Quite possibly one of the best RPGs of all time. A new experience with each playthrough makes this game a champion.
While wandering the realms of space in the battleship Calnus, Ronyx J. Kenny (from Star Ocean: First departure) and his crew pick up a strange energy reading from the planet Milokenia. He and his crew – including his son, Claude C. Kenny – go down there to investigate. Claude notices a strange energy-emitting device, and, despite orders to keep away, he decides to investigate it. However, a strange voice reads out random coordinates, and opens a strange portal and sucks Claude in. His father attempts to go after him, but the rest of his crew advises him not to. Claude wakes up on another planet (Expel) and has no idea where he is at.
At the same time, a girl named Rena Lanford has noticed that a strange meteorite, called the Sorcery Globe, has landed on their planet, and, since then, there have been lots of cataclysms around the world, like animals turning into monsters. However, there is a legend that when such things happen, the hero of light will appear in their world, wearing alien clothes, and carrying a sword of light. Rena decides to go to the Sacred Forest in her village, she enjoys the sights, but a bear attacks her. She shrouds in fear (screaming, saying "Help me!", etc.), but a mysterious man – Claude – uses his phase gun (given to all federation officers) to defeat the bear and saves Rena. Excited by the blinding light, she believes that he is the hero of light. Their adventure begins from there…
But if you've played Star Ocean: The Second Story (the Playstation version of the game), then you'll already know this. That covers the intro to the story, so that's enough of that. So….
Star Ocean: Second Evolution's battle system is in real time. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that you no longer have to scroll through menus to pick every single action your character will do. Pressing X will make your character go up to the enemy and attack, while pressing the triggers will let you do special attacks/spells assigned to the button. You can use a menu if you want to use items or other spells if you want to. However, characters can't move while casting spells, and if they take damage, the spell is not cast. This is basically how Star Ocean's battles are done.
When you're not battling in 3D environments, you're playing in a static field background, except for the world map. What this means is that almost nothing moves or changes, except for the prerendered videos that play whenever you hit a switch or something. This look does make the game slightly dated, but also gives it colorful environments. The 2D character sprites on the field also look really good, but at times, they could be animated better, and you'll notice this as the game goes on. However, probably the best thing about the game (graphics-wise) is that much of the artwork (and certain cutscenes) is done in anime. Obviously, the guys who did the anime stuff must've been paid extra for them to make it as beautiful as it is. (J/k about being paid)(Except for the anime cutscenes, which are a bit short) But, for fans of the original Playstation version, you'll be happy to know that all of the original cutscenes – except for those redone in anime – are all here.
The music didn't change much like the graphics did, however, except for the opening theme "START" by Scandal being used in this version. That means that – Yes, you'll still hear "The Incarnation of Devil" when fighting one of tri-Ace's famous boss fights. Yes, you'll also hear the same "Mission to the Deep Space" in the bonus dungeon. No, you won't hear music from Valkyrie Profile. However, something that you'll hear much better are the character's voices. In the original Playstation version, the voices are only heard in battle – and believe me, they sounded like crap, especially compared to this version. What I'm saying is that they totally redid the voices. Not only do they sound much better than the Playstation, but there are also voice-over cutscenes outside of battle as well.
I've been blathering on about the game's graphics and sound, but I haven't forgotten the robust gameplay mechanics. As you level up, you gain skill points. These are used to build a character's skills (both battle and field skills), which can lead to being able to do stuff such as Item Creation, weapon/item identification, music playing, and more. There are also many playable characters, though those who aren't Claude or Rena are entirely optional. Some of these characters include Celine, a master of symbological magic, Leon, a bratty scientist, and Dias, a master swordsman who is anti-social for the most part. However, there are trade-offs, in that if you get a certain character, you can't get another certain character, etc.
Yet another unique mechanic is the fact that you can play from two sides – either Claude's or Rena's. This doesn't affect the main story much, but it does affect some cutscenes and Private Actions (explained below) – mostly those where Claude and Rena split off temporarily. Also, they each have 1 character exclusive to each side. This will encourage you to play though the game at least twice.
Finally, the best thing about the game is the Private Actions. These are activated when pressing Square outside of a town (with some exceptions), and your party splits off to different areas of the town. Then, you would find and talk to each of your party members, and hope that a scene will start. This could be a variety of things, like helping Rena decide what to buy, or agreeing with Celine on something your main character and her like doing. Sometimes there are PAs that will involve NPCs, and sometimes there are those that are required to view in order to recruit certain party members. PAs are unique in the fact that most of them will involve some kind of choice, and their Friendship Points or Relationship Points are affected. These points govern what endings you will see (there are about 90!) between characters. Friendship points are for same-sex characters, and relationship points are for opposite-sex characters. For example, if I do the Private Actions right, I could end up getting an ending involving those two heroes loving each other.
I should also mention that this game is made for multiple playthroughs, and for good reason, too. Every time I did a new game, it was a totally new experience for me, due to the different recruitable characters, PAs, and point of views.
The good:
-Great graphics
-Excellent gameplay
-Beautiful anime cutscenes
-Excellent voices for the most part
-Possibly the best RPG on the PSP to date.
The bad:
-Some of the graphics look dated
-There are times where character animation on the field during cutscenes can be better.
-Some of the anime cutscenes are extremely short.
All in all, if you are: 1. A fan of JRPGs, 2. Looking for a really good RPG for PSP, 3. A PSP owner, and/or 4. A fan of Star Ocean, there is absolutely no reason to not have this game in your collection. I highly recommend this to every PSP owner who loves RPGs. This is quite possibly one of the best RPGs of all-time.