Product description
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In an endless sea of stars, at the edge of the universe, a
single eful encounter is about to take place. The Gods have
hurled a deadly meteorite into an unsuspecting planet, unleashing
powerful mysterious and sudden chaos. Now, two people from
different worlds will collide into a journey so deep, they might
never make it back.
Review
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Star Ocean: The Second Story is the 32-bit follow-up to Enix's
original Super Famicom title, Star Ocean, a game that was
released in the dying days of the system and did not receive the
success it was due. A departure from the first game, Second
Story, like most RPGs, offers you a fresh set of characters to
play as. At the start of the game you select one of two
characters: Crawd or Rena, and where the story begins depends on
whom you choose. Your choice only affects the direction of the
storyline, since the two of you ultimately meet up anyway and
progress together through the game. As the story advances, you'll
meet up with other key characters, whom you can also add to your
party. Marking Enix's first major RPG undertaking in the
next-generation wars, Star Ocean: Second Story is a decidedly
conservative attempt to refine rather than reinvent, and it
shows.
Second Story is 16-bit in nature but 32-bit in execution and is a
conservative step forward in RPG gaming, coming across like a
combination of Grandia and Saga Frontier. The backgrounds in the
game are prerendered, like Saga Frontier, while the characters
are sprite-based. Unlike in Saga Frontier, the citizens of Star
Ocean blend well with their environments. Little touches like
seeing your reflection on smooth surfaces like water, or seeing
your characters darken whenever they walk through a shady area
are very cool. Other details, like birds flying across the
screen, are also very realistic and must be seen to be fully
appreciated. Although tri-Ace is the developer responsible for
the creation of Star Ocean: SS, it should be noted that the
company was assisted in this project by Japanese CG house Links.
Links may not sound familiar, but its works speak for itself. The
company was responsible for much of the CG rendering in Final
Fantasy VII and for creating the CG intros in all three Shining
Force III games. Links' assistance is evident in Star Ocean's
gorgeous opening movie, as well in the prerendered backgrounds
which are easily on a par with FFVII and Parasite Eve. Although
the game plays like an old-school RPG, it certainly doesn't look
like one.
Battle scenes, on the other hand, switch to a fully polygonal
backdrop, like Grandia, while the sprite-based characters duke it
out in real time, which leads us to the next interesting feature
of Star Ocean, and that's the battle engine. Depending on your
familiarity with the Star Ocean battle system, you can choose
from one of three settings during combat: standard, semi-active
or full-active. Standard is for those who are new to the series,
since the battles are fairly fast paced, while semi-active and
full-active are for gamers who want more control over every
aspect of the battles. In any case, as in the original, fights
are fast paced and have an almost action-game feel to them.
During battle scenes, you can choose special attacks, which are
learned during the course of the game. Once you have multiple
characters in your party (which can number up to eight, with four
on the battlefield), you can combine specials to create a
super-specialty. Other features in the game include item
creation, skill learning (after learning an appropriate a of
skills, you can combine them to acquire more-powerful
specialties, and more.
Exploration takes you through myriad towns and villages, each of
which has its own unique look. The usual suspects appear in great
numbers: merchants, weapons shops, restaurants, inns, etc. Once
you've filled your inventory with the necessary supplies, your
travels will take you onto an overhead 3D-, much like the one
found in FFVII, where you will have to search for hidden caves
and well-hidden harbor towns, among others. Spanning two discs,
Star Ocean has plenty to see and do.
Possessing one of the more incredible soundtracks composed for a
video game, Star Ocean's US translation is functional, although
not as clever as some of Working Design's better work. Star
Ocean: Second Story is an engaging RPG that ranks up there with
the likes of Xenogears and Suikoden, with the storyline leading
you on an incredible journey that's not as flashy as some, but
certainly more substantial than others. With at least 50 hours of
gaming in each character's scenario, Star Ocean might not be
compelling enough to play through twice, but the first time is as
engaging as any RPG you're likely to play. Highly recommended in
any case. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
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