One of the best RPGs ever made.
Star Ocean the Second Story is an RPG that no real RPG fan should miss. This game succeeds in every way with its great story, memorable charters, great fighting system, and plenty of extras. Despite feeling a little dated with things like random battles and 2-D art and battles, the game still stands out even when compared to the best games todays systems have to offer.
The story of the game focuses on Claude C. Kenny, who while struggling to prove himself to his space captain father is transported to an undeveloped world plauged by earthquakes and other natural problems. Upon arriving on this world he is meet up by Rena Launford who upon seeing him believes him to be the Hero of Light proficied about for centuries, come to save them from their troubles. Claude and Rena set out on a quest to discover the truth behind the natural disasters and reunite Claude with his space traveling father.
Over the course of the game you have the opportunity to meet up with many different character who can join your team. Depending on your actions you can choose between possible team members depending on prefrences. Each character has different abilities while fighting and all of the characters end up being well developed through events in "private actions". Private actions can be preformed at every town and your team members go off on their own and your character is able to interact with them and catch them interracting with each other. This allows you to learn about your team members in a way most games do not allow.
Of course Star Ocean wouldn't be the same if it weren't for its spectacular battle system. The battles are random but once you're in one you're in control of your characters. The X button performs regular attacks and special moves can be set to L1 and R1. There are also magician characters who can ques up magic that have a set casting time. You are only able to control one of your 4 party members but you're able to se tthe AI of your team members and with a little work it is possible to get them working the way you want them to. Also, each charater has battler skills that make them able to cast magic faster, do more damage, block faster, survive a killing blow, ect. All this works together in real time to create an exciting battle experience.
In addition to the typical leveling up and the previously mentioned battle skills there are also skills that can be used outside of battle. Using skills bought in skill shops and leveled up using points gained as you level, you can learn new abilities that allow you to build items and wepons or use animals to buy items in a dungeon or reduce/increase encouters and many other things. Building your skills and learning to use those abilities adds an additional level of control on the game and when used properly can make a player much more effective and more sucessful when trying to complete the games dungeons.
When it comes to graphics the game is a little held back by its release date, but is in no way a slouch. The artwork is beautiful still today. Some things will be noticable, mostly that the character models are flat and a little pixelated. Of course compared to most games of the time this game was exceptional.
The audio is very memorable. While the soundtrack is solid the main attraction for me was the voice acting. It was rare for a game of its time to include any voice acting at all, but your characters durring battle have a large variety of things they say and it differs based on who's on your party and how they feel about each other. It is not uncommon to hear one character cry out to another one upon being defeated in battle, or for two characters to talk to each other after winning a fight. It is great fun and the game actually challenges you to "collect" all of these voices, which in turn unlocks the harder difficulty modes.
Along those lines, the games has many extras that will keep people playing even after beating the game once. First the game has over 100 different ending possibilities and it all depends on which characters you used and how they felt about each other. Also, there is a bonus dungeon that adds a BIG challenge for anyone who has already beat the game. The last boss can be powered up after completing the bonus dungeon to make him even more powerful that the secret bosses, adding more challange for dedicated players. If that isn't enough, upon gaining most of the voice collection you'll be able to play the games on the harder difficulties, including the Galaxy mode, which will be an exciting challange for anyone as it is the most difficult, and rewarding, thing I've ever played.
The point of all this is that Star Ocean the Second Story is a game that everyone should take a look at and anyone who considers themself an RPG player should play thorugh multiple times. The game put most competing RPGs of the time to shame and still has yet to be really contested when it comes to character development and a fun and challanging battle system. I would suggest that anyone who can get their hands on a copy buy this game right away.
