One of my three obsessions XD This thread'll get kinda big, so this'll just be about Star Ocean. If you're interested, you'd do well to search for some of these titles & add them to your collection^^
Star Ocean, for the SFC/SNES, was a pretty fun RPG made by a company called tri-Ace, published by Enix (Before their merge with Square into Squeenix). It was made by a small group of people who had split up from the original Team WOLF in Namco (Before they became Namco Bandai after their random merge). It's like a spiritual successor to Tales of Phantasia on the SFC (More on that later). I still haven't beaten this one, but it can be emulated. It wasn't ever released in America, but if you look hard, you can find a version of the rom that was fan-translated by a certain group...
Star Ocean: The Second Story, for the PSX was the first game in the series to be released overseas. Yet for some reason, it still kept its subtitlte tacked on there o_o Oh well, it's an awesome game, nonetheless, and it boasts more than 10 recruitable characters (It is possible to get through with just the two main characters though...). I still haven't beaten this either, and I've had it since it came out in like, '99. But that's only because I was stupid and did the side quest to turn the final boss's limiter off x_x
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, for the GBC. I still haven't played this, but I plan on emulating it at some point. Never released overseas.
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, for the PS2, was the 2nd game in this series to be released overseas. One of the best console RPG's IMO. It boasts about a 60-70 hour story mode, being one of the few PS2 titles to have 2 discs, and a many many more hours (I'd say about 150 or so, but I've tacked up about 300 hours from maxing out my stats & refining weapons) set of post-game events that allow you to go through 3 or 4 extra dungeons, all of which being incredibly difficult, and one of which, spanning 211 floors. You'll also be spending hours upon hours of level-grinding, and refining and inventing items/weapons/armor etc... and trying to get "Battle Trophies". And this game boasts one of the best real-time battle systems ever.
Star Ocean: The First Departure, for the PSP, was the first remake in the series. It just came out like, 2 weeks ago XD One of the best remakes ever. It's pretty much got the same battle system from the Star Ocean: The Second Story, and the story's exactly the same as it was in the original, so you can use a guide from the SFC version, and there's a new character in this game too. The characters can also make three hit normal attack combos from pressing circle three times. No word on whether this'll make stateside or not, but either way, if you've got a PSP get it. It'd be easier to get if you had custom firmware, but I won't talk about that... Even if you didn't have custome firmware, buy it if you're interested, since the PSP has no region locks, and that'd be the most legal way possible to play it XD
Star Ocean: The Second Evolution, also for the PSP, is a remake of, you guessed it, Star Ocean: The Second Story. It won't be out for another month, and there's no word on if this'll make it stateside either, and despite almost no info, it still sounds intresting.
Star Ocean 4, for an undecided console (Most likely 360 or PS3 T_T). No idea what it's about. So far, there's only been two trailers released, one from TGS 2007, and one from two weeks ago. Then there's the main characters name, Edge Maverick (I can't help but feeling like I've heard that name before... Oh well), and a few other stuff I don't feel like explaining o_o I just know that you're actually s'posed to be able to take a ship and go places in space, which spells Skies of Arcadia right there (That's not a bad thing either...)
Soooo.... Yeah. One of my three obsessions. THe other two are a secret for now XD Anyone else play this series though? Interested? I'd love to talk about it^^ (Only if others are interested of course!)