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Qu's Marsh - Reviews
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Star Ocean 2
"Looks great, less filling," would be a fitting slogan for Star Ocean: The Second
Story, a game best described as "RPG Lite." Seemingly intended for gamers who found Super Mario
RPG's gameplay too slow and intellectual, Star Ocean 2 does away
with such unnecessary trimmings as "turns," "strategy," and "game balance."
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Me Tarzan. This X button. Tarzan push X button fast. |
Like all of developer tri-Ace's games, Star Ocean 2 features a heavily action oriented battle
system that pushes the game into what is basically action RPG territory. You control one
character of four in the active party and spend most of your time pounding the X button -- X
sends your character rushing to the nearest enemy and launches an attack. Stronger,
MP-consuming moves are activated with the L1 and R1 buttons. Some characters can also wield
magic, but only healing spells are worth using -- attack spells deal about a quarter of
the damage that a physical attack inflicts. You take direct control of one character
(of your choice), while the remaining three can be ordered about by altering their
AI settings. The AI does a surprisingly competent job of staying in the action and
using magic judicially. Unfortunately, this reduces your role to simply pressing the
X button over and over to attack. It's fun for a while (and the chaos that results
in large battles is exciting to watch), but the lack of depth ages the system quickly.
Equally pointless is the game's skill system. Various skills, such as writing,
counterattacking, or even whistling, can be purchased at Skill Guilds and upgraded
by spending the Skill Points acquired after battle. When your skills reach a
high enough level, you can acquire various Specialities: alchemy, scouting,
pickpocketing (yeah!), etc. A few of these Specialities have obvious uses, such
as the ability to send carrier pigeons out of dungeons to buy items. Most,
however, are bizarre "item creation" abilities that let you create anything from
weapons to symphonic scores. The great potential of this feature isn't anywhere
close to realized, however -- since there's no explanation provided for how any
of these abilities work (or what the created items do), item creation becomes an
exercise is frustration. How can a character write a book, and then have to use
a different skill to determine the identity of the book he or she just wrote?
The whole system is just vague and unintuitive, and doesn't come close to
fulfilling the possibilities it held.
Some Private Actions trigger lengthy events | |
Star Ocean 2's other major system, the Private Action system, is a similar
flop. Instead of entering a town normally, you can activate a Private Action
from the world map. During a Private Action, your main character explores
the town alone and can chat with other party members to build friendships.
Characters on friendly terms with each other fight better in battle, and
may even get together in the myriad of possible endings. While speaking
with your fellow adventures is fun, there's no indication as to how your
friendship levels are changing -- it's impossible to feel any sort of
accomplishment or progress. Also, a command to activate a Private Action
without leaving a town should have been available -- running out of a
town, activating a Private Action, and then leaving and re-entering the
town again to explore it as a full party is extremely inconvenient.
Not all of Star Ocean 2's gameplay features fail, however. Most of the
dungeons are large and maze-like, a welcome change given the recent
trend of extremely straightforward dungeons. SO2 also boasts tremendous replay
value; a choice of two main characters is offered, and while the quests
are mostly the same (the two characters are together for 95% of the
game), a few scenes change completely. It wouldn't be enough to make the
game replayable on its own, but there's plenty more to see. Only eight
of the game's 11 characters can be obtained in one game, so a second time
through may see you using a vastly different party. A bonus dungeon, a
secret form of the final boss, and the myriad Private Action events
round out the replay incentives.
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Graphics this good should physically not exist. |
Replay value aside, where Star Ocean 2 really shines is in the
graphical
arena. Even the most ordinary of locales has been rendered
in unprecendented detail and color -- not even Final Fantasy VIII's
backgrounds look this good. Item shops pack various trinkets on their
shelves,
golden statues guard castle gates, and waterfalls run down mountain
sides.
It's hard to imagine that even the most jaded of gamers won't be
impressed
at some point. Gameplay takes a backseat to scenery -- it's hard to
resist
pausing and taking in the sights every time you reach a new screen. An
equally breathtaking soundtrack accompanies the visuals; almost every
piece
could stand on its own, apart from the game. (Particularly noteworthy
is the Mountain Palace music - one of the greatest dungeon themes
ever.)
This isn't the Gold Saucer. Honest. | |
Unfortunately, all the audio-visual flair in the world can't mask
Star Ocean 2's
poorly paced and plotted storyline. In a plot point taken straight from
Final Fantasy V, the entire first half of the game is spent
investigating a mysterious meteorite. All that stands between you and
your ultimate goal are dozens of pointless "fetch quests." Halfway
through the game, the entire storyline (or lack thereof) is dumped upon
you. You're then sent
through a series of trials (read: unnecessary dungeons) before arriving
at the
game's final areas, which, amazingly enough, are also highly
reminiscient of
FF V -- but wait! This isn't a bad thing, it's a chance to relive your
favorite
RPG moments! Befriend the last flying dragon (Final Fantasy V), visit
an amusement park city
with an arena and racing track (FF VII), enter a fighting tournament
(Dragon Quest
IV and countless imitators), discover the mysterious power embedded in
the heroine's
heirloom pendant (Chrono Trigger), catch a bunny and ride around the
world to the tune of a speeded up Mambo de Chocobo (FF V, again), meet
a reticient swordsman with long, pale hair (FF VII) -- it's like
playing all the Final Fantasy games at the same time! Except, that is,
without the character development and other interesting parts.
On the other hand, the translation isn't nearly as bad as
reputed. The dialogue
starts off a bit on the stilted side, but makes a surprising
improvement as the
game progresses. By the time you reach Disc 2, little to be complained
about remains. Unfortunately, nothing remotely as positive can be said
about the
horrendous voice acting. The back of the manual refers to the
characters' voices
as "Voice Talents", but just "Voices" would have been more appropriate.
Even Resident Evil's actors look
good when compared to Claude's "Teeeaaaaar inta pieces!" or Noel's "En-er-gy ARR-ow!"
It's so bad, it's actually good -- if you got a kick out of Professor Daravon's
ramblings, you'll probably find Star Ocean 2's voices equally amusing.
Despite its flaws, Star Ocean: The Second Story still manages to be
superficially fun, and the graphics and music certainly can't be
faulted. Unfortunately,
the fun is all too fleeting, and by the time the game is over, most
players will be glad it's
finished. If RPGs were dating prospects, this one would be the great-looking
girl with an incredibly annoying personality.
SCORE: 3 out of 5
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