is a Japanese

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

founded in 1995. They are known for their

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, eith ...

, most notably the ''

Star Ocean is a franchise of science fantasy Action role-playing video game, Action role-playing video games developed by the Japanese company tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (formerly Enix). Development History ''Star Ocean'' is known as one of the ...

'' and '' Valkyrie Profile'' series.

History

tri-Ace was formed in March 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. Most of tri-Ace's games have been

published Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

(formerly Enix). The company exclusively makes

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

s, 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 was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

, is a precursor to tri-Ace's own ''

'' games in several ways; e.g., 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. After their long-time

liaison and producer, Yoshinori Yamagishi, announced that he was done working on the ''Star Ocean'' series in 2009, several of tri-Ace's works started to be published by different game companies other than Square Enix. Such as their 2010 release of '' Resonance of Fate'' which was taken to Sega publishing. As well, onwards there began to be a lack of tri-Ace games that received English localizations until '' Exist Archive'' in 2016. tri-Ace games have sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide as of September 2005. The company's sound programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba formed tri-Crescendo in 1999 which has since developed several games independently of tri-Ace. Japanese mobile company Nepro Japan acquired tri-Ace in February 2015. Despite being acquired by a company focusing on mobile gaming, tri-Ace continued developing video games for consoles, as evidenced by '' Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness'' in 2016 and then '' Star Ocean: The Divine Force'' in 2022, but weeks before the release for ''Star Ocean: The Divine Force'', tri-Ace was reported to have financial issues and was insolvent.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 1995 Video game development companies Video game companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1995 2015 mergers and acquisitions