Star Ocean on the SNES is where this whole sci-fi RPG series kicked off, and honestly, it still holds up. You start off on some backwater planet, but before long you're hopping between starships and alien worlds—way ahead of its time for a 16-bit game.

The combat’s real-time, kinda like Secret of Mana but with more flashy special moves. At first, I kept button-mashing, but then I realized timing and positioning actually matter. The private actions system is wild too—talk to your party members at the right moment, and you can totally change how the story plays out.

It never got an official English release back in the day, but the fan translation’s solid. Just expect some classic JRPG weirdness in the dialogue.