Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (302)

I didn't get the pun at first, but 'tipster's dogma' seems a bit forced, don't you think? I guess the translators either had a hard time carrying over a Japanese pun, or they were just bored at this point.

Another highlight (if you can call it that) of Fun City entertainment is the Bunny Races: as that giant bunny in Central City advertised, not only do these bunnies exist on Nede as well, they're used in racing events, and everyone can bet. Like the Chocobo Races in Final Fantasy VII, you have to guess the winner and runner up, in the correct order; unlike them, you can't participate in a race as a jockey, because these bunnies have none. It's weird, they're kind of like chicken races, even though you'd think Chocobos would be more suited for that.

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This is another overly dramatic scene, where Marianna, still alive but severely wounded, wants to 'test' Claude in combat to see if he's ready to face the Ten Wise Men...

Claude makes his best to make the scene sound as corny as possible. I bet if he simply said that he'd already beaten Marsilio easily, Marianna wouldn't have been so persistent.

Claude is still feeling some pressure about the battles our heroes going to fight: after all, he's the main fighter, and he needs to whack the enemy and protect the spellcasters behind, so he decides to go to the Battle Stadium by himself to see how well he can fight alone. On the way, though, he meets Marianna (remember her? The leader of the Nede Defense Force who covered the group's retreat from Fienal, that eveyone left for dead). Astonished at finding her alive, though badly wounded, Claude cannot believe his eyes, but he's even more surprised when she tells him to fight her. I think the two screenshots here do a good job at summarizing the scene, so we shall fast-forward to the Fun City inn: Marianna couldn't fight after all, as she fainted on the spot, and Claude brought her in a hotel room, because apparently there's no first aid facilities or personnel in Fun City (you'd think they should have those in the Battle Stadium... Weird Nedians).

This scene was a bit long-drawn, but the 'reward' for going through it is nice enough: Marianna is lying on the bed, conscious but still in severe pain, as they couldn't find a doctor yet, but she finds the strength to hand Claude a couple of battle accessories, one of which is extremely useful. The Slayer's Ring (the name alone makes enemies quiver in fear) makes a character's weapon hit 3 times in a single attack (although only the first hit is at full power), making it a deadly combination with the Eternal Sphere, as it pretty much guarantees that your enemy will be stunned by Claude's attack; you'll have to give up one accessory slot for it though, I had to unequip the Berserk Ring (considering Claude now goes berserk if any of his friends falls in battle, it's not much of a loss).

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Is it just me, or does 'master of eats' sound terrible? Is there a pun I'm missing?

Cooking Master is one of the main attractions of Fun City; it's a cook-off contest, and anyone can participate, provided they know how to cook (i.e. you need the Cooking specialty skill at least at level 1). The confrontation is one-on-one, between one of the characters in your party and a randomly selected competitor among the apprentices of Yarma, the master gourmet and judge of the contest. The goal is to make as many good dishes as possible within a time limit, gathering ingredients from a randomly chosen pool (meat, fish, fruit, etc.), and if you manage to win, the prize is a Yarma Cooking Set (some rare cooking ingredients).

Yeah, it's really as fun as it sound, which is not much... The prizes are hardly worth it, unless you're aiming to make every single kind of food in the game, in which case it's one of the best ways to obtain rare ingredients. It also takes a long time to make each dish during the contest, so it's quite boring.

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I don't think this one needs any comments. This character's name is so long it takes up more than half of the dialogue box; and he isn't even the only one like that.

Claude had a change of heart: they should have gone to see Narl, sure, but he being in L'Aqua means another assault to Fienal has already been planned. But he and his friends have just fought three of the former Ten Wise Men, and that's after a week of intensive training. It's only fair that they finally get to use their N.F.I.D. for real, to have some genuine fun in Fun City. I know, the clock is ticking, and those evildoers might have already started their preparations to use the Crest of Annihilation, but the game doesn't seem to care: you could spend days in Fun City and it'd be alright, so why not relax for a bit?

Fun city has some nice attractions other than the battle arena, but it doesn't hold a candle to the Gold Saucer. Other than the ordinary hotel, bar, souvenir shop and info point, it's got a race track you can bet on, and a cook-off attraction. Another side area, which you can see in the screenshot, is a room where you can find some fortune tellers. The one on the left is busy looking cool with the ladies; the middle one will give you readings about your adventure, that is, some statistics about your game (number of treasures found, enemies fought, etc.); the third one specializes in romantic fortunes only. The latter is very useful if you want to know your current level of romantic relationships with the other characters in your party; in Claude's case, you can see how he's faring with the girls in the party. This is the only way that isn't a story event to tell exactly how you're doing relationship-wise, too bad there's no way to know about any character other than Claude, or friendship levels either.

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It may not sound weird when read like that, but Dr. Mirage's dialogue is really disconnected here; it's a mix between lecturing and explaining our friends here what happened.

Not much to say here. It seems like even Dr. Mirage isn't privy to what mayor Narl is planning (or at least she doesn't show that) so, now that everything has settled down, our heroes leave the doctor (wounded as she is, she'll need some time to recover) to go meet Narl and learn what they must do next. As they exit Armlock, though, they meet another messenger, who tells them to go straight to L'Aqua, where the mayor is waiting for them. It appears things are now moving faster, and the real final mission is approaching.

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Frankly, I don't understand her comment. We occasionally went around killing people, especially those pesky thieves on Expel (unless they weren't killed, you can never tell in this game); the rest were mainly animals or demons.

Berle is dfeated like the others (no need for me to comment on the battle this time), and Dr. Mirage thanks our heroes her own way, as you can see in the screenshot. She said she pretended to be dead after being hit by the Wise Man, hoping he'd leave; she's got a strong yet mysterious personality, too bad the game doesn't explore her character more (it's pretty much the same for anyone on Nede).

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I'll let you know, Mr. Berle, that the only life they took of their own initiative was the Synard's, the rest was self-defense. [By the way, if the player were given a choice to kill enemies or keep them alive, I'd certainly opt for the latter as often as possible] You, on the other hand, have always taken the initiative, and for unspecified reasons other than the ridiculously generic objective of conquering the universe. Therefore, don't you dare to compare our friends to yourself! There, I said it! I must say that Berle's remark was quite pointless...

...but Claude's comeback is even worse.

The Synard flies off towards Armlock - a short flight, I know - and leaves Claude and the others in front of Mirage's lab; they notice a crowd has gathered near it, and fear the worst. Asking the townspeople, they realize Berle has only just arrived, but as Claude steps towards the entrance of the lab, he sees Dr. Mirage flying out of the door, violently kicked out by Berle, who comes out to 'greet' our heroes. Fortunately the doctor seems to be still alive... It's payback time! However, Berle, although surprised at their arrival, apparently tries to make them feel guilty about the situation: after all, you can just look at the battle counter in your game menu to see how many battles you've fought and won so far, and that's a good indicator of how many enemies fell to your attacks. Sure, it was all for survival (or to save other people), and most of them were demons you couldn't possibly reason with, but the sheer number may take you aback once you think about it. But that's neither the place nor the time to reflect upon that, and Claude seems to share this sentiment (him being blinded by rage is probably the main reason, though): it's time to fight!

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Yeah, blowing people up by shooting them with light beams would be such a cool way to entertain people... Really, the other attractions in Fun City are nowhere as flashy as Shigeo's rampage, so how could she think that? Unless they've done something like that in the past near the Arena, and they've been hiding it from me... It could be fun...

Running to the exit of Fun City, our friends pass by a number of people (more or less) panicking about the situation. They also meet a surprised ticket inspector, to whom they explain the situation, begging him (or her? I honestly can't tell when they're attired like that; see the person in the lower left corner of the screenshot for example) to refer the situation to Narl; this is because by now they've learned that Nede's information network sucks (that, or it has been seriously hampered by the Ten Wise Men's advent).

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I swear I didn't know Dr. Mirage was a woman until I watched this scene.

Now our heroes feel more confident about their powers. However, Berle is still at large, and nowhere to be seen, but Celine suddenly remembers something he said before leaving. They realize Berle was after Dr. Mirage, and rush out of Fun City to get to Armlock as fast as possible.

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Try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, maybe it'll work then. 

Shigeo shows up, craving for more destrucion, but he's surprised by seeing our heroes still safe and sound in front of him; he's so puzzled he can't rationally explain how they're still alive. I'd say Shigeo isn't to blame, if you consider how ridiculous and irrational Void Matter is, but the impenetrable barrier surrounding all the Ten Wise Men (now Eight) is laughing matter itself. You reap what you sow, they say...

Anyway, Claude is particularly motivated for this fight, because the ruthlessness of the Ten Wise Men, that caused his father's death (and many people's just now), has instilled in him a strong spirit of vengeance. Shigeo can call forth plasma beams from the sky, but Claude is fast enough to avoid all of them and run towards him: the Warrior of Light doesn't waste any time and immediately starts attacking, leaving Shigeo with no room to breathe. Shortly thereafter, the fiend is reduced to mere scraps (was he an android robot or something?) and spouts his last, senseless words of irrevocable incredulity towards the power of his adversary, only to explode seconds later.

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Don't just stand there! People are getting hit by high-speed beams that make them explode! Do something!

After their greetings, the Ten Wise Men get into action: Berle decides to 'follow that woman' (whoever that is), Shigeo wants to go on a rampage and kill any Nedian in sight, and Marsilio starts fighting our heroes. Now I know what you're thinking, four on one isn't fair, but it was Marsilio who picked the fight.

So, after the lion has been beaten to death by the rabbit... I mean, after Marsilio's defeat, which was quick and without too many frills (he, like all the Ten Wise Men, explodes with sparkles flying in all directions), our heroes, despite being stupefied at their own victory, decide not to waste time and chase after the other two fiends, before they do something bad. It appears they're too late, though, as they witness a horrible scene: light beams flying around from nowhere, people running away in fear, other people getting hit by those beams and exploding before their eyes. It's certainly the work of that accursed Shigeo.

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They could have adapted this sentence better... Dumping the ancient saying entirely would have been great, as it doesn't even fit the situation too well.

Marsilio steps forward, still fully confident that he can take care of our heroes by himself; but this time there won't be a barrier to nullify all the damage done to him. Marsilio is probably the easiest to beat among the Ten Wise Men, because his attacks are few and easy to dodge. Would he have been a threat, had he teamed up with the other two? Probably... Berle still has that annoying Meta Barrier, which is still impenetrable even with the Void Matter, and taking care of two powerful fighters like him and Marsilio is hard, because you'll have to rely on at least another fighter in your group beside Claude. And let's not forget about Shigeo: you haven't seen him fight yet, but he's the bastard who tried to shoot Rena back on Expel (Claude took a beam shot for her), which means long range attacks from him. It's very fortunate that Marsilio took that saying to the letter, being the lone-fighter lion instead of leading a pack of three wolves.

Marsilio draws his huge sword (not shown, maybe for decency) and slashes the virtual Berle our heroes were training against, destroying it in a single hit. This means two things: the calculations the Nedians have made to create the simulation underestimated the power of the Ten Wise Men, and Berle may now be pissed at Marsilio for destroying his virtual image (that might be the reason he leaves him to fight alone, heh).

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I think this guy may have mixed up his introduction with a taunt. By the way, the 'all-caps' talk Shigeo does shouldn't mean he's shouting, rather he's making a 'robotic' voice; I can't help but imagine him shouting though...

After handing our friends her precious weapons, Dr. Mirage 'zooms' away, saying she has an essay to write (now even she's getting mysterious). Since they haven't heard anything from Narl yet, Claude thinks they should keep training with the virtual TWM simulator, which they do for about a week more. After that, the player is given the option to try some simulated battles him/herself (to get some experience, since it's impossible to leave before the next event...), rest, or go see Narl to see what they should do next. Choosing the last option will make Claude propose they fight the last training battle, but before they start, to everyone's surprise, three of the Ten Wise Men show up.

It seems the Ten Wise Men could see through Narl's secrecy, but they're too late, because now they have to face the blade of the Sacred Tear... er... I mean, the resonating power of the Void Matter, as well as a highly-trained team of fighters! Before taking action, the fiends take some time to smack-talk: Berle and Marsilio, who our heroes have already fought (and lost to), brag about their being tired of waiting for them and show their eagerness to kill them for good this time; the newly-introduced Shigeo (or should I say SHIGEO) isn't a 'man' of many words, yet condensed in his short sentences is all the scorn he feels for any living thing beside the Ten Wise Men.

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No, I don't buy it. What does that do exactly, turn all their weapons into antimatter? I can't believe they took the trouble of explaining (well, sort of) how the Sacred Tear works, but then throw in this plot device (because that's what Void Matter is, it's even a 'key item') with no clear explanation... Actually, maybe this is just a small adjustment they had to do for the game: seeing as Star Ocean 2 comes from a novel, maybe in the original story Claude was supposed to use the Sacred Tear and face the Ten Wise Men by himself, while the Void Matter would allow the player to use everyone's weapons against them (I haven't read the novel though, so I don't know for sure).

Dr. Mirage has actually overworked herself - even though she says she had a blast anyway - because she's got two more things to give our heroes: the Fallen Hope, a magic gauntlet for Rena that halves her MP consumption rate, and, more importantly, Void Matter. Even though there's no rational explanation for that, Void Matter will make any weapon effective against the Ten Wise Men; this means that everyone in the group will be able to fight them, and it also means Claude gets to keep his Eternal Sphere for the battle. It might be an absurd item, but it sure is convenient!

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Claude: Weeee!! A toy sword! It's just what I wanted! Thanks Dr. Mirage!

Alright, this weapon looks a bit flashy, but it's no toy; I wouldn't exactly feel safe handing a planet destroyer like that to a kid (or to Claude, for that matter, but at least he does know how to use a sword). The sword you see here is certainly more powerful than most swords in the game: noteworthy exceptions are the Eternal Sphere and the Levantine. The Sacred Tear (probably called that because it can tear worlds apart in a mess of [un]holy destruction) has also the added bonus of halving the consumption of Claude's MP.

The Eternal Sphere is still much better than the Sacred Tear (or it wouldn't be a secret weapon), but it seems Claude needs this in order to defeat the Ten Wise Men... But Dr. Mirage said 'First', didn't she? Does that mean she's got more stuff to give us?

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Maybe it's barely noticeable on an emulator, but this green-haired guy here looks weird, like his colours looking out of place; he feels a bit creepy to me.

Fun City is fun, but Narl has something on his mind for our heroes. I've already mentioned there's a battle arena in here... Well, it would appear that they booked it for an indefinite time to host a virtual simulator of the Ten Wise Men, in order to provide a training ground for our brave warriors. The game spares us the show, though, as the scene fades to black, and narration jumps forth about 3 days, when Dr. Mirage kindly pays them a visit...

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What does NFID stand for? Somebody please fill me in.

Before the group leaves Dr. Mirage to her job, she says she's got a present for them by Narl: a free pass to Fun City! Claude and the others (well, except the kids... You know, Leon and Precis) seem rather puzzled by this gift, because, conscious as they are about their mission, they feel it wouldn't be right for them to be enjoying themselves. Dr.Mirage however says, that they wouldn't exactly have fun there; apparently the mayor of Central City has some plans in store for them (and he's beeing as secretive as usual about them).

We haven't been to Fun City yet, but that's because I'm a cheapskate: you need to pay an entrance fee for all the characters in your group. Fun City is an entire town devoted to the entertainment of Nedians, a large amusement park containing various attractions. My guess is that it was inspired by the Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy VII, seeing as there's even a race track (no, not with Chocobos, sorry); all in all, most of the stuff you can do in here doesn't compare to the Gold Saucer, but the Battle Arena deserves a special mention for having variety in battle modes and many good prizes.

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Claude doesn't feel too convinced about this yet, but who can blame him? Dr. Mirage seems like a technologically advanced blacksmith! I wonder if she uses a hammer to put the antimatter in place... Oh, and that sword certainly isn't the most powerful weapon, we already have that; sure, the Eternal Spere still cannot penetrate the Ten Wise Men's defenses, but there's a way around that, courtesy of Dr. Mirage herself.

So there's this huge Barker taking up half of the last room in the cave, and it's, like, just staying there, taking hits from our heroes, who crave for its metal. This monster is peaceful, but if he loses its temper (like, for example, when you hit it too much), you're toast! That's 'cause his only attack (suitably called 'Lost patience') totally destroys everything around it. Ok, you can survive that alright, but it hurts. A lot. Better use a really cheap tactic: having the awesomeness that is the Eternal Sphere, hitting it with its sparkles is very likely to stun it most of the time, making it unable to react. Hammering it down is then a complete joke. Don't have the Eternal Sphere? Hah, sucks to be you! Give Rena some pills, 'cause she's gonna need'em for keeping the others healthy after the Barker's attacks.

...Uh, well. The group defeats the huge Barker and, somehow, retrieves a large chunk of LEA metal (it's not shown, nor is it explained how they take it) from its carcass. At this point the other Barkers cower in fear, and stop attacking our friends, knowing they can't overtake them anymore. After looting the treasures in the cave, Claude and the others get back to Dr. Mirage with the metal. Mission accomplished! Now what? Oh, she needs just about 3 days to make that antimatter sword? We can wait.

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I'm pretty sure this is a misspelling of Athelas, the Kingfoil herb of Middle-Earth lore in the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Intentional mistake or not?

In the game you often come into possession of various kinds of herbs, all of which have small recovery powers. At the very beginning of your adventure, Rena says herbs are 'an absolute necessity for travelling', but I can't really see how... Alright, I admit that I use Rena's healing powers a lot, and any Expellian adventurer without her personal Nedian healer would have to heavily rely on healing items, but even then, the main items you usually take to restore your health and mind are berries and syrups, not herbs. You also need potions to revive your friends or remove their status ailments (poison, paralysis, petrification), but you can buy all of those for reasonable prices.

The point the developers were probably trying to make is that you should use the Compounding Specialty skill to make your own healing items: that is, by combining 2 of your herbs, you can always obtain a healing (or support) item that is way more effective than the herbs when used by themselves. If you bother learning and upgrading the Specialty skill with one of your characters, you may obtain healing items more cheaply than by just buying them. The problems with this are: Compounding may still fail (making you lose both herbs), you need to know which herb combinations give you the items you want, you have to sit through the Item Creation animation. In my humble opinion, I'd rather defeat some more random enemies to get the additional Fol for buying healing items directly; after all, they're always available as soon as you need it (for instance, Cure Paralysis is available as soon as there are enemies which can paralyze you).

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I don't get this line... This is the only thing Claude says before fighting the giant Barker. I'm guessing translation mistake.

Getting deeper and deeper in the cave, weird-looking yellow circles start appearing on the walls: it's almost as if they're eyes staring at our friends in fear... Wait a second, they are eyes! The Barkers are made of LEA mineral, aren't they? So some of them are inside the cave walls; you can even make out some details, like their claws. They're defending their home, trying to scare people away, but they're not afraid of fighting.

Most of the enemies you find in this cave are those sphinx-like beasts, like the ones our heroes encountered in the mine under the Hoffman ruins (apparently the Barkers live in lots of planets... I wonder if those were being controlled by the Ten Wise Men, since the game doesn't tell). By now they shouldn't be a problem, but they tend to cast Star Flare quite often, which can be a problem if you don't have resistance to Star Heraldry; ideally, you should make one of your characters cast a quick spell now and then to stun them (casting Forget with Celine doesn't help much), but that could be boring, and there are lots  of them to fight.

One suggestion: once you're in the cave, just run northwards, ignoring any treasure or sideway you may see, and try to reach the room with the huge Barker as soon as possible. That's because, once you defeat the most powerful of the Barkers, the others will refrain from attacking you again, and you'll be free to explore the rest of the cave easily (technically speaking, no random encounters!), and get all the treasure. Not that there's great stuff in there, but some weapons might be useful.

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Maybe it can't be seen very well in this screenshot, but the machine Precis is looking at is sprinkling water in small fountains; also, I can't capture sound in a screenshot, but what she's hearing would be a series of random noises, like beeps, bleeps, blowing pistons, and a horse neigh... Yeah, you read that right, no need to do that twice.

Our heroes should be going to the Mihne Cave as soon as possible, but it seems Precis has gone missing. Claude guesses that, after seeing the equipment in Dr. Mirage's lab, she couldn't help but tinker with all the machines; hoping she won't cause any damage, Claude hurries back to the lab, and finds the doctor busy studying the plans, while Precis is in the back.

You can see Preics pushing some buttons and stuff on a machine, and apparently she manages to make it work, but she's to taken away by her activity that she doesn't notice Claude behind her. As Claude, you now have some dialogue options to try and get her attention: your choice will affect Claude and Precis's relationship a little. In one case, Claude explains what the machine is used for (what? He knows that? Have there been intergalactic standards for particle refining since Nede's isolation?), and she expresses her surprise about his knowledge.

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It's not just a generic key to Mihne Cave, it's THE key!

As Precis has already brilliantly noted, our friends need to kill Barkers to get their hands on the LEA metal, which will allow Dr. Mirage to make the weapons they need to face the Ten Wise Men. But the kind doctor observes that it's not enough to perform a genocide of the smaller Barkers (the poor innocent creatures), as they wouldn't be able to collect enough materials: they need to kill the biggest Barkers they find because, the stronger the Barker, the purer the LEA metal they're made of (please don't ask why).

These weird creatures are confined in the Mihne Cave, a small natural cave on an island to the south. Narl hands Claude the key they need to enter the securely locked cave.

Side note: someone might inquire why Dr. Mirage wouldn't pose any questions about making such a powerful weapon, not to mention actually using it (since in Armlock they're only allowed to create them just for show). The answer is that, to the hesitation of the doctor, Narl replied with mentioning the Crest of Annihilation. While he still doesn't go into specifics about this fearsome crest of grave significance, it's obvious that Dr. Mirage is one of the very few who know about its secret existence.