Star Ocean: The Second Story

I would have to say the single feature that most caught my attention would have to be the emotional points. Started in the original Star Ocean game, it has been honed and perfected in the sequel (I am told it's better in the next in the series).

As with all RPG's, it's really all about the story and this is where Star Ocean really succeeds. Besides being an incredibly long game to play, it's also interesting and has characters that you want to root for and see victorious.

If you persist past the ugly and confusing combat and a Bible worth of speech, there is a harmlessly atmospheric, quirky game underneath.

The amout of things to do in this game is staggering. From the Private Actions to the Skills, this game will keep you occupied for many, many days.

The Second Story, with it’s excellent skill system, item creation and complicated character relationships, takes two steps forward in RPG gaming. Unfortunately, it takes one of those steps back by being mired in some old and tired RPG conventions and by lack of documentation.

Gamers will no doubt enjoy the flexible interface with its different options, not to mention the game as a whole.

It leaves out the most crucial element: a compelling story. The story is predictable and unimaginative and little is done to move the story forward any faster than at a snail's pace.

Star ocean hqs to be like an rpg it is already like an rpg but it has to be more like an rpg

This is one of the best JRPGs ever made. Crafting (cooking, smithing, etc), relationships, recruiting specific characters, private actions, and exploring are all fun!!!!!!! Combat is great and balanced!!! Do yourself a favor and play this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could've been a great game. Combat is chaotic and unresponsive, would've been better if it was turn based. Crafting mechanics is a gimmick and not that fun to use. Grinding is a must. Inventory management is horrible, especially in combat. Pixel characters look fine, but nothing special. Some prerendered backgrounds aged poorly, others are gorgeous. World is fun to explore, each city is unique and each dungeon has a style. Music is there.

The battle system is the best thing about this game, it was fun and made grinding a lot easier then other RPG's you come across. story wise however i found that it was left wanting as it slowly built up to an anti climatic finish which seemed premature given events prior to it. The battle system was enough that i kept playing and item creation plus other special abilities kept it fun. overall it was good but lacking in some areas especially story line. graphics 8/10 game play 8/10 story 4/10

I found The Second Story too mired in archaic JRPG conventions that made the game impossible to enjoy. I wanted to like it, and I did for a few hours, but the prospect of having to grind (and grind some more) to proceed, ridiculous difficulty spikes, content hidden to all but psychics (suffers from "how was I supposed to know that!?" syndrome) ensured I cancelled my adventure 6 hours in. Unexpectedly weak.