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Most Innovative RPG in Ages!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Star Ocean was absolutely amazing. Despite "ancient" graphics, innovation and story make this the best RPG I've played since FF7. First, innovation. The battle system is refreshing and active: you actually take control of the characters and physically attack the enemy, using just your "boring old sword" or a variety of special moves. Although enemies may not be state-of-the-art, they are intelligent enough to use what defenses they have to stop you and counter, often requiring you to actually base your attack around your judgement. Item creation is extremley deep and involving and the Private Actions allow you to get to know the characters a bit more, transforming them from little pictures into people. All this is backed up by a solid story. Wheater you choose the little boy who's stranded on a strange planet or the girl that finds him, you are surrounded in mystery that motivates you through most of the story. Graphics and sound (namely the character's "voices") may outdated, but the story and characters take you along for a mysertious and grand adventure that you won't soon forget!

An rpg mixed with a fighting

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was one of the best games I have ever played. It had the multiple ending system which made beatting it in a year impossible, the many charecters you could pick from was amazing, it had everyone from a slayer being possesed by 2 dragons to an alien mage from annother planet. If you like huge games that have more side things than a carnaval than this game is for you.

Gotta Love It

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First of all I have played many RPG's, and I love the versatillity of this one. I, like many other RPG players, have to say that, The versatillity of this game is astounding, with over 86 different endings, and a wide varity of characters to choose from, not all of which you must aquire, but rather for a challenge, if you wish, you can go through the game with only ever getting 3 char. or even up to 8 of 12! Also unlike many of the other RPG's i have played, this game has 2 main characters to choose from, unlike others such as the Final Fantasys for playstation, Xenogears(the best of all times :-) ),(just to name a few I have played, mastered) where you only have one (this accounts for the many character, some only abile to have with a certian main char;). I also like the ability to make and reproduce your items. Down side though, I think the makers realized the reproductive abilities of the game, and saw a comparison to the W-Item trick in FF7, and took some of the edge away, by allowing you to only hold 20, not 99 or 100 items, but 20 :-(.(although one neat feature allows in reality 40, the ability to make items from raw materials, get the materials, and make more when needed) To add to all of this excitement, its an over all fun game to play, and never getts boring with its unique style of battling, you are always being active, and the battles change enough due to its unique way of fighting, that you always have to pay attantion(not a bad thing, keeps interest). I say any RPG'er will love it and is a must to any RPG collection.

Amazing game, incredibly hard.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

A truly amazing game, with tons to see and do. 86 possible endings, countless ways of building a party--the programmers even made it impossible to get *everyone* in a single play-through--engaging plot, complex and well-done character interactions, well-executed ability system, item creation... it just rocks. Add to that the fact that it's the single most challenging RPG on the Playstation--the hard version of the last boss is a killer--and you have an amazing game. I'm currently 106 hours into the game, I still haven't beaten the hard version of the last boss, and *I'm still having fun*. In fact, there are still things left to do and places left to explore! Compare that to your FF games where you run out of things to do 40 or 50 hours in and have no choice but to level or beat the game... SO2 has optional subquests and dungeons left after 106! This game isn't for everyone, but I have enjoyed it more than any other game on the Playstation.

Easily one of the best RPGs out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Star Ocean 2 is an excellent game that did not get as much attention as it deserved... but, I suppose that's a blessing in its own way since it kept the prices down and allowed me to get it extremely cheap.

The storyline is not cliched or unoriginal, as some might think. I hate it when people take a completely unique story, ignore all of its distinctive features, dumb it down into a bunch of sweeping generalizations, and then call it unoriginal. The characters are far more likeable than the heroes Square has been churning out lately. This story is a lot more lighthearted than Square's latest stories too, which will be seen as good by some players and bad by others. I personally like the brighter and more heroic overtones of this game since it reminds me of Squaresoft's SNES titles, back when they truly did their best work.

The sound effects are decent, though there aren't many of them except for special attacks and impact sounds. The voices are good... not perfect, but good. Sometimes their dialogue can be rather cheesy, but I haven't found any cases of bad translation or poor grammar. Whoever said this game had poor translation needs to take a closer look at some of Square's latest titles, especially FF7 ("Don't give her it"). And, it's a cool effect to have characters who speak during battle, and will say things in response to what happens in the fight. The music is excellent, definitely reminiscent of the inspiring tunes of the SNES titles. Each town has a different song with it, and the music in dungeons and the like will easily set the atmosphere. The battle music is also fast-paced and catchy, as battle music should be.

The battle system is awesome, combining some of the best aspects of action and strategy. The fights are real-time, but the action is paused while you use menus, much like the original Secret of Mana. Also, like Secret of Mana, you can assign your AI-controlled partners different things to do in battles, and they are very good when it comes to following your commands. If you tell your healer to heal and stay away from the enemies, she will do just that. You can choose various formations for battles. Another interesting feature is that special attacks will use different effects depending on your range from the enemy. For example, one attack called Air Slash will slice a circle around you if you are close to enemies, but will send a cutting shockwave across the field if they are at a distance.

The character development aspects are wonderful. You can to some extent control which characters will like others and how well they get along. And, the closer they become, the more interesting things can happen. This can even effect battles. These aren't major things, but they certainly add a lot more depth and personality to the game. You control which skills the characters learn as well. Not only battle skills, but also metalwork, alchemy, cooking, art, photography, music... all sorts of things. And, all of the skills actually have some good use to them, rather than just being there as a gimmick.

The graphics in this game are good as well. They are rather cartoony, but the cartoon style conveys personality and emotion far better than polygons do. There are also more subtle touches that add to it, such as birds flying over, seeing your character darken when you walk through a shadow, and seeing your reflection on water surfaces.

All things considered, I don't see any major bad points to discuss in this game. It's a great one to own, especially for anyone who likes the superior quality RPGs from the SNES days.

I would have paid more for it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have been shocked to see the low prices for this game on most websites that sell video games. I have one memory card dedicated to just this game, and it is well worth it. I have one saved game with Rena and Claude as my main character, and played them through until Claude saves Rena, then I move on and save somewhere else as I continue to play. This allows me to avoid starting over and having to sit through the first, linear part of the game over and over.
The ability to create so many different items, and to steal from people in towns (including your own party members) as opposed to monsters like in most games is a unique aspect of this game that is really enjoyable. You gain skill points by leveling up, or you can have characters who have those skills write books about them so other characters can learn the skills by reading instead of alloting points. There are limitless items that can be used to heal party members, including tons of food items that you can create. There are certain items and abilities that make it easier to create items or make better items, and you can even duplicate most items by taking pictures of them.
I enjoy disc two much more than disc one because that is where all of the fun and increased abilities really begin, but for the most part the fun of the game for me is the item creation and the mini-games as opposed to the endings. There are over 80 endings, but after all of the private actions work on getting characters together, those endings leave a lot to be desired. They are just too short in my opinion.
The voice collection part is another intruiging part of the game, making it better to level up all characters in different games as much as possible and to escape and use "Provocation" with all of the characters. You can replay the game at harder levels with the voice collection, and you can listen to more music. You should have a strategy guide when playing this game at least the second time through, or you will miss a lot, including "Mischief", and there are plenty of strategy guides available for free on the net. Oh, and don't forget to make sure that your main character has DEXTERITY or you will have serious problems pickpocketing.
If you like to just get through a game, or don't have the patience to try to create the best weapons and items then this game might not be for you, but to me this is the best part. The battle system can be difficult at times, but the ability to make the forged medals and reproduce them to level up your characters with every battle will rapidly provide you with stronger spells and abilities. Another nice touch is that you can reload a game if you don't steal the item you want or make what you want, or even if the treasure box item doesn't give you something good. In most games you have to restart the game in order to do this.
This game is one of my all time favorites, right up there with FF3, 7, 8, and 9.

without a doubt THE best.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When people talk about games, they use words like "good," "great," and on the occasion, "sweet." Star Ocean: The Second Story falls into a category of its own, a category that can't be described in less than 100 words.

This game is near-perfect. Some of its greater points include the battle system, the characters, the world, and the items.

The Battle System is more real-time, not turn-based like in Final Fantasy. It does get boring, I admit, standing in one place, letting the enemy attack you, then hitting it, then it hits you, and so on. In SO2, you can run around and dodge their attacks and etc.

Item creation is cool too. You can take 2 seemingly useless items, like some weak herbs, combine them, and you get a potion to revive a fallen friend. You can also customize weapons, armor, make food, write books, compose songs, the list goes on.

The world is breathtaking, to say the least. There are wonderful backgrounds that do a great job expressing where you are and what kind of a place you're in. Not to mention the size of it. The world is huge... It may look somewhat small on the outside, but once you add in all the dungeons, and caves, and towers, well...

Not that everything in the game is perfect. The story is a bit lacking. Of course, if there was no story, you would have no point to adventure in the game, really. Although slightly boring, it would be unjust to call it anything below "decent."

During battles, your characters have voices. These voices are sometimes great, but the majority of the time, they're not pleasant to hear. In the battle, you may get hit, and attack, and use killer moves a lot, and it does get a bit annoying to constantly hear the character say the same thing over and over and... you get the point.

There are 2 quests. Both are seemingly identical, except that the main character is different, you see different parts of the story, and... there's more, but its a surprise. The game also has 80 endings, but each ending isn't huge, like the planet explodes or some guy dies and everyone mourns his loss or that everyone just chills at home... No, the endings are short, brief endings that show what happens to each character at the end, leaving you with multiple endings per game.

You can also get different characters to add to your 8-person party. there are 12 characters in all. If you do the math, that means that if you want to play with all of them, you have to play more than one game. If you love the game as much as I do, that's not a problem.

All in all, Star Ocean 2 is arguably the greatest game of all time. There's several other details, but I'm limited to 1000 words. Instead of wondering if the game is worth your money, ask the question: "how long until I get it?" Its strengths make up for its flaws, I give it a 5/5.

Hands-down, best RPG I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The sequel to the game of the same name(which unfortunately was never released in America), Star Ocean 2 is the perfect RPG.

The skill system is one of the things that sets it apart from any other game. There are around 40 skills to learn with 10 levels of profiency each(each of which requires a certain number of skill points to learn, which are gained when you level up). Combat skills are automatically executed, with the frequency depending on how many levels you have invested in the skill(examples, "flip" lets your character quickly move behind the enemy, where his defensive power is lower. "parry" lets you block attacks, "motormouth" lets you cast spells faster).

The other skills have 2 purposes. They have an initial bonus to investing in them, and they can combine with other skills to produce specialty skills. For example, "kitchen knife" adds a huge boost to your strength stat, and if you add "recipe" and "good eye", you will acquire the "cooking" super specialty skill, which allows you to create very powerful healing items out of base components(you can even make french toast this way!). If multiple characters have a high cooking skill, the super specialty skill "Master Chef" becomes availible, letting you make even more powerful healing items. There are similar skills for producing weapons, armor, and accessories. Other skills, like art or authoring, lets you make pictures to sell or books to publish, which can result it huge amounts of cash for you. There is even a skill that reduces the experience requirement for levelling up. This is the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak, so I will just say that the skill system is above and beyond any other game that I have played.

The combat system is also excellent. You have 4 characters(out of a maximum of 8 in your party, which is out of 12 characters in the game) fight in real-time combat against enemies. You control a single character at a time while the rest follow the tactics that you set, and the AI for this feature is also well done. Your fighter characters have an assortment of "killer moves" instead of spells that let them unload a series of special attacks against the enemy. Words can't describe the flawlessness of this combat system; you would have to watch a trailer to get a real feel for it.

The basic game is sufficiently challenging, but once you have played through the game you will be able to access higher difficulty settings(which are very very hard), which, combined with the variety of characters you can recruit, make for lots of replay value.

Also of worthy note is the voice acting. Your characters will strike, yell, taunt, and basically talk during combat. They cry out a character's name who has just fallen to the enemy. If you have played Grandia 2, you will have an idea what I am talking about. The sound quality is clear and easy to understand, though when Claude yells "Tear into pieces" it sounds like he is saying "Pear into peaches!".

Plot is excellent, with a huge thing at the end of disk 1 that rivals Aeris in Final Fantasy 7 in terms of its impact on the plot.

Overall fun factor is very high. This is the perfect RPG.

OUTSTANDING

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I play this game a few choice words come to mind,innovative,beautiful,and wow. I love the item creation though it may be random it still is very cool. The graphics are very lush and well green. The battle system is one of my only complaints, you see the battle system no matter how seasoned you are in the world of RPG's(I personally have been playing RPG's since I was 6 yrs old.) all those skills are now useless. You control one character while the CPU controls the rest of the people on screen kinda like Tales of Destiny. Now as soon as a battle begins you have two options [1.Go into a button pushing frenzy and hope for the best.] or [2. Try to think logically and lose the fight.] You see the game does not reward game skills like FF's or other RPG's instead you have people like my brother who press random bosses and succed where I failed.Other than this one disguting flaw I feel no reason to really play anyhing else.

Too Big

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: July 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game was immense. The sheer volume of options in character development was overwhelming. If you want a game on a grand scale, this is the one for you. The storyline is very good and the skill system was a very good idea. Characters are not developed enough, but interaction between them was interesting, especially the way that it affected the game. The final battle is unfairly difficult. It requires more skill than luck to complete. Replay value is probably this games greatest attribute. Because the game is so affected by your actions, it can be very different. Also, there are a wide variety of characters that you can use. These things combined with the skill system can make this into a somewhat different game each time you play it. If you are not short on patience, this can be a very fun game with a lot of replay value.

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