Star Ocean: The Second Story

Star Ocean: The Second Story is an RPG developed by tri-Ace and released for the PSX in 1999. The game spans two discs, which means more content than the average PSX game and thus provides quite a bit of playing time. You take on the role of a hero of your choice; Claude, a blonde-haired man from Earth who is accidentally transported to an unknown planet during an exploration, or Rena, a blue-haired magician who lives on this mysterious planet 

called Expel. Depending on who you choose, different parts of the main story are revealed. The adventure begins after a few strange events and the two discover they must stop a group of evil geniuses who call themselves "The Ten Wisemen" from taking over the world with their mysterious weapon named "The Sorcery Globe".

As the two travel across the planet to discover any information they can on these "Ten Wisemen" and their Sorcery Globe, they encounter many discrepancies between the townspeople. Rena and Claude take it upon themselves to help out any way they can. The player is often given choices with how they go about their journey, and sometimes you can opt to forget about the town's woes and instead continue on to the next town. Every action you make affects how the team thinks of each other, which contributes to the various endings the player can receive. As you journey, you're given the opportunity of letting people you meet join your party. The choices you are given whenever you want to recruit a new character are very important, because usually when you recruit a new character, another character that could've joined your party becomes unavailable. Players must choose what party members they find truly helpful and allow them to remain in the team.Outside of battle, the party can explore various towns and talk to strangers to figure out what they need to do next. The storyline is pretty much linear, and usually the goal is to travel from point x to point y. Townspeople may have various side-quests that you can do, and in return you might get some money or equipment. Actions and conversations in different parts of the game are sometimes dependent on who you have recruited. Each town also offers "Private Actions" where the party splits up and you can learn various things about the rest of your party.

Of course, as it should be with RPG, the key solution to problems is to fight. Star Ocean 2's battles take place in real time and are triggered on the world map or in dungeons. Every party member is classified as either a fighter or a magician. Fighters usually stay close to the enemies, and can use "Killer Moves", or special abilities, to take over the enemies and turn the battle in their favor at the cost of MP. These attacks become stronger every time they are used. Fighters also have a standard attack, which causes damage and has a chance of "peeping" or dazing the enemy. Magicians usually have either offensive magic or defensive magic, and support the team from afar. Defensive magicians like Rena use Cure and various stat buffs to support the fighters, and have high MP to deal with the spell costs. Offensive magicians use area of effect spells to do high damage to multiple enemies, but they perform very poorly when close to enemies.

SO2 also introduces a very in-depth skill and item creation system. Whenever a character levels up, they're given skill points which can be used to increase skill levels of your choosing. These skills increase your battle stats and also provide other bonuses, such as higher selling prices for items. Multiple skills of similar nature are also needed to unlock various specialties, which allow you to create items. For example, if you put skill points into "Recipe", "Kitchen Knife", and "Good Eye", you will unlock the "Cooking" specialty. From that, you can mix various ingredients to create HP and MP restoring items. The more skill points you pump into skills, the better the character becomes at the specialty.

All-in-all, Star Ocean 2 is a truly unique experience. The real-time battle system is fun, the dialogue is entertaining, and the music is beautiful. The game has a few cut scenes that give current-gen graphics a run for it's money. The storyline is entertaining and original, and replayability is huge, allowing you to see parts of the story that weren't available on the first play-through. Ignore the voice acting and a few other minor annoyances and you'll find yourself a true gem of an RPG.