Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (249)

You mean 'womanservant', right? What a coincidence, though, that her name is Lover... you know, we're in the Field of Love... Oh, forget it! I'm short on ideas today.

So the Field of Love is that floating island in the centre of Energy Nede, possibly kept in the air by the supreme power of love itself (how romantic!). For once, you can see a nice introduction sequence to the Field: the Synard slowly flies towards a landing area (you can hear her soft wingbeat), lightly descends on the ground producing a small little shockwave, then Claude jumps off with a leap higher than the Synard (nice animation, I must say).

Facing the gate to the Field of Love, our group faces an energy barrier, which mysteriously dissolves once they get close; if you had come earlier to this place, the barrier would have stayed, but I'm not sure what the game requirements are for it to open up (likely the completion of the other 3 Fields). The way is open now, but Claude wonders whether they should 'use' the Rune Codes as usual (how does Claude 'use' them anyway? The other times the codes acted on their own). Somehow activating the Rune Codes, an eerie light and then a flash appear, teleporting our heroes right into the Field (couldn't they just walk in?).

The Field of Love is quite straight-forward, although packed with many strong enemies; right at the start you face a huge banner with an arrow indicating to the left, therefore you have to turn right first, in typical JRPG fashion, in order to collect a treasure. Well, at least they don't make you waste time, but still, you get back out on foot as usual, so you could have checked the other way on your way back. After a couple of pointless rotating platforms, our friends get to the final room.

Expecting the team is the spirit of the fountain, who invites them to come closer. But suddenly one of your characters gets captured and held hostage, while the mysterious woman reveals her true identity: Lover, a servant of the Ten Wise Men. Now, this actually seems like a very good plan! I mean, Narl has always been so mysterious about these Fields, so Claude and the others could never know what to expect; aside from guessing that Lover acted differently from the other guardians (who knows, it could have been because this is the Field of Love), there's no way they could have foreseen it was a trap.

There is something funny about this, however: Lover is quite weak when compared to the other guardians, which makes me wonder how she could have killed the real guardian here. But enough for today, this is an interesting part which deserves more posts.