A game many people missed...but still a game people should play

User Rating: 9.1 | Star Ocean: The Second Story PS
Star Ocean the Second Story is a great game. The storyline in it is genius. It seems a bit cliche at first with the technilogical advanced guy going into a more medieval area, yet the plot twists and turns into something that really gets your mind thinking. Besides Xenogears, I would call Star Ocean's storyline one of the deepest stories out there in a video game.

The gameplay is what will keep you coming back for more in this game. The battle's are all in real time, which is a very nice change of pace from your average turn based games. Think of any Tales of game or maybe even a Mana game for the battles here. Not only that, but the game has relationship points that when you enter a town, you can choose your party to split up and depending on how nice or mean you were to your members, different things will happen. And all the characters have random skills they are good at, and can do different things such as make counterfeit money, call animals to help in a dungeon, and blacksmith to make their own equipment.

The graphics seemed a bit dated compared to the other RPG's that came out around the same time. But they aren't eyesores or anything. And the music, although not as good as say an FF soundtrack, all fits the moods of the places you are at quite well.

There is high replay value in this game. You can choose one of two main characters at the start of the game, and the story is told through their perspective. Not only that, but the added fact of there being over 80 possible endings adds to the replay value, as well as a dungeon at the end of the game that makes you go beyond level 100 to beat.

Overall, this is a great game. It seemed very innovative at the time with all the small features in it. I would reccomend this game to anyone.