5:39 (On the PSP version) If you go into settings the very first option is labeled "Message Skipping." It is set to OFF by default, but if you set it to ON, then you can hit X and stop the sound byte, then hit X again to proceed the message.
This. This game. I played this game randomly at my grandma's house when I was about 7 or so. I loved it so much, I burned through the game so fast and I loved it. But I was young and didn't really know the title of the game, so years later I had a hard time tracking it down. I finally found it!
It's also worth mentioning that Welch from Till the End of Time and The Last Hope also got added in the PSP remakes as a playable character. I recruited her in Lacuer. It's kinda fun to see a new character in the series interacting with the old cast but it also poked some holes into the story of the whole franchise. Welch is like the Star Wars prequel level of retcon, she appeared in Second Evolution without acknowledging Claude as the son of Ronyx.
Hearing you talk about your top 20 jrpgs makes me want to see a video of that list! I know its been awhile since you made vids but please consider making that video!
Great review! This is a fantastic game. I remember that I bought it in a Swedish department store in 1999 (or 2000, I'm not completely sure). I had never heard about Star Ocean before and I just bought it on a whim since I couldn't find anything else that seemed interesting. I'm very glad I did. It has been one of my fvorite games ever since. =)
Nice video dude! I've been following your videos for quite a while now and I created a TH-cam account just to comment on your videos lol. ^^' Star Ocean 2 is my favorite game in the serie also. This game is legendary! There is just one thing I didn't agree in this review and its about the voice acting. You complain about unskippable text, which is not true. If you you go to the main menu, go to "Settings" and set "Message Skipping" to ON. Now you can press "X" to skip the dialogue. REALLY USEFUL! Good luck for your next video! ;) ps: Sorry for my broken english
I loved the VA from the originsl SO2 because the things they said were so stupid. "That's about 50 points!" "10 seconds." "Ready Aruru?" And Noels "Energy Arrow?" Hell yes.
Crawd has advance forward Honestly, I love this game so much, it got me into the series and I've played through it so many times. Now if only Square Enix would release the PS4/Vita port outside Japan...
Great retrospectives. I'm a huge fan of the games. Star Ocean 3 being my favorite, even though a played SO2 first. Love them both, but there's approaches to the real time battle formula that I much prefer over the rest of the games and the Tales series. It being not a pure battle skill spam, or button masher being one. As for the review, there's some things you got wrong. Which is fine and not a huge deal for me. One being the 3 hit system being present in the PSone version on Star Ocean 2. Actually... such a system did not even exist until the PSP port. I have to agree it does take a way alot of the balance since the damage scaling for a single hit is the same as the original. It's like being given a Killer Move/Battle Skill that does not cost any MP.
Finished second evolution recently as claude. I actually found the umd at one of those retro stores for like $30. I will replay the game following Rena's story a bit later while currently playing till the end of time. That said, this was a great game and a great follow up to first departure which was my first game in the series. I appreciate the style and Easter eggs within second evolution which is what makes it such an enjoyable game. And yes the characters are the main selling point of the story! Claude and Rena are perhaps the best written protagonist duo I've so far encountered in star ocean for all their backstory and struggles. However I do have some very big gripes and issues with the main plot of the game itself. Vague spoilers ahead! Be warned! You finally meet the main antagonists of the story halfway through the game and the twist they are involved in felt horribly out of place. The game builds up this climactic moment where the grand mystery at the start of the game is finally revealed, only to throw everything through a loophole. The entire built up tension thinking you reached the possible end of the game or somewhere close to it is ruined as the antagonists throw the main cast into an entirely new setting where the player is met with info dump after info dump to understand what is going on. Most the info is in a library that the player has to go to and read for themselves and even then, there's a ton of mysteries left behind the villains you now have to fight. Not to mention their backstory is even more vague as they're portrayed as being evil for the sake of being evil and only after the final boss does the game suggest there was something bigger at play but never says what. There's also the fact that a couple of early plot points are dumped entirely, such as Claude being the prophesied hero of light which went no where and never got mentioned again. If not for Claude and Rena themselves, I would've just dumped the entire second part of the game.
I was wondering why your video review is so clean and clear compared to my copy on my playstation? Is this recorded on a playstation computer or emulator?
My fondest memory of SO2 was looking at a poison herb in my inventory and thinking "HEy I can select this to eat... Wait, will the game actually let me eat it? What will happen if I do?" then I did it and I died and got a game over. I would have liked the combat more if the spells didn't completely stop the battles. I don't think Tales of Destiny and Phantasia were that bad on that, but SO2 really kills it for me because of the constant stop'n'go. Also Bowman is the coolest. I am excited to play as him in Xillia 2.
Yeah the spells stopping combat gets really old. I love the characters and story though, its what makes this game so endearing. And yes Bowman is freaking awesome, I was kicking myself for recruiting Precis instead on first play through.
tengo el second story todavia no lo termino por completo pero me encanta talvez despues me compre el second evolution de todas maneras por ahora me eh entretenido mucho con el psone jeje asi que no tengo prisa jaja.
Ahh, Second Story. Many an hour have I spent on this game. ;) I remember my first time playing being a little upset when I found out that certain characters won't join me when I have others on my team. I was used to the idea of being able to recruit everyone possible in one go. I do like how it lends itself to replayability. Plus having two different main characters to choose from makes you want to give it a least two playthroughs anyway. :P I did a video on this game a while back about a leveling spot that I use early in the game. Pretty much just when I want to be way overpowered right away, haha. :P Great video!
I miss this game... but dont want to buy a psp :( Also does the psp version still have the thief aspect from Claude Kenny? I remember having to restart the game multiple times until i got the stat I needed. Cause I loved stealing from everyone.
This was because Star Ocean SNES and Tales of Phantasia were originally the same team before splitting ways. There's more similarities than just Claude, I assure you XD
Yes ive played the first 3 wild arms but not Legend of legaia. Im looking into getting the Legend of heroes series soon. Dark souls 3 and FFXV... Its not the best but its still really good.
I'm really surprised to hear him say the characters were interesting. I found them pretty shallow, and it's odd that getting to know them better is actually considered optional content (private actions). It really feels like Rena and Claude are the only people there a lot of the time. The rest of the cast hardly say anything, and they never talk to each other either.
THE NUMBER ONE RPG OF ALL IN PLAYSTATION NO DOUBT! THIS WAS UNDERRATED AND OVER RATING FINAL FANTASY VII & VIII THAT MUCH. This is in my opinion the only game that can beat Final Fantasy as the best RPG in Playstation! Does anyone agrees with me, I guess some of you?
i believe the greatest game of all time is The Witcher 3 and it just so happens to be an rpg. Its a toss up between FF7 and Chrono trigger for second place then SO 2 Wild arms suikoden 2 persona 4 ff8 ff9 xenogears fftactics ni no kuni are in the top ten.
delgado9797 The Witcher is like a beat em up hack and slash RPG with a different camera angle. Put Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. I don't think Witcher is the greatest of all time. I do believe Diablo 2 will take that place. Don't forget another great RPG Neverwinter Nights they are the one who made The Witcher, Bioware!
Your emulator seems to struggle. The character models appear to overlap all backgrounds! These remakes/ports appear to have a few fatal flaws. Namely, all names of the playable/recruit-able characters appear in Capital Letters killing any semblance of surprise when you find out that they can come with you. Besides that, there are no hints that "you shouldn't recruit every character you meet" in this game. As mentioned, the combat becomes boring thanks to the instant availability of the triple attack. Lastly... WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO RENA! She looks nothing like her old drawing, and can't convince anyone that she could ever be considered a main character...
Why would anybody read subtitles while playing a game if you can just listen to the voice acting? That’s what the voice actors are paid for. Plus reading takes your eyes away from the action and you’re probably not reading with the same emotion in your head as the game is trying to Convey just sayin- I would much rather watch the game cut scenes, play out, then try to one up the game by reading ahead
I'm just about to help out at the 'front' and I have to say this story is going absolutely nowhere ... giving up. Travelling with 2 ANNOYING females and one kid nah im out.
5:39 (On the PSP version) If you go into settings the very first option is labeled "Message Skipping." It is set to OFF by default, but if you set it to ON, then you can hit X and stop the sound byte, then hit X again to proceed the message.
This. This game. I played this game randomly at my grandma's house when I was about 7 or so. I loved it so much, I burned through the game so fast and I loved it. But I was young and didn't really know the title of the game, so years later I had a hard time tracking it down. I finally found it!
It's also worth mentioning that Welch from Till the End of Time and The Last Hope also got added in the PSP remakes as a playable character. I recruited her in Lacuer. It's kinda fun to see a new character in the series interacting with the old cast but it also poked some holes into the story of the whole franchise. Welch is like the Star Wars prequel level of retcon, she appeared in Second Evolution without acknowledging Claude as the son of Ronyx.
I really enjoy your retrospectives. Looking forward to more.
This and Breath of Fire 3 were the games that kickstarted me into the JRPG genre...20 + years later and I'm still hooked...
I was playing them since Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, but SO2 and BoF3 were 2 of my 3 favorites of all time along with Dragon Quest 7.
Yeah I dipped into breath of fire 3 first right then star ocean ...star ocean was hard as fuck.
Another awesome video. I just beat Star Ocean the second story to celebrate the 20 years it’s been out in a America
This is my first time visiting your channel. Nice review. I am going to download this game and play it as soon possible.
One of my childhood favorite games
Hearing you talk about your top 20 jrpgs makes me want to see a video of that list! I know its been awhile since you made vids but please consider making that video!
Great Review. I remember how great this was, but also how damn difficult later on in the story lol
PEAR INTO PEACHES!
I always heard Tear into Pieces. And I have hearing issues. Not sure why that came through clear to me.
Robert Kent that’s the joke
This is my favorite star ocean
Great review! This is a fantastic game. I remember that I bought it in a Swedish department store in 1999 (or 2000, I'm not completely sure). I had never heard about Star Ocean before and I just bought it on a whim since I couldn't find anything else that seemed interesting. I'm very glad I did. It has been one of my fvorite games ever since. =)
XD, i found this game while looking trough my attic (Still don't know how it got there) and liked the game the first time the opening played XD
XD, i found this game while looking trough my attic (Still don't know how it got there) and liked the game the first time the opening played XD
Really nice retrospective! I'll be checking out your other videos. :)
8:52- Soa re the FF I & II Anniversary Editions. I was looking foward to bringing it to PSVITA.
Nice video dude! I've been following your videos for quite a while now and I created a TH-cam account just to comment on your videos lol. ^^'
Star Ocean 2 is my favorite game in the serie also. This game is legendary!
There is just one thing I didn't agree in this review and its about the voice acting. You complain about unskippable text, which is not true. If you you go to the main menu, go to "Settings" and set "Message Skipping" to ON. Now you can press "X" to skip the dialogue. REALLY USEFUL!
Good luck for your next video! ;)
ps: Sorry for my broken english
Oh man I wish I knew about that, would have made the game just a tad more enjoyable than it already was!
I loved the VA from the originsl SO2 because the things they said were so stupid. "That's about 50 points!" "10 seconds." "Ready Aruru?" And Noels "Energy Arrow?" Hell yes.
Crawd has advance forward
Honestly, I love this game so much, it got me into the series and I've played through it so many times. Now if only Square Enix would release the PS4/Vita port outside Japan...
Great retrospectives. I'm a huge fan of the games. Star Ocean 3 being my favorite, even though a played SO2 first. Love them both, but there's approaches to the real time battle formula that I much prefer over the rest of the games and the Tales series. It being not a pure battle skill spam, or button masher being one.
As for the review, there's some things you got wrong. Which is fine and not a huge deal for me. One being the 3 hit system being present in the PSone version on Star Ocean 2. Actually... such a system did not even exist until the PSP port. I have to agree it does take a way alot of the balance since the damage scaling for a single hit is the same as the original. It's like being given a Killer Move/Battle Skill that does not cost any MP.
1:38. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME FOR 20 YEARS AND I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT ANIMATION IN EITHER VERSION!?
Finished second evolution recently as claude. I actually found the umd at one of those retro stores for like $30. I will replay the game following Rena's story a bit later while currently playing till the end of time.
That said, this was a great game and a great follow up to first departure which was my first game in the series. I appreciate the style and Easter eggs within second evolution which is what makes it such an enjoyable game. And yes the characters are the main selling point of the story! Claude and Rena are perhaps the best written protagonist duo I've so far encountered in star ocean for all their backstory and struggles.
However I do have some very big gripes and issues with the main plot of the game itself. Vague spoilers ahead! Be warned!
You finally meet the main antagonists of the story halfway through the game and the twist they are involved in felt horribly out of place. The game builds up this climactic moment where the grand mystery at the start of the game is finally revealed, only to throw everything through a loophole. The entire built up tension thinking you reached the possible end of the game or somewhere close to it is ruined as the antagonists throw the main cast into an entirely new setting where the player is met with info dump after info dump to understand what is going on. Most the info is in a library that the player has to go to and read for themselves and even then, there's a ton of mysteries left behind the villains you now have to fight. Not to mention their backstory is even more vague as they're portrayed as being evil for the sake of being evil and only after the final boss does the game suggest there was something bigger at play but never says what. There's also the fact that a couple of early plot points are dumped entirely, such as Claude being the prophesied hero of light which went no where and never got mentioned again. If not for Claude and Rena themselves, I would've just dumped the entire second part of the game.
I was wondering why your video review is so clean and clear compared to my copy on my playstation? Is this recorded on a playstation computer or emulator?
I can still hear: "pear into peaches"
And
Wilted Salad: Wait. How old is this?
Love this game. Keep up the great work
Will you review Star Ocean 5 Integrity and Faithlessness?
How are you doing that 6 hit combo with Claude? Anyone? I can only do a 3 hit.
My fondest memory of SO2 was looking at a poison herb in my inventory and thinking "HEy I can select this to eat... Wait, will the game actually let me eat it? What will happen if I do?" then I did it and I died and got a game over. I would have liked the combat more if the spells didn't completely stop the battles. I don't think Tales of Destiny and Phantasia were that bad on that, but SO2 really kills it for me because of the constant stop'n'go.
Also Bowman is the coolest. I am excited to play as him in Xillia 2.
Yeah the spells stopping combat gets really old. I love the characters and story though, its what makes this game so endearing. And yes Bowman is freaking awesome, I was kicking myself for recruiting Precis instead on first play through.
Wait so is the PSP version basically the same game as the PS1 version? Which one is better?
tengo el second story todavia no lo termino por completo pero me encanta talvez despues me compre el second evolution de todas maneras por ahora me eh entretenido mucho con el psone jeje asi que no tengo prisa jaja.
All time favorite game.
Ahh, Second Story. Many an hour have I spent on this game. ;) I remember my first time playing being a little upset when I found out that certain characters won't join me when I have others on my team. I was used to the idea of being able to recruit everyone possible in one go. I do like how it lends itself to replayability. Plus having two different main characters to choose from makes you want to give it a least two playthroughs anyway. :P I did a video on this game a while back about a leveling spot that I use early in the game. Pretty much just when I want to be way overpowered right away, haha. :P Great video!
I miss this game... but dont want to buy a psp :(
Also does the psp version still have the thief aspect from Claude Kenny? I remember having to restart the game multiple times until i got the stat I needed. Cause I loved stealing from everyone.
Yes the Dexterity/Nimble Fingers is still present.
man how the prices of these games increased so much 8 years later lol
The Playstation game has a very special place in my heart. Next playthrough I'll pick Opera instead of Ashton lol
She’s way better. You can use her as a healer/long distance fighter and not have to waste a spot with Rena for a healer.
Am I the only one who notices how VERY SIMILAR Claude looks to Cless?
SEPARATED AT BIRTH
ARE YA TALKING ABOUT CLESS IN TALES OF PHANTASIA?
+Cute Filipino yes
Pokechao
YEAH RIGHT. Hair style face and body very look a like!
This was because Star Ocean SNES and Tales of Phantasia were originally the same team before splitting ways. There's more similarities than just Claude, I assure you XD
2 Bits LP
Prove us!
Are those japanese or american programers?
Yes ive played the first 3 wild arms but not Legend of legaia. Im looking into getting the Legend of heroes series soon. Dark souls 3 and FFXV... Its not the best but its still really good.
on ps1 it has a 3d items
Best Star OCean game EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm really surprised to hear him say the characters were interesting. I found them pretty shallow, and it's odd that getting to know them better is actually considered optional content (private actions). It really feels like Rena and Claude are the only people there a lot of the time. The rest of the cast hardly say anything, and they never talk to each other either.
ive only played BOF 3
THE NUMBER ONE RPG OF ALL IN PLAYSTATION NO DOUBT! THIS WAS UNDERRATED AND OVER RATING FINAL FANTASY VII & VIII THAT MUCH. This is in my opinion the only game that can beat Final Fantasy as the best RPG in Playstation! Does anyone agrees with me, I guess some of you?
Sports Video Games the game is great but its no ff7
delgado9797
Because they did not pay attention much on Star Ocean. So you mean Final Fantasy is the greatest? To me its Star Ocean.
i believe the greatest game of all time is The Witcher 3 and it just so happens to be an rpg. Its a toss up between FF7 and Chrono trigger for second place then SO 2 Wild arms suikoden 2 persona 4 ff8 ff9 xenogears fftactics ni no kuni are in the top ten.
delgado9797
The Witcher is like a beat em up hack and slash RPG with a different camera angle. Put Star Ocean Till The End Of Time.
I don't think Witcher is the greatest of all time. I do believe Diablo 2 will take that place.
Don't forget another great RPG Neverwinter Nights they are the one who made The Witcher, Bioware!
Ive didnt even know that Neverwinter existed....ill have to give it a try when im done with XV and DS3
Just use an emulator if you wanna play the OG...
Your emulator seems to struggle.
The character models appear to overlap all backgrounds!
These remakes/ports appear to have a few fatal flaws. Namely, all names of the playable/recruit-able characters appear in Capital Letters killing any semblance of surprise when you find out that they can come with you. Besides that, there are no hints that "you shouldn't recruit every character you meet" in this game. As mentioned, the combat becomes boring thanks to the instant availability of the triple attack. Lastly... WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO RENA! She looks nothing like her old drawing, and can't convince anyone that she could ever be considered a main character...
PSP version isn't better because Rena looks 12, PS2 version she looks 16.
The end bosses aren't hard, just grind your ass off.
So this is the game, where the sh!tty Star Ocean Anime hails from. I knew i would find it someday, without even looking for it....
Why would anybody read subtitles while playing a game if you can just listen to the voice acting? That’s what the voice actors are paid for. Plus reading takes your eyes away from the action and you’re probably not reading with the same emotion in your head as the game is trying to Convey just sayin- I would much rather watch the game cut scenes, play out, then try to one up the game by reading ahead
I HATE the new art style. I can't play this game because of it.
I'm just about to help out at the 'front' and I have to say this story is going absolutely nowhere ... giving up. Travelling with 2 ANNOYING females and one kid nah im out.