Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (287)

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...

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (286)

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.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (285)

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.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (284)

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).

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (283)

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.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (282)

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.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (281)

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.