Character select screen in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Multiplayer (マルチプレイ, Maruchipurei?) is a gameplay mode that allows more than one player to play a Star Ocean game at the same time. This may be done to control the main party in a game or to allow the players to face off. It is contrasted by single player mode, the default mode for every installment in the series.
Appearances[]
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time[]
This mode appears in the Director's Cut versions in the form of the Versus Mode (対戦モード?) mini-game. It is an unlockable feature: in order to access it, one must complete the Aquatic Gardens of Surferio, collect the Paracelsus's Table and give it to Welch Vineyard in Peterny.
It allows player to pit party members against each other in a variety of match setups: 1P vs CPU; 1P vs 2P; 1P vs CPU vs CPU; 1P vs 2P vs CPU. All ten possible party members in the game (Fayt, Cliff, Nel, Maria, Sophia, Peppita, Albel, Roger, Adray, and Mirage) are playable, however the latter four must be unlocked by collecting Trading Card 1, 2, 3 and 4 beforehand. Each character has a choice of three predetermined sets of abilities to use in battle that cannot be modified. No experience points are awarded for these matches.
In order to differentiate duplicate characters, each character has four alternate costumes, with the exception of Fayt and Sophia who have six costumes each. 3P and above costumes must be unlocked during a playthrough by collecting Trading Cards with "EX" in their name.
There are 53 stages to choose as the setting. They are unlocked by battling in a given area once. Battle music can be changed before a battle by pressing or holding one or a combination of 
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while selecting an arena. The list is as follows:
- Battle Simulator
- Evacuation Corridor
- Duggus Forest A
- Duggus Forest B
- Ruins of Coffir Outdoors
- Ruins of Coffir Hideout
- Ruins of Coffir Jail
- Airyglyph Castle Dungeon
- Airyglyph Aqueducts
- Elicoor Field Snowy Mountains
- Kirlsa Caverns
- Elicoor Field Mountainous Region
- Elicoor Field Wasteland
- Kirlsa Training Facility
- Aerial Arena
- Elicoor Field Plains
- Pesotto Forest
- Aquatic Gardens, Surferio
- Bequerel Mine Inside Cavern
- Bequerel Mine Outside Cavern
- Elicoor Field During War
- Sealed Cavern
- Shrine of Kaddan
- Passage from Parch to Plenty
- Mosel Dunes
- Ancient Ruins of Mosel
- Mountains of Barr Waterfall Area
- Mountains of Barr
- Barr Caves
- The Ruins of Barr
- Urssa Lava Caves
- Dwelling of Crossell
- Ancient Ruins of Mosel Waterway 1
- Ancient Ruins of Mosel Waterway 2
- Ancient Ruins of Mosel Waterway 3
- Moonbase
- Planet Styx Before Collapse
- Planet Styx Time Gate
- Arkives
- Sphere Company Foyer
- Sphere Company General Block
- Sphere Company Computer Block
- Sphere Company Elevator
- Planet Styx After Collapse
- Firewall
- Spiral Tower A
- Spiral Tower B
- Spiral Tower C
- Luther's Private Lab
- Maze of Tribulations
- Urssa Cave Temple
- Ethereal Queen Hall of Worship
- Ethereal Queen Flower Garden
Star Ocean: Anamnesis[]
Most missions (in events and the story scenario) can be played in both Singleplayer or Multiplayer. In Singleplayer, the player to bring a party of three of their own characters, plus one loaned unit; one character is manually controlled by the player while the other three are AI-controlled (the player can switch control between all four at any time). Whereas Multiplayer requires two to four players to play together. It is not initially available and must be unlocked by clearing mission 1-23 "Man-Eating Cave Survey" on planet Maere.
In this mode, a player (the host) creates a room that others (the guests) can join and work together to clear the mission. To create a room, a player must spend Stamina, but they get more mission rewards depending on the number of participants, called the Host Bonus. The host can specify desired roles when recruiting by tapping on the three free party slots. They can also limit recruiting to Mutual followers. The mission will be terminated if the host is disconnected from the network. If a guest gets disconnected, the mission will continue but with control of the disconnected guest's character(s) turned over to the host. If the host recruits only one guest, both players will have two characters each to control. If the host recruits two guests, the host controls two characters while guests control one each. If the host recruits three, all players control one character each.
Prospective guests can see rooms for which they satisfy the recruiting conditions. They can also join a room by entering a room ID given to them by the host. Guests do not use SP, but receive less reward drops and will not earn any EP (exploration points). In addition, any missions a guest clears in Multiplayer will not count as permanently cleared unless they have already cleared them themselves. 'Auto Matching' allows one to be automatically matched with rooms that are currently recruiting.
Communication with other players happens via stamps, which can be customized on the 
"Edit Stamps" option on the Characters menu. New stamps are regularly released during timed events as achievement rewards, and older stamps are re-released at the Return Coin Exchange every monthly reset.
External links[]