Retro Replay: Star Ocean – The Second Story

After tackling The Legend of Dragoon last week, this time we take a look at another PSOne RPG: Star Ocean – The Second Story.

One of the trappings of earlier role playing games is that the majority of them are set in cliche medieval fantasy worlds. Even the few that break from the norm, such as the vague steampunk aesthetic of Final Fantasy VII, still go back to the swords and magic we’re all used to. This is what made me so excited to play Star Ocean: The Second Story back in 1999. I’ve always been more of a sci-fi kind of guy, which made the setting of the game very appealing. So it’s unfortunate that the setting is abandoned after the credits finish rolling.

The Second Story opens up incredibly cinematic. The camera slowly pans across a field of stars, before moving on to a crashing meteor, and finally showing off an incredibly detailed space station. This CG intro helped create the expectation of an epic science fiction tale. But as said before, this feeling didn’t last long. The game gives you a choice of two different main characters to play as, but no matter who you choose, the setting quickly moves to an underdeveloped planet. And, of course, this planet is packed full of monsters, swords, and scorcery.

Now this deceptive opening would be forgivable if the fantasy setting was still great, but it’s not. Instead, it is very generic, with a bland plot and paint-by-numbers translation. What the game did have, is a very unique attention to detail. Like pretty much every 32 bit RPG, The Second Story featured static pre-rendered backgrounds. But as opposed to blocky polygonal characters, the game had well-animated 2D sprites. This gave the game a very interesting style, keeping it somewhat in tune with the 16 bit RPGs of years past. But it was the small details that helped make this visual style work. For example, when walking past a stream you would see the reflection of your character. Very impressive for a game of the generation.

Like most tri-ace developed games, The Second Story has an action-based combat system, as opposed to the more traditional turn based style featured in most RPGs. This involved a lot of running around and mashing buttons, featuring very little strategy. Enemies were also very easy to defeat. And while the game featured three different options, each of which allowed for a different level of control over your character in battle. Unfortunately, none of these made the combat any more compelling. But the worst part of the combat system was the horrid digitized voice clips the littered the fight. Very annoying.

That’s not to say that the entire game in unenjoyable. Despite the twist at the very beginning, the game did hold my interest for a number of hours. The mysteries of the undiscovered planet and the Sorcery Globe that was corrupting it kept me briefly captivated. But after a while, the grating dialogue and bland setting wore on me, forcing me to abandon the game. This is especially disappointing because I was looking forward to playing through the game a second time, seeing the story from each characters perspective.

During the PlayStation era I had an insatiable hunger for JRPGs. I devoured them as fast as I could, eventually realizing that a good number were not all that great. The catalyst for this was, unfortunately, this game. I know it has a dedicated fanbase (one that must be excited to see the remake hitting the PSP), but for me, the game just never clicked. I disliked the combat, and the story was enough to push me through the world.

Coming up next week, what do you get when you cross Resident Evil with dinosaurs? Why, Dino Crisis of course!