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Star Ocean: The Second Story |
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Star Ocean: The Second Story
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| Developer(s) | tri-Ace |
| Publisher(s) | JP Enix NA/PAL Sony Computer Entertainment America |
| Designer(s) | Minato Koio (character design) |
| Composer(s) | Motoi Sakuraba |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release date(s) | JP July 30, 1998 NA May 31, 1999 PAL April 12, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) ELSPA: 11+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Media | 2 CD-ROMs |
Star Ocean: The Second Story (スターオーシャン セカンドストーリー Sutā Ōshan Sekando Sutōrī?) is the second game in the Star Ocean series. It takes place twenty years after the original game, Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey, which has never been commercially released in English. The game gives the player the choice of playing as Rena or Claude, with the journey evolving and ending differently depending on the choice one makes.
Released in the United States and Europe translated to English, it gained a cult following. The English version of the game also changed the names of the main antagonists, who in the original were named after angels, with names such as Gabriel (changed to Indalecio), Metatron (changed to Berle), and Lucifer (changed to Cyril). A PlayStation Portable remake was recently announced prior to the 2007 Square Enix Party event.1
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Roughly the first half of the plot of Star Ocean: The Second Story takes place on the planet Expel, an underdeveloped planet on the verge of its industrial age. On Expel kings still rule over great kingdoms, swords and sorcery dominate the battlefield, and sailing ships are still made from wood. According to a Federation law, named the Undeveloped Planet Protection Treaty, a planet with such a level of civilization may not be directly contacted under any but the most dire circumstances -- and even then, contact must be minimal and secretive. This law is reminiscent of Star Trek's Prime Directive.
Star Ocean: The Second Story tells the stories of Claude C. Kenni, son of Ronixis J. Kenni, and Rena Lanford, a young girl living on the Planet Expel. Claude, having recently been commissioned as an Ensign in the Earth Federation, is given his first mission under the supervision of his father. This first mission is to survey the planet Milocinia, where a mysterious energy field appears. Once they arrive, they find an alien ruin, filled with mostly broken machinery. Finding a mysterious device in the center of it, Claude begins to examine it close-up, despite orders to keep away from it. Upon getting close to it, the machine activates, teleporting him to Expel.
At approximately the same time, Rena is resting in a forest just outside her village, Arlia. While there, she is assaulted by a monster. Suddenly, Claude teleports into the area, and, seeing Rena being attacked, rushes in to save her, wielding an advanced energy weapon (the Phase Gun that his father gave to him). Upon seeing how she is rescued, Rena decides that Claude is the Hero of Light, spoken of in legends on Expel: he has arrived to an Expel in great danger, he wields a "Sword of Light" and is dressed in "alien raiments." She takes him back to her village, Arlia, for corroboration.
Soon afterwards, the town elder explains to Claude what exactly is going on: Three months ago, a meteorite crashed into Expel. Almost immediately afterwards, monsters began appearing, and natural disasters occurred with increasing frequency and intensity. Believing that these events were related, the people of Expel called the meteorite the "Sorcery Globe". Hoping that the Sorcery Globe may be the key to finding his way home, Claude agrees to investigate it. Rena, still believing that Claude is the Hero of Light, joins up with Claude in the investigation.
Their journey takes them across all three continents of Expel, and eventually they meet the ten wise men and are somehow transported to Energy Nede.
When you are wandering around outside of a village or city, you will randomly be forced into a battle, the screen will blur and a certain set of battle music will come up (depending on where you are and with whom you are fighting), and you will be thrown into battle. From there on, the enemies will attack but that can also depend on how the game presents the enemies (Example: the enemies can attack from above or from behind). Depending on your setting in the game (you can change it at any time from the option menu), you can have three different types of character control: Manual, Semi-Auto, and Auto. Manual means you can freely control your characters' movements, Killer attacks, Spells, etc. Semi-Auto allows you to control your characters' movements, what kind of attacks you use, and on which enemy you want to use it, but it automatically controls the targeting and flow of the attack (including cases in which the enemy starts to run away; as a result, your character will automatically run after it). Auto will allow you to choose which attack and which enemy you want to attack, but the characters' movements are automatic. You will fight the enemy until you either defeat it or it defeats you. If you defeat it, it will play the victory music and zoom towards the character that landed the last blow; it will then display the Exp, Fol (the currency used in the game), and what items you received for killing the monster. If you lose, you will simply start over from your last save point.
At different points in the game, you come across stores that can sell you skills. Now, there are Three main types of skills: Combat skills(critical hit, below the belt,etc.), Items skills(cooking,identify,etc.), and Other skills(Survival,Musical talent,etc.). The skills by themselves are usless, but when you level up 2 or 3 different skills that are related, you get a talent. Example: Cooking, good-eye, and Kitchen knife if leveled up together makes the Cooking talent. If you level up everyones skills, it can make a Super skill. Example: If everyone one in your party levels up their cooking skill, you make the Super skill Master Chef. There is a special Talent called Oracle that can provide extremly valuable information like how to develope certain skills or tell how to get certain skills or characters. Certain talents and super skills can effect your party or the ending of the game. Example: Pickpocketing and Reverse-side can make your party members think less of you.
This game sold 1,094,000 copies, 724,000 in Japan and 370,000 overseas [1]
There is a pair of extra boss characters found in the Cave of Trials who are called Gabrie Celesta (Gabriel Celeste) and Iselia Queen (Ethereal Queen). Gabrie and Iselia appear in most tri-Ace games and both are angels ("Celestials" in Star Ocean 3) in physical form unlike the wise men, except Lucifer (Cyril) and Gabriel (Indalecio) with limiter on.
In 2007, it was announced that a remake of the game, titled Star Ocean: The Second Evolution, was to be released on the PlayStation Portable. It is to include updated graphics, animation, and voice acting.1 Star Ocean: The Second Evolution was released on April 3, 2008 in Japan. On May 9, 2008 Square Enix announced a North American release of January 6, 2009, and published a website for the game, in anticipation for the 2008 E3.
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