Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is an installment in the Star Ocean series and is a direct sequel to Star Ocean: The Second Story.
The game starts with the crash land of Opera’s starship on the Planet Edifice. Opera wakes up, gathers all crew-mates and decides to send S.O.S. to their friends on Earth. While the help is coming, the first events begin.
The player must then assign three crewmates to the team in order to explore the planet. When on the ground, the player may switch between team members, walk around the planet, go inside locations, interact with items, talk with friendly persons, and begin battle with hostile creatures. Each member has a certain number of skills, which may be used and developed in traditional Japanese RPG style, and some unique abilities. The monsters are seen by the team and battles may be avoided.
The battles take place on side-scrolling screens and are action-based, with the player directly controlling the main selected character in the team, while others act according to their own AI.
