Do I need to play the other games?

[KillerKhye07]

This will be my first Star Ocean game and was wondering if I need to play the other games to understand this one.

[WingBingDing]

No - Star Ocean is similar to Final Fantasy in that they are all mostly stand-alone stories

[Sunny]

As our friend here said, SO share similarities but their stories are standalone, just be warned that Until the End of Time is a very crashy game, some experience more than others, I particularly stopped in the post dungeon because my game was crashing every five battles.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Sunnyburrito

[MandA60VISE]

You'll miss some easter eggs from 1 and 2 but that's about it. Also, be warned that the game crashes constantly but it's mostly only on the first disc. Save often and don't worry too much about grinding until disc 2 unless you just can't win. Look up a guide for early game item creation if you can't be bothered to grind. The game crashed about 70 times for me on my grind for the platinum. Thankfully, the game didn't crash once during the bunny races which is the biggest grind the game has. If you're aiming for the platinum the best tip I can give is make a separate save before each boss fight because a majority of them have in game trophies and aren't re-fightable.

[jgm4789]

outside of star oceans 1 and 2( the male protagonist claude of star ocean 2 being the son of ronyx and llia 2 of the main party members of so 1) no other games have any other important direct connections as all the other star ocean games take place far enough from each other in the timeline that past events from old games are at best historical footnotes as after so 3 the series starts jumping around the timeline(which goes 4, 1, 2, blue sphere, 5, 6 and finally 3)