Star Ocean [Model SHVC-ARFJ-JPN]

Released on July 19, 1996 in Japan and never released outside due to Enix closing its American branch shortly before the game was finished, as well as Nintendo's focus on supporting the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 video game console.

It was the first game developed by tri-Ace, consisting of staff that had previously left Wolf Team due to being unhappy with the development process for Tales of Phantasia with Namco in 1995.

After Tales of Phantasia was completed, some of the game's designers felt that the core skill and item systems were too generic, and for their next game they would make a much deeper gameplay experience. To deepen the story, the private action system was created to reveal more of the characters history, personality and relationships, but the score the game generated from various choices was hidden from players since there was no "right" or "wrong" story path. In order to tell a bigger story, space was chosen as the setting.

Planning for a sequel began as soon as development was completed on Star Ocean.