Star Ocean: The Second Story
‘Expel’led (aka. the almost clever headline)
Star Ocean is the first RPG by Enix for a while that has come to Europe. Also a sequel to SNES game titled Star Ocean (figures…). One of the most interesting things in Star Ocean 2 is that you get to choose between two different scenarios. Although the storyline is mostly similar, certain events are different.
The story sets in planet Expel, a remote planet far from earth and you can choose to play it as Expelian girl named Rena, or Earth Federation ensign Claude C. Kenni, who was investigating another planet near Expel and was transported to Expel in an accident.
These scenarios relate very closely to each other and the basic story is the same, with few differences. Some characters are only available in Claude’s scenario and some in Rena’s only. Those who’ve played Star Ocean might be interested to know that Claude is the son of Ronixis J. Kenni, one of the original Star Ocean’s characters. He will also make a few appearances in Star Ocean 2.
While ago a meteorite had crashed to Expel, and soon after some strange events have started to occur. When Claude appears to Expel, he has no idea where he is or how to return to home. He meets Rena and hears about strange events near the meteorite. He decides to go to investigate the meteorite with Rena, hoping to find some information about his whereabouts.
Star Ocean’s story is quite interesting and offers challenge for about 30 hours. (That depends, of course. Experienced players may play through it faster while inexperienced may need more time.) The game comes in two CDs and they’re filled with good graphics, music and story, so the game should bring entertainment for a while.
It can also bring lots of challenge. The bosses are hard to beat as they share the same experience level as the main character does. Leveling up won’t help beating them. Completing the game unlocks new difficulty settings (They’re REALLY difficult) for masochists who like to get beaten up in the fights.
The game has an interesting battle system. Battles happen in real time, and you control one character during the battle and let the computer control the rest (If anyone has played Tales of Destiny, they know what I’m talking about.) You have full control over your characters movement in the 3d battlefield, and sometimes the game reminds me of some action games as I make my character run across the field and beat the crap out of bad guys. While you get to control only one character at a time, you can give orders to computer controlled ones, such as cast spells with them.
Too bad that the battle system doesn’t work too well. Many times controlling your characters is too confusing and difficult and the computer does some weird stuff while controlling your other characters, like attacking the biggest monster with party healer… (Fortunately such cases are rare). This is bad, since it really pisses off in areas with lots of fighting.
A test of patience
Xenogears has two battle modes. The regular one where the characters fight like in any RPG games and the second one where the characters fight inside their gears (Gears are those huge robots which you see in a couple of the screen shots here). These modes are different since when using gears you also have to worry about fuel. Gears use fuel and each attack consumes a certain amount of it.
The only way to gain fuel during battles is by charging it, but it only restores a little amount per turn and you can’t attack while charging fuel. Once the fuel is gone, gears can only charge (or use magic) which kinda makes them sitting ducks. Therefore the gear battles require a bit more strategy than regular ones.
Graphics are quite pretty, especially the backgrounds are very nice. And the movie sequences are also beautiful, as usual. Music is good, but not all of it. Some pieces are average and there are some songs that just annoy. But there are some real gems there and many good tracks. And battle theme is a good one, which is good, since it gets played a lot.
The sound effects are OK, but during battles comes up the voice acting. Now, this can be a good thing, but on Star Ocean, it isn’t. Some voices sound damn stupid and overacted. Usually every character in the party have something different to say at the beginning of the fight, like “We can win this!”, but unfortunately they only have about two different sentences. That starts pissing off when you have to hear the same words at the beginning of almost every fight, not to mention the other things the character has to say… Fun at first, but since the game has lots of fighting, it gets annoying fast.
Star Ocean characters gain levels as other RPG heroic-like-people do, but there is one thing different from most RPGs. As characters in SO2 gain levels, they also get Skill Points. These Skill Points are used to gain new skills and become better in old ones. There’s wide variety of skills ranging from cooking to animal training. Even if it may not seem like it, even these skills are useful, thanks to the item creation SO2 is using.
Let’s take cooking, for example. You get to buy cooking ingredients from various shops in the game and with cooking skill, the character makes food out of them. Same with alchemy. Combine items to make new ones. You can modify your equipment or weapons by adding special items to them. You can write books and sell them for money. It feels like endless amount of new items can be made. There are also many other skills which don’t involve item creation. Combat skills sometimes rise characters speed, defense or attack power for a while, allow ignoring enemy’s defenses and causing larger damage. Animal training allows player to summon an animal who goes shopping on players behalf. This is particularly useful in dungeons.
Star Ocean: The Second Story has moments when it can be boring or frustrating, but mostly it keeps players interest high. And with the multiple endings and the two different scenarios it offers, SO2 has more replay value than most other RPGs. It’s a good buy if you’re looking for a new RPG to spend your time with.
As an interesting sidenote, Star Ocean: The Second Story has also spawned an anime series, Star Ocean EX. Unfortunately I haven’t seen anything from the series besides a short clip, so I really can’t tell you much about it, but those interested might want to check it out. Let’s hope there’s an English translation available. The third game in the series, Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time has also been released in Japan, and hopefully we’ll see the English translation soon. The series has also appeared on Game Boy, but Star Ocean: Blue Sphere was never released outside Japan.