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| Star Ocean: Second Story Review; Score: 7.7/10 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 11 2008, 02:16 PM (2,977 Views) | |
| Fayt | Jan 11 2008, 02:16 PM Post #1 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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Full Name: Star Ocean: The Second Story Genre: Action/RPG Developer/Publisher: tri-Ace/Enix Platform: PSone Players: 1 Release Dates: JP - 30 Jul 1998 | US - 31 May 1999 | EU - 12 April 2000 Timeline: SD366 Here is my Star Ocean: The Second Story review. I’ve included many different categories into the review. I’ve also on many occasions drawn comparisons to tri-Ace’s other titles such as Till the End of Time; as well as other RPG titles to further emphasise the games traits. Story Overview: The Second Story provides a unique culmination of two persons stories, Claude C. Kenni & Rena Lanford. While unique these two characters are heavily intertwined in ways they would never originally imagine. At the beginning of the story Claude is basically messing around with his fathers work colleagues until he unwillingly stumbles across a mysterious energy field which despite orders from his fellow colleges to stand back from it he chooses to inspect it further. This transportation ends up sending Claude to an underdeveloped world known as Expel. Shortly after these events he comes across Rena which from there unearths a struggle to see whether Claude try find a way hope while attempting to shake claims on been a “Hero of Light” and getting wound up in the events of Expel, will Claude ever see his father again? Story Review: Out of the Star Ocean series to date many will agree that Second Story has the best story of them all, certainly compared to Till the End of Time I couldn’t disagree. Having the luxury of witnessing a powerful story from two different, yet similar points of view is truly amazing. Watching Claude develop as a leader and having a relationship build with Rena is just part of what makes the story so fantastic. For RPG fans that want to witness a quality powerful story shouldn’t be too disappointed with this title at all. 9/10 Graphics: Well, it’s a 1998 game so it’s folly to expect state of the art graphics in today’s language, however if you can recall what PSone games were like this is no doubt one of the best graphical displays you will find on the hardware, in it’s day it would be well worthy of a 9. In today’s scene however the fact it used sprites in particular is a bit of a joke for a 3D environment, otherwise it does the job without looking too great. This is another area which Second Evolution however should build on dramatically. 5.5/10 Battle System: It offers a relative simple, yet effective action battle system. Here you have a full action style battle system, where you can interchange between your four active characters as you please, while the other three will fight based on AI to try helping you achieve victory. In my opinion the open environment style battles of Star Ocean exceed that of the linear style witnessed in the Tales of games; while you don’t have a defend button you are duly compensated by free movement which can allow you to move in any direction to avoid enemy attack. Another great aspect of the battles is the mild interactive environments with them, in some battles for example there will be mine carts passing thorough which can damage you if hit. Although of course you could try cause the enemy to stand in line with it to get damaged by them, it just adds a nice slightly more interactive feel and the third party aspect which you can use to your advantage, if you’re clever enough! The issues I have with the battle system however is the freezing of the battle to perform spells, the fast paced action battles have to take a back seat during this process which basically defies the fast passed action. If you can put this aside or simple not use Runology often it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle, and you might even appreciate the short time out in battle…maybe. The other problem is it essentially can become a button masher at the end of the day, despite been relatively innovative for it's time to have AI controlled characters in such an action environment. You'll still be hammering the attack button to take down your foes. 7/10 Battle Difficulty: One thing I’ve come to like from the Star Ocean games is adequate difficultly in battle, without been impossible. You simply cannot neglect opportunities to train if you expect to walk through battles without any issues. Enemies can be tough, and bosses at times are extremely difficult. But as with most RPG’s persistence is the key to further success! One annoying thing in battle though is while you roam a 3D environment you cannot attack in any other direction then left or right. So you’ll perhaps find the additional movement requirement to be both a pain and make the battles more difficult at times. 8/10 Voiceovers: Oh god this is unfortunately probably the worst part of the game, unless you played it while new and didn’t know any batter you’ll absolutely hate them. They are short, sound poor and are very repetitive. Unfortunately the great soundtrack of the game is slaughtered when in battle by these. I guess the only good thing is you will only have to endure these during battles. Thankfully Second Evolution brings new voiceovers with it…boy do they need them! 2/10 Characters: The characters in the game are rather unique and work rather well together, which in particular is witnessed during the various Private Actions you can witness throughout the game. From Claude trying to hide his feelings of affection to Rena, to Ashton falling in love with…barrels, Dias tyring to befriend no one and Precis trying to make friends outside of Bobot provide a number of angles which allow for a great range of characters. Also typically with the Star Ocean series is the ability to have some choice over which characters form your final party, at times you can choose to allow one to join or not etc which allows for some freedom in your preferred party. 8/10 Item Creation: This is what I feel one of the stronger areas of the game, while item creation like with Till the End of Time can be quite random at times it’s far easier to get the ball rolling. Simply by been able to activate your menu you can start any item creation process, far better then having to move to exclusive locations just to make one item! As always the result can be quite random, of course however boosted by your various talent levels. 9/10 Replay Factor: The story itself will take you around 30-35 hours on a first attempt, although thankfully beyond that there are additional dungeons to explore and the massive voice collection (for LOLz at the least) to try complete as well. Add this with the two sides of the story and characters you may not have recruited the first time it’s very worthy of at least two play throughs, and even more for dedicated Star Ocean fans. 7.5/10 Final Thoughts: If you played this in it’s day you will be very pleased with the product and probably think this is one of the worst reviews you have ever read, however if you played it for the first time in recent years you will notice a number of flaws, some due to aging mixed in with the fantastic story the game presents. If you haven’t played it yet and can’t easily get a copy you might want to hold out for Second Evolution which will by far improve on the weaker areas of the game, simply because finding Second Story will be difficult and expensive; unless you’re a die hard Star Ocean fan I wouldn’t bother trying. Having said that it is still a quality game, particularly for something which is around 10 years of age now. Overall Rating: 7.7/10 *This review is based on my personal opinions from my own experiences with the game, and is also assessed against today’s standards, not when it was created. Comments on the review are most welcome. |
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| Gumdrop | Sep 30 2008, 09:24 PM Post #2 |
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Cute Snugglepuffs
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Only 2/10 for the voices?? The voices are so terrible that I think its part of what makes this game awesome. I adore playing them back on the voice collection page every once in a while for a cheap laugh. The in-pain sounds can seem really wrong at times xD I think it really added some charm. Normally I hate bad voice acting but there's a point when it gets funny and they hit on it with Star Ocean. Also for replay factor don't forget it has three difficulty settings. Edited by Gumdrop, Sep 30 2008, 09:27 PM.
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| Fayt | Sep 30 2008, 09:53 PM Post #3 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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When the voices are enjoyed for been so terrible they make you laugh I couldn't possibly rate it highly. I could kill Claude if he used the "I think that's worth around 80 points" again.
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| Gumdrop | Oct 1 2008, 06:51 AM Post #4 |
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Cute Snugglepuffs
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Hahaha, just reading that makes me laugh xD Maybe I'm just too easily amused...heh. |
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| Ao1 | Dec 16 2008, 02:46 AM Post #5 |
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Fellpool
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Decent, I disagree with the play time though. I beat the game in 20-25 hours on my first run. Picking up secret characters, a bit of grinding here and there, PA's, etc. It's not called Runology. It's called either Heraldry or Symbology. I don't think the voices should even be considered in a review. It's only during battles. You didn't give a rating for the Item Creation. 10/10 thank you! No offense to you, but I don't think this is a well thought out review. Things like voice acting should not bring down the average score to a game that much. Graphics should not be considered if the game is fun. Also there was no score for the Item Creation. I added up and averaged your scores, it got a 6.7 (accurate to what you said, 6.5). But if you take out the voice acting rating it jumps way up. |
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| Fayt | Dec 16 2008, 06:25 PM Post #6 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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I guess I overlooked a score for Item Creation, I guess that can get a 9. It's much more user friendly then the one in Till the End of Time no doubt, but it still yields random frustrating outcomes. With that, I'll even push the overall score up to a straight 7. Although graphics, and particularly the voice acting do need to be included in my opinion, while it's battles only you do battle quite a lot in the game. It's one of the worst voice acting jobs in a video game, it's to terrible to the point where I have to turn the sound down, or even mute it to play it. And that kills the nice soundtrack the game has, it definitely loses points for that. At times I can't bear to listen to the game, and that really kills the enjoyment out it. While it's commendable for a PSX game to have voice actors, looking back it's about as horrible, if not uglier then the blocky detail of the much adored FFVII. It's caused the game to age poorly, I even said in my final thoughts I didn't play the game in it's prime and have rated it accordingly. I'm sure those that were fortunate enough to play it in it's day would rate it better. I think quite unfair to accuse me of making a poor review when I clearly stated that in my personal review of the game. I still really enjoyed Second Story, but sure as hell look forward to better quality voice acting in Second Evolution. |
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| Ao1 | Dec 17 2008, 10:44 AM Post #7 |
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Fellpool
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I think you are taking offense to my posts a bit too much. Surely you have the right to defend yourself and state your reasoning, but in my opinion it was a poor review. Not the actualy score, that is your own opinion. That's fine. I'm talking about the things you considered for the review. I played SO2 this summer after playing games like Gears of War and Halo 3, which blow this game out of the water in terms of graphics. Yet it wouldn't influence my grade of the game. Have you ever taken a class where the teacher weighs grades? That's what should be done for game reviews. Stats like Gameplay and Story should be worth much much more than stats like Graphics and Voice Acting. All should be considered, but to have one fault bring the average down so far? And replying to your other posts, It is pretty obvious SO3 is your favorite, and thats great. But calling my post pathetic because I thought it was a bit biased is just plain ignorant. It is fact if it is your favorite. If my username was Steelerfan, you could assume I would rate the Steelers much better than the Browns. And to be biased doesn't in any way shape or form mean that you would give it straight 10s. That is also an ignorant point. Often the biggest critics are the most hardcore of fans. *Do not take offense to my posts as they are designed to give advice. |
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| Fayt | Dec 17 2008, 12:01 PM Post #8 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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Sorry, but making a generalization that I'm biased to Till the End of Time simply because of my user name annoys me. I could change it within minutes, I only keep this name because it's the first I registered with on a forum many years ago that has stuck. I've used other names before but I'm so used to this now, so I've kept coming back to it. I rate many other games far higher then Till the End of Time after all. I do agree that both story and game play should be rated higher then anything else. Man, I still play the really old Phantasy Star IV and love it to death. I want to emphasize the sore points, as a reviewer I think it’s a fair thing to do. But the idea of weighing those elements a little higher is a good one, thanks. ![]() I recalculated my overall score with a grading system I created, and made a couple of other minor changes. It's moved from what was originally 6.5 to 7.7 with that, and I'm still happy with it. I'll get around to updating all my other ones at a later date too. |
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| Ao1 | Dec 18 2008, 09:03 AM Post #9 |
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Fellpool
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"Man, I still play the really old Phantasy Star IV and love it to death." That game was so f*cking good! OMG, I played it this summer, but I got to the last dungeon and my power went out. (I was playing it on an emulator and I couldn't figure out how to save. So I just kept my computer on...and then it was erased) Either way, PSIV was amazing. |
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| Faize Sheifa Beleth | Feb 3 2009, 09:28 PM Post #10 |
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Tria is my GOD *.*
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hm i would give it overall a 10 *.* ![]() hm i really love this series but i respect your review, ;D but one question o.o why the voices only 2/10 o.O i love them *.* its give much more life in the game and personly i love to collect the voice datas and i think the remake is at this point not sooo good qq because its a lot less, and i really love it when the characters screams the name from other party members when they die, i think that tell me how they love each other. at this point is at my opinion Second Story better and that a lot more as the Remake. Edited by Faize Sheifa Beleth, Feb 3 2009, 09:28 PM.
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| Fayt | Feb 3 2009, 09:32 PM Post #11 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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I really like the game and the series, I just found the voices in it absolutely horrible. It's one of the worst voice acting jobs I've ever had to listen to in an RPG without been bias to one of my favourite series. The voices just are like running chalk on a blackboard and getting a horrible stretching noise. I can't believe the collectors item in the game is the voice sets either, I see no value in collecting them for anything other then LOLZ. I have a feeling I'll rate the game much better after playing the remake next month though. ![]() I look forward to the remake actually so I can write a new review for it, this was originally written years ago before I improved and changed my review writing style. |
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| Faize Sheifa Beleth | Feb 3 2009, 09:45 PM Post #12 |
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Tria is my GOD *.*
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its okay ![]() but the new voices are really good i think but Precis and Welch sound quite really so "both the same" however: i dont like it that the remake has a lot less voices but i love it that the game iis full voiced *.* |
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