Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (66)

And I hope you fall down along with it, old man. No, seriously, there are so many things wrong with this sentence that I don't know where to start. Ok, list time:

• Why another earthquake? Here in Salva there has been none, that was in Clik, and if the people in Cross didn't feel it, I doubt Salva, which is further away from Clik, would get any shock
• Why do you care if that sign falls down? It would be a simple matter to get it back up, unlike with the houses around, you know; getting YOU back up after it's come down over you is another matter, but if it happens you certainly won't care anymore
• A wooden sign, however big, is the least likely to be affected by a quake: look at this old geezer caring about that while there's a mine that could cave-in and bury all the workers (and monsters) inside
• There isn't even anything written onto that sign! I've checked! How is it even a sign if it's blank!?
  

Opera said she wanted to check back on something around here, so our heroes are back in Salva; while Rena and Celine stock up on iron ore (we'll need it to work it into an anti-paralysis charm) and jam, Claude is still thinking about how to trick Opera into getting him away. She seems loose-lipped enough, but evidently her perseverance in finding Ernest is keeping her back. Claude had hoped to use alcohol to his advantage, but unfortunately they're holding a frat party at the tavern (in which almost nobody is participating) for refugees from Clik, so the whole place is booked up.

You know what, playing this part now makes me think about the recent earhtquake in Italy: anyone I know from those parts is safe, but still a lot of people have died. Seeing the people of Clik scattered around Cross in the game is terribly analogous to the people from L'Aquila I've seen in other nearby places with my own eyes. It kind of made me feel uneasy, almost moved.

What a frightening coincidence that I played this game at around the same time as the real quake had taken place.

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I guess it's plural because she has three eyes... But that's not it, I think that guard was there when Opera supposedly came, or maybe it's another guard: they all look the same. However, it just so happens that the three-eyed woman is right here with Claude! How can he not see her? Besides, the Warrior's also right in front of him, don't you think?

Before getting back on track, the party takes a last-time trip around the continent of Cross; that's right, we won't get back here again, so enjoy the ride! This is just my decision though, because you can revisit Cross as much as you want until a certain part of the story, which is near the end of the first game disc, after which you can only get back to it through a neat trick at the end of the game. Note that I will use that trick, but only to revisit Lacour for a certain scene. So mysterious...

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Claude: "Ah, the sunset on lake Col, how fascinating! Looking at it, I can feel a lot of emotions flowing through me: excitement for this adventurous journey, calmness and carelessness for being far away by my former life as an Ensign on Calnus, under my father's shadow. But other feelings, less desirable, cross my heart: the red sky reminds me of the bloodshed of both friends and enemies, both in struggles and calamities; and the melancholy lake embraced by the warm earth fills me with nostalgia and makes me homesick. Oh, I wonder how my mum's doing right now...".

No, no, wait! This isn't right! And for two good reasons: one is that, like when we approached Cross for the first time, the sun (or rather some other star) suddenly came down just like that; the other is that Claude is nowhere near as deep as I tried to make him sound (and that means he's extremely shallow). However the setting here is really beautiful, despite its blocky, polygonally crude appearance; it's not like there are special effects in place or anything, just a moment of reprieve in our adventure which happens to match the background perfectly.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (63)

While playing this part of the game I couldn't help but notice how often Rena mentions Ernest: it's almost like she cares more about him than Opera, his lover, does. Either Rena's fascinated by the adventurous behaviour of this Ernest guy, or she's simply being down-to-earth (or, rather, down-to-Expel, haha...), while Opera's just being an air-head... Well, she IS a bit air-headed after all, you can tell right away the first time you meet her; but this doesn't really go well with her perseverance in chasing after Ernest, even across planets. Hmm...

We got pretty far into this cavern... er, ruins site or whatever. I can't help but wonder why the designers of this game couldn't elaborate a bit more on this strange place: I mean, it's fine if you want to leave it to our imagination, but here, what's to imagine? Actually, knowing a bit about the story of Star Ocean 3 (I haven't played it though), I think I've lost interest in those details, but you can't just overlook such finely created backgrounds, can you?

Ernest Raviede, the interplanetary adventurer with a whip but without a hat, seems to have already left, so Opera promptly agrees to join the group when asked (I was actually surprised at her instantaneous resolution), in hopes of finding her love during their travels. I'll briefly describe Ernest here because I won't recruit him: he's blonde and has three eyes like Opera, he's a Tetragene, and wears something that resembles either a kimono or pajamas; his fighting techniques and equipment suck, and he has very few Private Actions, none of which are great. End of story.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (62)

I could have taken a better screenshot, but here you can see Opera's third eye clearly enough; you can also notice a pair of red goggles she's wearing, probably an infrared visor for aiming with her plasma cannon. The way she wears them, however, makes them look like bunny ears; and the fact that only two lenses are present is weird, won't she need a third one for her additional eye?

A close in of Opera after a victorious battle: every time you win a fight, the character who gives the last strike and another one (I don't know the criteria, maybe it's randomly picked) say their victory line. Depending on how the battle went and on how strong your enemies were, suitable quotes are chosen. The 'results' window also appears, with the number of experience points and Fol gained: Fol is the famous intergalactic currency I mentioned several posts ago, it's used on Expel, as well as Roak and other planets, so you don't need to worry about exchange rates when space-travelling.

You can also see some numbers in green: those are recovered HPs and MPs in battle. The Stamina attribute of your characters establishes how much you can recover at the end of a fight, although the longer the fight, the less you'll recover. It's a good idea to raise the Stamina statistic early in the game, by raising your Danger Sense skill level, so you won't have to heal very often and you'll regain MPs for your killer moves and spells during easy fights.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (61)

I swear that casting Heal has worked every single time for me; what's the deal with this 'certain probability'?

This is the Specialty screen for Rena when she still hasn't learned anything but magic spells; once a character learns a field skill, a list of all the skills will appear instead, alongside 'Spells/Killer Moves/Heraldry'. It should be noted that Rena's spells fall under 'Magic' (like another certain character you meet on the second planet), while Celine and other spell-casters have 'Heraldry': you'll learn the reason for this towards the end of this Disc.

The spell screen lists all the spells a character has learned so far, with a brief description of its effects, MP consumption per casting and the character's degree of proficiency with the spell: the latter, which applies to Killer Moves as well, is simply the number of times the spell has been cast, and usually a higher proficiency means a more powerful spell. Over a certain proficiency number, the spell animation changes a bit, generally becoming more spectacular.

You may have noticed that the spells are scattered around: more often than not, JRPGs place spell names in fixed slots, and this game is no exception. You may also have noticed the circles and crosses next to each spell name: a circle indicates a spells which can be used outside of battle (practically all healing spells). One cool feature that you cannot notice by looking at this screen is the possibility to 'disable' spells, that is, in battle an AI-controlled character won't be able to cast spells that you've disabled; this is a very useful feature, especially considering that the AI in the game is quite dumb with regard to spell choice (and actually quite complex with regard to targeting, more on this in later posts).

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (60)

Well, the more you know... I was surprised by the amount of information you can have regardings the items you find. And if you consider the huge amount of items you can find (and create), you'll realize how painful it must have been for the translators to write all that.

This is the inventory screen, where you can view all your items (remember, you have a common inventory every character can get items from), sorting them and using them (only those with the circle); the 'E' indicates equippable items, while the green ones are newly acquired/created. To the upper right is a 3D rendition of the currently selected item. By pressing Triangle you can access a menu with some options, among with Item Creation and Super Specialty commands: the latter is a group of special 'Item Creation' abilities which rely on the whole party's abilities.