Well, I started playing Star Ocean: Second Evolution for the PSP earlier this week. The game is a remake of a seemingly not-so-popular PS1 game called Star Ocean: The Second Story. With the addition of character avatars and more vocal dialogue, along with additional content, this looked to be a good remake of a game I loved so much.
I've only put about 13 hours into this game so far. Having on my team is: Claude, Rena, Celine, Ashton, Bowman, and Leon and about to head into the Hoffman Ruins. No, I'm nowhere close to even being halfway through the game. Maybe a quarter of the way through, though.
Here's my review so far on it:
Translation:
Well, I thought that the era of bad translation and voice actors was over. Apparently I was wrong. Maybe I'm just being picky; maybe it is the fact that I've heard (and loved) the Japanese voices. But the voices in this game disappoint me. So far, the worst yet has to be Ashton Anchors *my favorite character, and subject of one of my best cosplay creations* whose atrocious voice actually deters me from my desire to re-create my costume. I was almost hoping for Steve Staley (Cho Hakkai in Saiyuki, Fayt in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Kadaj in Advent Children - to name a few of his prior roles) for Ashton, as it would have been perfect.
This is a Square Enix game, so it baffles me on the low quality of the voice actors. There are a few good ones: Dias Flac was spot on. Also, I immediately noticed that the voice actor for Rena Lanford was the same person who did Estelle from Tales of Vesperia which also fit well.
As for translations, there are a number of things that caught my attention. First one that I noticed was that the town of Mars has been renamed to Marze. Also, many items have also been renamed; skills that I had been accustomed to had also been renamed. Maybe the term is more closely "better translated" from the original game... so it would not make a difference to somebody who never played the original. This does
not excuse Ashton's exclamation: "I've been permanamently disfigured!"
Yes. You
did read that write. Permanamently. The voice actor even says it like so.
As for some translations that piqued my interest:
Ronixis is the father of Claude, who is also coincidentally a character in the original Star Ocean (remade for the PSP as Star Ocean: First Departure). He also makes a small appearance in this game. In the original release of both Star Ocean games, his name was translated to Ronixis - as is his name. Now, my copy of First Departure is in Japanese (as that is what came with the Star Ocean PSP) and his name does read Ronixis. Don't know how it was translated for the English Version. However, when I started my English copy of Star Ocean: Second Evolution, it clearly reads Ronyx.
Now, one that made me sad were the dragons, Gyoro and Ururun. In the original release of this game, the names remained as Gyoro and Ururun. However, somebody made the mistake of translating them on this go. Sadly, they are now named Creepy and Weepy.
Battle System:
So far in my experiences, the gameplay and battle system are the exact same as the original release. Random battles, four persons in the battle, free-roaming with semi-auto targeting system - everything I liked about the battle system in the original with no changes.
Essentially, you can have four people in your battle party max. I usually balance with Claude and Ashton as my brawlers, Celine as my magic user, and Rena as my magic user and healer. You can set individual battle tactics for each character, and can easily change them within battle if needed. You can also switch your control of characters as needed.
You have free-roaming capabilities within the battle area. Aside from basic attacks, you have special Arts skills that you can use with the left and right trigger buttons. Magic is known as Symbology.
Also, you can learn various skills outside of battle that affect the way your characters act in battle. For instance, one of them is "counter" that allows you to counter attack *duh*. Another is Godspeed, which jets your character across the battle screen towards the enemy for a quick attack. Others can have you defend better, lessen time between spells, prevent spell interruption - and many more.
Item Creation:
This goes back to the skill thing mentioned. By learning skills, you can learn various item creation methods. Cooking, Songwriting, Replication, Machinery, Blacksmithery. Also, if many of your characters learn the same skill, you can attain group skills which can be used to create
even better items.
I just finished upgrading my Group Skill of Contraband to it's max level (10) - it allows me to create items that can sell for an
extremely high amount of money, along with items that let me stay at an inn for free, receive free items, up my experience (to where a single experience point will level the character, very handy). The downside is that you have a chance of creating a "Bounced Check" - a nasty item that decreases your Fol (money) and is sold for negative fol (aka, you have to pay to get rid of it). In a matter of minutes, using Contraband in front of a shop owner - selling the stuff that sells high, getting rid of the bounced checks, and buying more of the item creation item (Premium Paper) - I went from about 20,000 Fol to 700K Fol.
You also use item creation to refine weapons and create new ones, as well.
Story Line:
So far it seems, the storyline is the exact same. It's a story that I really liked, which is why Star Ocean: The Second Story always remained one of my top favorites.
The combination of Private Action scenes, pickpocketing (oh yeah...), and even getting to
choose who is on your team makes this game different each run through.
In actuality, there are two main characters: Claude and Rena. When you start the game, you can actually pick who you want to be the main-main character. For instance, if you pick Claude, you lose the ability to get Dias in your party. If you pick Rena, you can have Dias, but you cannot keep Leon permanently. There are also other character choices, like if you get Ashton (like I have), you can't get Opera - and many more like this.
Each character choice you make also changes the storyline dialogue a bit, changes the sidequests, and puts you one step closer to one of the literally
hundreds of endings. The only game I can think of that has more possible endings would be Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the sequel that occurs 3,000 years in the future.
Additional Content:
So far, the only thing I've seen for additional content would be in the introductory scene when you start the game. Welsh, the second-in-command of the Inventor's Guild in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time can be seen in the character lineup. As of yet, I personally haven't come across anything in-game for additional content, but I will be making another review after I complete my first full run of the game.
Overall:
The conclusion that I have come up with is that this game would be more enjoyable to a Star Ocean new-comer vice a "seasoned veteran" of the Star Ocean series.
Despite what I see is lacking in the game, it is a great portable that I can put into my purse for school and work to keep myself occupied as needed.
I give it an 8 so far.
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. My only gripe with the story mode is the ending...Im not going to spoil it for anyone, but lets just say it could have ended better- a lot of anticipation went nowhere. The multiplayer mode has a lot of upgrades including a matchmaking system (online), but it doesn't work to well. I've never been a big fan of Gears online because of the crazy lag, and glitching in the game, but I do like horde mode- you can play this online or off with up to four people. Horde mode is sort of like Nazi Zombie mode in COD 5 where you fight waves of locust members starting at LvL 1 and gets harder the more levels you complete. 
(raises flame shield) , plus I kinda scare easy
so people or creatures popping up out of nowhere just isn't my thing.
Linear Mode
