean IV:

  1. Gabriel Celeste - Bonus boss in the Inner Sanctum
  2. Ethereal Queen (I think they got it now) - Bonus Boss in the Wandering Dungeon

Bonus Bosses in Star Ocean V:

  1. Gabriel Celeste - Bonus boss in the Cave of Tribulations
  2. Ethereal Queen - Bonus Boss in the Cave of Tribulations

Some final comments

Okay, now the small report of deja vu experiences in tri-Ace games has reached an end. I hope you liked it, and I honestly apologize that the article is far from complete - it does not cover all the games and I'm sure I missed out one or the other bonus goodie. Yet, I hope you had fun reading this.

When I rewrote this article in 2017, I researched what happened to the deja-vus in later tri-ace games. It seems that, aside of the one or the other Ethereal Queen and Gabriel Celeste, not many of their insider gags remained. Star Ocean V wasn't almost released and got a late release in 2016 for the PlayStation IV, for which it was clearly not made.

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