A Sea of Constellations: Let's Play Star Ocean 2

BREAK IT.

I actually found Dias way more useful at the end than most of my other characters, due to the fact that his best weapon doubles his attack, so in my game he was doing max damage (well, 9999, which I think was the cap) with any attack. And his version of air slash is seriously one of the best moves in the game just because it has practically no recovery time.

And uh, I really hated Claude so as soon as I got enough fighters, I kicked him out of my party, and let him languish at level like 29, while the rest of my team went through the cave of trials.

To be fair, the newbies should also be warned that the NPC AI was coded by tinfoil with eyes glued to it, and your NPC party members spend most of every combat charging into the teeth of the enemy and dying.

Without Claude's ubersword, I would have made it maybe ten hours into this beast.

Yeah, the Eternal Sphere+ a number of maxed combat skills = Death for pretty much anythiing.

Are you gonna do Normal, Hard, or Universal difficulty? For those who don't know, it'll affect enemies stats enormously including HP, and playing on Universal virtually requires breaking the game in at least a few ways.

Man, I'm having a brainfart. Does Chisato actually carry a clipboard in her official artwork? I forget.

Last time I played the game (and this would have been about 2000 or so) I meticulously paired Chisato with Ashton. I remember his cry of "Chisatooooo!" whenever she died in combat to be lovably dorky.

I'm considering changing my user title to "bang BANG attack" but it would require me to change my avatar too and that's a lot of damn work so I probably won't do it I guess.

Yes.

Leon has the best clothes though. Hoooooly crap.

When I finally beat it, I happily got a Rena/Dias ending. Also got Claude/Precis.

For newcomers: This game has an affection system that gives extra little scenes in the ending depending on who gets paired up with whom. Private Actions effect it a lot but also curing in battle and certain special items.

The last time I played I spent my time trying to get Dias/Precis because the thought of the badass swordsman and annoying girl amused me. Didn't work though, and I ended up getting Dias/Rena, despite actively trying to screw that up. Looking back the Dias/Precis thing, it sounds like a stereotypical anime idea.

If you know what you're doing, it's possible to game the system in such a way that you can have an endgame save capable of producing whatever pairings you want.

I remember Opera/Leon being both really cute and really creepy.

I got Opera/Rena and Claude/Leon. NOT WHAT I WANTED!! I should have left Ernest behind...

We're taking Ashton right? Guys. We should take Ashton.

Claude or Rena: Your discretion. Leon's a great caster, with good speed and very mp efficient spells. On the other hand, I really enjoy using Dias as my main character after getting him. So it's up to you.

Bowman vs. Percis: Bowman's worthless. I know this because the first time I played the game he was the only other fighter I got. It was very, very sad. Get Percis.

Ashton vs. Opera: I've never used Opera, but I'm just going to say Ashton because if you play as Claude it wouldn't hurt to get another fighter early on. Plus he's pretty awesome (whiny).

The Party
Claude
Rena
Leon/Dias
Percis
Ashton
Chisato
Celine

That leaves one spot for... Earnest or Noel? I've never used either of them, so I leave that in Talking Time's most capable hands.

As I recall, Bowman has the most capacity for being game-breakingly powerful. So he might be the man to pick if we're going to go for broke making this game cry.

As for Noel, general consensus is that he sucks, but I honestly ended up liking him more than Rena since he gets attack AND healing spells. The big problem is that SO2 doesn't have any AI options for hybrid casters, so anything useful you get him to do, you have to do manually.

I concur on Bowman. Poison Pills is nuts at high proficiency. Plus his voice is hilarious.

You can't recruit Ernest without Opera. And having Opera is no guarantee of getting him, either >_<

Which sucks, because you can steal Battle Suits from him. That alone makes him better in my estimation than certain other characters.

I used Opera for my late/postgame healing and ran Bowman, Claude, and Dias on my first play. It was awesome. Mostly because I didn't have to put up with any damn casters.

I've heard something like this before, but for me he was so profoundly awful I have trouble imagining it.

I hated Noel's voice too much and just used them as an out of battle healer.

I kinda feel like Claude has an obligation to form a harem. Thus Precis, Opera, Celine, and Chisato should be picked up if possible. Ernest should probably not be picked up because he's a rival male.

Precis is annoying, we don't need WAI WAI GENKI GENIUS GIRL on the team. Take Bowman. He's a street fighter.

Claude looks like a retard when he runs. Choose Rena. She also looks like a retard when she runs, but at least her hair isn't as goofy.

Opera is an alcoholic alien woman with a giant gun. Ashton is what can only be described as "Nancyboy McLeatherEnthusiast." I think your choice is clear. Plus, Opera can recruit Indiana Jones. Don't you want Indiana Jones on your team?

Noel is worth getting just to have another out of battle healer, imho.

Opera is awesome for her Alpha on One homing, multi-hitting killer move. It is a shame that Ashton and Opera are both awesome yet you can't have both. Opera has pretty funny private actions, as I recall (I think she makes Leon cry one time). Plus, boobs (especially if you kick Celine to the curb like I did).

Man just sitting here thinking about this game makes me want to respond to this topic every ten minutes. I think I'm going to quit doing that, because otherwise our esteemed host isn't going to have anything left to talk about when he actually plays the game.

It kinda makes me want to play it, unfortunately I don't have a copy.

Not to mention the barrel fetish. It's not healthy for a boy of his age.

I do have a copy sitting here, and I just checked and I don't have my endgame save-file anymore... but... I shouldn't... *twitch*

You know you want to...

Choose Claude. Then play as Rena, ditching Claude as soon as possible.

And get Noel. Why? I demand Acid Lair. Combo Acid Rain with Gremlin Lair with the portal opening right in the enemy's face and watch the nines fill the screen.

Claude, Rena, lolBowman, Leon, Opera, Ernest, Chisato, Noel

Ya, but...

Regular Attack > Mirror Slice

DEFINITELY break the game. Precis is really annoying and I don't even remember who Bowman is, so him, I guess? I also like Leon, but not going to be sad if you go the other way. But seriously, how shitty is the Ashton/Opera choice, though? They're both awesome in their own way... though Opera's voice is so... painful you may want to leave her behind. I'm also behind Brickroad's love of Chisato.

So that's where I stand. But mostly take away from this that I want to see you break the shit out of the game, cause that's really interesting to read, I'm finding, cause I'm way too lazy and casual to do such things for myself. So you do them for me. Yeah.

Quick level gains, some of the best weapons by halfway through the first disc, etc.

You can get Opera without Ernest, it's possible (and perhaps preferrable because Ernest is pretty shitty in battle). It even opens up some rare Private Actions because Opera has to deal with the fact that Ernest died when Expel expeloded (I'm sorry for that joke)

I'm pleased at the positive response this has gotten so far, I'll try not to let you guys down. I'll be breaking the game, but those will be separate posts showing how it's done, screenshots will be provided even though they'll mostly be of a screen with lots of words and numbers.

It would seem that I should have done my prep run as Rena because that's who the majority have sided with (Including my vote, it seems to be 5 to 7 in favor of Rena). I hope I didn't miss anyone, there should be a proper update by the end of the day. Also, I almost executive vetoed because I don't like Dias, but a ruler must bend to the wishes of the ruled in cases such as this.

I'm kinda happy about that... All the character talk made me so nostalgic and, well, I played through as Rena...