The game series >
Star Ocean began as an impressive RPG created for the Super Famicom by
Enix-owned developer
tri-Ace in 1996. It paved the way for its future sequels with retained elements, including real-time battles, item creation, and multiple recruitable characters-via-conditions. Years later, "Star Ocean" returned, this time in the form of
The Second Story for the original Sony PlayStation and marking the first English "Star Ocean". Following SO2's release came three more games:
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, a "direct" sequel to SO2 taking place a few years later with the same cast, for the Nintendo GameBoy Color which remained Japan-only,
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for the Sony PlayStation2, and a rerelease featuring additional content as
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Director's Cut for the same platform. The latter of which was released overseas, forgoing the "Director's Cut" in the title.
The most recent assortment of Star Ocean titles arrived for both console and handheld releases:
Star Ocean: First Departure is a revamp of the original Star Ocean, featuring pre-rendered backgrounds and FMVs (reminiscent of Star Ocean 2) among other improvements, and was released for Sony's PlayStation Portable.
Star Ocean: Second Evolution follows suit, as a Star Ocean 2 remake boasting new characters and other goodies, also for the Sony PSP.
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere was the next title to be remade, this time for Japanese mobile phones.
Lastly,
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (alternatively Star Ocean 4) is the latest title in the main series to launch for the Xbox360. Square-Enix has confirmed that
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International will be seeing a PlayStation 3 release globally on February 9th, 2010.
Series History
1996 : Star Ocean (SFC) is released.
1998 : Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS) is released.
2001 : Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (GBC) is released.
2003 : Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2) is released.
2004 : Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Director's Cut (PS2) is released.
2007 : Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP) is released (Japan).
2008 : Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP) is released (NA), Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP) is released (Japan)
2009 : Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP) (NA/EU) is released, Star Ocean 4 (X360) released (NA/EU/JP), Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (MOBILE) is released (Japan only).
2010 : Star Ocean 4 International (PS3) planned for release.
Series Timeline
SD 0010 : Star Ocean: The Last Hope
SD 0346 : Star Ocean/Star Ocean: First Departure
SD 0366 : Star Ocean: The Second Story/Star Ocean: Second Evolution
SD 0368 : Star Ocean: Blue Sphere
SD 0772 : Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
The fanlisting >
Ocean of Stars was started on the 14th of April, 2004 (4/14/04). It's the localized name of the "romantic value" book which Claude/Crawd could publish in
Star Ocean: The Second Story. Version two is currently online. The layout prominently features the main male leads of the first three mainline games (Ratix Farrence, Crawd/Claude C. Kenni, and Fate Linegod) with a montage of characters from the past games behind. OoS is acknowledged by
TheFanlistings as the official fanlisting for the Star Ocean game series.
Fanlistings >
They are sites dedicated to hosting lists of any given subject's fans. The majority of fanlisting types are handled by
TheFanlistings, while
TheAnimeFanlistings take care of all listings under that specific topic. Which would be manga, animation companies, and you know, anime. Yeeeaah. You can also get a headstart on some other Star Ocean-related fanlistings by visiting the affiliates page.
