Star Ocean: The Second Story
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| Star Ocean: The Second Story | |
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| Developer(s) | Tri-Ace |
| Publisher(s) | Enix (Japan) Sony Computer Entertainment America (North America, Europe) |
| Designer(s) | Minato Koio (character) |
| Release date(s) | JPN July 30, 1998 NA May 31, 1999 EUR April 12, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) ELSPA: 11+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Media | 2 × CD-ROMs |
Star Ocean: The Second Story is the English version of the second game in the Star Ocean video game series. It takes place twenty years after the original game, Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey, which has never been commercially released in English.
Released in the United States with what many considered generally poor voice acting and translation to English, it nevertheless gained a cult following. The English version of the game also changed the names of the main antagonists, who in the original were named after angels, with names such as Gabriel (changed to Indalecio), Metatron (changed to Berle), and Lucifer (changed to Cyril).
In Japan, a Star Ocean: The Second Story manga was released in 1998 (serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan) based on the game, which ended on the seventh volume, only halfway through the plot. An anime was also released, based more on the manga than the game, named Star Ocean EX. Like the manga, it, too, ended halfway through the plot. However, unlike the manga, the story was completed, in the form of vocal drama CDs.
The game gives the player the choice of playing as Rena or Claude, with the journey evolving and ending differently depending on the choice one makes.
Following from Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story contains an item creation system. The characters can buy skills in towns, use SP (Skill Points) gained via levels, and improve their skills. A combination of skills will reveal an ability; for example, combining the skills Whistling and Love of Animals yields the ability Familiar. The only way to gain the strongest weapons in the game is through item creation. Additionally, almost every skill results in a stat boost; Biology raises your HP, while Mental Science boosts MP. The distribution of SP makes for a deep character customization system.
Inactive characters do not level up; to keep unused characters strong, players must endure several hours of level-grinding.
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[edit] Setting
The universe of Star Ocean holds many similarities to that of Star Trek. Most aliens look like humans, although more so in Ocean than in Trek. The Earth Federation is the central human government and works very similarly, albeit likely more controlling than the United Federation of Planets.
Roughly the first half of the plot of Star Ocean 2 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 UP3 (Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact) in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, 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.
[edit] Storyline
Star Ocean: The Second Story tells the stories of Claude C. Kenni, son of Ronixis J. Kenni, 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. Upon getting close to it, 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, wielding an advanced energy weapon (the Phase Gun that his father gave to him). 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" and is dressed in "alien raiments." She takes him back to her village, Arlia, for corroboration.
Soon afterwards, the town elder 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". Hoping that the Sorcery Globe may be the key to finding his way home, Claude agrees to investigate it. Rena, still believing that Claude is the Hero of Light, joins up with Claude in the investigation.
Their journey takes them across all three continents of Expel, and eventually they meet the ten wise men and are somehow transported to Energy Nede.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main Characters
Star Ocean: The Second Story is unusual in that it offers the player the opportunity to experience the storyline from the perspective of either the male or the female lead character. This decision affects certain scenes that are only referred to in one path but are fully shown in the other, as well as determining whether or not certain characters can be permanently added to the traveling party.
[edit] Claude
Claude C. Kenni is an Ensign of the Earth Federation, and the son of Ronixis J. Kenni, a main character in the original Star Ocean. He is transported to and stranded on Planet Expel after disobeying his father during a reconnaissance mission on Planet Milocinia, and goes to investigate the mysterious Sorcery Globe incident after he is seemingly mistaken for the Warrior of Light by Rena Lanford, and informed of the problems that have plagued the planet for the past three months. Claude has the tendency to be brash and impetuous (and usually a little late), and fights with a sword. Claude's last Killer Move is called "Mirror Slice". His favorite food is steak, and his favorite instrument is the silver trumpet.
[edit] Rena
Rena Lanford is a young girl living on the underdeveloped planet of Expel in a village called "Arlia". Rena's rather happy-go-lucky, but has a very serious and romantic side to herself, especially around Claude. She has strange, elf-like ears that no one else on Expel seems to have, as well as healing powers that the Heraldic (Symbological) runes of the planet do not. Rena fights with knuckles (the equivalent to monk fist weapons from the Final Fantasy series of games) and sometimes with her feet, but is not a primary fighter. Rather, she excels at disruptive, healing, and statistical Heraldry. Her favorite food is shortcake and her favorite instrument is the lyre.
[edit] Recruitable Characters
Note that, due to the structure of the game, it is impossible to recruit every character listed below during a single play-through. Any special conditions regarding whether a character will join up are noted below.
[edit] Celine
The first optional character encountered, Celine Jules is a treasure hunter and a Heraldic enchantress. She appears rather haughty and is confident in her heraldic abilities. Celine is considered beautiful by many characters in the game, and adorns herself with expensive makeup and jewels. She appreciates strong, muscular men who make her feel physically safe, and dislikes effeminate men. Underneath her seemingly shallow exterior, however, is the heart and mind of a cunning sorceress who is capable of unleashing lethal spells, most of which are Fire, Thunder, and Star-elemental. Celine's favorite food is baby rabbit risotto and her favorite instrument is the violin. Her strongest spell is Meteor Swarm which is acquired not by leveling up, but by 'finding' it in a chest in "Cave of Trials".
[edit] Dias
Dias Flac is a master swordsman, and a childhood friend of Rena's. Though he appears cold and emotionless, he feels regret and responsibility for the death of his family. Dias uses a fighting style very similar to iaido, a Japanese sword-based martial art associated with unsheathing and resheathing one's sword. His favorite food is chicken skewers and his favorite instrument is the cembalo. Dias' last Killer Move is called "Firebird Shock Wave" and is gained by leveling him up.
Dias appears in both Claude's and Rena's stories, but only becomes recruitable in Rena's. Though he first appears early in the game, the option to recruit him does not occur until the end of the first disc.
[edit] Ashton
Ashton Anchors is a swordsman who appears in the Salva Drift where he is possessed by a two-headed dragon, named "Gyoro" and "Ururun" by Rena. (Their names describes the way their eyes moves or stare.) Ashton is modest and self-doubting at the time of recruitment, and seeks to expel the dragons from his back. His interests include barrels. Ashton fights with two twin short swords, and his unlucky nature is reflected in his statistics. The favorite food is the hamburger, and he excels at the piano. His last special move, "Tri-Ace", is acquired, like Celine, not by leveling up, but by 'finding' it in a chest in "Cave of Trials".
Ashton initially joins the party in order to remove the dragons that live on his back, however, when faced with the ultimate opportunity to remove them, he decides that he has grown too attached to them. As thanks for helping him quest to remove the dragons, Ashton joins Claude and Rena permanently.
The recruitment of Ashton bars recruitment of Opera and Ernest.
[edit] Precis
Precis F. Neumann is a teenaged inventor who works with her father in Linga. Throughout the game, Precis appears to be attracted to several different male characters, including Claude and Ashton, but this is only apparent in certain Private Actions. Although perky and assertive, she is a genius technician and crafts her own unique weapons. She fights with a mechanical punching hand, which she controls with what appears (in her character portrait) to be a DualShock PlayStation controller, as well as other gadgets she has in her rucksack, including her "Bobot" and a portable satellite dish. Precis' final Killer Move is called "Holo-holograph" and can only be obtained by a certain Private Action with Ashton. Precis' favorite food is chocolate crêpes, and her favorite instrument is the harmonica.
Precis and Bowman cannot both be in your party at the same time. Recruiting one bars recruitment of the other.
[edit] Leon
Head of research at the Lacour Castle laboratory, Leon D.S. Geeste is quite literally a "child genius," with all the arrogance and naïvete of one. Though only twelve, Leon is the driving force behind the completion of the Lacour Hope, an energy weapon. Leon has pointed ears that show he is not an Expellian, but a member of the Fellpool race. Leon fights close-range by summoning monsters from books, but generally shuns melee combat for Heraldry, specializing in Darkness, Void, and Water elements. He enjoys carrot juice and best plays the violin. Like the previous Ashton and Celine, his last Killer Move, "Extinction", is gained not by means of leveling but by 'finding' it in a chest in Cave of Trials.
Leon appears in both Claude's and Rena's stories as a party member, but only becomes permanently recruitable in Claude's.
[edit] Bowman
Pharmacist for the university town of Linga, Bowman Jean is married, but seems more interested in adventuring. He studies herbs and uses them as aid in battle. He fights short-range with fists. Bowman's last Killer Move, "Sakura Attack", is gained through leveling him up. His favorite food is daikon miso soup and his favorite instrument is the harmonica.
Recruiting Bowman precludes recruitment of Precis.
[edit] Opera
Opera Vectra and Ernest are from the planet Tetragene, home to an advanced civilisation that all bear a third eye upon their foreheads. For reasons unspecified, this feature does not draw overt attention to their appearance even among populations that have not experienced first contact. First born from a wealthy arisocratic family, Opera has a devoted, if not bordering obscessive personality and chases her boyfriend Ernest all over the galaxy and Expel. It is revealed that Opera crash landed on Expel in the Shingo Forest while looking for Ernest, and is now stranded there. Opera fights with a large shoulder-mounted laser gun. Opera's final Killer Move called "Hyper Launcher" can only be obtained through use of the Machinery Skill. She favors apple cider and the piano.
Recruiting Opera bars recruitment of Ashton. In order to recruit her the player must have firstly triggered a private action with a third eyed male in the town of Cross early on in the game. The group will later meet her in a tavern in the port-town Hilton after participating the Lacour Tournament. Follow her to Cross and get permission from the king to enter Mountain Palace. At the palace Opera will join the group as she searched for her boyfriend back there.
[edit] Ernest
Based on a character in an older game by the same company Ernest Raviede is an archaeology professor from planet Tetragenes. He cares about his work much more than he says he cares about Opera, though he still puts up with her. He wields a whip in battle. His favorite food is Hassaku tea and he plays the cembalo.
You must have Opera in your party to recruit Ernest after the Hoffman Ruins. An important point is that, if you refuse Ernest's offer to join, Opera will permanently leave the party as well.
[edit] Noel
Noel Chandler is a Nedian biology professor and a caretaker at the Synard preserve. Noel reveals that he was once an ally of the Ten Wise Men, but is now interested in redeeming himself. He is pacifistic, and spends most of him time looking after animals. Noel uses attack and healing Heraldry, though Leon, Celine, and Rena are more specialized in their separate fields. Like Rena and Bowman, he fights with knuckles. His favorite food is the Big Tuna, and he plays the illusive shamisen.
[edit] Chisato
Chisato Madison is a reporter for the Nede Chronicle. Absent-minded at times but quite potent, she follows the party through a monster-filled cave before losing her identification card and being recruited. She has attained the rank of black belt in "Shingu-style" jujutsu. She also fights with a gun. Her favorite food is Lady Fingers (due to a programming error; she was meant to like fruit sandwiches). Her favorite instrument is the organ.
Chisato is the last recruitable character that the player will encounter. Due to the relatively non-linear nature of Star Ocean 2's second disc, the event that triggers Chisato's recruitment scenario (when she loses her ID) may occur at any one of several different locations.
[edit] Enemy Characters
[edit] Indalecio
Originally, there existed a genius scientist named Dr. Gabriel Lantis. He and his daughter Filia lived 400 million years ago on Nede, where he engaged in experiments concerning matter, anti-matter and the creation of the Ten Wise Men to serve as guardians for the people of Nede (or more accurately, to maintain Nede's iron grip on its colony worlds). Filia, Lantis's daughter, was killed in a terrorist act held against Nedian rule. The Nedian military tried to hide this information from him. Despite their efforts, he eventually found out. After learning of the incident, he went mad with anger and grief, reprogramming the Ten Wise Men that were originally created to protect and rule, to instead efface the cosmos that had failed to protect his daughter (albeit failing with Cyril). The final and most powerful of the wise men, Indalecio, was reprogrammed as an image of Lantis, and the vessel of his soul.
Lantis then made another artificial being, Filia, named after his own daughter, as a limiter for Indalecio and himself, perhaps to give the cosmos one last chance--he would rule it if he could maintain his hold on Filia, annihilate it otherwise. Once the Ten Wise Men were finished, they began terrorizing the Nedian people. Soldiers of the highest caliber were unable to destroy the Ten Wise Men, due to the remarkable power given to them by Dr. Lantis. The Nedians sealed the Ten Wise Men from Nede into unknown space, but in exchange, Nede itself was destroyed. However, the surviving Nedians created an artificial planet, called Energy Nede, an artificial version of the planet with a high-energy field surrounding it (itself attributed to Lantis--whether he himself developed it, or it was attributed to him because he made it necessary, is uncertain).
In the final area of the game, Indalecio is seen standing before the Quadratic Sphere which he plans to use in conjunction with the Crest of Annihilation to destroy the universe. The resulting battle with Claude and the others varies greatly in difficulty depending upon whether a scene was viewed in which the party met Filia. If it wasn't, Filia acts as a seal on his power, weakening him greatly. However, if the limiter is released, Indalecio uses all his power, making the last battle much more difficult, even for max level(255) characters.
Indalecio's battle plan consists of little more than floating around shooting fireballs and using his "Divine Wave" attack, although this one move makes it incredibly arduous to cause damage to him. While this attack is in effect, a large slow-moving energy ring emanates from him, and any character running over to him to attack will suffer several hits and even a highly-leveled character can be decimated in seconds. When Indalecio's life is depleted half-way, he will cast "Time of Truth" and seemingly merge with Filia, as a large ghostly image of her will remain over him during the fight. After this occurs (and it will, since it's uninterruptable) he will gain several more moves, mostly some of Celine's spells, but one especially deadly final-boss-caliber spell called "Divine Comedy," in reference to the book of the same name by Dante. The player's party is thoroughly taken through hell if this spell comes out.
[edit] Cyril
Silver haired, with a black long coat and large wings, he ruthlessly seeks to oust Indalecio and control the Universe himself, rather than ally himself with the more nihilistic desires of Indalecio. As the second most powerful Wiseman, he was called "the clever one" and is the penultimate boss in the game. The most striking aspect of Cyril is that he admits to sending the "weaker" wise men first, because he does not want to share the world with them. He even goes so far as to say that once he is done dealing with the party (who have killed the other eight wisemen), he will then go and kill Indalecio himself. Unfortunately for him, Cyril never gets the chance, although Indalecio's moveset seems to hint that the battle would be very short...
Cyril attacks using various high-level spells available to Celine and teleporting around the room... and he always opens the fight with an unavoidable casting of his strongest attack, "Wind of Destruction", of which he seldom will use during the remainder of the fight.
[edit] Vesper and Decus
One of the hardest fights in the game occurs when the player is forced into a showdown with two of the Ten Wise Men about midway through the tower of Fienal. Vesper is a large expressionless bald man clad in a regal magician's robe, and Decus is seemingly little more than a man completely engulfed in flames. Their styles compliment each other, as Vesper pummels the party with spells, occasionally turning a party member to stone or depleting their MP to refill his own. The rather vocal Decus, rushes around the room at blinding speed delivering flaming combination attacks, killing each party member one by one. Decus' only other attack options are Celine's "Explosion" spell and a massive scale fire-attack called Spicule. Spicule is likely the attack that many a player has cursed to eternity for ending an otherwise good run through the final area.
[edit] Jibril, Nicolus, and Ruprecht
Three of the wise men attack the player in the entry hall to the tower of Fienal. It is easy to see why the three of them attack together, because if encountered alone, each would be no harder than one of the regular encounters in the level. Nicolus can move around at will when he isn't casting spells, attacking by the use of magenta beams that can potentially petrify their targets. Ruprecht only moves by teleporting, attacking by throwing a gas grenade or using his tuning fork-like scepter to create a mid-range cone of sound. Jibril is different, he is basically a teleporting "void" (only a dark cloud can be seen inside of his cloak) that drops from above on one character (creating a shockwave in the process) or occasionally sucking in a character completely, through a demonic hand that extends from the cloak's void. Jibril will release a character if struck enough times, and cannot seemingly absorb more than one at a time. Each of these three can also use spells--Ruprecht uses Mind Absorber and Protection, Nicolus uses Delay and Noah, Jibril uses Cure All and Thundercloud.
[edit] Shigeo
Shigeo seems to be a mostly robotic man, clad in a white jumpsuit, who kills everything in sight. This is evident in his rampage at the amusement park "Fun City" where the party encounters him bent on a massacre mission in one of the event areas of the park. His speech is also typed in all caps, indicating he has some sort of electronic voice. He also has a "jetpack", which greatly enhances his ability to move around the room. He attacks using fire waves, tornado blasts, and another move called "Infringment", which seems to have been programmed improperly, as it lifts a character into the air momentarilly, but it doesn't appear to do anything else.
[edit] Berle
Berle appears as a knight is a full suit of armor, complete with a sword and shield. He is a very trying opponent to battle. Berle is a very smart opponent, as his attacks are very defensive, and occasionally, he will activate his "Meta-Guard". This mode causes him to turn bright red, and not suffer any damage at all until the move wears off. This characteristic makes the battle against him a unique one indeed. He is one of the two wisemen who are fought in "plot-battles" in which they are unkillable, due to a missing necessary item that is acquired later.
[edit] Marsilio
Marsilio is a muscular man with long white hair, and a barbarian-like appearance. He is armed with a large broadsword and uses it in every move. He has the distinction of being armed with a special move that was not translated properly (on either side of the Pacific)... sometimes during the fight, he will perform the multiple-hitting "Cruelly Rushes" attack on a character, which bears alot of similar to Claude's own "Mirror Slice". His other special technique, Initial Slay, involves him charging his target even more quickly than normal and slashing him/her twice. Marsilio is the other wiseman who is encountered in another location before he can actually be slain.
[edit] Shin
Shin's appearance is that of a flying devil/gargoyle-type creature with a strange white/pink hue. He leads the waves of monsters encountered on the planet Expel from Eluria Tower. His occupation seems to be that of a "general" in the employ of the Ten Wise Men, and before they are introduced, he appears to be the games main villain. Shin is a very arrogant opponent, and often boasts of how easy it would be for him to wipe out the party in seconds. He even gets the chance before the party has the capability to damage him, and thus, what appears to be a victory-run for the heroes leaves them stranded on another continent, without the means to return.
Shin attacks extremely fast, making the fight against him extremely difficult. He uses his main special attack, "Spoil", frequently because he can regain lost health through its usage, the move itself is a vampiric grappling move from the air. He can also cast Noel's "Foehn" spell, but does so rarely. This is probably rarer because the player is constantly "avoiding him" during the first encounter, whereas he can be confronted directly and killed in the second battle, in a similar fashion to the first Wise Men encountered.
[edit] Endings
One of the things about the game that was hyped were its multiple endings. The exact number often is often said to be 87, though it's really 86 with two having minor differences. There is one ending for each character alone and one for each possible pair of characters. If two characters could be recruited together, they can have an ending together. For example, an ending involving Bowman and Precis does not exist as you cannot have both recruited. There are also secret endings involving characters outside of the party. This adds a certain element of replay value to the game; to see all the character endings, it would be necessary to play through the game nine times or more.
[edit] Trivia
In the Japanese version of the game, the Ten Wise Men were all named after Judeo-Christian angels, as follows:
- Berle: Metatron
- Shigeo: Jophiel
- Marsilio: Zaphkiel
- Ruprecht: Zadkiel
- Nicolus: Camael
- Jibril: Raphael
- Vesper: Haniel
- Decus: Michael
- Cyril: Lucifer
- Indalecio: Gabriel
Jibril is actually the Arabic name for the archangel Gabriel.
Their original name was "The Ten Sages of God". There is a reference to them in a book found in Star Ocean 3 which refers to them by their original Japanese names.
Not counting Lucifer, the original names of the Wise Men were in the reverse order of the ethnarchs of the angelic choirs according to Pseudo-Dionysius. That is, whereas Metatron (of the seraphim) was the highest, and Gabriel (of the angels) was the lowest, it is the other way around with the Wise Men. Since higher angels were closer to God, and lower angels closer to humanity, the naming was probably meant to refer to Lantis-era Nede trying to take for themselves God's authority.
There is also a pair of extra boss characters found in the Cave of Trials who are called Gabrielle Celesta and Ethereal Queen (Iselia Queen in translation). Gabrielle and Ethereal appear in most tri-Ace games and both are angels ("Celestials" in Star Ocean 3) in physical form unlike the wise men, except Lucifer (Cyril) and Gabriel (Indalecio) with limiter on.
Lucifer is also the original Japanese name for Luther Lansfeld from "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time", and it has been suggested that these characters may be linked. In the third game's optional dungeon known as the "Urssa Cave Temple," you can fight Lucifer who looks very much like this game's incarnation, even down to the silver hair, black coat and wings. However, there is no mention of an explicit connection between them. It may simply be an homage to SO2's own Lucifer.
The most powerful weapon in the game the "Levantine" may be a mistranslation, or misspelling of the Laevateinn.
