Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (73)

Are you kidding me!? Do you realize that the monsters in the Sanctuary of Linga, which is precisely where you want us to go, is home to ferocious monsters numerous levels beyond those found in Cross cave? If we were to get in there with the same experience levels and equipment we had back then in Cross, we'd surely be slaughtered on our first random battle! This is why I don't want Bowman as a party member (well, not really, there are other reasons).

Claude seems to have found a linguist who could decipher the ancient writings found in Cross Cave, but his assistant kicks him out because the professor is busy, and since there won't be an opportunity too meet with him in less than one month, Rena cleverly suggests we should ask someone he knows to get in touch with him sooner. Well, the guy in the screenshot is our man: Bowman Jean (despite the name, he carries no bow, nor does he bow at anyone, given his character), a University reject... er, dropout who owns a pharmacy; he's very altruist and helps people in trouble (but not our heroes of course, he thinks they're deceiving him), is very active and knows martial arts, and always carries with him an endless supply of poisonous pills (please don't ask me why).

Long story short, Bowman (I'm pretty persuaded his first name has been switched with his surname) could trust the adventurers if they proved themselves by exploring the Sanctuary of Linga, a natural cavern with monsters included, and coming back with rare herbs, possibly of a kind never seen before. He must have been smoking those herbs, because:

• How can there be herbs in a cavern? Where do they get enough light to live? You know, photosynthesis and all...
• I realize the place isn't as 'labyrinthic' as Cross Cave, but it's way larger and teeming with powerful monsters; this guy wants us dead, plain and simple

But then again, we ARE on a planet where people cast magic spells, the day-night cycle is plot-driven, and giant bouncy bunnies happily hop around plains, green hills and mountains.

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I don't know what to make of him, this sentence sounds so empty... I know! It's a code! Hmm, let's see... If we only take the capital letters from his text box, we have 'SIUL', which might be 'LUIS' backwards... But wait! The letters might refer to their respective positions in the alphabet, which would give us the sequence '19-9-21-10'; now, if we take the letters corresponding to those positions in the text box, we have... 'scuo'... Nah, something's wrong. Ok, let's try backwards... 'htsi'... That rings a bell, maybe it's an anagram... You know what, let's stop here, alright?

Linga really is full of eccentric people: as one of the townspeople tells Claude, there's a man and his daughter who always tinker with strange machines, and there's a pharmacist who's always trying to help with other people's problems... Really weird, I tell you! The group even happened to have a taste of them on their arrival: there was this running around chasing after what Claude and Opera recognize as a radio-controlled car (but it looked like a small, round two-legged robot to me).

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What exactly is that? What kind of place would ground coloured like that suggest? Desert sand? Marshes? I honestly can't tell. Even when I enter a battle while on that ground, the landscape doesn't tell me anything. I don't think anyone in nearby towns tells you anything about it either.

Onwards to Linga! As strong as our group of adventurers is right now, they could afford not to stop by Lacour Castle and keep going (also, Claude had bad memories of his stay there). Even after all this time our heroes had spent journeying around, it seems that the king is still busy, so it would be pointless to visit.

In terms of sights, Lacour is pretty boring when compared to Cross (and I didn't even go to a certain mountain zone in Cross either; it's a short trip, but it's beautiful), so we won't make side-trips. Here's the information we've gathered so far on our next stop, the town of Linga: apparently it's host of the only University on Expel, and it's also home to some of the most eccentric people around, including that little girl Claude had saved from Zand's minions. I wonder if it's also Leon's hometown...

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I wouldn't be so sure about the uselessness of this item; just look at its shape... Ok, sorry! This joke was in bad taste. The funny part is that only now I realize that this decoration has something engraved on its tip (supposedly a pair of round eyes): I swear, because of the filtering and watching the game on TV I couldn't make out this detail, while playing it on an emulator finally revealed the funny figure to me.

Some of our heroes were evidently bored of this roundabout journey, so they thought about ways to pass the time: as you can see, Rena entertained herself by practicing sculpture of small wooden idols, probably reminiscing of ancient gods related to her cloudy past. Celine helped her along by identifying the undescribable products of the blue-haired girl's art. Opera could only think of her love, Ernest, which was the only thing she couldn't get off of her head beside her precision goggles. Claude simply enjoyed the exploration of this unknown planet, and the company of three beautiful, yet somewhat weird, girls. You should be thankful, Claude, that the inhabitants of the planet you were beamed to were human.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (69)

I wouldn't call that... thing... a 'cute little rabbit', at least not 'little'. And apparently this sentiment is somehow shared by our heroes, since they all call him Barney or something, rather than a bunny.

This is a Super Specialty skill that combines the party's abilities to do wondrous things, like blacksmithing, playing in an orchestra, or summoning a bunny from anywhere on the world map. What.

Each Super Specialty skill is obtained when you reach a certain level for a couple of specialties: in the case of 'Come on Bunny', it requires Level 4 Familiar for at least two characters and Scout for at least one. Using the skill doesn't cost anything (except having to hear random characters in your party call the bunny), and when you succeed the bunny replaces your main character on the map: at this point, much like with a Mountain Chocobo from Final Fantasy VII (Playstation, 1997), you can roam the land while avoiding random enemy encounters and obstacles such as mountain ranges. This is a convenient means of transportation, but has serious limitations:

• you'll need to waste some Skill Points on skills you may not need
• you can't cross rivers or the sea
• by the time you learn the command, you won't need it anymore, because cities aren't that far away from each other, and on the second planet you'll obtain a better alternative very soon

The only reason you could have for learning this skill is to hear more character voices (there is a voice collection screen in the initial menu).

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (68)

That's not the way to talk to a child, Claude. Granted, the little girl does sound extremely paranoid, but I wouldn't blame her if a guy like Claude were near her... Ok, I'm being a tad too hard on him, and she sure is annoying, mistaking the Warrior for a bad guy, but I think the joke is played too long to be enjoyable (she's around for three whole Private Actions!).

Our heroes are about to leave the continent of Cross: their ship will take a while to set sail, and everyone is walking around while they wait. Claude has nothing better to do but wander inside a dockyard, and is surprised to find someone inside: it's the little annoying girl he met a while back in Lacour! She apparently ran away from her home in Linga, but was terrorized by stories about the dangers of the big city of Lacour, so much that when Claude approached her, she threw a scream and pointed at him as if he were the most dangerous and horrible man to ever walk the earth.

After this little misadventure, Claude had left the little girl alone, even though she could in fact be in danger, alone and away from home; after all, she herself wouldn't want him near her, and he had other things to worry about (namely, mentally recovering from his defeat at the Tournament of Arms). But then here she is, even farther from home, hiding away from 'agents of evil' - she says - and acting desperate as Claude doesn't seem to believe a word she says. Unfortunately for both of them, hard facts come up to prove her right, at least this time: Zand's minions come in and attack Claude, who was ready to defend that little ungrateful girl (I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but Zand is a very 'influential' man here in Herlie).

Depending on how the fight goes (you can't get a game over), you get a different scene; if you lose, the girl gets kidnapped and you'll never see her again, while Claude walks away wounded and frustrated that he couldn't save her. Of course, being the courageous hero that I am, I couldn't settle for a loss (those bandits in green are pretty hard to fight alone), that's why I pre-emptively made a 'Paralysis check' accessory, to avoid their paralyzing knives (if you get paralyzed in a solo fight, you lose automatically). Still, it took me several Blueberries and other healing items to defeat them, but that's because I had pretty outdated equipment. Anyway, to make things short, the girl doesn't even thank Claude for saving her: she even believes he was in cahoots with the bandits to get her to trust him. Claude gives up, joins the others without saying a word about the incident, and they sail together towards Lacour.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (67)

The 'Shingo' Forest... Doesn't the name sound strange to you? Shingo is actually a Japanese term whose meaning is, more or less, 'holy protection' (or so I've read). This translation error was fixed in the PSP remake (it's called Sacred Forest), but I admit Shingo is a somewhat obscure term, and translators might have had trouble getting it right the first time.

All the way back to Arlia, and to the very beginning of out adventure: the forest where Claude was beamed to, and the place where Rena was found by Westa when she was little. We now come to know that this is an important place for Opera as well: this is where her spaceship had crash-landed. This must be a place of destiny.

Opera reveals her ship to her companions (who don't question the thing much, except for a single remark by Celine; I swear, those Expellians get surprised only by the most unexpected things!), and confesses she had hoped it would still be functional, which isn't the case; that's the reason we side-tripped back here. Inside his mind, Claude is losing all hope of getting back; that Ernest guy should have a spaceship as well, but hearing about it from Opera, he wouldn't be surprised if he had crash-landed as well.
Claude:Oh well, might as well settle down here and save this planet from the Sorcery Globe, in order to be recognized as the Warrior of Light and gain back the interest of Rena... No, that seems too complicated, I'll try to hit on Celine instead, she seemed impressed by my bravery... On second though, I guess I'll try with Opera if she doesn't find Ernest: she may have three eyes, but I bet they'll be all blurry once I get her drunk! Oh, what am I worrying about? Once my Phase Gun recharges (it's taking forever though...), I'll be the Warrior of Light again and I'll have all the girls I want!