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

Seeing this thread made me go back and watch the opening movie again. I love the music in the intro cinema, very sci-fi in a star treky way (pan around the spaceship as it takes off from a stardock). I imagine you'll link to the cinema during your let's play, which is good as I can watch it again!

Though I prefer Claude, the Rena choice ends up being better in that i've already played through the game with Claude. I'm also definitely interested in seeing the game being broken as well as any bonus content (I missed most of that stuff myself).

Edit: Oh, and I vote for Opera (three eyes are always better then two).

I underestimated the time it would take, combined with having guests over eating up my time, and we have the first (and hopefully only) missed update. Fitting that it should be the first. I won't commit to a time but I will feel ashamed if it isn't done by the end of the day.

Also, I may have taken a few too many screenshots, I have about 200 to choose from from the first half hour of the game, any experienced LPers have an opinion on this?

Only? I usually have upwards of 400 every time I venture into the screenshot folder to work on them and that might not even be halfway through an update. (Granted a good chunk of mine are too blurry to use and some have half a sentence on the screen...) The more choices the better. Just cut it down to what's relevant for what you want to do, pretty much.

I found myself thinking about that this morning, before seeing this thread. As I recall, the intro to Star Ocean is pretty long and dialogue-heavy before you really get into the action. You might not want to transcribe all that, but at least summarize it. It's been a while since I played (and I did resist the urge to start last night) so I can't quite remember too much of the specifics.

And I typically filtered through several thousand screenshots per update due to the nature of the game and program I was using.

Yeah, I like it too. For the most part I only like pointless FMVs like that, that just try and look cool (though there's definitely a distinction between "cool" and "'cool' (stupid)") rather than pretending they're really important.

And then they went and did new anime intros for the PSP ports of 1 and 2. WTF. I guess somebody thought they'd do better if they pretended to be Tales ripoffs, and that somebody may even be on to something, but it makes me sad inside.

I'm not really experienced or anything, but I'm doing a game that happens to be a lot like yours in some ways. It's good that you took a lot of pictures, because it means you have all the ones you need. My method is to pick the first picture of a post, then write around it, then keep going, adding new pictures as they become appropriate, in the hopes that I don't Wall o'Text it too hard or anything. The best pictures are either inherently funny or leave themselves extremely open to jokes. Other than that, you can use them to point out specific dialogues, scene changes, gameplay elements and mechanics, stuff like that. (Overall, I used substantially less than half the pictures I took for Innocent Sin, and so far EP is looking similar, if not an even lower ratio)

I can't think of any game where the dialogue is worth transcribing wholesale. And you're playing a tri-Ace game, which, VP2 aside, all have horrible, wordy prologues. So cut out as much as you think you can, by all means. It's amazing how many text boxes you can sum up into one or two sentences.

It's interesting because I'm running into this problem with Suikoden. You have to show enough dialogue to convey the basic plot, but not so many that people aren't just reading the dialogue along with you. Hit the high notes and fill in the rest.

The other direction you could take this (and Elfir is doing a great job of it) is to show us bits and pieces but leave enough out that you can make up your own stuff as you go. It's not like SO2's plot is very deep or well-written to begin with, adding your own details could be an amusing way to spice everything up. If people can't tell what's from the game and what's from your crazy head, you've done it right.

Wall o'Pictures can be just as bad. It's a balancing act. I just hate the ones that constantly have "Screenshot, Humorous Comment, Screenshot" alternating for hours.

See, those are some of my favorites, so long as they offer the ocassional anecdote or explanation or break down some game mechanics.

Oh man we're ruining someone else's LP thread with general LP discussion. Okay I'll stop now.

I usually have between 500 and 800 for each chapter of mine, but I take pictures of every line of dialogue in case I want to point it out for some reason. My rule of thumb is to just show the first shot of a scene, transcribing the rest, unless a new character appears mid-scene.

A little bad news tempered by a fair amount of good news. I've got a schedule decided upon, so whoever cares to follow this can count on consistent monday updates, the bad news is that that means is that this first week has been a complete bust. My sincerest apologies. By the time Monday rolls around I should have enough updates prepared and a solid enough schedule that they can be consistent while allowing for the unforeseen.

In the meantime, so I can get a fair amount ahead.

Celine: Yes or No? There aren't a ton of reasons not to take her along but there are party setups that don't work with her so, a little breakdown for those who don't know the game.

Celine is the first main character that can be recruited besides the obvious Claude and Rena. She's a fairly useful spellcaster and in most cases is probably someone worth taking along. However, this is your game so feel free to make whatever decisions you want. It might also be a good time to start thinking about Ashton versus Opera and Ernest, if you feel like voting on that already.

Please, for those who choose to vote, keep a tally so I don't have to go digging through posts to check everyone's votes, even if there doesn't end up being very many it would be a great help.

I already threw in my vote for Celine, especially if you're using Rena (and thus not getting Leon.)

My votes:

Celine Yes
Opera Yes

I'm all for Celine. And Ashton, while we're on the subject.

Celine 3
No-Celine 0
Ashton 1
Opera 1

Edit: Note I started the tally from FBM's last post. Not going to try tallying the previous ones because a lot of that was arguing/discussion and minds may have been changed.

At long last, and without further ado, FBM productions is proud to present. The first part in a way-too-many part epic,

STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY LETS PLAY!

So, in all seriousness, this first part is going to be doing the condensed version of the first (around) two hours of gameplay, this game has a rather long, mostly boring, opening. You'll thank me for the fairly brisk nature of the overview if you've played SO2.



As has been decided by you, the people, we're going to play as Rena, keep in mind that I usually played Claude's story so it was kind of weird having to remember what event flags to trigger in order to get the ball rolling on the actual story, to put it simply, this took longer then it should have.

(whoops, should have payed more attention in editing, that comment was there as a reminder but I couldn't find Rena's opening in video form)

After a little bit of ominous foreshadowing in Rena's opening cutscene (some giant energy orb appears over a forest and just as suddenly disappears), we close in on a house. Since I'm assuming you all have functioning brains, I'll take it you guessed this is Rena's house, you were correct. After some stilted sounding dialogue with her mother Westa deemed too boring to be shown by an LP creator who isn't creative enough to riff like it's Mystery Science Theater 3000 we gain control of our protagonist. For the sake of story, I'll mention that this was Rena talking about going to the Shingo Forest as she seemingly does every day. Claiming that she feels peaceful there.



I don't intend to do many of these "make fun of a screenshot I took" sections (sorry Brickroad) merely because, I'm not funny. This deserved pointing out though because it goes beyond the normal cliche of chests in unlikely places because this town has chests everywhere. Most bizarrely, right in front of the shop which sells items not dissimilar to the ones that can be taken from those chests. I can see putting commonly used consumable items in there but one of the items is Sandals, how often are people going to need Sandals that putting them out for free is going to get customers to show up.









Arlia village, a simple village, like all RPG main character hometowns. Not much to say really, just wanted to give an idea of the area I'll be traipsing through.





Claude's first daring act, as you saw, was to shoot an Ape with a laser, most would consider this overkill, many would question why not take the girl and run to safety. One can only assume that Claude is not-so-secretly violent by nature, at least, that's what I'd say if this was reality, but he's an RPG co-protagonist so it probably means he's just stupid. Seemingly showing unusual common sense, Rena proceeds to run away from the crazy man vaporizing the wildlife. I wish I could say she had the common sense to stay away from him but after around 3 seconds of running she stops. Now struck by the idea that he is, in fact, the Warrior of Light (no, I won't be making a Final Fantasy joke, thank you very much). No RPG is complete without a prophecy of a savior, so she escorts Claude back to her house, some more boring stuff about Claude eating a mountain of food and Rena goes to get the Mayor.

The Mayor, showing some semblance of intelligence, immediately pokes holes in Claude's claims of being a traveler from a faraway land. This is satisfying to all those who find this old excuse to be grating. A little slow on the draw, Claude questions what the Mayor is insinuating, The Mayor tells Claude thinks he's lying, Then the Mayor draws the partly right but mostly wrong assumption that Claude is an alien warrior from another world sent to help them. Citing as proof the legends of a warrior who dresses in "alien raiments" and uses a "Sword of Light" To get out of this, Claude lies pretty blatantly, claiming to have nothing of the sort. Rena points out that he has a weapon that seemingly shoots light. He cops to it but says that he's no warrior, in stark contrast to his killing of a supposedly powerful monster. Rena (having seemingly pinned all her hopes on the idea of Claude being this Warrior) is shocked and asks whether he knows of the Sorcery MacGlobin. Claude responds by thinking about elipses. As Rena proceeds to explain about the fact that the Sorcery Globe is seemingly to blame for a smattering of horrific natural disasters. The mayor proceeds to explain about how an unusual meteor landed on the continent of El and that demons have been swarming since it hit, as well as a sharp increase in natural disasters. Naturally the conclusion was that the Meteor and their misfortunes were connected.

The Mayor lays it bare, they think that, regardless of his lack of knowledge of the legend, he is the warrior of light. Claude elaborates a little on how he came to Expel, but in such a vague manner as to confuse everyone. For whatever reason, despite already having interfered, he seems intent on not telling anyone anything about himself. The logic behind this being reasonable only to him.

At this point, the mayor relents, resigned to the belief that Claude is not the warrior of light. Rena is less accepting of this notion and proceeds to run out of the house. Questioning how she could have been wrong. He had the only two things outlined by the legend!

The next morning, Rena goes for a walk! I can't make this exciting people. Off to the Shingo Forest, where she questions what she came there for and goes into flashback mode, appropriately in sepiatone. Seemingly remembering the night after the death of her father.



Learning that she's not biologically related to her parents is the end of this flashback.

As Rena ponders who she is, Claude takes this opportunity to make an appearance. Conversation even more awkward then some of the commentary in this Lets Play follows. Claude leaves the scene in a manner inconsistent with the layout of the forest, one can only assume he's off to fulfill his bloodlust by killing the local wildlife.



Look at this picture and tell me you wouldn't guess the gray haired guy in the red cape looks evil, surprising fewer then 0 people, he is. He cackles like a madman and does the usual crazy guy cliche of kidnapping our intrepid heroine for a "marriage ceremony". He talks about how the stone said he would be irresistible to her or some such.



The townspeople put up a token resistance but are no match for the might of 3 soldiers and a fop. Showing the debate skills of a 5 year old, when told to release Rena, Alen just yells "MAKE ME!". Strangely, he doesn't react to the aspersions cast upon his sanity by his bride to be.

After returning to Alen's house, we see a short scene that might as well have been condensed to the dialogue that ends it, don't even think about escaping. This would be a more effective threat if it weren't for the fact that the only precaution against escaping is a lock on the front door. Instead of attempting to break the lock, Rena decides to open up a secret passage and go down into a cave of uncertain origin and even less certain exit. I'm sure it must have made sense to someone.



This has to be commented upon, it's truly the most inspired name in the game, Bossman. He tells us that he was forced to build an altar in this cave (the Salva Drift) for Alen, he says if Rena looks hard she might be able to find a way out.

Battles finally start occurring here and (for those curious) Rena proves herself a competent fighter, her need to be closer to enemies to hit them then Claude is offset by a faster followup attack speed. It's not hard to get through the battles without taking damage at all at this point.
We also aquire the first item used for metal working, one of the many skills that will need to be used by someone. This iron is the first item on a road to brokenly powerful weapons and items.

Back to the story, Rena accidentally wanders right into the wedding room while looking for a way out. Rena runs but is dragged back and tied to the alter. Alen calls this a wedding but it really looks more like he's making a sacrifice to Cthulhu. Some conversation about how Alen changed, he talks about his preciousss stone.



Claude leisurely strolls halfway into the room before acting surprised at all by this scene. Claude (trying and failing to sound impressive) proclaims that there can be no such thing as a wedding desired by only one party. Alen creepily says that he and Rena love each other "are... in love... in love". He then proceeds to do nothing as Claude unties Rena. Once Claude's done untying Rena though, Alen unleashes a red ring of energy and threatens to break Claude's Xbox 360.

A battle breaks out, being early in the game, it's a very easy battle, doesn't explain why Alen transformed into a hideous monster though. I didn't get a screenshot before it disappeared but Claude gained two levels which the game amusingly rendered as "Claude has 2 increased".

Standing over Alen's body, Claude and Rena question why he turned into an evil monster. Both seem surprised that he isn't dead and Rena proceeds to heal his wounds despite having no indication that he is reformed or has been changed in any way by having the crap beaten out of him. Let's chalk it up to the usual JRPG optimism, or, even more fourth wall breaking, perhaps she too noticed that his name box had changed from Alen to Alen - Tax.

He wakes up good as new and Claude remarks that it was probably the stone that changed him, where the stone went isn't entirely clear. However, alls well that ends well.

You'd think that Claude would be a bit more rational, being from a more scientific society but he's the one pushing the "stone mind control" theory, it's a tad odd. Apparently Alen has been out of it for two weeks as the stone controlled him. He apologizes and I'm running out of semi-interesting things to say about this conversation.

Back at Arlia, a joyous reunion is had by all. That night, a meeting happens at the Mayor's house discussing what Claude is going to do. Rena points out the similarities between the Stone Alen had and the Sorcery Globe, apparently exhibiting exceptional thickness of the head, neither Claude nor the Mayor noticed this. The Mayor asks Claude to investigate the Sorcery Globe. Claude agrees without much hesitation. He then takes time to outline why he's only thinking of himself and is in actuality not an altruistic hero, but a selfish bastard. Rena (unsurprisingly) requests that she be allowed to accompany Claude on his investigation. She asks Claude if he thinks her healing powers (as she demonstrated on Alen) will be useful to which he re replies with a rather blunt no. He defers to the Mayor who disagrees, saying that Rena will be useful in his travels. Obviously, he relents. Although under the condition that she get permission from her mother.

More scenes deemed to dull for the LP, needless to say, Rena has a chat with her mother about leaving. Her mother is shocked, the Mayor talks to her as Rena runs off to go for a walk. Claude appears on a bridge, though what he's doing isn't clear yet in Rena's game. Strangely, some of the dialogue spoken here is inconsistent with what has happened. Rena says the Mayor will be coming over soon but when she left he had already been at her house. I'm not sure why this is.

Rena tells Claude about her mother not being her real mother. She talks about how she thinks the pendant she was left with is proof that her biological mother loves her. An orphan found with a pendant with a mysterious past?! Truly they're plumbing the depths of unique backstories.

Now, just as the game gets interesting, it's time to shut the book on the first entry in this Lets Play.

Next time: Will King (Kriss) Kross make us Jump Jump through any hoops before lending us his support? Will we start along the path that leads to Opera and Ernest or will we be getting Ashton instead? Will the jokes get any better? Find out next time!

I'd like to apologize for the late update, what goaded me to make a schedule was how disturbingly similar to a webcomic author I felt. I hope that you guys like this first part. As my final word on this first update, I'm really sorry about some of the lame jokes, especially the Kriss Kross joke. Also, my punctuation use is probably lacking, I was tired when I wrote this.

Needs more examples of the bad dialog. I was gonna comment on the lack of a video where you left yourself a note about that but I see you changed that already. ^_^

I'll take that into account and make sure to do a bit more specific dialogue commentary in later updates. In this case though, I really wanted to get these first few hours out of the way, now that they are, I can start the more interesting parts. I can go to places out of order and start to lay the foundation for later game breaking.

Overall, any constructive criticism is good though. What did you like and what didn't you (this is an open question to everyone).

Sorry for the note I accidentally left in their. I was up a while sorting through photobucket trying to find where the relevant pictures had disappeared to. I didn't check the rest of it as thoroughly as intended.

In the meantime, I'm going to fix some of the more glaring spelling errors.

Ashton might be a mope, but Ashton's dragons are the best characters in the game.

If you guys decide on Ashton I'm renaming him Brian May simply because of the line "Got a dragon on my back" from Dragon Attack, I don't feel I need further justification.

Oh, I was thinking he should be named "Pete".

But I still prefer Opera ^_^

Much as I love SO2, it takes way too long to get going.

(Believe it or not folks, all that really does take a good two hours or so to do.)

Yeah, as much fun as it might be to pick over the story bit by bit, this is one time I'm kinda glad the LP skimmed... I was already getting flashbacks of that shit.

I forget - is Rena bound to the "wedding" altar in both versions of the opening or just Claude's? I know she comes off as a total wuss in Claude's version but I can't recall how extensive the wussdom is...

She gets tied up in both versions.

Its been a while since I played Rena's story so I don't remember how many scenes actually change, guess I'll be as surprised as you guys are.

So, has anybody else got an intention to pick up the remakes now that they've got U.S. release dates? October and January can't come soon enough.

I don't recall hearing about the remake... what system is it on and YES MUST HAVE YES. What's changing?

All the sprites have been redrawn and the first one is being translated for the first time (I think 2 gets a re-translation which will hopefully make its dialogue less stilted) and both have new characters, they are both for PSP.

EDIT: Another alteration, apparently Star Ocean: First Departure is now using the same engine as Second Evolution, having never played SO1 I can't say for sure how it impacts gameplay, but it is worth pointing out.

And they're coming out when the boyfriend will be obsessively playing new console and computer games, leaving the PSP undefended. Excellent... *plots*

They can keep the awkward translation just so long as they spruce up the janky battle system.

Unrelated side note: 'Field of Expel' is just about the greatest overworld theme ever. It's no 'Searching for Friends', but it comes closer then pretty much any other rpg out there.

Fixed.

Final Fantasy VI's music always sounded slightly bittersweet and depressing to me. That was probably intentional, but it's was never to my taste. FFIV's came up on my mp3 player earlier today and I found myself thinking, "this is the best damn overworld music."

Star Ocean has a lot of music that I like, but Feeling of Oppression is my pick for best music of the first couple hours.

The next 24 hours is the final deadline to cast a vote on Ashton or Opera, I'm going to have to either do the Private Action where I meet the 3-eyed man or the private action where I learn of dangerous dragons in the Salva drift.

My personal vote is for Opera, so if I don't get votes on Ashton's side that's who I'll pick. Opera also gives access to Ernest, although he's not actually very useful and taking them both means we have to choose between Noel and Chisato when they arrive because by then 7 of the party 8 slots will be filled. Just a heads up.