Star Ocean: The Second Story

by Enix

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000K39I
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,881 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

Star Ocean: The Second Story is the 32-bit follow-up to Enix's original Super Famicom title, Star Ocean, a game that was released in the dying days of the system and did not receive the success it was due. A departure from the first game, Second Story, like most RPGs, offers you a fresh set of characters to play as. At the start of the game you select one of two characters: Crawd or Rena, and where the story begins depends on whom you choose. Your choice only affects the direction of the storyline, since the two of you ultimately meet up anyway and progress together through the game. As the story advances, you'll meet up with other key characters, whom you can also add to your party. Marking Enix's first major RPG undertaking in the next-generation wars, Star Ocean: Second Story is a decidedly conservative attempt to refine rather than reinvent, and it shows.

Second Story is 16-bit in nature but 32-bit in execution and is a conservative step forward in RPG gaming, coming across like a combination of Grandia and Saga Frontier. The backgrounds in the game are prerendered, like Saga Frontier, while the characters are sprite-based. Unlike in Saga Frontier, the citizens of Star Ocean blend well with their environments. Little touches like seeing your reflection on smooth surfaces like water, or seeing your characters darken whenever they walk through a shady area are very cool. Other details, like birds flying across the screen, are also very realistic and must be seen to be fully appreciated. Although tri-Ace is the developer responsible for the creation of Star Ocean: SS, it should be noted that the company was assisted in this project by Japanese CG house Links. Links may not sound familiar, but its works speak for itself. The company was responsible for much of the CG rendering in Final Fantasy VII and for creating the CG intros in all three Shining Force III games. Links' assistance is evident in Star Ocean's gorgeous opening movie, as well in the prerendered backgrounds which are easily on a par with FFVII and Parasite Eve. Although the game plays like an old-school RPG, it certainly doesn't look like one.

Battle scenes, on the other hand, switch to a fully polygonal backdrop, like Grandia, while the sprite-based characters duke it out in real time, which leads us to the next interesting feature of Star Ocean, and that's the battle engine. Depending on your familiarity with the Star Ocean battle system, you can choose from one of three settings during combat: standard, semi-active or full-active. Standard is for those who are new to the series, since the battles are fairly fast paced, while semi-active and full-active are for gamers who want more control over every aspect of the battles. In any case, as in the original, fights are fast paced and have an almost action-game feel to them.

During battle scenes, you can choose special attacks, which are learned during the course of the game. Once you have multiple characters in your party (which can number up to eight, with four on the battlefield), you can combine specials to create a super-specialty. Other features in the game include item creation, skill learning (after learning an appropriate amount of skills, you can combine them to acquire more-powerful specialties, and more.

Exploration takes you through myriad towns and villages, each of which has its own unique look. The usual suspects appear in great numbers: merchants, weapons shops, restaurants, inns, etc. Once you've filled your inventory with the necessary supplies, your travels will take you onto an overhead 3D-map, much like the one found in FFVII, where you will have to search for hidden caves and well-hidden harbor towns, among others. Spanning two discs, Star Ocean has plenty to see and do.

Possessing one of the more incredible soundtracks composed for a video game, Star Ocean's US translation is functional, although not as clever as some of Working Design's better work. Star Ocean: Second Story is an engaging RPG that ranks up there with the likes of Xenogears and Suikoden, with the storyline leading you on an incredible journey that's not as flashy as some, but certainly more substantial than others. With at least 50 hours of gaming in each character's scenario, Star Ocean might not be compelling enough to play through twice, but the first time is as engaging as any RPG you're likely to play. Highly recommended in any case. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very different game, April 29, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Ocean: The Second Story (Video Game)

After the linear-style of Final Fantasy and other similar RPGs (Which I love BTW), I found Star Ocean 2 a wonderfully refreshing experience. There are just so many options - starting from the beginning, you can choose your main character, which other characters you want and take it from there, eventually leading to one out of 86 different endings. It's true that the endings stem mainly from the different combinations of characters that get together in the end...but 86! What other game can boast so much replay value?

The item creation system is very unique - cooking, art, machinery, authoring, customising...it's all within your power. You choose the skills and specialities the characters learn. They write books for the other characters to read, make better weapons, compose music and create delicious (or not so delicious) dishes. They can even combine their skills to make super specialities, which allow you to get better at cooking, publishing, etc, and my favourite - where all the characters sincerely call Barney, a giant white rabbit to cart you around the countryside. Hilarious.

The graphics IMO are pretty good. The 3D backgrounds are lovingly rendered, even including really cool minor details like your reflection on a pond or in a mirror. Nice. The characters themselves are 2D sprites, which looks better than it sounds - no hassles with fuzzy polygons or anything like that. And Links has done a fine job (as usual) on the FMV - great eye candy.

The battle system allows you to take a much more active role in combat situations. In active mode, you basically dash around and try to konk the enemy without them hitting you. Fighting characters have Killer moves, which are special attacks that are assigned to the L1 and R1 buttons. They look cool and wreak havoc on the battle field. For magic users, the spell animation is nice too, and there is the interesting possibility of combining spells by casting them at the same time, which can lead to greater damage if done properly.

If I do have any complaints, they are generally not the fault of the game, rather the people who were supposed to be checking for bugs. Firstly it crashes - no game has ever crashed on me like this one. So save a lot. And there are little things, like the character voices getting mixed up - it is so funny to hear Precis yelling 'Parabola Beam! ' while Claude is doing Mirror Slice, and the wrong word appearing for spells. I guess I'm nitpicking.

As for the game itself, I find some of the character's voices rather irritating. But that's a personal thing. The music _is_ rather repetitive...they play the same tracks over and over, but even so, they still sound nice.

[I do have one large complaint, and this is that I had to import the game to play it, since it hasn't been released in Australia and doesn't look likely in the near future. There _are_ serious RPG players here and it would be great if the distribution companies recognised that.]

Star Ocean 2 is a really good game, offering so much - a great battle system, memorable characters, beautiful graphics and a pretty darn good story. A must for any RPG fan.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Buy, Must-Have, Must-Play, November 22, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Ocean: The Second Story (Video Game)

Ever see this equation? Two disks + two characters + over eighty endings = one great game. Yesiree, besides the impressive numbers, Star Ocean has another charm, addictive as it is, awesome as it may be. There aren't many games out nowadays about storyline and character development, yet this one seems to be less and less like a videogame and more and more like an epic novel. Every choice you make, every turn you take, every character you invite into your party, you shape your own destiny and blaze your own trail. These characters, in terms of emotion, are no doubt about it-- Real. You develop meaningful relationships and for a moment, call me crazy, but you are that character. The game isn't without its quirks: Meaningless battles make it hard to find what you're really looking for, and even more are those annoying thought balloons that pop over character's head when they're angry, sad, surprised, or just really deep in thought. But those little flaws don't detract much from otherwise great game.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovation is the key to success, August 31, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Star Ocean: The Second Story (Video Game)

SO2, is a great game. So what if the graphics aren't that good! The battle system, is better than Final Fantasy's mainly because you can move about the battle field, give the characters commands AND set what you want them to do automatically without having to take control. It is by far more involved and easier to get into battles. The variety of magic is truly awesome, as well as Killer Moves. The music is decent. You can also decide on who you want to play as in the beginning (like Resident Evil 2) There is a wide variety of other characters to pick from, so with a strategy guide, it is possible to customize your party into the Ultimate fighting force! Probably the biggest thing is being able to learn abilities, such as making and upgrading weapons, restoration items, books to earn tons of money, pickpocketing, attacks, plus many, many other things besides. However, SO2 is very tough, and you'll most likely find yourself level building after every event. But, it's well worth the effort. Private Actions, is the most innovative idea that I've seen in an RPG ever! This allows you to change the outcome of the game, get characters, and participate in special events. If you've got a lot of patience, then this game is definetly worth trying!