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     Star Ocean: The Second Story (Import)

     I now consider myself a full blown tri-Ace fan after games like
     Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia, so the decision to buy their
     fourth game was a simple one. The simple decision was, of course,
     "I must but it NOW!" In fact, I had been anxiously anticipating
     this game since the moment I learned of its development. After
     all, the first Star Ocean took me by complete surprise. It did
     things previously unheard of in an RPG, and was one of those rare
     games that you could play and honestly know that it was something
     new and innovative. I had been hoping that this sequel would live
     up to the original for a long time, but I never expected it to
     surpass it.

     In the beginning of the story, a meteorite crashes into Planet
     Expel. The people called this meteor "Sorcery Globe" in fear of
     its power and horrific results. Monsters have started appearing
     across the country and all thought to be due to the "Sorcery
     Globe." Anyway, depending on who you play as, the story differs
     from there. As Crawd C. Kenny, son of Ronoxis from the original
     game, you have just become a Lieutenant of the Earth Federation
     Forces and are being sent to study a mysterious energy field on
     the planet MiroKenya. Once there Crawd ignores his father's
     warnings and approaches the field which transports him to Planet
     Expel where the adventure begins. If you play as Rena, who lives
     in the town of Alia on Planet Expel, you begin the adventure by
     ignoring your mother's wishes and traveling into the Forest of
     Spirits alone. Eventually, the paths of the two main characters
     merge and the adventure truly begins.

     While the graphics aren't groundbreaking, they are superb. You
     don't see graphics like this every day folks. This is a game, but
     it is also a beautiful visual experience. A world filled with such
     detail that it almost overflows onto itself and literally drowns
     you in its grasp and envelopes you to the point of total
     immersion. The towns, caves, castles, etc. are gorgeous in their
     fully CG rendered glory...they are more colorful, detailed, and
     flawless than FFVII, Resident Evil 2, or any other game I can
     name. The first town alone sent my jaw on an immense drop to the
     floor! The ground literally looks like grass and gravel, the water
     reflects the sky and buildings next to it (even your character has
     a reflection in the water if you walk by), birds fly across the
     screen above your character, etc.

     The resolution is incredible through all of this and made me
     wonder how the hell tri-Ace fit this entire graphical masterpiece
     onto two measly CDs. The entire game wreaks of this level of
     visual quality. The characters are rendered as well, and they are
     absolutely awesome. They control with even more fluidity than
     FFVII's characters (and those were 3D!), and look a lot better
     with more color and detail. The world (outside of towns, dungeons,
     etc.) is in full 3D and you can scroll the camera left or right
     while moving your character through the environment. While FFVII
     and Xenogears had worlds that gave you more of an overhead view,
     Star Ocean 2 is almost a first person style view. Your point of
     view is not far above your characters head, and is more of a "what
     the character sees" type view than an above view. This is really
     great as you can see the towns and castles on the vast horizon,
     mountains really block your view, etc. It's a more immersive
     experience than I've witnessed in the world of any other RPG.

     Of course, there is a light amount of draw-in on the horizon as
     well (a castle may all of a sudden appear in the distance,
     etc.)...a VERY light amount...it's no big deal, and it's not a
     shortcoming of the designers but of the PS hardware itself. As for
     the battle graphics, I literally can't believe the fluidity of the
     visuals considering that these battles are in real-time... there
     is absolutely NO slowdown whatsoever. The enemy characters are
     animated wonderfully and they run around in real-time (often MANY
     more than one!) through the expansive 3D battlegrounds...it's
     terrific beyond belief. The spells and battle environments
     themselves look great, and are practically seamless as well. Of
     course, I can't forget the CG FMV sequences by LINKS...they are
     excellent and add more visual flair to an already impressive
     experience.

     To say I was impressed by the music would be an understatement,
     the tunes in this game are among the best I've ever heard in an
     RPG. I truly feel that this is Motoi Sakuraba's greatest
     achievement yet...over even Tales of Phantasia and the original
     Star Ocean. The music completely fits the game, it gives the towns
     a lot of their "feel" and the dungeons a lot of their heart racing
     exciting impact. From sad themes that put you completely at peace,
     to atmospheric music that sets the stage and mood, to adventurous
     action oriented fast paced themes...this soundtrack has it all.
     Motoi seems to have used many more different instruments in these
     compositions than ever before, and he has managed to make them all
     collide into amazing tunes that actually had me pausing the game,
     turning off the television and lights, and lying back on my bed to
     listen. The game even has an option for surround sound which
     completely immerses you in the mood of the music and I definitely
     recommend this for any high quality speaker system. The sound
     effects are terrific as well, and the voices are simply wondrous.
     There is a different actor for each main character and some others
     to...the voices are MUCH better than they were in Star Ocean, due
     to the CD quality audio output of the PlayStation. There is a
     Voice Collection option on the main screen that allows you to hear
     different voice samples from the game once you've heard them
     WITHIN the game, and there are over 1,000 total! Pretty
     astounding.

     The plot of this game is great. It's deep and it's a worthy
     continuation of the original. However, it isn't quite as good as
     the original in the plot aspect. There are a few consistency
     problems...plot points that don't quite match up to things that
     happened in the original. There are also some Private Actions that
     are pretty boring, where the original had Private Actions that
     really gave more story and character info. Overall, this is the
     weakest part of Star Ocean 2, but it's STILL a great story so that
     says a lot about the excellence of the game.

     The characters in Star Ocean 2 are simply wonderful. They not only
     have good background stories, but they each have distinct
     personalities, looks, and fighting styles. Crawd fights with
     swords, Celine with staffs, Ashton with double blades, etc. Plus,
     all of the characters have their own techniques to further
     differentiate them. No FFVII crap where all of the characters are
     the same. Some of the different character types you may meet on
     the journey include swordsmen (Dias), thieves, magicians (Celine),
     summoners (Noel), pharmacists who compound deadly medicine
     (Bowman), etc. In short, the characters are all interesting and
     different...which makes them a joy to play.

     As far as gameplay goes, I'll just start with a flat out confident
     comment...the control in this game is FLAWLESS. With its smooth
     analog support, there are no problems to be found. The characters
     can be controlled with fluidity through the CG environments and 3D
     rendered environments (including battles). Truly though, with the
     analog feature in use, you get a completely seamless control
     experience. The Dual Shock vibration feature is also wonderful;
     you feel the hits you take and give in battle which adds to the
     experience. As for the actual gameplay, I don't know how to say
     this, but it's easily the best I've seen in an RPG. Almost
     everything the first Star Ocean had is back this time around, but
     there is MORE now as well. You can choose between two main
     characters this time, and for the whole plot to fill out you have
     to complete both scenarios. Each scenario has some changes in the
     characters you meet and join with, plot points you witness, and
     Private Actions you encounter. The Talent, Skill, and Special
     Skill system has returned (for more info see my Star Ocean
     review), but now there are MORE of everything. Approval Ratings
     have also returned, so you can still piss off your comrades or
     make them like you better. In other words, this is Star Ocean to
     the next level folks.

     Virtually EVERYTHING has been improved. Such is the nature of a
     good sequel, IMPROVE upon the original game's features and add new
     ones while not drastically changing everything. The battles in the
     game retain the style that made Star Ocean so original, but they
     have been given a MAJOR overhaul. The terrain is now made up of
     beautiful polygonal landscapes that are so large it would take
     about three or more television screens to show the entire layout
     in the default view. You can, however, press a button to zoom out
     and witness the full battleground and character layout. Once again
     the battles are in real-time and the only way you can stop the
     action is by going to a selection screen where you can choose an
     item to use, a character to switch out, run, etc. You can choose
     any one character to fight with and the others use an AI plan you
     assign them with. For the character you have selected you will
     have to choose which spells you want assigned to the R1 and L1
     buttons for battle...all of this is just like the original. Yet,
     here's the catch...you can now fully control your character in
     smooth analog control! You can run wherever you want on the huge
     battle fields...up to the enemies, behind boulders,
     anywhere...full freedom. Plus, due to the 3D battle engine, you
     can run depth wise too...it's simply awesome. I thought Star
     Ocean's gameplay was terrific, but it has now been bested by the
     great sequel...Star Ocean: The Second Story.

     No game is completely without flaws though. There is that slight
     draw-in on the world map, which isn't really a flaw as it takes
     nothing from the game. The length of the game is, much like the
     first, not incredible when you consider other RPGs like Xenogears
     and Grandia. However, unlike Xenogears and Grandia, Star Ocean 2
     has a lot of replay value. An extreme amount of replay value.
     Everything in this game "rounds out" It has no rough edges that
     take away from its excellence. In short, this game has the least
     flaws of any RPG I've ever played...and even the flaws I've listed
     are no big deal at all.

     In closing I just have to simply say this...Star Ocean: The Second
     Story is the best RPG to date. Period.

     By Ben Keeney

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