Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP)

Lots of replay value in this very retro-seeming game.  I finally remembered how to find the idol that sits on the altar in the Field of Courage, where it summons yet another Guardian.  On the lookout now for the Symbological Weapons Laboratory...

Update 2-9-12  I accidentally beat Gabriel (and recruited Noel, but missed Chisato and Opera Vector), so I never got back to Virtual Expel or the Maze of Tribulations.  A bit premature there...

Back to Nede

Exit the Calnus, disappointed. Enter all but Leon, the twerp. Although, truth to tell, teenaged girls seem to think he's cute — he has cat ears. It must be pointed out that teenaged girls also like Draco Malfoy for the same inexplicablity, not to call it reason. So... if girls do not (or cannot) recognize the same standards as the rest of us... What choice do guys have, except to skim the bugs^† off the surface of the gene pool? By force if necessary. Yes, it seems so obvious now... Ssssschwup. Ssssssschwup. It takes all kinds, yes. And we must edit the list... Heh heh hehehehehehooha. [Sounds of sharpening.]

Take that, Leon. Drat you, you precocious rugrat. Your mother doesn't have cat ears. Your father doesn't have cat ears. Face it, Leon! You were... you were... adopted!

^†Other superfluous members of this garden party pitched to a distaff demographic include Tiny "Little Dickens" Tim, Beaver Cleaver, Wesley Crusher, Annie Skywalker and the invidious Sloe Gin Ricky.

Krosse Mountain Palace

... s h u d d e r ...

After leaving and returning several times, to get levelled up enough to survive the KMP, we finally found Opera and the hidden [...dot dot dot...]

Actually, I was sort of happy to find the KMP. Some real originals in here, including Red Jello and the Blue Archerettes.

Back to nonessentials...

I have some questions about Star Ocean Second Evolution (and a gripe or two) —

• Who is the little girl in brown in Lecoeur^† City? She's near the Skills Guild in a private action. Her name is "???" and she plays "Gotcha!" with Claude. Her last ploy is "Don't come near me or I'll scream." Then runs away.


• [Update 12/24] I swear this happened. In Centropolis, in Gracey's Item Shop (Gracey is a gruff old guy!) when I bought Resurrection Elixir, I had more Fol the more I bought! It hasn't happened again. Is this related to the Oracle skills?


• Why does your Fol drain slowly away by the second? At this point in the game, you're probably carrying over 3 million Fol because you've been traipsing through Phynal or the Cave of Trials, but still... I thought there wasn't supposed to be no reality in these JRPGs?


• A gripe: Ashton Anchors is droll, but... he recruits himself. The answer to the question "Take responsibility?" is, it doesn't matter. Also, if you "recruit" Ashton you can't get Opera. Bummer. Don't bother going back for him. He has a thing for barrels, never (SFAIK) explained. (This makes twice I've screwed up and had to start over!)


• Also, if you have recruited Celine and Ashton both, then Creepy and Weepy will be peeking up Celine's floating shower curtain on every status screen. Not a gripe or a question, just... face palm.


• Another: Welch Vineyard is recruitable?! She's the kid you met in SO3 who submits your inventions for evaluation. She drops out of the sky at the bridge into Lecoeur Castle, after the Armory Contest.


• Everything interesting happens in a P.A. You can get sucked into the urgency of the plot, being the natural follower that you are, and thereby miss the other 99% of this game. Major problem.


• I despise the Cave of Trials, or whatever it's called this iteration. You have to use it to level up enough to beat the final, non-optional "plot" bosses, so it's a crutch. Finding it, in SO2 and SOSE, is hilarious.

^†Spelled L-A-C-U-E-R for some reason. It might be authoritative, but it's wrong wrong wrong...!

The Über-Smurf, Indalecio

"Gabriel," is it? Foo. The guy's name is Indalecio, and he's a smurf. The final battle of Star Ocean Second Evolution is truly underwhelming, if you've levelled up enough. (If you haven't, say, you're only around 102, he'll wipe the floor with you.)

We took him down with Claude (118), Rena (117), Chisato (53) and Precis (115). Rena was limited to the spells Faerie Light, Condition Cure, Raise Dead, Haste, Reflection, Angel Feather and Star Flare, and I should have turned off all her attacking spells. Claude was the leader, and he used Mirror Blade exclusively (L Button). Precis was set to use Hammer Slammer or Rocket Punch. Chisato, the lowest-ranking member of the team, was there to guarantee piling on, personal fouls, late hits and extra gouging, but in fact she used 100,000 Volts until she ran out of MP, then switched to knees, elbows, head bumps and low kicks.

The only tactic we used against Gabriel was to hit him hard, fast and often from all sides, which makes for a short, boring battle with no finesse whatsoever — if it works. Military historians will recognize the Powell Doctrine, but frankly, we were just lucky. Indalecio has one Game Over spell, if you give him a quarter second to escape your onslaught.

Star Ocean is supposed to have over twenty endings, i.e., scenes that play out and explain the fates of all your company once the game is won. Chisato was lonely and down in the dumps in Hilton. Leon the Pointless was playing with the other kids in Lecour. Precis got hit on in a bar by two lumpkins who ignored Celine, to their peril. Claude rejoined the service and went away for a few months, while Rena promised he'd be a daddy by the time he got back. (The last time I played this, on PS1, Celine was at home getting ready for another treasure hunt.) No idea what the other endings are, but I missed finding Opera Vectra this time around, too.

Colossal waste of time, if you ask me!

The Maze on Floor Six

Ok, minor beef first. My favorite irritant in Star Ocean: The Second Story (on Playstation One) was a flame thrower named Decus. He had blinding speed, a battery of infuriating taunts ("Am I not hot??!") and Spicule, a screenfilling killer blast that began in ominous silence, transformed to luminous whiteout and developed slowly into pyromaniac maelstrom. Decus was not sane, even by pretense.

Michael, by contrast, the same guy in Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP) is a mellow fellow whose menace is severely diluted by the larger PSP screen — part of Decus' panache was claustrophic terror, you couldn't get away from him, and he moved so damned fast! Great music, too. We took Decus out at level 85 on PS1, after a withering onslaught that lasted maybe fifteen minutes before we turned the tide — it seemed like a week.

Michael's a wimp, like going from Monty Python with flame throwers to Hell with ice water. We found him with our levels over 93, so maybe that's why, but still... Michael should be a challenge, not a debate.

If you get past Decus (or Michael), you reach the silent maze on Floor Six, a puzzle. After the pyrotechnics below, the mental readjustment is gear-grinding. You can't mash X on Floor Six, you have to solve the puzzle, because the cheat sheets are subtly wrong (and they quote each other!) unless you start at the absolute, unmodified beginning of the maze. That's my beef with Floor Six, that the walkthrough writers couldn't be bothered to write up a real solution. If you need help here, go back and save after defeating Decus. Otherwise, you'll mung the settings and have to solve Floor Six by trial and error. (The trick is to turn on all the switches on pedestals which have no left-middle-right option, just on or off.)

No spoilers, here, though (^^;) Blunder around long enough, and an obvious pattern will emerge. With a definite strategy in mind, Floor Six is a piece of cake.

Rats, i got Bowman!

I was hoping for somebody else... Now I have to start over! (This wasn't a problem^† on the PS1.)

Other than that, kind of a fun day. Routine CT scan this a.m., visit to the doctor's office for a Z-pack to kick this impending bronchitis before it kills me (for about month anyway), a serendipitous H1N1 shot, another doctor's visit to schedule my daughter's wisdom teeth extraction (all 4, ouch), followed by a skiff of snow on the roads this evening. Sagittarius = Medicine. The CT tech had a faded henna tatoo on her right arm, another synchronicity. Witch hazel and Christmas.

^†Bowman? And Ashton? How's come I got Ashton?! Do over!!