Star Ocean: The Second Story

"An extroardinary game with many things to do!"

Introduction

Star Ocean: The Second Story is an extraordinary game with plenty of features to it. It was released in 1999 by Tri-ace, Links, and Enix. The features in it allow you to make wonderful items, cook food, and much more! You can also collect Voice Collections in battle. There's much more to do in this wonderful game you're about to face.

Gameplay

Star Ocean 2 is quite fun to play, as you can do many side quests while progressing with the plot. The game can be finished quite quickly, so you wouldn’t expect it to be really hard. The monsters are quite easy, and the plot is quick, so you should have no trouble in playing the game. The characters in Star Ocean 2 are very easy to control, and the switch between screens are quick. You should have no problem in controlling the characters in battle or in towns.

Combat System

Star Ocean 2, unlike most rpgs, has a 3-d real time battle system. With over ten battlefields, plenty of moves/spells, and equipment that causes special effects in battle, you can expect what it'll be like. The game also offers many monsters to face, although the variety is not that much. Usually monsters are just an upgraded form of another. There are many types of killer moves (KM), for example, there can be a stream of gas facing in your direction, rocks coming out from the ground, all the way to the ally/enemy vigorously slashing combat art skills at you. However, the running system is really slow in this game, so you'll need to rely on your speed to escape well. Without that, Star Ocean 2's combat system is no doubt one of the best in RPG's ever.

This Category: 10/10

Features

Star Ocean has many interesting features, including item creation. I would believe Star Ocean's creators spent quite a while on this. You can create hundreds of items using item creation. You can make food, weapons, armor, art statues, paintings, and more! Also, you can develop skills also when progressing along the plot. Truly, these would be features of the game that you would not like to miss!

This category: 10/10

Story

The story of this game is mediocre. This would be the usual 2 heroes trying to save the world from chaos. I'm not saying the story is bad, but it's not the most detailed either. If you aren't paying attention to the game, you could whiz through the game really fast. However, if you are paying attention, you could go to mini-events (side quests) in the game and get priceless treasures. There are even private actions, where you go alone to a city and sometimes get mini events that are waiting for you while the story is progressing. I'd say those two would boost the mark up a bit, so I would give the storyline an...

8/10

Graphics

The movies in the game are awesome for a game made in 1999. The world map is drawn pretty precise, and can be enlarged. The overworld (outside) is really blurry at times, and the water is not really detailed. The cities are on average. They aren't fascinating structures or anything, just buildings that look like that could have been made by a graphic program. As for the background of the cities, they have been drawn pretty well...actually...excellent. This applies to all the cities, and the houses are not bad either, could be better, but really good and detailed already. Finally, the combat graphics (killer moves) are great. They are drawn to perspective, and the slashes look OK, like I said, there could be more variety. The spells are excellent, but the thing is, they take WAY too long to animate. If you actually proceed to the more powerful spells, you will see that each could take up twenty seconds or more! The battlefields are quite detailed in color, and they actually sometimes put objects in the battlefield to distract you. I'd say that would deserve a B+.

This category: 8/10

Sound

There are many sound tracks in Star Ocean 2, and each one of them sounds quite interesting, despite the fact that there is some repetition in them. I would say the music of this game would be some of the best things about it.

This category: 9/10

Is this game worth replaying?

Certainly. I usually replay Star Ocean 2 for more voice collections and trying out more characters every time for their fighting styles. It is impossible to retrieve all the characters in one time. Also, chances are once you replay this game several times, you can have access to harder modes of this game (total of 2 harder modes) AND if your voice collection is high enough, you can have a music soundtrack. Yes, a music soundtrack of all the music in Star Ocean 2 in your hands! It is definitely worth replaying the game!

Replay mode - 9/10

Play time
For me, it took less than ten hours to complete the game, excluding side quests. But considering that you are new to the game, it might take you a while.

Rent Or Buy?

Personally, I would prefer to buy, because you can replay it again and again if you're willing to and if you're bored. But, if you're not the rpg freak that loves playing rpgs, you can consider renting the game, just to make sure.

OVERALL!

9/10 - Excellent game! Good job Tri-ace, Enix, and links!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/03