Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (42)

This is one of the needlessly long scenes you'll face in the game; keep in mind that, while there's an option to make dialogue text appear faster, there's no such option for character animations, and cutscenes cannot be skipped (it's an old game after all). So enjoy watching Rena walking back and forth while the others just stand there looking at her and saying nothing.

Claude feels confident of his strength (i.e. he's gained enough levels), so he decides to rest at the Lacour inn: you can actually spend all the time you want around the world, and the Tournament will always be "the day after" (it's just a commodity for the player, so that s/he doesn't have to worry about time elapsing, I wouldn't do without it in most JRPGs). Claude seems excited enough about the Tournament, but Rena is the one who's the most nervous; but only Celine can figure out why, Claude is either too dumb or too focused on the Tournament to understand.

That said, Rena IS a bit weird, just look at these two screens:


Yeah, Rena, your mother really worries too much about you; she shouldn't have tried to stop you from going to the Shingo forest. After all, if an interstellar traveler equipped with a deadly Phase Gun hadn't shown up right that instant, and if he hadn't had enough courage and will to save you, you would only have been raped by a giant gorilla!

Parents can be such a hassle...

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (41)

...and that's it, he doesn't say anything else after that. All Private Actions start (and end) with a short scene where one random character says something (there's a few exceptions with more elaborate scenes), and then everybody enters (and exits) town. We're getting out of Lacour here, and Claude doesn't seem to have anything interesting to say. The best part about it is that Rena and Celine turn towards him and listen.

We're getting out of town to slay some monsters and get experience before the Tournament: I found out that I'm seriously underleveled this time, and I've already bitten the dust at the semifinals. And, contrarily to what I wrote in an earlier post, you don't get a Game Over if you lose, you just don't get some important prizes (the Sharp Sword!); plus, you get to witness a scene in which Claude makes a nuisance of himself by running to Dias after he's won (obviously), trying to put out some words and pathetically failing at it.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (40)

I'm not exactly familiar with that way of saying, although I remember hearing that in a film. Too bad the capitalized 'red' stands out too much.

Our group seems to have completely forgotten about their mission, and they're just worrying about having a good time; after finding a sponsor for Claude (a creepy woman selling rare weapons, fierce battles and dripping blood seem to excite her at the mere thought), the party is informed that they can all stay at the inn for free. For now, you can go anywhere you like, and possibly fight some random battles to get more experience and techniques for the Tournament. Be warned though that once you decide to rest at the inn you won't be able to get out of Lacour until the tournament is over; also, if I remember correctly, you won't be able to save the game during this whole time.

One thing I found out during this replay is that you can go to the fighting arena beforehand, and and Claude will ask about Dias registering for the Tournament: he'll get a negative answer.

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (39)

Rena, that doesn't make sense! I should remember you that you're the youngest of the group.
Scratch that, the whole story sequence in Lacour Castle has an awful script for Claude and Rena.

Claude gets his way and registers for the Tournament of Arms, and now they're off to find a weapon shop who shall sponsor him. The game makes sure the player knows that by making the characters repeat it more times than necessary, thus making the script even worse than it was. Rena seems a bit concerned about Claude and Dias fighting.

I thought it was worth mentioning a couple of game-play things at this point:

• In the Tournament Claude has to fight one-on-one battles without resting in-between fights; the equipment and items he can use for all these battles depends on the sponsor you choose (and you get to keep the equipment after the tournament). I'm sure you can lose one battle (not counting the final one), but I think any more losses will result in a 'Game Over'
• At this point in the game you can recruit a new character in Linga, and if you do you'll have one more spectator for the battles; but since I don't think any of the added lines of dialogue are funny, I'll do that later (this is also because I hope to recruit another character first)
  

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (38)

Oh really, Claude!? Wow, I didn't know there was a Tournament being held here in Lacour! I mean, how could I possibly tell, after seeing all those people around Lacour talking about the Tournament of Arms?
To be a bit more fair to Claude, if the player doesn't bother talking to anyone, goes straight to the King and gets right back out of the castle, s/he may have overlooked the event. But who plays an RPG like that anyway? They could have bothered with some alternative line for Claude, just to make him sound less retarded (not that it would get a lot better anyway).

Be prepared, here comes Claude & Rena part 2! If you haven't been set off by their unnecessarily complicated relationship already, you should be soon enough. The group is sort of stuck: they won't be able to have an audience with the king anytime soon. Our journey could use a deviation to Linga, where we might find someone who can decipher the ancient writings found in the Cross Cave (however, if you try that, you'll find out that the only linguist available is off to watch the Tournament), but Claude seems to have something else on his mind. He was able to fight off hordes of monsters up to here, without relying on his phase gun, so he feels a lot more confident on his physical strength than he was before. The chance of dueling with Dias at the Tournament is too tempting (his motive? Probably jealousy, but we can't be sure). Fortunately, this sudden spurt of sportsmanship by Claude may not be without advantages: they said that the winner of the Tournament of Arms could get enough visibility to have an audience with the king right away... Yeah, you guessed it, Claude can't win, or else it would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (37)

This isn't really funny, but Star Ocean 2 has a good deal of things like this: people whose behaviour closely resembles the one commonly found nowadays, especially when it comes to tourists. I remember that on the second planet there's a guy staying at a hotel, and he promptly states that he's going to take with him the hotel's consumables (towels, soap, slippers and the like) when quitting his stay, which is quite a common practice.

Lacour Castle is open to visitors on the days of the Tournament of Arms. Claude and his friends go straight to the throne room, even though they said they couldn't have an audience, only to find this group of tourists, apparently from all kind of places, having a tour of the castle. The king's room upstairs is inaccessible, and in the basement there's a cat-eared brat who can't stand the crowd getting in places where they shouldn't; he's also got blue hair, go figure...
But wait, cat-ears? Or whatever animal those ears belong to - he's the only one on Expel like that; I'm pretty sure his parents don't have them either. Later on you may find out that he's a Fellpool (a race you can find in the first Star Ocean), so I guess he may even have a tail. However, all the people around him seem more concerned with his genius and bad character, rather than his weird appearance; now that I think about it, even Rena, who has those long pointy ears, doesn't seem to bother the people of Arlia. Maybe it's just a message against racism. Or am I reading too much into it?

Funny Bits in Star Ocean 2 (36)

New continent, different dialects, I guess? The most peculiar aspect of the Lacour accent is the absence of interrogatives. Just kidding, I don't think it happens often, but it's funny nonetheless.

All the weapon shops in town (there's four of them) can't sell you weapons because of the tournament: the rule is that entrants need to find a shop that's going to provide them with the necessary equipment for the battles, effectively sponsoring them in hopes of getting more publicity. As Rena would later say, to some people the Tournament of Arms is just a big gimmick to make money; and it seems to work wonders, if we look at the number of people shopping around here. There's even people from the 'cold region'! Where's that, you ask? I don't know myself: there's actually no town on Expel that could be in a cold region, and the only place with snowy peaks is an abandoned island with some ruins on it. There must be very small villages scattered around in that cold region, so small that they don't appear on the map, but it still bothers me that you can't visit there, because of the people you see around Lacour Castle wearing snow caps and such. It also bothers me when I see Rena and Celine's relatively skimpy dresses next to them: either our heroines are stoically enduring the cold, or the snow people must be really suffering the heat.