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Full Review for Star Ocean: Second Evolution by dragonx254

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Introduction

Star Ocean: Second Evolution is one of the Star Ocean Series games out for the PSP. It features a young adult named Claude C. Kenny, the son of a well-respected admiral in the Federation. While exploring the planet of Milokeenia, Claude accidentally gets caught in some sort of transporting hole, taking him away to a new planet. He soon meets a girl and saves her from a monster. The girl's name is Rena, and they soon become fast friends. Afterwards, Claude learns that he is mistaken as the Hero of Light, who is supposed to save their planet, Expel, from cataclysms caused by a weird object called the Sorcery Globe, a magical meteorite that spawned creatures, causing a whole kingdom to disappear in darkness. And that is where your adventure starts. You can choose to control Claude, or Rena, the girl he meets. Depending on which one you choose, the characters that join your party change. However, the story is practically the same, except the beginning of course, since the game is taking place in two different perspectives. The choice is yours.

Graphics

The game has pretty nice scenery, but the people in the game could use some work. When they illustrate the characters during dialogue, it's nice to see emotion and they all look pretty cool. However, the sprites they use for in-game play could have used some work. Most of the characters look very child-like, and some don't even look accurate to their drawing (ex. Ashton has long brown hair in dialogue, but short black hair on the field). Battling is the same way, the enemies aren't well-drawn, most look like action figures from some little kid's collection. In contrast to this, all the magic that you do has some amazing effects. Most of the offensive magic involves massive explosions, with a very colorful effect. The cut scenes that they have are pretty cool too, it gives the appearance of some anime cartoon show.

Sound

Voice acting is always a plus in any game. Luckily, Star Oocean: Second Evolution is full of it. Voices help display personality in characters as well as emotion, adding in to the connection players have with their characters. Because of this, they are more attached and get a full understanding of what characters are going through. Of course, background music is always a necessity as well. The world map music is pretty Epic. All the other music relates to the mood of the current situation, which helps. Sound effects can be cool as well, but sometimes the SFX conflict with each other, causing explosions to sound either drastically exaggerated, or way too understated. Thankfully, it does not conflict much with the overall gaming experience. Because of this, the game gets a decent score, but could be better.

Gameplay

The whole game experience can be cool and confusing at the same time. There are side things called "Private Actions" that affect the ending of the game. You can build relationships with the different characters. Of course, this leads to various outcomes, which is pretty cool. The storyline can get a little weird, but it's nothing too serious. Battling can be a bit confusing though. You control one character out of 4. The other three do whatever you set them to do, but you can switch which character you control instantaneously. It's a pain to cast magic though, because if you get hit while casting, you have to recast. Other than that, the whole thing is pretty solid. Although there is no real way to dodge or block, it's just sort of random, which is a pain.

Lastability

I can't really say that this is a VERY long game, however, it does span quite a bit of time. Lastability is always an important factor for choosing a game, no one wants to shell out $50 and find out that they can beat the game in about 3 hours of straight gameplay. Thankfully, with the aforementioned choice of which character you play as, it helps add to the overall length of the game (although Rena's story is harder in my opinion). Either way, the game WILL take awhile. With the Private Actions, you'll find yourself revisiting old towns just to help change the ending into what you want. The overall story is also pretty long in itself, so this game should last quite a bit. Plus(and not to spoil anything), the final boss can be faced normally, or super hard. So striving to beat the super hard version could prove time-consuming.

Overall

Overall, I'd give this game a nine. I can't really say much to fans of the series, as this is the first one I've ever played. However, it is a great game for one who is completely new to the series, so returning fans should be pleased as well. It's well worth buying if you own a PSP, it's very entertaining overall, not to mention it still has the all important "fun factor". Games are meant to be fun. Sadly, many games are just going for visuals or some other random marketing factor. Luckily, Star Ocean: Second Evolution is not one of those and is sure to deliver a pleasing experience to all that play it. Hopefully this review helped you get a better understanding of the quality of this game.