So I've been making my way through Star Ocean: The Second Story and for the most part I am enjoying it!  Recently, I've had a craving to play some JPRGs and playing this one and it's predecessor have been a real treat.  Star Ocean introduced me to the series in a grand way that I won't soon forget.  The game's have a lot of customization in them along with pretty decent story lines.  As soon as I beat the first game, I got on Ebay and bought the PS1 and PS2 games.  I'll have to dig around for the Game Boy game here soon.   
 
What really sprung me to write up a blog on my experiences is the amount of times Star Ocean: The Second Story puts restrictions on you during your playthrough.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm ok with a little bit of 'gentle pushing' along the way to get the player going in the right direction.  However, the restrictions I'm talking about go above and beyond a 'gentle push'.  I'm talking about things like entering towns and not allowing you to leave until you've performed a specific action.  Or, entering into an event or dungeon and not being allowed to leave until you've completed the event from start to finish or made it through the dungeon. 
 
What were the developers thinking when they decided to restrict the ability for the player to make their own decisions when it comes to playing through the game.  I'd like the ability to save when I want to (after navigating out to the world map, of course).  I'd like the ability to grind a couple more levels if need be.  I'd like the ability to stay at an inn or buy some items from the item shop.  Star Ocean: The Second Story takes the ability for me to do all of those things MANY, many times throughout the game and it really just makes me wonder what the reasoning behind this was.  I can understand the developer wanting to guide the player along, but there comes a point when the nuisance outweighs the guidance and I think this game has crossed WAY over that line!