Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (131)

It's fine that they want the world of Star Ocean to resemble ours in some small details, in order to provide some comic relief. But this... isn't this going a bit too far?

After a good day of work spent teaching Rena the few things he remembered from school, Claude is now tired and is trying to relax, but for some inexplicable reason he finds himself wandering towards Precis's 'lab', when she and her dad are tinkering a bit with their broken machines. The two of them were about to call it a day as well, so they decide to invite Claude for a cup of tea.

As you can see from this screenshot, the ground floor in Precis's house is decorated mostly as a traditional Japanese house (and it's the only one like that on Expel, I may add), so one might expect to be offered typical green tea at the very least, if not witness the classic tea-serving ceremony. But not only do we learn that they usually use tea bags instead, we can also see that Precis's father (I honestly don't remember his name) has thrown in some jam for Claude to enjoy. That was a bit of a letdown, I admit, but I've also never heard of putting jam in your cup of tea, so I thought it might have been a nice idea. But wait, jam reminds me of something... the town of Salva maybe...

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (130)

Either the punctuation is off, or Rena is trying to say something... I'm leaning towards the former, though, for there's no way she could be so subtle.

Not much to add here, you can see Claude tutoring an enthusiastic Rena, but you don't get to know what he's teaching her. Quite a boring scene, if you ask me, but Precis's Private action here in Linga can make up for it.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (129)

How dares he STARTLE her! This won't be the last time something like that happens: apparently Rena is pretty easy to get off guard (see the ape incident, for instance), but also quick to blame Claude even when he's not at fault for that.

Crossing the sea once again (this is the last time, I swear!), Claude and the others reach Lacour, but they prefer going to Linga to regroup before leaving for the frontlines to the north. Yes, a bit out of the way, but it's probably the safest place on the continent right now. Besides, they really didn't have the time to gather information about the Sorcery Globe in the world-famous library (not that there's anything interesting about it there). Meanwhile, we get to know, through a yet another Private Action, that it was one of Rena's wishes to study in the University of Linga, and that she couldn't do that because it was so far away from home. At this point Claude offers to tutor her, in order to at least partially satisfy her desire of knowledge, and Rena gladly accepts, not withouth expressing her initial marvel at the proposal; there's a bit of a misunderstanding though, as Claude says that he did pretty well in school. But all in all, this scene doesn't make much sense, since there's no way Claude could adjust to the cultural gap in Expel so easily.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (128)

Clik is home to this little girl who can't go out because of an incurable disease: it's only fitting that you can steal... erm, get a Ring of Sadness from her room. There would also be that other chest to 'inspect', but it's not of the right colour and therefore cannot be opened or interacted with.

The sick little girl (who I don't recall having a name) offers a nice Private action that is linked to her bed-ridden state; too bad we don't have Bowman with us to trigger it. But we can still tell you a bit about it: it is believed that a rare herb called Metox could cure her disease, and you can offer to go and find it for her. It's not actually hard to get (you can go there way before you get to Clik, but, in typical JRPG fare, there's nothing there until you trigger this quest), but even if you do, the chances of recovery for the girl aren't 100%, and failure results in her death. Yeah, life is though... If you think about it, videogames can get over such a thing: just save the game before giving her the herb, and even if she can't make it, you can simply reload the game and try again until it works. You wish you could do that in real life, huh? Unfortunately even such things have drawbacks, but I'm not going to discuss it now.

The Metox herb is also present in the original Star Ocean (I don't know about the other episodes), and it's also believed to cure any disease there, on planet Roak; however, you don't get a chance to use it.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (127)

Who's Marta? The lady at the counter perhaps? Maybe I should pay some more attention to names around here... but I've yet to sleep at an inn in this playthrough.

Marta: Mars isn't a place I would spend too much of my time, especially at night, when the wild forest beasts wake up and search for food. All the inhabitants of Mars can use Heraldry to defend themselves, but I can't: I'm helpless by myself; and as much as I appreciate the townspeople's help in finding me a lodging and a job, I'm afraid I'll have to leave, I really can't sleep at night. But where to? I've heard that Cross is already full of refugees, while Salva is next to a Dragon-inhabited mine, and Arlia is in the immediate vicinity of another monster-infested forest. What can I do? Oh, why did you leave me alone, my dear? Why is the Goddess so cruel with me?

...Ok, I tried making this more interesting, but I guess I can stop now. Maybe I should resort to linking to some real Star Ocean fan fiction instead.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (126)

Normally I'd say that wanting to punch a little kid with a huge mechanical hand is inhuman, but here in Mars that one kid would have countered with Eruption, an AoE fire spell (pardon the jargon) which incinerates its targets.

Precis has just had a small (and not very interesting) argument with a kid about Heraldry; her quite convincing position was that technology is far better, as everyone can use it, not just those endowed with the Blessing of Manna talent (check your Talent screen from the skill menu of the character). But she's arguing with a kid, much like most people on Internet message boards, and the discussion was short-lived. As Claude, you can choose how to comment the fact: simply agreeing with Precis (relationship up), remarking that she's a kid too anyway (relationship down), or saying that ultimately machines will choose them (I don't really know, I've never tried it, it was too scary a thought).

I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks, I'm going on vacation and resume writing (and playing along) once I'm back. Bye everybody!

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (125)

The image of human heads running around stuck into my head (aah, too many heads!).

Mars can be nice sometimes, but ask Celine why. I don't really find it a safe place, since their Heraldic artifacts don't work when needed the most; the place is infested with bugs because it's near a swampy forest; you have to keep an eye on small children, not because they can easily be kidnapped, but because they can cast deadly spells! Then there's this whole Book of Sacred Seals business, which reeks of a sect which would kill anyone trying to leak their secrets. On second thought, I can sort of understand Celine when she says she likes it here...

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (124)

Do these exist in reality? Honest question, I don't know; what I know is that I'd like one just to see what it feels like on touch.

This is what you see if you try to get Precis away from this scammer; however, it's a lot less funny than it appears in this screenshot. I have a hunch that a lot of scenes in this game look bad because they're performed so slowly: I think I've mentioned it before, but even if you can set some configuration options that make dialogue text flow instantly, animations are still the same (and they look bad as well). Moreover, most Private Action scenes have the same background music as the normal game play, meaning that in a number of cases it will feel off and won't convey the mood of the scene. Actually, music changes for all scenes are pretty rare overall in Star Ocean 2.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (123)

This guy is apparently asking Precis about her experiences... Not! He's actually trying to sell her perfume. Precis doesn't have much experience with perfumes, as demonstrated by the fact that she refers to them as 'it', meaning she thinks only one kind of perfume exists. Also, my list of reasons why people tend to stay away from her has just grown a bit.

Claude: Ernest and Opera are fine where they are, Celine is at the usual place, staying away from the crowd, Rena is lost in awe looking at the beautiful church of Cross, but where in Expel is Precis?! Oh, there she is! Hey, that looks like a suspicious street vendor, just like the one who tried to sell Rena some jewels back in Mars. Let's see...

At this point you have some choices (Precis's Private Actions are always full of them, I don't know why): watch her getting ripped off from afar (you get an Aphrodisiac, which temporarily boosts Romance), intervene and get that guy to sell Claude some useless rings, or get Precis away from there (and have a boost of Claude's relationship with Precis). Choose your poison, again. Or skip this PA altogether if you don't care.

P.S.: Back then when Super Mario Bros. had come out, it was quite common here (and it still is) to call it 'Super Mario Bros' (literally, not 'Brothers'); I think a lot of people thought that was Mario's surname. Yeah, now that you mention it, this has nothing to do with Star Ocean, but I didn't want to waste an entire post to write just this and I had to say it.

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I guess "medieval European-type" is a universe-wide standard for civilizations... But I wouldn't have expected anything less from Ernest, him being an archaeologist and whatnot.

Alright, it seems everyone still has some business in Cross, but Claude feels particularly under pressure and would like to leave as soon as possible; that's why he quickly starts going around to gather his friends scattered about town. Here we can find the hot couple, Ernest and Opera, calmly observing the surroundings as a sample of an undeveloped civilization: after all, I doubt either had time to do that before, the former blinded by his desire of knowledge and sense of adventure, the latter blinded by her passion and love (not to mention her franctical chase and her need of liquor from time to time).