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| Star Ocean: The Second Story | |
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| Developer(s) | tri-Ace |
| Publisher(s) | JP/NA Enix EU Sony Computer Entertainment |
| 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) | ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: E (Everyone) 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 a console role-playing PlayStation game developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix. It is the second game in the Star Ocean series. The game gives the player the choice of playing as Rena or Claude, with the journey evolving and ending differently depending on the choices one makes.
A PlayStation Portable remake was announced prior to the 2007 Square Enix Party event[1] and released in Japan in 2008 and in North America and Europe in 2009.
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Gameplay
The Second Story's gameplay is broadly similar to that of most RPGs. The player goes from town to town and dungeon to dungeon, following the central story and occasionally branching off to perform Side Quests. Characters gain Experience Points from battle and level up as a result, becoming gradually stronger as time passes and more battles are fought.
However, The Second Story is a member of the Star Ocean franchise, and as such features various deviations from the standard RPG format. Battles are much more action-oriented: they take place in real time, during which the player has manual control over their character, as opposed to choosing options from a menu. Battles take place on a broad battlefield, over which the player's character can move without limit, allowing them to trade blows face-to-face with the enemy or circle around for a flanking attack. The other party members (up to 3 others) are controlled by the game's AI; the player may change an ally's Strategy to one of six different pre-determined options (ranging from "Spread out and attack" to "Save your Magic Points" to "Stand Still and Don't Do Anything").
Star Ocean: The Second Story features a comprehensive Skill system. Nine different batches of skills are sold in in-game shops; once unlocked this way, they must be learned by committing battle-earned "Skill Points" to them. Some skills raise a character's statistics; some unlock Specialty abilities; and some provide bonuses in battle (such as the ability to counter-attack). Specialties allow the characters to create a wide variety of items, and include Cooking, Writing, Composing and Musicianship, Pickpocketing and Training. Furthermore, the entire party can contribute to "Super Specialty" skills such as "Master Chef", Blacksmithing, Publishing and "Reverse Side", which allows the character to counterfeit valuable items at the risk of lowering their allies' opinion of them. Every item created has some sort of tangible benefit—foods restore Hit Points and/or Magic Points, training increases the gain in Experience Points, and written novels can be submitted to a publisher, with royalties collectable later—but every attempt requires the expenditure of a consumable item, and may fail to produce anything useful.
Finally, a mechanic called "Private Actions" allows the player to influence the relations between their characters. During a "Private Action", the player's party temporarily breaks up during a visit to a town, with each character going their own way to shop, visit friends and family (if applicable) or otherwise relax. The player's main character (either Claude or Rena) can then interact with their allies, often with the option of making one of those allies like another character more (or less). This "relationship point" mechanic can have a major effect in battle—if Character A's close friend is felled, Character A will get major combat bonuses for a short time—and also determines what ending the player will see, as each party member's scene plays out differently depending on who they did (or didn't) befriend. There are 86 possible endings (or 87, depending on how one wants to count them).
Plot
Setting
Star Ocean: The Second Story takes place twenty years after the original game, Star Ocean. Roughly the first half of the plot of the game 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.
Story
Star Ocean: The Second Story tells the stories of Claude C. Kenni, son of Ronixis J. Kenny, 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. As he approaches, 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. 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" (actually the standard-issue Phase Gun all Federation officers carry) and is dressed in "alien raiments." She takes him back to her village, Arlia, for corroboration.
Soon afterwards, Arlia's mayor 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". Though he explains that he is not the Hero of Light, Claude offers to investigate the Sorcery Globe, in the hopes that it might help lead him home. Rena assists him as his native guide; she still believes he is the Hero of Light, and furthermore hopes to find knowledge of her parentage, as she was discovered in the forest at a young age. Her unknown parentage may also explain why she has knowledge of healing magic, a topic that Expelian Heraldry (magic) is simply unable to cover.
Though their journey takes them the long way around, Claude and Rena (and whichever characters the player decides to recruit) manage to journey across Expel and finally reach the Sorcery Globe. There, they encounter a formidable organization of villains called the Ten Wise Men. The Sorcery Globe, which they call a "Quadratic Sphere," is a device they planted on Expel in order to steer it into a massive energy formation: a world called Energy Nede, from which the Ten Wise Men were exiled thousands of years ago. It is their hope to return to Energy Nede using Expel as a vessel. They succeed: the entire planet of Expel is incinerated by its collision with Energy Nede; and Ronixis' ship, the Calnus, which has been searching for Claude, is destroyed by weapons fire from the Ten Wise Men.
Through unspecified means, Claude and Rena survive the impact and wake up on Energy Nede, which Rena feels familiar with for some reason. They are met by Mayor Narl, nominally the ruler of the entire Nedian race, who explains how the Ten Wise Men came to be, why they were exiled, and that, now that they are back, they hope to destroy the entire universe using advanced Heraldry. Narl furthermore announces that Energy Nede has the ability to restore Expel by (essentially) time-traveling its around the moment of its own destruction... But only if the Ten Wise Men are defeated. Claude and Rena agree to help in the resistance, and embark on various voyages to strengthen themselves, obtain information and learn about the enemy. One of these excursions takes them to a deserted weapons lab, where they discover the fate of Rena's mother: she was killed there in an accident, after sending her daughter through an untested teleportation device in the hopes of saving her life... Seven hundred million years ago.
Armed with information from that lab, the heroes assault the Ten Wise Men's stronghold at Fienal, where they put an end to the enemy once and for all. The ending is composed of scenes describing the fates of the party's characters.
Characters
Star Ocean: The Second Story has two main characters, the human Claude (voiced by Yuji Ueda) and the Nedian (member of a pointy-eared humanoid race) Rena (voiced by Aya Hisakawa), and upon starting a new game the player is asked to choose one of them. The choice has impact upon the game's plot and story, though the vast majority of content is identical to both lines. There are ten other playable characters in the game, though the player can only recruit six of them to fill out their eight-member party, and some recruitment choices will make other characters no longer available.
- Celine Jules (voiced by Yuki Kaida) hails from the Expelian town of Marze, which is known for its well-trained magicians; she is a treasure hunter, wandering the world in search of money and new loot. In combat, she uses attack spells to defend herself. Celine is the only character who doesn't bar recruitment for any character.
- Ashton Anchors (voiced by Daisuke Sakaguchi) is a Expelian warrior whom the party meets while attempting to defeat a marauding two-headed dragon. Much to Ashton's consternation, they become fused to his body; though he constantly bemoans their presence, he refuses to separate them from himself when given the option. He is very loyal to his friends, but occasionally mopey, and has the lowest Luck stat in the game. He cannot be recruited if the player have recruited Opera, and vice versa.
- Precis Newman (voiced by Yuuko Sumitomo) is the rebellious daughter of an Expelian inventor, who is foisted on the player's party because her father feels she needs friends. She attacks using a variety of robotic constructions and a giant hammer that springs out of her backpack, which she manipulates using a DualShock controller.
- Bowman Jeane (voiced by Ryo Horikawa) is an easy-going Expelian pharmacist from the same town as Precis, who makes herbal medicines for a living. He is a skilled martial artist, using fists, feet and poisons in combat. As with Ashton and Opera, he and Precis are mutually exclusive recruitment options.
- Opera Vectra (voiced by Yuko Nagashima) is a Tetrageniot (a three-eyed humanoid race) noblewoman visiting Expel in search of her boyfriend Ernest. She utilizes advanced technology (such as a laser gun) to attack her foes. She cannot be recruited if the player has recruited Ashton, and vice versa.
- Ernest Raviede (voiced by Hiroki Touchi) is an Tetrageniot archaeologist who travels across the galaxy with his girlfriend Opera; their starship crashed on Expel, and the two were separated. He fights using a whip. He cannot be recruited if Opera is not in the player's party, and if the player turns him down, Opera will leave with him.
- Dias Flac (voiced by Ryo Horikawa) is an experienced swordsman from Arlia, Rena's home town; he left town after the tragic loss of his sister. Rena considers him the older brother she never had. Their closeness and Dias' clear skill with a sword engenders something of an inferiority complex in Claude, but the two eventually establish a mutual respect. He will only offer his services if Rena is the main character.
- Leon D. Geeste (voiced by Yuki Kaida) is a young Fellpool (member of a humanoid race descended from cats) genius with numerous scientific and magical accomplishments to his name; he often brags about his intellect, but is deeply insecure, especially when out from under his parents' wing. He is the only other attack magician in the game besides Celine, and will only offer his services if Claude is the main character.
- Noel Chandler (voiced by Daisuke Sakaguchi) is a Nedian zoologist and reclusive nature-lover who lives alone in a cabin. He has several potent attack spells (such as the ever-useful Foehn), and is the only character in the game besides Rena to feature healing magic.
- Chisato Madison (voiced by Rumi Kasahara) is a Nedian newspaper reporter who uses acrobatic martial arts and a taser to defend herself. Initially stalking the party as a way to get her next story written, when she finds out that Claude and Rena are on a quest to save the world, she offers to accompany them.
Villains
There are several monsters and bosses that the party must fight in their adventure, but the main antagonists of the game show up mid-game and introduce themselves as the "Ten Wise Men." The English version of the game changed the names of the main antagonists, who in the original were named after angels such as Gabriel (changed to Indalecio), Metatron (changed to Berle), and Lucifer (changed to Cyril). However, the remake, Second Evolution, uses the original names for these characters.
- Indalecio (AKA Gabriel, Voiced by Erik Bergmann in the English version) is the "leader" of all the 10 Wise men, but secretly he has his own plans for Universe destruction. He is only contained by his love Filia, whom limits his abilities to do battle. If the right events occur in the game and Filia dies, Indalecio can become a much more formidable foe.
- Cyril (AKA Lucifer, Voiced by Brian Vouglas in the English version) is the second in command, but, like Gabriel, also has his own plans for domination and/or destruction of the universe. His famous attack is the "Winds of Destruction" in which blasts of wind from another dimension flow out of a dark rift and damage the party heavily.
- Decus (AKA Michael, Voiced by J.S. Gilbert in the English version) is a formidable pyromaniac. His attacks range from minor eruptions, to the infamous "Spicule" attack, which resembles a Spicule as part of Solar Physics. The Spicule attack has him rise into the air yelling "Spicule!" and then he randomly taunts the party before coming back down and landing onto everyone in a huge, but short explosion.
- Vesper (AKA Haniel, Voiced by Brian Vouglas in the English version) accompanies Micheal as a large, tough opponent. His attacks can instantly turn the whole party into stone, and while not as formidable (or explosive) as Micheal, his attacks can drain energy and life. One of his famous quotes is "Shut up and Die!"
- Berle (AKA Metatron) is the first (and consequently the weakest) Wise man you fight in the game at Eluria Tower. He is invincible without wielding the proper weapons and equipment, and it is also assumed that the other Wise men are as well. He attacks you to test your strength, but does not kill you. You also fight him later in the game in the town of Armlock, when he invades and attacks the blacksmith that was creating the weapons to kill the wise men.
- Marsilio is the second Wise man you fight in the game at the lower tower of Fienal. It is here that you find out that you cannot destroy the wise men without the proper equipment. Once the party gets the proper equipment, they train in Fun City to defeat the wise men, and Marsilio interrupts their training. He is the first of the 10 wise men that you must defeat.
- Shiego is an android wise man. He speaks in all capital letters, and has no emotion at all. It is not known whether he was created by other wise men to serve his true immortality as a machine, or if he was created by residents of Nede in an experiment concurrently along with the other wise men.
- Rupercht, Jibril, and Nicolus are the 3 guardian Wise Men of the Fienal tower entrance. While they don't play a major role in the plot, their combined power is a force to be reckoned with, but when dealt with alone, they can easily be defeated.
Reception
Star Ocean: The Second Story was a commercial success, having sold approximately 1.09 million copies worldwide, with over 700,000 copies sold in Japan alone and 370,000 copies sold overseas.[2][3] It was the 13th best-selling game of 1998 in Japan.[4]
Legacy
Adaptations
Mayumi Azuma wrote and illustrated a manga series based on the video game. It was first serialized in Shōnen Gangan from June 22, 1999 through December 21, 2001 when it ended without reaching the conclusion of the story. The individual chapters were compiled into seven tankōbon volumes by Square Enix.
Studio Deen adapted the manga series into a twenty six episode anime series entitled Star Ocean EX which aired on TV Tokyo from April 3, 2001 until September 25, 2001. The anime series was released to Region 1 DVD by Geneon Entertainment. To complete the story left unfinished by both the manga and anime, five drama CDs were released in Japan, using the same voice actors from the anime series.
Sequel
A sequel titled Star Ocean: Blue Sphere was released on Game Boy Color in 2001. The story takes place 2 years later.
Remake
In 2007, it was announced that a remake of the game, titled Star Ocean: Second Evolution, was to be released on the PlayStation Portable. It includes updated graphics, animation, and voice acting, a new translation, and one extra character (Welch Vineyard, whose retroactive appearance in this game makes her a part of every title in the series).[1] The remake was released on April 3, 2008 in Japan and on January 6, 2009 in North America.
References
- ^ a b Torres, Ricardo (2007-05-10). "Square Enix unwraps Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4". Gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/ds/rpg/finalfantasycrystalc/news.html?sid=6170405. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Sales Record - tri-Ace Corporation". tri-Ace.com. http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/en/company/sales.html. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- ^ "Sony PS1 Japanese Ranking". Japan-GameCharts.com. http://www.japan-gamecharts.com/ps1.php. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- ^ "The Magic Box - 1998 Top 30 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The-MagicBox.com. http://the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell1998.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
External links
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