OmegaDL50
Member
It's similar to the Tales series. In the sense that your AI combatants follow a preset strategy (There is no individual gambit commands), You can instantly switch to another character to control on the fly with the tap of L2 or R2, basically cycling through the left or right character.
In fact both the Star Ocean and Tales series can be considered like sister series to a degree.
Originally tri-Ace was comprised of former Namco Wolfteam members, which when they split off from Namco at the time and started their own development studio. The last game this team worked on before splitting off was the SNES version of Tales of Phantasia, which is why there is a lot of similarities in terms of music, sound effects, and graphic style between the original SNES Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean.
Originally Tales used a Linear combat system on a locked 2D plane (similar to that of a 2D fighting game), whereas Star Ocean expanded to make it free roam in an small area.
Now both series are similar in combat mechanics using a real-time battle system with multiple party members. Outside of their settings (Star Ocean is more sci-fi Space Opera with some fantasy elements, and the Tales series is pure fantasy with no Space sci-fi stuff) both series follow fairly common anime tropes.
If you played any of Tales games, expect something similar for Star Ocean except it's 100% full movement and no locked planes with your current target.
