Tri-Ace

tri-Ace, Incorporated (株式会社トライエース) is a Japanese video game development company formed in 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. All but one of tri-Ace's games have been published by Square Enix (originally by Enix).

The group exclusively makes console RPGs, 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, is a precursor to tri-Ace's own Star Ocean games in several ways; i.e. 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. Their most recent release, Resonance of Fate, was taken to SEGA for publishing.

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.

Titles
(all release dates are for the first region a game is available in, generally Japan)

Super Famicom

 * Star Ocean: Released July 19, 1996

PlayStation

 * Star Ocean: The Second Story: Released August 6, 1999
 * Valkyrie Profile: Released August 29, 2000

Game Boy Color

 * Star Ocean: Blue Sphere: Released June 28, 2001

Playstation 2

 * Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Released August 31, 2004
 * Radiata Stories: Released September 6, 2005
 * Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: Released September 26, 2006

Nintendo DS

 * Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume: Released November 1, 2008

Xbox 360

 * Infinite Undiscovery: Released September 2, 2008
 * Star Ocean: The Last Hope: Released February 19, 2009
 * Resonance of Fate: Released January 28, 2010

PlayStation 3

 * Resonance of Fate: Released January 16, 2010
 * Star Ocean: The Last Hope International: Released February 4, 2010