Star Ocean The Second Story

�Two Steps Forward and One Step Back.�

RPG gamers are going to love Star Ocean The Second Story. The game system has more depth and aspects to explore than any other. Over 80 possible different endings are claimed. Character relationships are fairly complex and the story is engaging. In fact, there is so much to this game that unless you have read all of the press on the game, visited the website and carefully examine the skimpy manual, it is unlikely that you will be experiencing all of the richness of it until late in the adventure or even until your second or third time around. Learning how to use all of the aspects of the game system is more a case of being able to deduce from your experience with other anime role playing games than it is of being able to deduce from the game universe. As brilliant as Star Ocean is, it is not for the RPG uninitiate.

Combat

Star Ocean The Second Story has an excellently adjustable combat system. There is fairly standard and traditional turn based RPG system; there is also semi-active and active combat. Active combat is real time and the gamer has full control over movement and attack of one character. Besides normal hacking and slashing, characters also have special moves that can be deployed at the press of a different button. There is also a magic system and spells have typical, spectacular, yet time consuming effects.

The combat system allows for different strategies. Party order and placement are adjustable. NPC combat rules are also adjustable and although the AI is not brilliant, NPCs follow the rules that are set for them and so can be predicted. All of these options, including combat system (active or turn based) can be adjusted on the fly. The active combat is more active than traditional turn based systems, but in some ways less engaging. The player has less control over the actions of other party members and the actual combat is a rather dull affair of hitting the X button over and over again, although it can be a little more spicy than that against big bosses, where strategies such as distracting the boss and getting him to chase a sword swinger while the magic users dust him with attack spells can be employed. Enemy characters are dullards and exhibit no AI other than to attack someone near to them. They will often fall into AI traps and just stand staring while they are hacked down from behind. Still, the combat system works quite well.

Inventory

One of the best aspects of Star Ocean The Second Story is the inventory system. Besides the items that can be found and purchased, items can also be created. Items are discovered after battles or in the tired, search everybody�s house for treasure chests, manner. Why people have treasure chests in their houses and why they are fair game to anyone who finds them is beyond me, but that�s just the way it is. One nice addition is the ability to turn to the dark side. One of the available skills is pick pocketing and characters can turn into adept thieves.

More interesting is the item creation system. Raw elements such as Silver, Ruby or Seafood are often discovered. Characters who have developed the proper skills can take these items and combine them to form new, more useful items. This makes for tons of experimentation and adds lots of extra interest to inventory management.

Skills

Star Ocean also has a great skill system. Each character has specific talents and can learn skills and specialties. Besides the typical combat skills, there are skills such as cooking, metalwork, writing, perseverance, musical notation and so on. Because of the item creation, specialties such as Art or Cooking are very much worth learning. The game encourages, balanced characters.

Private Actions

A good bit of the story, especially the character interactions takes place in Private Actions. These occur once at most cities and can easily be ignored. It isn�t clear how important these are to the game unless you do a little extra research. It is in these private actions that other potential party members are met. There are more characters to be met than fit in the four member party, so one must choose who will join them. Again, without extra research, one has no way of knowing how this works and later in the game one may encounter a party member that one would like to have but be unable to accept them into an already full group. Also, if you don�t follow these private actions, you may find yourself underpowered and having to ignore the story and roam around the countryside looking for fights in order to acquire money and experience sufficient to overcome the next boss.

The Story

The adventure can be played from the perspective of one of two characters. The actual quests do not change, only the main character and dialogue. The story progresses across the planet, in discovery of something called the Sorcery Globe. The multiple endings come into play at the very end. Once the adventure is complete, the characters recap the quest and pair off according to their emotional attitudes towards one another. This is all determined by the choices that the player makes during the game. While the multiple endings are interesting, the formula for arriving at them is obscure. Players must make a number of choices throughout the game but these choices mostly feel like no choices. The characters are very set and the reactions that they have are not under the control of the player. Choosing Yes or No often has a very different result than one would expect. For the first play through, most players will probably have the first four available characters in their party (unless they don�t immediately grasp the significance of Private Actions, which is very possible).

The question then becomes, is the game good enough for gamers to replay over and over to figure out all of the nuances of item creation and character relationships as well as the alternate endings? I found the story engaging and the game system very good, but not enough to want to replay it 80 times. The game is maybe too long to want to replay many times. I wished that things were better explained so that I could have gotten more out of it the first time around and have filed it contentedly on my shelf.

The Bottom Line

Star Ocean The Second Story, with it�s excellent skill system, item creation and complicated character relationships, takes two steps forward in RPG gaming. Unfortunately, it takes one of those steps back by being mired in some old and tired RPG conventions and by lack of documentation. Anime RPG fans will be able to lose themselves in the depth of this game, like no other. Those unfamiliar with or not already thrilled by console RPGs will find their irritants magnified. If you are the type of gamer who has played through Final Fantasy VII seven times, then Star Ocean is the game you have been waiting for.

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Bottom Line