Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (267)

Woah, some big words there, Narl!

Narl makes our friends know that he already has something in mind regarding their weapons, but he also has something less reassuring to say: while in Fienal, he noticed that a certain Crest (remember? They're inscriptions used to invoke magic) had been inscribed by the Ten Wise Men. Basically, it appears that invoking that Crest would cause the destruction of the entire universe... Yeah, I wouldn't buy that either, but since nothing Narl has said so far has made much sense - and yet it was true - we have to trust him. I don't think that Crest even has a name, but are we sure it works? After all, nobody must have managed to invoke it yet, or else we wouldn't be here now.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (266)

Claude: No way! I don't buy that! What's wrong with my trusty sword?

Our heroes have to fall back and retreat if they want to survive, but how? ...Well the game doesn't make a good job at making the player feel in a pincer, but that's where you are. Suddenly, Marianna (do you remember her? She's the leader of the Nedian forces, and one of the most impersonal characters you've met yet) puts herself between the group and Marsilio, offering to keep him busy while they try to run away. Claude and the others don't want her to sacrifice herself, but they have no choice: Narl commands a retreat, and everyone who's still standing goes back to L'Aqua, and then Central City.

Now, the game obviously wants you to somehow get attached to the character of Marianna, so that you can feel the importance of her sacrifice. However, Claude only meets her once (or twice, if you've visited L'Aqua before the mission takes place), and her dialogue is really minimal; how can you introduce a character like that, make her sacrifice herself for the party, and hope that it may have some significance to the player? You could just have had a random faceless soldier do the same, and it would at least have been less melodramatic. [There's a certain event later that... No, forget it, it's even dumber]

Back in Central City, after a night of tormented sleep, our heroes feel really depressed for their failure. Claude is also sad about the death of his father, and frustrated by his own weakness that prevented him to save the Calnus, or even to get revenge; but he doesn't show that much to his friends. Narl, instead, while still agitated (can you tell by his sprite or words? I sure can't), seems to still have some hope. He thinks that, despite their failure, they 'put up a good fight'. Well, it's good that there's Narl to tell us that, because dealing absolutely no damage to Marsilio couldn't really indicate anything like that.

The mayor then suggests that our heroes don't have 'suitable weapons' to fight the Ten Wise Men: does that mean we finally get back to use phase guns or something like that?! No, I guess not, since Opera had them and still failed (it would have helped a bit if she used her Kaleidoscope as a gun and not a club, but whatever). So let's hear what the next plan is.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (265)

Claude: Neither have yours, Precis!

Blinded by rage, Claude swears to kill all of the Ten Wise Men (wasn't that the plan anyway?) and avenge his father's death. One of them, however, simply brushes him off by simply saying 'My, at least he's spirited!', and then Marsilio, another one of the Ten Wise Men, shows up and offers to take care of the situation; the others agree and disappear.

The squad is ready to attack, but Marsilio summons robotic guards which quickly attack our heroes first; they're no match for Claude and the others, but Marsilio keeps calling for more, and the Nedian soldiers are slowly losing. Claude then decides to attack Marsilio directly, but then the horrible truth is revealed: like Berle, Marsilio is completely immune to any attack that the party can pull out! The squad is decimated, and our friends are at a loss on what to do.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (264)

Is this all Claude can do? Beg on his knees? I wouldn't blame him for that if he tried something else first and failed, as saying 'please' often works wonders (imagine what you could accomplish with a 'PLEASE').

The leader of the Ten Wise Men, after the first successful hit, orders to progressively increase the cannon's power, while Claude and the others witness the destruction that ensues on the screen, powerless and dumbfounded by their incapacity to stop this madness.

After the second beam, the Calnus's shields reduced to below one third of their power, commodore Kenni realizes the overwhelming force of the mysterious attack, and, in a desperate attempt, orders a counterattack: by using the directions the two beams came from, he calculates the coordinates they came from, and commands to fire their main cannon, hoping to hit the enemy. In all probability they do hit the target (it's not shown, however), but as we already know Energy Nede is surrounded by a very strong barrier, so the counterattack has no effect.

Finally, the Ten Wise Men order an even more powerful attack, which penetrates the shields and destroys the spaceship. This is the end of the glorious Calnus, of its crew, and of the legendary hero Ronixis J. Kenni.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (263)

Naw, it could just be the Large Hadron Collider (or just any other cyclotron) executing some experiments...

The Calnus crew is just proceeding their survey around the Arctura system, unaware of the danger they're in. Commodore Kenni is still deeply in sorrow for the loss of his son, because he doesn't know about the miracle (or ridiculous plot device, take your pick) by which he survived. But when the Ten Wise Men ready their weapon, and it gets detected by the crew, Ronixis doesn't forget his duty, and manages to get his act together to command the spaceship and lead it in its defensive maneuvers.

The man with red hair, who seems to be the leader of the Ten Wise Men, commanded to fire the first shot of their antimatter cannon at low power, yet it's still powerful enough to take away one third of the Calnus's shield power. The commodore could do nothing but broadcast a peace request in all languages (obviously unanswered) and redirect all power to the rear shields; the beam came out so suddenly and from so far away that even identifying the attacker would be impossible.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (262)

Either Claude has a speech impediment I didn't know about, or Calnus is an objectively hard name to pronounce, or both.

It seems that the Ten Wise Men wanted the Nedians to know of their plans before taking action: they state that they've just completed a weapon powerful enough to destroy a small planet (relax, it's not the Death Star, it's just an antimatter cannon capable of outclassing a Supernova in destructive power). It seems that their intentions are far from good, yet none of our heroes makes a move to attack; maybe it's just not honourable to take the initiative unless the enemy has already made some move, or maybe the attack squad has already realized that they don't stand a chance with a direct attack.

Being pretty full of themselves, the Ten Wise Men decide to show off the power of their newly made weapon, by using some kind of camera that points to outer space. The target they chose for this test is already in place, but, to Claude's surprise and dread, it's not a small planet. Displayed onto a huge screen on the front wall of the Fienal stronghold is the Calnus, the Earth Federation ship Claude was on before his adventure started, and the one his father is in command of. Unfortunately, it seems that Commodore Kenni had yet to veer away from the Arctura system (where Expel orbited), and the Calnus has now become a potential obstacle to the Ten Wise Men's plans, since they could warn the Federation. However, those fiends seem very confident in their military power, so I suppose the fate of the Calnus and its crew is already sealed.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (261)

Claude: Hey, no fair! I want that wind effect too!
Having just one character in the game with hair being moved by the wind is a thing some JRPGs have (it's usually the protagonist, because making extra animations for everyone would take too long), but in this case there's an explanation (sort of, although it's only revealed when you face that man in battle, and you might have lost interest by then).

Narl could also notice that something was wrong with Fienal, but even he realized too late that it was a trap... Well, how is it a trap when it only consists of suddenly appearing in front of the group and just talking (a lot)? They didn't even surround our heroes.

In short, a couple of the Ten Wise Men appear out of nowhere to 'greet' the attack squad. They still decline to give their names (the only one kind enough to introduce himself so far was Berle), but at least it would seem they were waiting for the group for some reason. Is it a welcome party? Somehow I doubt so.