Star Ocean: The Second Story

"Hmm im stranded on a strange planet? Nothing wrong here!"

I bought this game at Gamestop for around twenty bucks. Seems worth it but I do warn you this game will freeze at times. So try not to do anything you might regret later on. First off I borrowed this game from a friend and well I had to have it. I would say the idea of exploration and being able to customize really drew me in. Plus my friend never bothered to beat it. The cover is a little simplistic. Just the name of the game. I didn't get the book but my friend might sell me his copy for twenty bucks. My first disk is a bit scratched up but it works fine.

Gameplay
This is where the game will shine the most. Instead of a turn based system you get a battlefield. Choose four characters and lets fight! You use the R1 and L1 buttons to use techs. But for magic users your gunna have to choose a spell from a list. Magic actually looks alright in this game but some spells are long. Your swordsmen are gunna have to wait to attack if a magic user uses a long spell. Top level is around two hundred fifty five so you will enjoy the challenge in this game. You can if you want to remove the final boss's limiter. I haven't yet but I read he goes berserk. There is also a tournament to test your skills. So far I beat all challenges. But at first I died a ton of times. I would say in this game its not your level but your equipment that wins the battle. There is also a wicked cave and so far ive been unable to beat it. The item creation mode is where you can make many different items. You can also copy items. Well you can make food, weapons, armor, rings. tons of stuff. The best part is actually have the characters make their own best weapons and armor. Most sword techs seemed really good to me. Three swords men. Some characters can only use one type of weapon. So if you didn't get the character theres no point in having their equipment.

Story
This part of the game is alright. There are some events where you can learn things about the characters that you normally wounldnt learn durring the story line. You have to press square at a town and explore. The ending is basically the same no matter what you do but you may learn something new by what you choose when you talk to characters durring a PA. You can choose between two main chars. Rena a blue haired women with healing powers or Claude a swordsman. The evil doers wount reveal themselves till the end of disk one so I wount spoil it for you. You get to choose who comes with you on your journey. The max is 8 characters. Dialogue is alright. This game actually has voice acting in battle. The story durring disk two did get a bit better. You kind of get a mix of reality and parts of the human mind. I didin't like the idea of over rating the enemy. That made me quit the game on my first two runs.

Music
The music in this game is actually pretty good. Id run out to buy the soundtrack if you really liked. Its kind of like a blend of emotion in the music. Some of it makes you hyper,sad,happy. It depends on the music at the time. I liked it but I don't want the sound track. It would of been nice if each char had their own theme but that aint gunna happen here. The music is kind of average at best but the music you hear before the game and after the final boss made me just wanna yell WOW! A few tunes stick out in my mind but not all of them. Some are a bit too short for me and well give me a headache. Well that aside I can stand most of the music and enjoy a bit of it.

Graphics
Durring a cut sceen I just had to say wow! Its almost like watching one of those anime movies with sci fi and nature in them. In battle graphics seem pretty tight to me. For its time I really don't see how they could of improved the look and feal of this game but thats in battle. Out of battle its kind of lacking. Towns can be a bit too simple for hard core rpg gamers. Most boss will be way to easy once you figure out their weakness.

Replay Value
Not much considering its basically the same ending. You might learn something new about a different character but thats it. No matter how many time you beat this game its the good guys beat the bad ones. How did I put it? I think I said its basically the same story line no matter how you look at it.

Over all
Well you could buy it from gamestop. Thats what I did. Seems an average title but I liked it. Its not rare and its not going to cost a small fortune. Its worth it for twenty bucks. On a speed run it took me around fifty hrs. But on a max level run it took me around ninety hours. But this game if you are into a bit of a complex rpg with a logic puzzles and good fun.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/06