| Star Ocean: Blue Sphere was released on June 28, 2001 in Japan for Game Boy Color. Due to the fact that the game didn't get all the promotion and advertising that Star Ocean: The Second Story, Valkyrie Profile, and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time received, there is very little merchandise available. What there is, though, is all high-quality stuff that any Blue Sphere fanatic should own. This page has all the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere products that I know of. If and when more surface up, I'll add them. |
Published by: Enix Date of Release: June 28, 2001 Yen Price: 5,800 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - Well, of course I own the game. It's my favorite Star Ocean game, tied with Star Ocean: The Second Story. I sort of see them as one continuous, epic story, so really, if I was asked what my favorite game is, I'd like to say "Star Ocean 2 + Blue Sphere" not unlike how some people say "Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles". My cartridge came complete and brand new straight from Japan for about 60 dollars, including shipping. It was well worth every cent and then some. A couple years later, we picked up a second complete copy for roughly the same price (it's been holding its value very well) so my boyfriend and I can trade items and play the versus mode (which is completely unlike anything in the single-player game; it's more like strategy RPG battles). The game also only lets you save one file on the cart, so two copies is a must if you got more than one person in your house that wants to play. For more information and personal thoughts, check out my walkthrough and FAQ on Star Ocean: Blue Sphere currently hosted at GameFAQs under the contributor name "Aussie2B". |
Illustrations: Mayumi Azuma Length: 208 Pages All Color Pages Date of Release: July 19, 2001 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 1,238 ISBN: 4-7575-0479-9 Includes a Bonus Post Card |
| Personal Opinion on Product - Being the official guide book for Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, this book is naturally the most "polished" looking of the three. It has an ample number of pages for all the information provided, and everything is in glorious full color. Besides the normal official artwork, Enix also had Mayumi Azuma draw the cover, chibi characters for the table of contents, and a super spiffy post card tucked in the back. One of my favorite cosmetic things about this guide is the "transition" pages. In front of each important section there is a page with info or character artwork washed out in this beautiful blue background. It really captures the mystery of the "BLUE" Sphere. Enough on the glitz, though, as some people actually want guides for the info they provide. :P Overall, I'd say this is the best Star Ocean: Blue Sphere guide, but when you compare and contrast the info of them, they balance out. The official guide spaces things out nicer and more clearly, and the character info is more organized. However, I somewhat prefer the item lists in the KB Game Books guide, and the official guide book seems to needlessly use a lot of kanji despite that the game itself keeps everything very simple with katakana and hiragana (thankfully the KB Game Books guide keeps it that way). While the official guide offers comprehensive Versus information where the KB Game Books does not, the KB Game Books guide covers the Shiren Ruins bonus dungeon which the official guide barely mentions. My advice is to just consider the pros and cons and make the decision yourself. Or just get both. :P |
Length: 145 Pages 98 Color Pages 47 Black and White Pages Date of Release: July 12, 2001 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 1,200 ISBN: 4-06-339388-7 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - As a third-party Japanese guide book, it's very nice. It contains character profiles with both the official artwork and the sprites, a full walkthrough with maps of actual pieced together screenshots, and comprehensive information on field action and item creation abilities, moves and spells, the skill system, monster data, and all the items in the game. Unfortunately, as you'd expect, there might not be much to offer to someone lacking in knowledge of Japanese. The maps are quite helpful (though a tad dark), and with a little knowledge of katakana, you can get A LOT out of the charts on the skill system and such. That's the most complex and confusing part of the game, so it's actually even more useful than the walkthrough itself. My personal favorite thing about the guide is all the cool artwork of the game's enemies and bosses. Too bad there isn't any original art of the characters. |
Length: 287 Pages Date of Release: August 2, 2001 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 1,300 ISBN: 4-7577-0527-1 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - The Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Final Guide is the heftiest of the three Blue Sphere guide books, which is to be expected from a guide that attempts to be the end all to be all of Blue Sphere strategy guides. While it's not superior to the other guides in every way, you do get a lot of bang for your buck and the extra time it took to make this guide does pay off. Some particularly cool additions to this guide are a short retrospective on the series, a flow chart of the progression of the game, English translations of all the location names (though they are prone to being Engrishy and/or incorrect), the mathematical formulas behind damage values, screen captures of every combo animation each character possesses, a list of all private actions, sprites next to all the items in the lists (perfect for those lacking in knowledge of Japanese who can simply match things up by how they look), and a super spiffy interview with the staff behind the game that makes me long that I knew fluent Japanese. One of my biggest pet peeves with the guide, however, is how the monster list is in Japanese alphabetical order. Why on earth would they not use the order present in game in the monster picture book? Other than all this stuff, you'll find the same kind of in-depth information about the game that you'll also find in the other guides, and what you enjoy most will likely come down to personal preferences. That said, the Final Guide isn't really the kind of guide you buy for artwork or a super slick presentation; Final Guides are all about information and this one has it in spades. |
29 Original Background Music Tracks 12 Songs Arranged Into Instrumentals Composed and Arranged by: Motoi Sakuraba Date of Release: August 22, 2001 Published by: Scitron Discs Yen Price: 3,675 Reference Number: SCDC-00123-4 Disc -1- "Arrange Side" Length: 56:43 Track List and Lengths: 1. Myth of Fate - 2:45 2. Peace of Mind - 4:49 3. Like the River Styx - 4:45 4. A Heavy Heart - 5:22 5. No Mercy - 4:32 6. Pacifism - 4:41 7. Hand to Hand - 4:16 8. Sacred Ground - 4:47 9. Death is a Great Leveller - 4:18 10. Legacy from the Past - 5:18 11. Every Extremity is a Vise - 4:29 12. STAR OCEAN FOREVER - 5:41 Disc -2- "Original Side" Length: 56:34 Track List and Lengths: 1. STAR OCEAN FOREVER - 1:20 2. Myth of Fate - 0:43 3. Pacifism - 2:13 4. The Surface of the Blue Sphere - 2:59 5. Peace of Mind - 2:42 6. Hand to Hand - 2:04 7. Victory Pose!! - 0:40 8. Treasure Hunter - 2:20 9. Like the River Styx - 1:36 10. Greed City - 1:42 11. Price of Progress - 2:09 12. A Heavy Heart - 2:26 13. No Mercy - 0:49 14. Forsaken Wastes - 2:50 15. Legacy from the Past - 2:31 16. Unfulfilled Desires - 3:25 17. Guardian of Truth - 2:21 18. Created, Destryed and Reregenerated - 1:59 19. Null Chamber - 2:21 20. Sacred Ground - 1:27 21. Boundless Sea - 2:05 22. Civilization Keeper - 2:12 23. Death is the Great Leveller. - 1:55 24. Every Extremity is a Vice. - 2:36 25. There is Nothing Permanent except Change. - 2:46 26. Serene Heart - 0:55 27. MEET_AGAIN - 0:07 28. Challenger From the Other Side - 1:14 29. Penance - 2:05 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - Wow... Absolutely stunning. As soon the first track of the arranged album, "Myth of Fate", kicked in, I felt at home. Sakuraba takes a little melody from the original song and creates a whole new remixed song based around it. This beautiful grand epic piece feels like Star Ocean (mixing in a little bit of "STAR OCEAN FOREVER" at the end of it doesn't hurt either) and sets the standard for the rest of the album. The album moves onto "Peace of Mind", a relaxing acoustic guitar, violin, and flute remix of the general town theme. After this gorgeous piece, "Like the River Styx" will hit you like a ton of bricks. This insane evil battle music remix teaches you why exactly Sakuraba is the master of battle themes. Then "A Heavy Heart" slowly twists its way into your heart with its long drawn-out melancholic notes. I find the middle of the album loses a little steam, but it's hard to live up to the first few amazing songs. It's all a matter of opinion and tastes, though. Perhaps you'll like the middle tracks best. The last few songs pick back up with the marching drum of "Legacy from the Past" and the eerie vocals of "Every Extremity is a Vise". The album wraps up with the musical embodiment of the Star Ocean series, "STAR OCEAN FOREVER". No better way to end. As for the original soundtrack album, you know what to expect if you've played the game already, so unless you have a problem with Game Boy Color-quality sound, you should find it delightful. I strongly urge you to not be close-minded, and I present you this question: would Sakuraba put so much effort into a Game Boy soundtrack if it was only to come out as a bunch of bleeps and bloops? I think you know the answer. |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Length: 192 Pages Date of Release: September 22, 2002 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-0764-X |
| Personal Opinion on Product - Since Star Ocean: Blue Sphere isn't an especially story-heavy game, the official manga series has a lot of room to stray and elaborate - and it does, understandably. Depending on what characters you like best, you may find the series a bit disappointing due to the fact that besides an all-cast drawing at the beginning, the existence of Chisato and Noel isn't even acknowledged. The two Nedians always seem to get the shaft. :( Similarly, Bowman stays behind on Expel with Nineh and his new baby daughter Elis, making only a couple brief appearances via email. If you ignore these small flaws, though, it's an extremely enjoyable series. Aoi Mizuki is a very talented artist, and the books are fairly simple to follow even without knowledge of Japanese. In volume 1, we see the grounds for the storyline being formed. We're introduced to Precis and Leon studying on Earth; Celine, Ashton, and Dias practicing their abilities on Expel (and Bowman showing off his newborn); and Crawd and Rena on a mission with the Earth Federation. Apparently, email has become universal, and you can transmit live video as well. The cast keeps in touch this way, but one day Leon and Precis are interrupted with an SOS message from Opera. After picking up Celine, Ashton, and Dias, they race off to rescue Ernest and Opera. They crash into the planet, and they end up meeting Radol (the lost traveller from the Star Ocean games) who is more of a treasure hunter/pitchman in the comic. He becomes an active character in the plot, which makes it all the more frustrating that they didn't include Chisato, Noel, or Bowman instead. Radol tells them of Aba City and Knott, so they split into teams and head out. I'd say the overall theme of this volume is sexual tension. Precis is still holding onto her crush on Crawd, Ashton has a crush on her, Celine is bitter about her relationship so she wants to play matchmaker with Precis and Ashton, and she cons Leon into helping her with this mission. Lots of crazyness ensues, and it's great fun to watch. |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Length: 192 Pages Date of Release: March 22, 2003 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-0875-1 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - The second volume of the official manga series continues with Celine and Dias reaching Aba City and Precis, Ashton, and Leon reaching Banisu City after passing through Scout Village (in the previous comic) and Nusa Beach. This time around we get five full chapters, as opposed to volume 1 with its four chapters and two tiny bonus stories. Unlike the previous volume and its goofiness, this one has a lot of action, which is broken up with some lengthy, serious dialogue scenes that can be pretty dull and hard to follow without knowledge of Japanese. However, these scenes don't mar the comic since they are needed to give the reader a little bit of a break from all the tense, exciting moments and to add some storytelling between the nearly silent (but gorgeous) fighting. This time we get to see a whole bunch of Celine and Dias as they run into trouble with Aba-sama (who got hit with the pretty stick) and his henchmen. They get rescued by Marcus and Yulius of the Resistance against Aba, and they learn that Ernest is being held captive in Leviabor Ruins. They head off to save him, and Dias and Celine get split up within the ruins. Dias ends up in a huge gun versus sword face-off, while Celine deals with swarm after swarm of robot guardians. Finally, she reaches Ernest, just as a bomb is about to explode. I won't spoil it, but considering the series roughly follows the plot of the game, you should know what happens. At the end, a member of the Resistance is revealed to be a spy for Aba and calls forth the elephant-like robot monster G-Aba, and we watch as the leader of the Resistance, Marcus, struggles to stay alive. Throughout the manga, we get a bit of comic relief from Precis, Ashton, and Leon who run into Radol yet again and get stuck in Banisu City due to a rainstorm. Ashton and Radol experience some drunken, brotherly bonding, while Precis gets very annoyed. Leon goes off on his own, though, and runs into someone who has seen Opera in Knott - a mysterious, sweet young girl known as... Rival. |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Length: 192 Pages Date of Release: August 22, 2003 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-0984-7 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - After all the action and drama of volume 2 focused on Celine and Dias, the third volume switches to Precis's team and their goofy shenanigans. Leon and Rival make a cute couple as they browse the shops of Banisu City, but Opera is still missing, so they head back to the inn to fetch Precis and Ashton so they can accompany Rival to Knott. However, they discover that Ashton and Radol have already head off on their own. Immediately, Rival is beset with concern because, unbeknownst to everyone else, a dangerous water monster lives in the dank cavern, and Ashton's swords are not enough to defeat it. They rush to the scene and a harrowing battle ensues. They continue their journey, making a quick pit-stop to contact Celine, resting after the events of volume 2 (her only appearance this time; Dias is gone entirely), and upon arriving, Rival runs into her friend Simon, an original character in the manga who appears to be a member of Knott Laboratory. At the same time, Opera searches the ruins under the lab for the Plantia Stone. A fierce guardian intends to make sure she doesn't acquire it, but Opera uses some clever thinking to save her skin. However, that was just a warm-up compared to what's to come. Somewhere distant, a evil figure lurks in the shadows and calls forth an army of demons to descend upon Knott. Leon and Radol battle it out in the city, wondering where Rival vanished to, while Simon leads Precis and Ashton to the lab, which seems to be attracting the beasts. Ashton and Precis insist on heading deep into the ruins to rescue Opera, who is trapped in a chamber standing before a hulking, immensely powerful creature who demands that she hands over the Plantia Stone... This is the first volume to end on a cliffhanger, but as a small diversion from the anticipation of seeing how the dilemma resolves, we're given a little bonus story after the five chapters. This comical take on Cinderella places all the cast members in the roles - Precis as Cinderella, Celine as her "wicked" stepmother/sister, Leon as the fairy "godmother" (godfellpool? hehe), Ashton as the prince, and Dias as his servant. Of course, in true fractured fairytale style, the story doesn't end as you'd expect it to. :) All in all, a delightful bonus for an already excellent continuation of the series. |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Date of Release: December 2003 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-1069-1 |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Date of Release: March 22, 2004 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-1169-8 |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Date of Release: November 22, 2004 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm Yen Price: 390 ISBN: 4-7575-1295-3 |
Artist: Aoi Mizuki Date of Release: May 21, 2005 Size: 17.5 x 11 cm ISBN: 4-7575-1430-1 |
Length: 146 Pages Four Color Pages Eleven Different Stories Date of Release: February 27, 2002 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 838 ISBN: 4-7575-0623-6 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - Despite the rather blechy cover (which actually made me wonder if it was a doujinshi due to its "Adobe Photoshop" look when I first saw it), it's still a damn good manga. Each of the eleven stories has a different artist, so there are many different styles present in the book. The first story, which contains a few colored pages, focuses on Leon and Dias, and it sort of has a "shonen ai" (boy love) feel. The yaoi-ish art work style makes the sexual tension all the more apparent. Not to scare anybody off from the book, though. There's no sexual stuff whatsoever. Most of the other stories focus on Ashton and/or Precis, as to be expected. Some of them are serious while others are kind of goofy (like Precis and Ashton trying to cook). The book ends with a story about Crawd and Rena crash landing into the Blue Sphere planet, and Crawd gets deathly ill after being attacked. It's just like the event in the game. The only downside to this comic is that you get to see very little of some of the characters. At least it's not Crawd and Rena obsessed like the Star Ocean: The Second Story comics. ;) |
Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 838 ISBN: 4-7575-0672-4 |
Length: 127 Pages Date of Release: September 21, 2001 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 571 ISBN: 4-7575-0532-9 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - The Star Ocean: Blue Sphere 4-koma comics are very similar in style to other Enix-published 4-koma manga. Like pretty much all the others, they start off with 16 color pages done by a variety of artists, and after that, each artist gets his or her own small section for several 4-panel strips and a final page for free talk where the artist with often have a cartoon portrayal of him/herself, some comments about the game like favorite characters or such, and some nice drawings that are a bit more fancy than those you see in the strips. In this particular book, most of the gags aren't visual, so those who aren't fluent in Japanese and/or aren't VERY familiar with the game will likely struggle to get the jokes. Also, as is the case with most 4-koma manga, the art on the whole isn't anything to get TOO excited about, but considering most of the art has to be squished in tiny panels that are no more than a couple inches tall and wide, you can't blame the artists for that. However, there are some funny strips involving the fuzzy Moja enemies from the beginning of the game, and my favorite section is by artist Tarou Sakamoto. This guy draws both the women and men in skimpy outfits and in a bizarre style that's hilarious yet so disturbing. :P You haven't lived until you see Ernest and Noel in Speedos (or Gyoro in a bra, for that matter), hehe. Equally weird, Sakamoto draws the almighty Tria (who has only been referenced to by words in the games), but except seeing a goddess like the games elude to, it's a caricature of our beloved founder of tri-Ace, Yoshiharu Gotanda, as "Lord Tria" with a halo over his head, and the drawing is just... beyond words. :) |
Size: 6 x 8 Inches |
Length: 127 Pages Date of Release: March 22, 2002 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 571 ISBN: 4-7575-0627-9 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - In volume 3 of the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere 4-koma manga series, a lot of the gags are more visual-based, which is a good thing because not only are they more accessible to those not fluent in Japanese but they're also just as hilarious and clever as any text-based joke. Chisato's robotic pet dog Maibo and Bowman's baby daughter Elis are popular topics in this issue, and while I'm not a fan of those hokey Sony Aibo toys, I got to admit that the strips about Maibo are just great. The Elis strips are fantastic too since she's so cute and they're always VERY funny. :) What can I say, combining Bowman's personality with a newborn baby's shenangins is a formula for comedy gold, hehe. Artist Takako Okamura seems to have a fondness for the goofy item creation failure items with the big eyes and lips, and heck, even if you don't get the jokes, just the way the artist draws them is enough to make you laugh your ass off. :P Also interesting about this volume is that a couple artists make references to the original Star Ocean, with drawings of Ratix and Marvel (the latter appears to be Celine in Marvel's dress, actually). |
Length: 127 Pages Date of Release: July 19, 2002 Size: 6 x 8 Inches Yen Price: 571 ISBN: 4-7575-0729-1 |
| Personal Opinion on Product - This issue of the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere 4-koma series is a good progression from the last volume. Overall, the quality of the art seems to be slowly improving between each issue, and this one expands on volume 3 with even more (and funnier) strips about Elis, Maibo, Moja, Mujin-kun, and all the other great comedy fodder topics (love the 200 tissue combo :) ). Noel's Panda!! spell has also become a somewhat popular topic, much to my delight, as has the theme of chicks hatching out of eggs while being stirred in a pot (no, don't worry, they're not cooked alive; the strips always result in something very cute and hilarious. :P ) In this volume, the lead-in strips (the full page ones at the beginning of each artist's section) also really start to shine. Two of them are among my absolute favorite strips from all the 4-koma books combined. One is about the aforementioned baby chick hatching while Dias is cooking, which he sets free and reunites with under unusual circumstances later, and the other is about Bowman, thinking he's met his match in battle only to get inspired to kick some Gabriel ass by imagining missing out on Elis growing up. Of course, since I'm not spoiling the gags, they don't sound quite as awesome as they are, so just trust me. :P |
Year of Release: 2002 Size: 6 x 8 Inches |
Author: Takashi Umemura Length: 335 Pages Year of Release: 2003 |
Yen Price: 600 |
Illustration: Aoi Mizuki |
Illustration: Aoi Mizuki |
Illustration: Aoi Mizuki Year of Release: 2001 |
Illustration: Aoi Mizuki Year of Release: 2002 |
Illustration: Aoi Mizuki Year of Release: 2003 |
| NOTE: Notice that the artwork is the prototype Star Ocean: Blue Sphere artwork, not the final official Mayumi Azuma designs. Considering the Christmas theme, it's safe to say this card was created around December, while Star Ocean: Blue Sphere came out in June of 2001. My best guess is that it was some sort of promotional item that came out several months before the actual game was released, perhaps as part of a Famitsu contest. Take note that the message on the inside is supposed to be written by Precis, hehe. :P |
| NOTE: I'm not too sure about the story of this t-shirt either, but like the Christmas phone card, it appears to be associated with Famitsu (as well as Enterbrain) as indicated on the paper slip accompanying the first photo. Like the phone card, it could be a promotional item and/or a contest prize, but there's no way for me to be absolutely sure at this time. However, since I've seen this and the phone card multiple times, I don't imagine it's extremely rare (but still much rarer than, say, the official manga). |
| Personal Opinion on Product - I feel kind of silly writing a mini-review on a poster, considering, when it comes to posters, what you see is what you get, for the most part (the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" also comes to mind). However, there remains something to be said about the sheer quality of the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere promotional poster. When you run your hand across it, you can feel the quality of the paper. It's thick, without being coarse or stiff, and it's exceptionally glossy. All this is especially impressive when you consider that the poster's purpose was largely to just be hung up in retail stores to promote the game's release and then chucked in the trash when something newer came along. American promotional posters, like the Star Ocean 3 posters which were actually produced to be saved and appreciated by consumers who pre-ordered the game, just seem like flimsy, cheap crap in comparison (and I don't even mean that as an insult to those posters because I do enjoy them too, just nowhere near as much). If you can manage to still find one of these posters after all these years (I probably never would've gotten one if not for a very kind friend), it's oh-so worth it, especially to display in a frame (just make sure it doesn't get faded) and to bask in the rich, vibrant colors and the glory that is Star Ocean: Blue Sphere. :) |
Also Features Star Ocean: The Second Story Description: Comedy Doujinshi Circle: Naidauru Uchida Length: 20 Pages Date of Release: May 5, 2001 Size: 7 x 10 Inches All Black and White Pages |
Circle: SB Stripes Length: 18 Pages Date of Release: August 9, 2002 Size: 7 x 10 Inches NOTE: I have no idea why it's called a "Star Ocean Second Story Only Book" considering all the pictures I've seen of it are ONLY Blue Sphere designs. |
| NOTE: The Star Ocean: Blue Sphere manga series by Aoi Mizuki was originally serialized in Shounen GanGan. In each issue, until the series was finished, a few chapters would appear. This is how most manga series originate, but once the chapters are compiled and put together in their own independent books, there's little reason to collect the magazines (I'd say they fall into the same category as game magazines that feature coverage or advertisements for tri-Ace games; cool to have but not really tri-Ace collectibles). The books are higher quality than the magazines, of course, too. This July 2002 issue is only notable because, in addition to the few chapters of the series, it also features a spiffy Star Ocean: Blue Sphere cover. |