BEST Star Ocean 1 Characters TIER LIST
This Best Star Ocean 1 Characters Tier List will teach players who the best and worst characters are in Star Ocean 1.
If you’re playing Star Ocean 1 (Star Ocean First Departure), you’re going to want to know who the best Star Ocean 1 characters are because you get a limited number of recruitment slots and you need to plan your party ahead of time.
Without further ado, here is the Best Star Ocean 1 Characters Tier List.
Table of Contents
S Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Mavelle
Mavelle is in a class of her own, able to use a technique called Galaxy which does extreme damage far beyond what any other character is capable of dishing out.
Additionally, her other skills are no slouch either; she’s a consistently strong fighter with an extraordinarily broken skill to top it all off.
A Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Roddick
As the main character of the game, Roddick is also extremely capable. He has high offensive, high defense and great techniques.
The only downside to Roddick is that powering him up to his full potential means choosing Ashlay over Cyuss.
While Cyuss is definitively a stronger character than Ashlay, Ashlay is required to unlock Roddick’s best techniques.
Ilia
Ilia is the designated martial artist of the crew and while she starts of somewhat vulnerable due to her short range, by the end of the game few can match her damage potential.
She will zip across the battlefield pumping out extreme damage with her Dragon Claw and Tortoise Smash techniques that few other characters can match.
B Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Cyuss
Cyuss is an extremely strong fighter and well worth a spot on any team. The only problem is, if you recruit him, you’ll be unable to learn Roddick’s best techniques, which are exclusive to Ashlay.
Therefore, if you’re not planning on using Cyuss on your team, you should definitely skip him so that Roddick can be more powerful.
Millie
Millie has no offensive ability to speak of but she is the best healer in the game, which makes her a mainstay in almost every party.
There’s not much to say about her: she only has one real rival in the game, Erys, and Erys requires foregoing Mavelle, so you… should not recruit Erys and you should stick with Millie.
C Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Phia
Phia doesn’t have great defense and her offensive output never quite comes to match what the top tier fighters are capable of, but she’s not a liability. She’s capable of putting out damage and adding to the party.
Still, you only have four slots and there are four fighters who are obviously stronger than her. Make sure you recruit either Cyuss or Ashlay or else Phia won’t learn her best skills and will be even worse.
Ashlay
Ashlay is that old veteran jRPG archetype that starts strong but lacks the growth potential of the other characters, and that trope holds true here.
Ashlay starts out pretty strong and doesn’t match up to the other fighters very well in late game. Everything Ashlay can do, Roddick or Cyuss can do better.
Pericci
Pericci is the anime catgirl of the party and she’s not very strong overall, but she provides from teamwide support buffs that somewhat make up for her lack of direct power.
She also does a good job at interrupting enemies and attacks fairly quickly.
T’Nique
T’Nique is one of the more interesting characters, since out of battle he’s a nerdy kid and in battle he’s a kung fu werewolf that fights with a staff. But beyond his design, he doesn’t really bring too much to the table.
He’s incredibly fast, but his damage output leaves something to be desired because his techniques just simply aren’t as powerful at the techniques fighters higher on this list are able to acquire.
D Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Welch
Welch is just a very mediocre character overall who doesn’t gain any powerful abilities. She seems to exist in the game more as a tie-in to the Star Ocean series at large than as a worthwhile character.
She seems somewhat underpowered on purpose because her role seems to be more as an easter egg than a central party member.
Erys
Erys is a mage with both healing and damage-dealing magic skills, so she makes a decent replacement for Millie. Unfortunately for Erys, damage-dealing magic isn’t very good, or even desirable (it constantly pauses the battle to do mediocre damage to all enemies), and she’s weaker than Millie as a healer.
To make matters worse, if you recruit Erys, Mavelle (the best character in the game), leaves your party permanently. Not worth it.
F Tier – Best Star Ocean 1 Characters
Ioshua
Ioshua is like Erys (hybrid mage), except worse in every conceivable way. The only reason to ever recruit Ioshua is to unlock Erys (another downside to Erys come to think of it — you have to recruit Ioshua).
If not for Ronyx, Ioshua would universally be considered to be the worst character in the game.
Ronyx
Ronyx is a magic damage specialist in a game where magic damage is abysmally bad. Not only is magic damage massively weaker than physical damage (and I mean massively), it pauses the game and you have to watch it play its little animation while everything else stops.
It’s useless and it slows down fights and it’s all Ronyx can do.
The about covers it when it comes to the best characters tier list for Star Ocean 1. Be sure to check out the Games Section for more content like this and click here for more game guides for the Star Ocean series.
