A look back at: Star Ocean

I bet if you were to look back at the SNES version of Star Ocean, would you remember it for being the absolute largest game on the SNES? I wouldn't blame you, at least those who live outside of Japan, since this first game of a series never did get out of that nation.

And like it's sister gargantuan SNES game Tales of Phantasia, it has a lot of unique stuff in it. Art styles are pretty damn similar. And then you've got an interesting battle system that is incredibly engaging, plus AI control for your allies. And THEN you get some multiple branching points where you are probably not gonna play the same game twice. Just the fact that you cannot recruit both Cius and Ashlay is one thing. You can even get Fear without either of them. The game unfortunately is quite rough around the edges and happens to be prone to glitches at times, some of which fatal. And hell, I sure do a lot of grinding, not to mention separate save files because I want to see the capabilities of all fighters, damn it all. Who would think of some nerdy boy being a lycanthrope? Or some freaky cat girl wrecking?

I gotta admit, I'm quite impressed with how things go. Nice job bringing the earthlings in a role that isn't villainous. And at least make it interesting enough to separate one human and one Fellpool from the other group. All to stop a disease from turning Fellpool people to stone. You do wonder if Ratix or Millie really fulfills a protagonist role though, as it seems that Ronixis is quite moreso an actual captain by his actions, being more of a voice of reason than anyone else in his group. Asmodeus isn't really all that much of a villain, and Jie Revorse is pretty akin to Dhaos from Tales of Phantasia, only Dhaos wasn't so much a victim as Jie Revorse apparently was. And then there's the matter of "private actions" fledging some nice development out of every character in Ratix's group. While I hate that name, at least we get to see what each character currently thinks, despite the game not having relationship building. It's a pretty cool game overall.