Star Ocean: The Second Story

The Sony PlayStation is respected for its vast library of quality RPGs and, yes, this library extends far beyond the three Final Fantasy games and the countless other remakes released on the platform. One of these lesser-known gems is Star Ocean: The Second Story, a game developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix before it joined with Square to become Square-Enix. As the title suggests, it is a sequel to the original Star Ocean for the Super Nintendo, which was not released outside of Asian territories, making it the first instalment of the series to make it onto Western shores.

Claude is the son of Ronixis, one of the heroes of the first game.

The game’s backstory follows the undeveloped planet of Expel, which has become plagued with monsters and natural disasters following the impact of a meteorite known as the Sorcery Globe on the Continent of El. The player is given the choice of two main characters; Claude Kenni, a young soldier in the Earth Federation, and Rena Lanford, a teenage girl living on Expel who possesses mysterious healing powers. As you can tell, the plot is subpar and hardly anything special, relying instead on the relationships and interactions between the game’s characters to provide the player’s emotional link to the game. Although the game’s preferred pairing is that of Claude and Rena, players can ‘hook up’ their chosen protagonist with the other party members they recruit along the way. This is done through the use of mini-events called ‘Private Actions’ which occur in towns, giving the player various choices that will affect their relationship ratings with the other characters. These relationship values then contribute towards the evolution of the storyline and the game’s ending as well as enraging characters in battle when their loved ones have fallen.

Indeed, the game’s battle system is a fun and engaging experience. They are all played out in real-time, much akin to a beat-‘em-up game and offer the player a list of ‘Killer Moves’ and spells with which to take down their opponents or heal and support their party members. As might be expected of a videogame of this genre, Killer Moves and spells are learned gradually as the player gains levels and, in turn, gaining levels earns party members a certain amount of skill points per level. These skill points can be allocated to various abilities that can raise the character’s strength and agility and other attributes although, for the most part, the ‘Skill’ system is used mainly for the game’s prominent and unique feature; Item Creation. Item Creation as a feature is fairly self-explanatory, allowing players to utilise various ingredients acquired in the game to create a possible result out of 1000 items. These can include food which can restore ailments or HP/MP or even weapons and armour that may not even be available in the in-game stores otherwise. Plenty of time can be spent using this system to help make the game that little bit easier and, again, the results of Item Creation improve the more experience your party members gain.

The real-time battle system is engaging and fun.

It’s a shame then, that the Item Creation system can often be overlooked by traditional RPG gamers. Sometimes, the system feels like a weak addition to the game as money can easily be gained by killing monsters in battle and buying weapons, armour and items in-store. There is a certain chance that players who stumble across a walkthrough that tells them how to create the rarest items that aren’t available in shops will use Item Creation solely for that purpose. Another thing to consider is that, although Item Creation can be used as a tool to create items that can be sold in shops for extra money, you must still fork out money yourself to buy the ingredients to create these items. This is particularly annoying when you fail to create a decent item since successful creation is dependent on probability and also uses up these ingredients. There are skills available to increase the probability of successful Item Creation but these won’t be immediately obvious to starting players, making it a bit of a chore at first.

The game unites science fiction and fantasy elements in its plot.

The Item Creation system is not the only part of the game that can feel like a chore. The game’s dialogue and scripting is, it has to be said, quite awful. It is notorious for its painfully bad English translation and, as a result, you can spend half an hour scrolling through reams of bad dialogue that almost appears as though a child has written it. That is not to say that the game has its moments where the dialogue is satisfactory and meets demands, but, for the most part, it is a poor translation. This leads us onto the overall pacing of the game which isn’t great. Players may find the introductory chapter of the game particularly tedious to plough through due to dialogue and the setting-up of the narrative, this slow pacing also present in various other parts of the game. This is not to say that it is completely unbearable; especially first-time gamers will want to stick around, especially as the plot progresses, but it can feel a bit odd when the plot gets in the way when you want to explore at your own pace.

The game gives you a choice of two lead characters.

Speaking of exploring, the music in the game is a joy to listen to, with beautiful and charming melodies present in certain towns and forests. The music really gives the game its own unique aura and overall atmosphere, making it seem all the game’s world appear even more magical as a result. The dungeon and cave melodies are mostly not as great as the rest of the game’s music, although it still retains the same feeling as the rest of the game’s world. The world map music in particular gives the player a sense of grandeur and epic adventure that seems somewhat appropriate as you run through the lowly-proportioned area. Although the world map area is great to explore, it’s a shame that the dungeons and caves don’t offer the same kind of satisfaction. Although in terms of visual presentation, they give off the feelings they intend i.e. eerie or strange in some cases, their map design is their weak point, with some area exits unobvious to the player, some rooms requiring several revisits before you figure out the right route through the dungeon.

The translation is absurd at times...

On an overall level however, Star Ocean: The Second Story is no dungeon, but rather, a paradise that all RPG gamers should visit at least once. The game offers an exciting mix of challenge and pleasure, with a great cast of characters and variety of abilities as well as a unique Item Creation system. It is a somewhat flawed gem, sure, but if you’re willing to overlook the game’s little niggles, you’ll find yourself an adventure that will keep you hooked for hours.

Presentation – 8/10

Overall, a very colourful presentation that is common in Japanese RPGs.

Graphics – 7/10

Decent graphics that hark back to the SNES era of RPGs but 2D sprites against pre-rendered backgrounds can sometimes look a little odd and out-of-place in sections.

Sound – 8/10

The game’s soundtrack is beautiful and gives the game a somewhat magical atmosphere. The voice-acting that occurs during battle, however, can only be described as awful.

Gameplay – 8/10

Exploration is easy to control due to Analog-stick compatibility, and battles are generally fun to play. However, battles have been known to be glitchy in places.

Lifespan – 7/10

This is not the longest RPG on the planet – it can be completed in just over 40 hours. However, with over 80 different endings and various side-quests and mini-games, it could keep you occupied for far longer if you choose to indulge in these extra offerings.

Overall: 8/10