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"The treasure found at the bottom of the ocean..."

A PSX RPG released in 1999 by the (at that time) relatively unknown publisher Enix, Star Ocean: The Second Story is nothing short of a masterpiece, but it was overshadowed by the release of the super-popular RPG giant Final Fantasy VII. Although it didn't sell too well, Star Ocean 2 is at the very least an extremely innovative and fun game, and at the most it is one of the greatest games ever to hit the shelves. While it has its weak points, Star Ocean 2's countless features, side quests, and awesome gameplay make up for them tenfold.

You can select between two main characters: Claude Kenni, a space cadet from Earth, or Rena Lanford, a little elf chick from a planet called Expel. Claude is accidentally teleported to Expel, which is suffering from various problems, such as earthquakes, floods, and an increase in the population of monsters. This is believed to be the work of something called the Sorcery Globe, which has crashed on Expel a short while before Claude arrives. Thinking he might find a way back home, Claude goes with Rena to the continent of El to investigate the Sorcery Globe. Overall, their stories are pretty much identical, but there are a few differences.

Along the way, you'll meet an interesting cast of characters. There are 12 characters total in the game, but you'll have to play through at least twice to get them all. Tri-Ace does a good job with giving characters a lot of development and personality. Although, I think they sort of screwed up with Ashton (a twin-sword fighter with an obsession with barrels and two dragons on his back). A lot of characters have side quests specifically devoted to developing their personality.

Another thing that keeps characters interesting is the ''Private Action'' feature. When you're close to a town, you can choose to do a ''Private Action'', which allows you to explore the town by yourself, instead of having all of your party members with you. When you're by yourself, you'll run into your buddies in town and can talk to them. A lot of times, this will trigger an event between your characters. And who knows what this event will be about. Sometimes someone will give you an item, or sometimes someone will want you to play hide-and-seek with them. Private Actions add a much needed boost the storyline, in terms of character development.

But there are a few disappointments I found with the story. A minor thing is the occasional poorly translated line (''Will you take responsible for making me damaged goods?''). Thankfully, there are only a few grammatically butchered sentences throughout the game. Also, the first hour or so of the game is EXTREMELY boring, with only a couple of battles mingled with countless rambling by characters. The little emotion icons may seem cute at first, but they will get to be very annoying. I swear, if I see another ellipsis, I will have a seizure. And finally, while this game boasts to have over 80 endings (which does add a lot of replay value), only a select few of them aren't disappointing, and several of them are very, very similar. Overall, however, the story is for the most part light and enjoyable, with a couple of serious or dramatic scenes every now and then.

One of the best parts of the game, and the sole reason why SO2 is loved by so many, is the fast-paced, fun, and challenging battle system. Battles take place in real-time, which makes them more realistic than the classical ''waiting'' system. No more ''you hit me, I wait, I hit you, I wait, and then I hit you again''. Your battle party of up to four characters are simultaneously moving across a 3-D battlefield, fighting an enemy that is moving towards you as well. This system allows for TONS of entertainment, and battles that never seem to get stale. It also adds a lot of strategy to fighting; will you rush out to meet the enemy and leave your spellcasters prone to attacks, or stay back and protect them while they launch spells to help you out?

The default settings for the battle system, though, are pretty cumbersome. You have to hold the Square button while pressing the directional buttons to move your character around the battlefield. And you also have to hit the attack button twice in order to give the command to attack. But this can be easily remedied by selecting ''Full-Time Battles'', in which you only have to give the attack command once, and don't have to hold in Square while using the D-Pad. Some people prefer the clumsier controls, but I'm sure most will like full control in battle. Also, you can change the camera angle to and from Leader-Centered and Normal (which shows you the whole battlefield). This allows for much flexibility in battles.

Voice acting plays a major part in battles. And sometimes, it can be even more dangerous than the enemies you're fighting. It sounds like Tri-Ace just went to an asylum, took out some people, and brought them in to do voice acting while they were being tickled with rocks. Precis, Chisato, Vesper and Decus are especially annoying. Some people have problems with Celine as well. A lot of times, the voice acting isn't bad, but it's actually the line itself. ''Looks like I'll be popular with the ladies again!''? Who the hell screams that out in the middle of a battlefield?! There are a couple of instances where they just borrowed the Japanese acting (Rena's Tractor Beam is the only one I can remember).

But as bad as the voice acting is, it is also quite amusing. I have never quite laughed as hard as I did when I heard Vesper's (or was it Decus'?) wail when you kill him. It sounds like a cat getting run over by a monster truck outfitted with spiked tires, an early 20th century car horn and the newest Linkin Park CD. Unfortunately, most of the voice acting is very repetitive, so it'll only be amusing for a while. So you too might find salvation in the voice acting. The rest of the game's audio is good, especially the background music. It easily compares with the likes of Square's greater soundtracks.

Battles are also usually very challenging. Sometimes, you may get away with just mashing X, but don't rely on your button-bashing skills when you come across a boss. Almost every boss in the game is insanely tough, ESPECIALLY the series of bosses at the end of the game. Ever fight a boss that killed your entire party with one magic spell? How about a trio of bosses that can kill off your party in about 20 seconds? If not, then you're about to lose your virginity. Don't even get me started on those ''secret'' bosses, especially on the harder difficulty levels.

The battle graphics aren't too great, but not painful to look at, either. It's basically 2-D sprites on a 3-D battlefield. Battle animations are smooth, with only a little jerking. Specialties look fantastic, especially the later Spells and Killer Moves. However, the final Spells can get annoying, because their animation sequence takes SO long. Bring some popcorn while you play so that you can enjoy watching your mages nuke the enemies 54 times a battle with their strongest spells.

The rest of the graphics aren't really spectacular either, but they certainly are above average. The two-dimensional sprites look so cute against the three-dimensional background. The backgrounds are well detailed, but sometimes TOO detailed, causing you to miss important things such as treasure chests and characters. While in the item menu, you get a detailed, three-dimensional view of the item you‘re highlighting, and each item is different as well (if you count palette swaps as being ''different''). Character portraits are great, and the rare anime FMVs are good too. But as I said before, probably the coolest-looking things are the Specialties.

Characters learn these Specialties as they level up. Depending on whether they're a fighting type character or mage, they'll learn Killer Moves or Spells, respectively. These make battles even more fun than they were already. Also, the more you use a Killer Move or Spell, the stronger it gets. If you use it enough, the actual animation and appearance will change! For example, when you first use Claude's Air Slash, it's a small blue wave that streams towards the enemy. Use it enough, and it will turn into a huge, golden wave. This feature will make you want to battle nonstop.

Another awesome innovation is the Skills feature. When you level up, you get SP, which can be spent on learning various Skills. Each Skill has a different effect. For example, the Skill ''Parry'' will let you guard against attacks more effectively. There are also Specialty Skills, which can be learned by learning specific regular Skills. Learning Kitchen Knife, Recipe, and Good Eye, for example, will let you utilize the Special Skill ''Cooking''. If you have the right ingredients and use cooking, you can create various food items to help you out. There are lots of different Specialty Skills, which let you do things like creating weapons to picking pockets. And if you learn enough Specialty Skills, you will learn Super Specialty Skills. You can already see where I would go with this.

While cooking up some pie may sound sort of lame, it's actually pretty innovative. And in a nerdy way, sort of rewarding. Don't expect to be a Wonder Chef right when you learn cooking; most likely, you will only be able to make crap like rotten eggs, burnt water and, worst of all, Chinese food (BLECH). But eventually, when you make your first glass of orange juice, you'll feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement. Or maybe you'll just feel relieved that you finally got it right. Either way, it's a pretty good feeling.

There is also the relations system. For every battle fought, the members of your current party's relations go up. Some events can increase/decrease relations as well. Higher relations between party members affect the effectiveness of those characters in battle (if two characters have a good relationship, and one dies, the other gets stat boosts), and the ending you get is also dependent on how your characters feel about each other. So if you want better endings, you'll have to fight more battles.

Speaking of endings, a big part of the replay factor is that there are over 80 endings to this game (although most of them I wouldn't call endings... AH! IT'S AN ELLIPSIS!). There is no way you can view them all in one playthrough, so you'll have to go through the game multiple times in order to see them all. The replay value is further increased by the unlockable difficulty levels, various characters to acquire, a voice collection (where you can listen to all the terrible, yet hilarious, voice acting any time you wish), and of course, two different main characters.

There is lots of room for exploration in SO2. There are two completely different worlds to explore, each littered with several towns and dungeons. There are countless side quests, and even more secrets. One of the coolest secrets in the game is right at the very end; but I can't spoil it for you. Let's just say you might be somewhere that seems somewhat familiar. And in this place, there is a secret dungeon, which presents an extremely difficult challenge as well as lots of fun.

Probably the biggest setback to this game is the random freezing. Although usually not too bad, this game freezes a lot while going through a specific dungeon; everyone I've met has problems with this. All you can do is reset and try again, but it will only be a while until you get extremely frustrated. Other than this, there are no major glitches in the game. There is a somewhat convenient way to get around it, but it still won't prevent you from wanting to kill someone.

Overall, Star Ocean: The Second Story is deep, deeper than the deepest ocean, even an ocean of stars. The game is so innovative, I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas Edison was the producer for Tri-Ace. The battle system says it all- fast, fun, and and it leaves you fresh for more. Truly, there are few RPGs out there that can compare with this. While there are some big issues, especially the voice acting and freezing, Star Ocean: The Second Story will be a game remembered far into the future as one of the greatest games of all time.

Gameplay: 10/10
Innovation: 10/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Replayability: 10/10
Difficulty: Above Average to Insane

Final Score: 10/10 (Not an average)

We've got a perfect score with this!

You won't get that until you've played, say, oh, three battles. At most.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04