tri-Ace

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tri-Ace, Incorporated
Type Private company
Founded March 1995
Headquarters Shinagawa Ku Oi
Tokyo, Japan
Key people Yoshiharu Gotanda(programmer, current president), Masaki Norimoto (designer), Joe Asanuma (former President)
Industry Computer and video game industry
Products Star Ocean series, Valkyrie Profile series, Radiata Stories, Infinite Undiscovery
Employees 153
Website http://www.tri-ace.com/
http://www.tri-crescendo.co.jp/

tri-Ace, Incorporated (株式会社トライエース Kabushiki Gaisha Toraiēsu?) is a Japanese video game development company formed in 1995 by former Telenet Japan employees Yoshiharu Gotanda (programmer, current tri-Ace President), Masaki Norimoto (game designer) and Joe Asanuma (director). The name is a play on words regarding the "three aces" who formed the company. All but one of tri-Ace's games have been published by Square Enix (originally by Enix).

The group exclusively makes console RPGs, and is known for giving their games action-packed battle systems and deep skill systems. This trademark style began when the founders of tri-Ace originally worked for Telenet Japan's Wolfteam, and had created Tales of Phantasia. This game, published by Namco, is a precursor to tri-Ace's own Star Ocean games in several ways; i.e. an action battle system where the player controls one character and AI controls others in the party and special battle skills that the player can assign to different buttons. Besides the Star Ocean series, they also released Valkyrie Profile in 1999. Their most recent release, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, was released in the United States by Square Enix on February 24, 2009.

tri-Ace games have sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide as of September 2005.[1] The company's sound programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba formed tri-Crescendo in 1999 which has since independently developed Baten Kaitos and Eternal Sonata.

Contents

[edit] Titles

(all release dates are for the first region a game is available in, generally Japan)

[edit] Super Famicom

[edit] Game Boy Color

[edit] PlayStation

[edit] PlayStation 2

[edit] Xbox 360

[edit] Nintendo DS

[edit] PlayStation 3

[edit] Recurring characters

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tri-Ace is known for taking characters from one game and placing them as optional, extremely difficult enemies in another, usually as part of bonus dungeons or other extra. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time features Lenneth Valkyrie and Freya from Valkyrie Profile as optional bosses; Radiata Stories features Valkyrie again, as well as Lezard Valeth. The main character of the game Radiata Stories, Jack Russel, has a suit of armor that makes him look identical to Fayt Leingod, the main protagonist from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Also notable is that Ganz Rothschild wears a costume that makes him look identical to Claude Kenni from Star Ocean: The Second Story later on after he is expelled from the Radiata Knights. The optional enemies Gabriel Celesta and Iselia Queen/Iseria Queen (sometimes localized as 'Ethereal Queen') are also present in most tri-Ace titles, and are usually the most powerful and difficult foes in the entire game.

There are also optional dungeons in where the optional bosses are located. For the Valkyrie Profile Series and Infinite Undiscovery it is called the Seraphic Gate while in Radiata Stories it is called the Dragon Lair Cave and Distortion Corridor. In Star Ocean the Second Story it is called the Cave of Trials, in Star Ocean Till the End of Time the dungeons are called Maze of Tribulations, Urrsa Lava Temple, and Sphere 211, and in Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the dungeons are called Cave of the Seven Stars and the Wandering Dungeon.

In addition, some of the music tracks for those dungeons/bosses are rearranged or remixed for each game, such as "Mission to the Deep Space" , the bonus dungeon music from Star Ocean: The Second Story and Valkyrie Profile, "The Incarnation of Devil", the Gabriel Celeste fight (in addition to Lucifer, the 2nd to last wise man fought in Star Ocean: The Second Story) and "Confidence in the Domination", the music used in most boss battles in Valkyrie Profile. It should be noted that the bonus boss/dungeon tracks from Star Ocean: The Second Story and Valkyrie Profile are almost the same arrangements.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "tri-Ace Company Sales". tri-Ace.co.jp. http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/company/sales.html. Retrieved 2008-07-19. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Ace"