Star Ocean: Blue Sphere

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere
Developer(s)	tri-Ace tri-Crescendo (sound work)
Publisher(s)	Enix
Platform(s)	Game Boy Color
Release date	June 28, 2001
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	cartridge

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (スターオーシャン ブルースフィア, Sutā Ōshan Burū Sufia^?) is a 2001 Game Boy Color video game that is the direct sequel to Star Ocean: The Second Story. It has never been released outside of Japan. The text is colloquial with an emphasis on "sci-fi" jargon.

Plot

Setting

Taking place 2 years after Star Ocean: The Second Story and the defeat of the 10 Wise Men, all the characters have since moved on with their lives. Claude has taken Rena, Leon, and Precis to live on Earth with him. Ashton, Celine, Dias, Noel, Chisato, and Bowman still live on Planet Expel. Ernest and Opera are treasure hunting when their ship crash lands on Planet Edifice. Opera manages to send out an S.O.S. to Precis, who then rounds up the entire gang (sans Claude and Rena, who are on a Federation mission) in her self-built ship and heads to the planet. They are also mysteriously pulled down through the planet's atmosphere and crash-land. They decide to explore their surroundings and search for their missing comrades, hoping that Claude and Rena will rescue them, but they too crash-land on Edifice later on in the game.

Characters

Now 21 years old, Claude C. Kenni takes Rena, Precis and Leon with him to live on Earth after the events of Star Ocean: The Second Story. After helping Precis and Leon settle, he returns to the Earth Federation with a real job along with Rena. While constantly being sent on missions into space, Claude's relationship with Rena doesn't change much at all.

When Precis receives the SOS from Opera, Claude and Rena are on a mission and cannot assist immediately. Once the mission is complete, they travel together to Edifice where their ship is pulled through the planet's atmosphere and they crash. Claude is separated from Rena and contracts a deadly illness. He is bedridden in a nearby village and it's up to the player to find the herb that will cure his sickness.

Gameplay

Blue Sphere attempts to adapt traditional Star Ocean gameplay to the Game Boy Color. For the first time, random battles are removed and enemy characters can be seen on the field. When engaged in combat, the screen changes to a side scrolling view and retains real time combat. The characters can only move left and right, and the majority of fighting is influenced through combos. Battle techniques and magic can be assigned to button combinations, making the battle system more similar to Star Ocean's cousin series, Tales.

Merchandise

Much like the other games in the series, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere also has a manga based on it that was drawn by Aoi Mizuki and serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan. Oddly enough, Noel Chandler and Chisato Madison, two of the twelve main characters from Star Ocean 2, have been omitted from the storyline, since the Star Ocean: The Second Story manga was cancelled prematurely before either character could appear in the storyline.

Composer Motoi Sakuraba released a two-CD soundtrack for this game. The first disc was an arrangement album of selected tracks, while the second was the complete in-game score.

External links

• Star Ocean: Blue Sphere at Gamefaqs
• tri-Ace Corporation homepage