Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (105)

Ooh, finally everyone's realized that Leon has animal ears! ...Not really, but it would have made a lot more sense if it were that way.

At last Opera has found his love, Ernest! Or at least it seems so, but Opera herself doesn't seem to be convinced of that; I would feel the same in front of a man wearing weird-looking pajamas and holding a whip... But I digress, despite Ernest recognizing Opera ans saying he loves her, the situation feels pretty tense; or, actually, the level of bad acting for this 'Ernest' is off the scale, even if you had never seen him before, you could tell he's an impersonator. At one point, though, he mentions that 'that kid' has the Energy Stone and asks Opera to give it to him; then suddenly everybody in the party turns to Leon. This makes no sense (no news here I guess): why would the group act this way, and why would Leon reply like this? They should have stared at 'Ernest' instead, since he could see through Leon's coat to spot the stone he had in his pocket.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (104)

This is the beginning of a rather bad scene, in both direction and translation; what you can see here is just a taste. I don't feel like commenting it right now, just know that the guy saying 'folloed' is apparently Ernest, the three eyed person the group saw in Cross near the start of the adventure, and also Opera's love.

Finally out of that infernal mine! Can't say our heroes have come out of this adventure really well: Leon is still shivering from fear, Celine and Precis are exhausted, Opera is in sore need of a drink, and Claude is starting to think about his planet again. At least they got the stone they wanted, and now they're just a short walk away from the ship; still, the thought of monsters invading the continent prevents their minds from relaxing. And now what?! Who's this guy just outside the ruins?

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (103)

And that's what happens when you get a little careless in this game. Remember: walk softly and carry a big Resurrection Bottle. I find it funny though that Celine's sprite overlaps the side menu while Precis's doesn't, but that might be the emulator's fault.

Explosions and cave-ins cannot stop the Hero of Light, but persistent monsters sure can! Despite the relentless casting of healing spells by our indispensible companion Rena, there are times when her powers aren't enough. The result: two party members down. They're not really dead though: although you can bring them back to health with items such as Resurrection Bottles or a spell called Raise Dead, they're just unable to fight (or else you wouldn't be able to explain why they're fine and dandy during cutscenes).

Oh, look at the time! I've been playing for more than 9 hours already! My, how time flies... Well, playing it about an hour a week sure makes it seem longer than it is. I admit that playing JRPGs this way gives an entirely different feeling; I used to play 2-3 hours a day back then, if not more.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (102)

Claude: Now wait a second... What did that soldier say back in Hilton about booby traps? Hmmm... Probably nothing interesting, and certainly not something in any way related to this conspicuously placed lever near these gunpowder-smelling barrels. What was I doing? Ah, yes, let's pull the lever here.
Claude: Motherrrrr!

The group is still in the mine beneath the Hoffmann Ruins: they probably took a wrong turn on the way back and got lost. As you can see, looking for the exit they come across several dead ends, including the one above. Among all the explosive 'traps' you can find down here, I think just one or two conceal actual secret rooms with treasure, so my rule is just to avoid them altogether. You can however try and set them all off, at the cost of a big chunk of HPs for all your characters (but nothing a 'Cure All' spell couldn't heal), to discover the right one/s. The non hidden treasure is good enough though, so I always scout around the whole place, despite the many dangerous monsters.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (101)

And I thought the previous wall painting was very suggestive of christian art! Other than that, though, looking at this screenshot made me notice the lamplight on the left and made me think: if this place is abandoned and there's noone else but Claude, Leon and the others (and it's reasonable to assume nobody else's been here since the last expedition), how is it possible that the lights are still on? Some other kind of Heraldry power? Too convenient...

Zooming through the mine back to the entrance of the Hoffmann Ruins, our heroes can't help but get mesmerized by the beautiful pieces of art this mysterious civilization left them, as if they wanted to make the older generations wonder why in Expel would they have made such a painting down here. Claude would have been ready to show off his knowledge by stating that it could have been two civilizations from different time periods who made the surface ruins and the cave paintings, or that the latter ones could have been made by heretics hiding underground; the problem is that he's exhausted by the battle agains those two guys at the mineral site, and he's trying so hard to avoid random encounters that he's started praying to that painting not to have anymore.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (100)

Bad timing on my part, but here Claude was supposed to hand the Energy Stone over to Leon: I wouldn't give such an important stone to those HANDS, especially after what's happened (if you know what I mean). Oh, I almost forgot: since we have this huge common inventory for the party's items, why bother giving it to him, just drop it in there and we're done.

After that supposedly funny scene with Leon, Claude tells him to hold onto the stone, saying something like this: "You found it, hold on to it". I couldn't guess whether Claude meant it to be a joke on the claim that Leon made about finding the stone by himself, or he was just trying to be kind and ignore Leon's attitude. Either way, I realize I've dwelled on this scene for too long, so I'll quickly move out of the way.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (99)

Oh, yeah let's just let Claude collect the piece of mineral we need, I'm sure he knows exactly the quantity and quality we need; it doesn't take a scientist to do that after all.

While Leon is still adjusting his shorts, Claude goes ahead and collects a chunk of the mineral, instantly nicknaming it Energy Stone. Meanwhile, Rena notices that her pendant isn't glowing anymore, therefore they deduce it wasn't a reaction from the mineral; could it have been a reaction to the two monsters they beat earlier? Don't worry, we don't have an answer to this (I actually didn't bother doing some research on Star Ocean fansites, there may well be additional material that explains the game in detail).