A look back at: Star Ocean: Blue Sphere

Guess I didn't finish yet another game. That's what happens when I get bored with something that has an unfinished translation and I have no idea what I'm doing. At least gameplay-wise it's very, very impressive for the GBC, managing to have an active-time battle system as well as item creation mini-games and a skill system. That's sure a lot of work. Enemies tend to be quite annoying though, since they are what I would call "move spammers" where they use the same thing over and over again. Kinda like those moronic players who miraculously beat experience Tekken/Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter/Fatal Fury/Guilty Gear/any other fighting game franchise I can think of by finding a move they find super good on the whole and just using it over and over. Indeed, the fighting game-like battle system is privy to that.

Landing combos is hard work in itself, having to press A at the proper time. Getting killer moves though? I couldn't get it for anyone who wasn't Bowman or Ashton, and I STILL don't have a clue how to really unlock killer moves overall. Apparently female fighters like Opera and Chisato get theirs through the machinery skill, while other male fighters get theirs through, I guess fighting? Can't really tell. And statuses get really debilitating, especially the ones that knock you unconscious, basically meaning free attacks. Not to mention attempting to potentially unlock that killer move or get that killer 20-hit combo, then realizing your character is completely fatigued and won't make any moves until hit. This game makes mages seem a whole lot more useful than in Second Story.

Again, though, despite my complaints above, it's obvious gameplay is the true highlight of Blue Sphere, since I can't figure out a damn thing for plot and the unfinished translations somehow make things worse with lots of gibberish. I don't think I'm gonna bother with this game for a long time.

A look back at: Star Ocean: The Second Story

"Tear into pieces!" "Air Slash!" "Explosion Pills!" "Ten Thousand Volts!" "Healing Star!" "Mole!" "Hurricane Slash!"

My goodness this game had amazingly bad voice acting, something I don't bother to care about in reviews. Usually it doesn't matter that much, but hearing it over and over is obnoxious. Luckily for me, Star Ocean 2's gameplay is just like the previous game, loads of fun with techs and AI usage. And then the customization aspect rears in and there's just a TON to do. Imagine being able to break your game once you gain enough skill points to get better with skills, unlock talents, and use these specialties to do all sorts of things, pickpocketing, playing music, creating arts and crafts and machinery, getting discounts at markets, manipulating encounter rates, my god, there's so much to do. And the Private Actions only help sidetrack you from the main plot, and manipulate the endings. Of course, I just don't have the time to get all these endings, and I personally recommend playing the game simultaneously on both Claude and Rena's paths just once to see some scenes and all. Besides, not every party member can be recruited, Dias can only be recruited on Rena's path, and Leon on Claudes, while Bowman and Precis are mutually exclusive along with Ernest and Opera against Ashton.

I don't remember if I said this, but I hate the term "aged poorly", I can't make any sense of it other than "this game is old and not really as good as it used to be". I guess that's the term? Well I'd say that Star Ocean 2 aged poorly in that regard, as much as I'd hate to say it. Good customization and battle system, and a splendid amount of actually good bonus content for proper challenges, but its plot is mostly cliche and lackluster. There's not a lot of overall differences between Claude's path and Rena's path, and that's actually okay, because big differences would actually be more detrimental and perhaps bore players. But so many scenes are long and boring anyways, the cliches about Claude being the chosen one, Rena's pendant, "you are too late", etc. I can barely remember the whole middle section of the plot, because the beginning and ends are more interesting. They tried to make ten powerful adversaries in the Ten Wise Men, but only succeeded in one of them (Indalecio), as the rest are basically boss-rushed to death, while Indalecio can actually be made a LOT stronger with a private action.

An appropriate adjective to describe Star Ocean 2 is apocalyptic, since the end of Disc 1 sees the planet Expel meet its demise. The end of Disc 2 has Expel returning, but Energy Nede disappears, with three characters being the last of the Nedian race. Also the Calnus getting destroyed was a major player punch here. Safe to say that there's some serious ramifications in story that really will punch player's guts. You'd almost think the game was over at Disc 1 since the whole party is still on Expel when it is destroyed. What makes this worse may just be how Expellians think that this "Sorcery Globe" just made a load of disasters and did not have any clue about the demise, while the Nedians in your party pretty much know that they'll be the last of their kind at the end of Disc 2. Talk about heart-wrenching, and this game sure delivers when it finally does deliver.

A look back at: Star Ocean

I bet if you were to look back at the SNES version of Star Ocean, would you remember it for being the absolute largest game on the SNES? I wouldn't blame you, at least those who live outside of Japan, since this first game of a series never did get out of that nation.

And like it's sister gargantuan SNES game Tales of Phantasia, it has a lot of unique stuff in it. Art styles are pretty damn similar. And then you've got an interesting battle system that is incredibly engaging, plus AI control for your allies. And THEN you get some multiple branching points where you are probably not gonna play the same game twice. Just the fact that you cannot recruit both Cius and Ashlay is one thing. You can even get Fear without either of them. The game unfortunately is quite rough around the edges and happens to be prone to glitches at times, some of which fatal. And hell, I sure do a lot of grinding, not to mention separate save files because I want to see the capabilities of all fighters, damn it all. Who would think of some nerdy boy being a lycanthrope? Or some freaky cat girl wrecking?

I gotta admit, I'm quite impressed with how things go. Nice job bringing the earthlings in a role that isn't villainous. And at least make it interesting enough to separate one human and one Fellpool from the other group. All to stop a disease from turning Fellpool people to stone. You do wonder if Ratix or Millie really fulfills a protagonist role though, as it seems that Ronixis is quite moreso an actual captain by his actions, being more of a voice of reason than anyone else in his group. Asmodeus isn't really all that much of a villain, and Jie Revorse is pretty akin to Dhaos from Tales of Phantasia, only Dhaos wasn't so much a victim as Jie Revorse apparently was. And then there's the matter of "private actions" fledging some nice development out of every character in Ratix's group. While I hate that name, at least we get to see what each character currently thinks, despite the game not having relationship building. It's a pretty cool game overall.