I found this game and I want to play it so BAD.

[OscarBanana No.4699784]

[OscarBanana No.4699789]

nvm I will post this again without the spoiler image

[Anonymous No.4699839]

Honestly, I'd stick with the PSP version of Star Ocean 1&2, they're much better imo. They feel more complete. Not to do say I don't love the original SFC and PSX versions of them.

[Anonymous No.4699850]

>>4699839
I disagree about the psp version being better. They added this weird, unnecessary combo mechanic to the standard X button attack that really messes with the flow of battle.

I love Star Ocean 2 so much. There aren't many jrpgs that let you do all the weird shit you can in that game, like writing fake checks from shadow companies to get rich or stealing the second strongest sword in the game from some random ass old man in the third town. Or the one in a billion chance to instant kill every time you attack

[Anonymous No.4699853]

>>4699850
I was on the fence about getting SO2, but god damnit, you've made it impossible for me to say no.

[Anonymous No.4699858]

>>4699853
Have you played so2 before? If it's your first time you should you play as Claude

[Anonymous No.4699870]

>>4699850
>I love Star Ocean 2 so much. There aren't many jrpgs that let you do all the weird shit you can in that game, like writing fake checks from shadow companies to get rich or stealing the second strongest sword in the game from some random ass old man in the third town. Or the one in a billion chance to instant kill every time you attack
Explain further.

[Anonymous No.4699874]

>>4699870
Specifically the instant kill thing. I know the other parts.

[Anonymous No.4699875]

>>4699870
1. There's an item creation ability that lets you create less than legal means of acquiring money and items, in the form of forged checks, forged medals, and liens. If you mess up, though, you create bounced checks, which drain your money. Using this skill lowers your relationship value with your party members, though.

2. Once you're able to use the pickpocket skill, you can steal items from 99% of the NPCs in the game, and some of the stuff they have is incredibly powerful (and often hard to steal). But you only get one shot at stealing an NPC's item. If you fail, you can never try again, so be sure to save before trying to grab a rare item.

3. Some items in the game have an incredibly small chance of instantly killing the enemy, like the Algol Shield, which can insta-kill when you get hit. An unintended side effect of this is being able to kill "unbeatable" bosses you're supposed to lose to.

[Anonymous No.4699882]

>>4699870
There's a few dozen different skills characters can put points into (sp gained on leveling up) and get abilities. Some skills are for combat specifically, like Gale, which lets you move faster. Other skills have various passive bonuses and unlock abilities.

For example, the kitchen knife skill. Every time you put a level into kitchen, that character gets lv times 10 added to their strength stat. Pretty significant boost, but that's not the cool thing; if they also have ranks in Good Eye, then they unlock the ability to cook. This let's them choose a base ingredient and, within a range their skill level allows, cook up a meal. So if you take milk you might make ice cream or it might just be spoiled. A character who is good at writing and business can forge checks and ledgers then sell those to a store for profit. If you write a bounced check though, it will drain your money every second until you sell it, and it costs money to se.

All the crafting works that way, based on skills, but each character also has talents they can unlock, making some better than others for things. Then if enough people have the same ability you can unlock super abilities which are done as a group. So one character can write music compositions and five can play instruments, then you can jam as a band and while the song is playing have double exp or some shit.

The super secret boss of the game requires you to get a mystic trumpet and perform to summon her, by the way

[Anonymous No.4699942]

Only downside to this game is the slow beginning. Takes a couple hours to get going.

[Anonymous No.4699958]

>>4699942
This is why I always kept two saves on a memory card, one just after Claude's opening, and one just after Rena's, so I didn't have to go through the intro every time I wanted to replay it.

Also, to anyone planning on playing through the game, make sure your main character starts with the Dexterity talent. It's 100% impossible to use Pickpocket without that talent, and you can miss some nice items before that talent is unlockable.

[Anonymous No.4699970]

>>4699942
It literally takes 2 hours before you can start playing this game.

Also, if you guys want to know, you can win the battle tournament and not get cucked by Rena if you never add Celine or anyone else to your party.

Actually if you play the game with just the two of them, they lowkey fuck all the time, and the narrative takes a complete flip right before you leave Excel, even though the events are mostly the same.

[Anonymous No.4699972]

>>4699958
Ahaha I did the same shit with saves. There were a few other rpgs I did that with, but this game was the reason why I even had that idea.

Another note about pickpocketing, it makes your party members like you less. If you're doing it with Claude then go into a private action first so nobody sees you

[Anonymous No.4699979]

Is it worth checking out the PSX version if I've already played the PSP version? I haven't played the latter in years

[Anonymous No.4699984]

>>4699942
The beginning is excellent in it's own way, though not ideal if you're eager to jump into gameplay.

That first village has amazing atmosphere, music and visuals.

[Anonymous No.4699985]

>>4699970
I've played this game a ton but never done a 2 character run. It seems like a real fun idea but Ashton and Bowman are so cool, I can't help but mash hurricane slash and explosion pills

One of the things the psp version screws up with the change to basic attack is Ashton. He has the fastest attack out of the three swordsmen normally but the combos mess him up bad.

[Anonymous No.4699989]

>>4699979
I prefer the PS1 version overall. That campy 90's voice acting really does it for me, and I don't like some of the changes made to the PSP version, like the artwork, lack of 3D items in the inventory menu, the new 3-hit combo in battle, and how they screwed up the element system.

[Anonymous No.4699996]

>>4699989
They look pretty tough
Well that's somewhere around 80 points
Crawd has advanced forward, HEH
SPICULE! I'll warm you up to your BONES!

[Anonymous No.4700005]

>>4699996
PEAR INTO PEACHES

Also 80 points is deepest lore

[Anonymous No.4700025]

Is Ernest ever good or is he just an excuse to not get Noel?

[Anonymous No.4700035]

>>4700025
idk can he stunlock or support-stunlock?

[Anonymous No.4700253]

>>4699839
I wish Welch wasn't put in the game.

[Anonymous No.4700263]

>>4700253
One of many reasons to just play the ps1 version

[Anonymous No.4700275]

>>4700263
You don't have any idea of what you're saying, do you?

[Anonymous No.4700304]

>>4700253
SO1 doesn't get enough love.

SO2 gets too much love IMO, especially disc 2.

[Anonymous No.4700418]

>>4700304
So3 gets too much love compared to the first 2. Darn kids who missed the ps1

[Anonymous No.4700436]

>>4700418
SO3 doesn't get enough love compared to SO2. It's characters are fun, the battle system is even better, and even if you hate the twist it barely deviates from regular SO end-game storyline zaniness anyway.

SO4, on the other hand, gets exactly the right amount of love, in that everyone acknowledges that it is bad except for the fun battle system.

[Anonymous No.4700448]

>>4700253
>playing the inferior PSP version

[Anonymous No.4700479]

Man, I hate having to decide which version of a game to play. On the one hand, the PSP versions seem to have a worthwhile amount of extra content. On the other hand, the originals have a much nicer art style.

[Anonymous No.4700507]

>>4700479
I think the only significantly good change the psp version made was turning Flip into Backstab. In the orig, if flip triggered, your character would run behind the enemy to attack from behind. This meant a moving, big, or fast enemy would fuck up the ai because a character wouldn't get behind it and they'd keep running and running until they caught up.

The easy solution is to just not put points in flip.

[Anonymous No.4700513]

>>4700507
Isn't magic much faster as well in the PSP version?

[Anonymous No.4700537]

>>4700513
There are a bunch of small changes. I'm saying that I think flip was legitimately broken and it's the only genuine improvement that the psp version made. Everything else is sort of subjective. I think the original is overall a better package though

[Anonymous No.4700560]

Best art by far goes to a shitty mobile game.
How did tri-Ace manage to screw up this hard?

[Anonymous No.4700563]

PSP version also removed combo magic, which a lot of people probably didn't use in the first place. Some combinations were absurd, though, like anything involving Acid Rain.

[Anonymous No.4700580]

>>4700563
I have played this game a million times and have no idea how combo magic works. Please tell me.

[Anonymous No.4700595]

>>4699875
> Some items in the game have an incredibly small chance of instantly killing the enemy, like the Algol Shield, which can insta-kill when you get hit. An unintended side effect of this is being able to kill "unbeatable" bosses you're supposed to lose to

The Algol does not have a low chance, I did a run with precis and chisato who had high parry. They were insta-killing almost every boss. It does not work on enemies they have petrification themselves. I insta kill the final boss very easily on that game. Shiego actually gave me a lot of trouble on that run because my team was a bit underleveled and relying on the algol kills.

[Anonymous No.4700617]

>>4700580

cast spells at the same time and it enhances some effects. You'll have to look up specifics but I remember early playthroughs celine and rena casting ray at the same time. I think there are some significant and useful combos out there. Motormouth being off helps achieve this.

[Anonymous No.4700619]

>>4700617
There are also some negative aspects to it, like if one of your spells and an enemy spell goes off at the same time, sometimes your spell will get absorbed by their spell, and canceled out, while you get hit by theirs. Not entirely sure if the base power of the spell determines this, or if there's more to it than that.

[Anonymous No.4700638]

>>4699839
I completely disagree, they ruined the battle system in so2.

[Anonymous No.4700650]

>>4700617
The sad thing is that casters are pretty much inferior to fighters in this game to the point that if you're using any composition besides three fighters + Rena you're making the game harder on yourself

[Anonymous No.4700664]

>>4700650

The game is easy enough as it is on the regular mode. Turning off the animated spells casters can be fine. Celine with just firebolt, windblade, thunder is actually pretty supportive.

[Anonymous No.4700680]

If you want to mess around with some easy combo magic, have Rena and Celine both cast Ray at the same time, or have Rena use Ray and Celine use Starlight. Both of those spells have the same charge time before casting. The trick lies in figuring out how long it takes to cast a spell, and then work spells together once you've got the timing down. Like someone else said, this works best without Motormouth, because it'll keep screwing up your casting times.

There's a bug involving Acid Rain, and when it's combined with most spells, it tends to cause 9999 damage to anything it hits.

The PS1 version had Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Light, Dark, Star, Vacuum, and Void for elements, while the PSP version removed Lightning, Star, Vacuum, and Void.

However, they didn't rework the spells to suit that. So, Ray (now called LASER BEAMS, because of Square Enix's bad SO3 localization) and Starlight are exactly the same on the PSP version, because they're both Light element now. Wind and Lightning spells are all Wind now, and lots of other changes were made. I think Extinction is non-elemental now.

A few spells were also axed in the PSP version for reasons unknown. Celine lost Forget and Reflection, while Noel lost Sonic Saber. Earthquake was too resource-intensive or something, and was changed to Stone Rain on the PSP.

[Anonymous No.4702217]

>>4700436

I think SO3 suffers from the way it's character choices and eliminations are done. It's sloppy and weak for sure. It could have been done better.

[Anonymous No.4702237]

>>4702217

Best girl Nel should have been flat out permanent. You spend way too much time with her for her to suddenly become "Optional" especially when you're stuck with Adray no matter what anyways.

[Anonymous No.4702286]

>>4702237
i agree

[Anonymous No.4702289]

>>4700436
>4700436
My enjoyment of 4 was a lot better with the recent pc release which included the japanese voices so i didn't have to deal with that awful voice acting.

[Anonymous No.4702884]

>>4699858
NO LOL.

Rena is the only truly acceptable character to pick as Protagonist. Mages suck that arent early game and Dias you can only get under Rena. Leon sucks fuck and dias can do 9999 every 2.8 seconds. Plz stop the trolling and let the man enjoy the game.

OP pick Rena if you want to enhoy the game significantly more AND get rhe only Alpha male in the gamr that isnt useless (Ernest). If its your 1st pick your mains to be Rena Claude Dias Ashton. Ashton isnt that amazing but 3 KM users and Rena is incredible fun. You will not enjoy this game if your team consists of Precis Ernest Leon Celine or Bowman at all later in game.

Do NOT play the PSP remake, it has cucked voice acting and one additional shitty lifeless character. This game remains in my top 10 for its satisfying action, awesome VA in combat, beautiful graphics/animations, exploration that excites you in beautifully pre rendered areas, and last but not least a JRPG storyline that isnt "the demon king/the dragon".

You will have much fun experimenting with item creation and choos8ng what to do with SP. Enjoy anon, one of the finest games in PSX library.

[Anonymous No.4702893]

>>4700253
I don't like how Perisie was turned into a generic sexy catgirl instead of staying faithful to her original design, aka a comically awkward loli catgirl who thinks she's sexy when she's actually short and chubby.

[Anonymous No.4702908]

>>4702237
Agreed, Nel is and will always be my waifu, with Claire close but not quite, I dunno what it is about Claire but I really like her, she seems like such a sweetheart.

[Anonymous No.4702981]

>>4702908

Plus she gets Nel all flustered easy

[Anonymous No.4703040]

>>4702884
Dias has the slowest sword swing out of the three sword dudes. He's a chump. Ashton, Bowman, and Chisato are all better for killer moves

[Anonymous No.4703257]

>>4702884
>he doesn't use poison poison poison secret medicine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyDPxn6fQk0

[Anonymous No.4703264]

Chisato is best girl.

[Anonymous No.4703273]

>>4702884
Dias is fucking shit at fighting and fucking extra shit at everything else. Plus you can steal cool stuff in Claude's space cutscenes. Rena is ALWAYS the worse choice.

[Anonymous No.4703307]

I'm a fucking boss. Don't fuck with me.

What character do I pick?

[Anonymous No.4703361]

>>4699850
The PSP fixes the annoying random crashes that the PSX version has on the 2nd disc

[Anonymous No.4703845]

>>4703307
Pick Rena if you want even more dialog and less combat in the beginning, and if you want a shitty sword fucker. Pick Claude if you want to be a cool space guy.

You get lots of choices of characters throughout the game, some exclusionary like Ashton locking Opera/Ernesr and vice versa, but that's personal preference.

[Anonymous No.4704663]

>>4703040
Your an idiot if you go through this game not using SP to attribute points into skills that recover your HP and MP at the end of battle. You clearly never played the game past disc 1 lol.

>>4703257
Bowmans a faggot, end of discuasion
>>4703264
Yes.
>>4703273
Go see your therapist anon.
>>4703361
Never heard of any glitch, you either toom shitty care of your PSX or your CDs.
>>4703307
Dias.
>>4703845
Combat in rhe beginning is more or less the same amount due to the beginning being the same arc besides the intro, you will play out rhe same combat and control of rena and claude regardless of who you picked in the beginning till you can get your official 3rd potential character, earliest being ashton and then celine.

Pick Rena, stop trolling this guy into having a shitty time.

[Anonymous No.4704669]

>>4703040
Ashton and chisato are low tier, ashton being 2nd worst in KM eight next to your favorite shitter, Ernest. Normal meles speed does NOT comtribute to tierlists in this game.

[Anonymous No.4704685]

>>4704663
The optimal way to spend sp is to save it all for when you get survival, which lowers the sp cost of other skills. That way you can get more skill levels for significantly less sp.

>>4704669
What makes Ashton good is a killer move he gets early on called Hurricane Slash. It's very fast, hits multiple times, and the damage modifier is huge. He can be putting out 3x thousands of damage by Hoffman without even maxing the skill. Chisato is a meme but those thunder volts are alright and tear gas is absolutely insane if you use it right. Definitely one of the best killer moves in the game, even with the huge startup

[Anonymous No.4704721]

>>4704663
>Never heard of any glitch, you either toom shitty care of your PSX or your CDs.
No you're just an ignorant dumb fuck. It's a popular glitch at that. A simple google search would show you

[Anonymous No.4704803]

I wish this character had better moves. Could have been way better

[Anonymous No.4704873]

>>4704685
You get survival too late in the game to be considered meta. Kitchen Knife for STR and metal/weapon work to create the sharp edge.

I agree that ashtons only good killer move is hurricane slash but when you get it it uses too much mp compared to faster non-setup required hitbox KMs that use significantly less mp. Overall ashtons top speed and KMs suck ass.

>inb4 "DRRRAAAAAAGOOOON BREATH"

Chisato is reserved for waifu and getting shocked, otherwise meme.

>>4704721
Stop meme'ing, this glitch does not exist.

[Anonymous No.4704892]

>>4704873
You're wrong you dumb fuck. Stop acting like a know it all when you're ignorant as hell.

[Anonymous No.4704914]

>>4704873
>Stop meme'ing, this glitch does not exist.
Incorrect. They discuss it here
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/198763-star-ocean-the-second-story/68484688
It mainly happens in the final dungeon and Cave of Trials.

[Anonymous No.4704942]

>>4704873
What setup does hurricane slash require? It comes out faster than most regular attacks and has so little recovery that it all most combos into itself. The only killer moves more spammable are things like poison or explosion pills. What specific killer moves are you saying are better, especially that early in the game? Please don't say twin slash

[Anonymous No.4704951]

>>4704873
I misspoke when I said survival. I meant determination, which you get on the first continent. Just go to the port and buy it right away

[Anonymous No.4705031]

>>4704892
Comment disregarded over non-informative post/no reference.
>>4704914
If you/anyone else can get me video or more proof/complaints ill be indept to adopt said information. Until then this is a forum post by 3 people 'confirming' it, let alone 4 years ago. I believe this is due to a bad laser/dirty disc. Thank you for getting info though, anon.
>>4704942
It requires dragging Ashton all the way up to 45 which is unacceptable for first 'decent' KM imo. By decent i mean it functions easily and does good dmg/mp exchange. You could have had Opera by then and spammed Alpha On One and gotten its Prof. At maximum potential (not 999 uses, past 200 does max shells). Opera also comes with Healing star which you would use much more often then wasting resurrection bottles and blackberries on ashton's slow-ass. He is literally named Ashton ANCHORS. He is slow and worthless in grand ultimatum meta of this game compared to those above him. Literally the only thing you are 'waiting' for (see: ANCHORS) is his final KM thats a SECRET MOVE found on floor TWELVE of the CoT known as tri-Ace. It takes 45 mp to use and takes 9.5 seconds to cast, as he swings his swords doing no damage first then freezing combat putting the game in ASM (active spell mode) doing only 1 hit per enemy for a 17 second long burst of blue explosions.

He is literally not worth it.

>>4704951
Understandable, I'll have to try this on my next playthrough

[Anonymous No.4705058]

Can this game really be difficult enough that enjoying it completely depends on:
>specially selected MC
>only setting your party up a specific way so you can get specific events
>only skilling up certain skills so you can pickpocket and steal overpowered items in the early game
>only use one specific spell combo that does 9999 damage over and over

Seriously, it's a JRPG. How challenging can it be? It can't be SaGa level, right?

[Anonymous No.4705059]

>>4705031
Who in the world would use tri ace? Hurricane Slash and sword dance are the only things you need to bother with on the dude. You keep calling Ashton slow, which is weird because he has a faster basic attack than both Claude and Dias. You don't need to use killer moves to get big damage out of him before he learns Hurricane Slash, and of the three sword users he's the best candidate for accessories that give multiple hits late game due to his great attack speed. Opera is a very good character in her own right but she's best for her healing moves and you can't compare the two; they perform very different roles.

[Anonymous No.4705064]

>>4705058
Nah playing through the game normally you can do whatever you want. As a little kid I didn't even know how to use skills and still beat it. There are some very hard higher difficulties though

[Anonymous No.4705073]

>>4705058
Its not about challenge anon, its about not habing an 8-man party of shitters, 4 of which you will only use, 2 of which are the two protagonists.

Alot of skillsets are useless until at a higher level, or just plain not worth it. Its not worth it to level up cooking early on when you will male enough Fol to buy enpugh blue and blackberries you will need. Youll also find them in dungeons. Invest your SP into stat multipliers along with SP multipliers (see: above) and a couple item creator stats such as metal work to make a star ruby out of a regular ruby, make that into the Foot Symbol (ATK +28)

[Anonymous No.4705084]

>>4705059
I stopped reading after you mentioned basic attack. You dont know enough. >>4705064
You can beat the game anyway you want and turn out fine. I just dont want OP to feel slightly disappointed when he checks something online after hearing about so and so creating op armor and weapons/items that give a good rate of satisfaction.

[Anonymous No.4705089]

>>4705059
Thanks for admitting openly that Ashton is useful for one attack in the game, at level 45.

[Anonymous No.4705090]

>>4705084
Bro like it or not, basic attacks are your most consistent damage for the first ten hours or so. Ashton mashing x is going to hit more times than Claude flipping around like a nut spamming head splitter or some shit. Which specific early game KMs are you using?

[Anonymous No.4705101]

>>4705090
"Bro" like it or not the game lasts much longer then 10 hours. You sound like an idiot.

[Anonymous No.4705106]

>>4705090
What dont you understand about all of my posts being relevant to end and mid game meta?

[Anonymous No.4705114]

>>4705101
A person playing for their first time with a normal understanding of jrpgs can be doing fields on energy nede in about 20 hours. You'll be past level 45 long before then.

I asked you to name some pecific early killer moves that you're using to evidently just replace all normal attacks. Why not go ahead and explain your strata? If I'm wrong I'll learn something here

[Anonymous No.4705165]

>>4705114
Flame launcher, poison pills, dimension whip, alpha on one, firebird attack, ally-oop!, Mole (invulnerability) , parabola beam, thunderstorm, Air Slash(dias, 2mp every 2.6s.) Chaos sword (has ranged and short but not THAT amazing) Cross wave is one of the best combinations of MP+DMG dealt+active frames+ease of proficiency building up to 4 slashes. Typically does 2.5 more damage then Claude's, is faster and costs HALF the MP as his and comes starting with it.

What don't you understand? I'm baffled that your trying to make all this yap about Ashton when in reality he literally isn't worth the time to build up in the meta.

I could include more of claudes moves if you want but thats pointless if you ask me, everyone uses him.

[Anonymous No.4705173]

>>4705165
1.6s* and max damage at 9999, fastest KM in the game, instant startup, long rage cast can have 4 air slashes on screen if auto targeting faster targets. Fastest/most damage potential/spammable/easiest to build to 999 prof.

2.5 times more dmg*

[Anonymous No.4705206]

>>4705106
>What dont you understand about all of my posts being relevant to end and mid game meta?

By midgame you have hurricane attack so any early game issues aren't relevant. At high level a hurricane is gonna be hitting 4 times plus the extended hitbox, so that's ~37k damage with one very fast move. Air slash might be faster to spam but it's not multihit and will lose out in raw damage. Poison pills is also one of the best moves in the game though that's legitimately better than anything Ashton has pre HS. His basic shit attack is more efficient than parabola beam though, and there's no way you're legit using Ernest for dimension whip

If you're talking late game and not taking basic attacks seriously you must not be using slayers ring or meteor ring and attack cancelling.

[Anonymous No.4705270]

>>4705206
I dont think you understand what the term "big picture" or meta means and thats fine. Stop defending one character over one KM. He loses in every way in comparison to everything ive compared after you asked. All you keep saying is:

>"B--B-B-B-But.. but muh hurricane slash!!"

You literally just asked about early game and i responded then you just jump onto "by the middle/end of the game!" . I am not explaining any further, as you rebuttal going back and forth just saying hurricane slash from an "early 45" to end game.

You lack intuition.

[Anonymous No.4705291]

>>4705270
Are these two posts not yours?
>>4705106
>>4705031
If they aren't then the issue is I'm replying to different people.

The point I'm making here is that Ashton is a character with strong basic attacks and two usable killer moves, one which is mediocre and you get late game, and the other which is more powerful than most other killer moves but also resource intensive. He's a very strong, very specific character, and one of the fastest meleers when set up correctly, which is the opposite of how he was described by someone, presumably you.

[Anonymous No.4705441]

>>4705031
>He is slow and worthless in grand ultimatum meta of this game compared to those above him. Literally the only thing you are 'waiting' for (see: ANCHORS) is his final KM thats a SECRET MOVE found on floor TWELVE of the CoT known as tri-Ace. It takes 45 mp to use and takes 9.5 seconds to cast, as he swings his swords doing no damage first then freezing combat putting the game in ASM (active spell mode) doing only 1 hit per enemy for a 17 second long burst of blue explosions.
Dude don't you know about the 3-way spell combo?

[Anonymous No.4705460]

>>4705291
I used Dias for spamming Hawk Scream Blast nonstop but I can't remember any other good KMs he has, he might have just been using airslash most of the game.

[Anonymous No.4705623]

you know what was wild? I always thought that leaf slash or whatever move of ashton's was the best but it turns out hurricane slash is easily the best move in the game from my experience, whereas leaf slash is useless if the enemy blocks even once

also I thoroughly enjoyed both the PSP and PS1 versions and I think they're both good

>>4700025
what? you only get ernest if you get opera and then get her really good weapon in the shingo forest
>>4702893
wasn't she always a sexy catgirl? it's not very easy finding art of the og characters but I recall she always had big ol' tits

[Anonymous No.4705650]

>>4705623
This is the only SF version art I could find of her. Never played SO1, but she definitely looks busty, there.

[Anonymous No.4706373]

>game with multiple playable characters
>all fighting together at the same time on one battlefield
>each character has their own skills and playstyle which can be further customized to suit any given player's taste
>...
>no fucking co-op
WHY

[Anonymous No.4706401]

>>4705650
yeah, she had like a green leotard and big fat cat tits, that's what I remember

>>4706373
because it's a JRPG, for one

[Anonymous No.4707019]

>>4705291
You just cleared it up yourself. He has 1 good attack and has an ok melee. When was the last time you played though? Ashton has the slowest running speed in combat out of all KM based chars, is my point and in turn total added up, wastes time. Thank you for actually saying he requires setup in this post, which you previously disagreed with/didn't acknowledge, and yes thats me.

>>4705441
The link accessory is garbage and wastes time/mp when you Overkill something. Even mid and late game not a great choice, cool but not resourceful.

>>4705623
HSB is okay but the problen is it requires setup. Using air slash throughout the game is highly advisable, his second best attack being illusion at 4 hits max prof.

[Anonymous No.4707109]

>>4699784
Don't listen to anyone in this thread except me. Just play it and follow your own path.

[Anonymous No.4707112]

>>4706401
>its a JRPG, for one
>what is Tales of Eternia?

[Anonymous No.4707120]

>>4707112
>1 counter example
You sure showed him.

[Anonymous No.4707156]

>>4707019
Let me clarify what I mean by being set up correctly: you turn off killer moves that aren't hurricane slash, and, like any other good KM, you level it up. That's no different than setting up any other character--Ashton just specifically uses the one move, where other characters might have options. Star Ocean 2 is a game where you spam an optimal attack for huge damage, so a character only having 1 move that's good isn't a detriment at all, especially when that move is one of the most powerful in the game.

>has an ok melee
His attack comes out faster than Claude's and Dias', and have the same range, so his melee is way more than okay. There's no better option for slayer's/meteor rings than Ashton. He might run slower but his attacks are faster and by endgame everyone's got Gale anyway.

[Anonymous No.4707176]

Ok so PSP for 1 and PS1 for 2?

[Anonymous No.4707178]

>>4707156
All my posts conclude with the fact that you get Ashton early when he has SHIT speed and SHIT attacks. This game like it or not is based around KMs, like it or not. You just admitted for the 3rd or 4th time that ashton has one good attack and its only resourceful when you are at the point that your not practically feeding him black berries after and during battle. I will say this again for your pea-sized brain
Very slowly now ok? At level 45 you get hurricane slash. Grinding is not on anyone lists of things to do in an rpg unless its necessary, and no im not saying grind to get hurricane slash. Im trying to show you the equation and relation between time spent playing the game, time spent getting a characters proficiency up per move and in relation to getting a good move, time spent leveling up to get that, and then time potential for getting the character opposite of that one and how it benefits the player and not make them waste blackberries. You can have Opera instead who can let out multi hit attacks at range, who also has great KMs when you add her to your party with low mp cost attacks. She is 5 stars from beginning to end, but you wouldn't know that because you haven't even done your homework on yhis game or played through it more then once.

Meanwhile you are literally trying to sell everyone in this thread snake-oil saying "muh hurricane slash."

What don't you understand lol. I will type out a thesis paper on this topic of why Ashton is garbage but by judging from your responses I don't think you'll read past the word 'Ashton'

[Anonymous No.4707180]

>>4707176
Emu SO1 for its original and amazing quality as a snes game, PSX for SO2 my friend. The vibe of SO1 is ruined on psp due to shit VAs and redesigned everything.

[Anonymous No.4707184]

>>4707180
are aesthetics the only problem with the psp versions?

[Anonymous No.4707185]

>>4707176
I started playing the snes version of 1 because of this thread. It's really cool that a game like it simply exists on the snes

[Anonymous No.4707186]

>>4707184
There's also a major point of no return that didn't exist in the original.

[Anonymous No.4707208]

>>4707178
Man you're all over the place. Sometimes you're talking about endgame meta, sometimes you're talking about early game, and never in sync with the point I'm making.

In the early parts of the game when there's no way for anyone to continually spam KMs, most of your damage comes from basic attacks. Ashton has a such a high attack speed that he parses damage comparable to a character with a more spammable or multi hit KM. It's not a matter of grinding; you just take him, hammer the X button, and he hits like a monster. Plus he has high base strength to back it up. You won't even see a difference in damage output with his basic compared to other KMs until you're at the point of the game where he already has Hurricane Slash. I think you just don't know how good his attack is, and that's the real problem here.

[Anonymous No.4707217]

>>4707184
I wouldnt call it a problem so much as a sizeable difference between the original product and what the merged company made. Remember that both of these games were developed by the company tri-Ace, not exactly ENIX 100% itself. SO1 was made in response of the members of Wolf Team(ToP dev team) that werent satisfied with the game they 'planned for' and then what the finished prpduct came out to be. They wanted free range combat, not ToP's X and Y axis, instead SO1 and two are "3d" combat. The PSP introduces redesigned charc5ers, pre-rendered areas, crappy VA that makes everyone seem squeemish/less intimidating and in the end a less impactful product. It is not 'true' to the original product, literally a remake. Not a remaster. A remake. Keep in mind SO1 was made with the limitations of the snes and the work they had to put into making the game they really wanted and having to implement extra sound chips for the damn thing for it to all come together (VRSS, Virtual Realtime Sound Synthesis).

The snes original is by far one of the greatest games ever made and impacts its player/viewer with the astounding and impactful elements an rpg needs/can potentially have. This includes: story, voice acting, combat, characters, their motivations and troubles, item creation, beautiful areas, out of this world soundtrack and composition by Motoi Sakuraba, great mechanics and controls, smooth area flow/not insanely hard to find what to do next but still challenging. If you do play SO1 i do unfortunately recommend a guide for what charc5ers you want to pick up through out as its not self-explanatory or that easy. Fear for example can be obtained at 3 different points in the game but certain events need to both be done and not have done. Theres even a charcter just sitting in the crowd at the colosseum that you wouldbt pick for an MC unless you knew. Its part of this mystery and discovery that makes SO so incredible, though.

[Anonymous No.4707221]

>>4707208
Your attempt to gas-light is ineffective, take your pointless illiterate mindset somewhere else dude. Trying to show you through all means of the game that Ashton isn't worth it. Above all else, he lacks fun/satisfaction with the clunkiest moveset in the game and shitty speed. I've laid out clear and full for everyone whats up with Ashton.

[Anonymous No.4707235]

>>4707217
gotcha, and what about SO2?

[Anonymous No.4707256]

>>4707217
Nigga, please. SO1 didn't have all that impact at all.

Both the PS and N64 were already in the market by the time it was released, it pushed the SNES limits, but it didn't even scratch what other games were currently offering.
And the same goes for the plot, SO have a notorious good awful final act.

[Anonymous No.4707294]

>>4699839
Aren't the overworld maps completely redone it 3D? No way man, I love 2D sprites to much to give that up.

[Anonymous No.4707306]

>>4707294
It wasn't redone, it was done, SO didn't have overworld at all.
It's a pain in the ass to walk all the way back to previous areas though, and the game does require some backtracking.

[Anonymous No.4707312]

>>4707306
Adding an overworld feels so weird when it didn't have it originally.

[Anonymous No.4707336]

>>4707221
Gaslighting, huh. Let me get out arguments straight then.

My points:
>Ashton has one of the strongest and most spammable Killer Moves
>He has one of the best basic melee attacks, the damage from which keeps up with other characters spamming KMs
>He has high strength
>He only has two moves that are worth using total, the first coming midgame

Your points:
>Opera, the alternative character, comes with decent KMs early on
>Ashton has slow move speed
>Just using one move is boring
>You don't like basic attacks
>Midgame hurricane slash eats through blackberries

I don't think you've ever argued against the fact that his one good move is incredibly powerful. That's the key to the character and I think it justifies any small or perceived complaints that might come with getting him, if you're a player who wants to put out huge damage later in the game. Is that a statement you disagree with?

[Anonymous No.4707387]

>>4699839
>Honestly, I'd stick with the PSP version of Star Ocean 1&2
I'd play the PSP version of SO2 only because it has better VA and a better translation, outside of fixing the combat of the original.
>>4699850
>There aren't many jrpgs that let you do all the weird shit you can in that game
Wouldn't say that there's anything weird in SO2 outside of some items you can craft, which isn't really anything interesting and was done way better in VP as far as I'm concerned.
The character build system is fine, though I'll never understand how they managed to predated Tales' modern skill build system by literal decades yet the combat side of the game was the complete opposite, with Tales games being way better than any SO game, which is pretty embarassing since only a handful of those games have combat that is anything beyond okay.
>>4704663
>Bowmans a faggot
Opinion discarded.

[Anonymous No.4707401]

Ignore the autistic rambling, the game is so easy you can wreck it with any character. That said, Ashton is cool AF. Claude is a no-brainer, and so is Rena. Last character should of course be Chisato.

[Anonymous No.4707403]

>>4707256
Sounds like you just like being wow'd as opposed to taking in a game. Life is all about perception and you have none.

>>4707336
You didn't read anything I wrote if this is your response, surrounding the fact thay Ashton gets beat out, period. Have fun with Anchors I guess, as he literally weighs you done anon. I'm open to further discussion but youre just acting dumb. I outlined everything thay makes him low in COMPARISON. You keep posting like he comes with HS for some reason, and yes you are attempting to gas-light, bud. Every other KM character besides Precis and Ernest outdoes Ashton in meta (early game, mid game, end game, stats, KMs combined with proficiency building + potential MP used to do that depending on context of level and area and fol available)

[Anonymous No.4707412]

>>4707387
>"I'd play the psp version"
Opinion discarded.

[Anonymous No.4707423]

>>4707412
It is the better version by far, sorry if you're too blinded by nostalgia goggles to see that.

[Anonymous No.4707441]

>>4707423
What's so much better? I'm thinking of replaying SO2.

[Anonymous No.4707464]

>>4707441
Translation, much better VA, loading times, bugfixes, retouched battle system, more content, it's better all around unless you're really that found of Michael's throat cancer gremlin voice yelling Spicule in the original.
Even the new animated cutscenes are bretty gud.

[Anonymous No.4707472]

>>4707403
If you want further discussion try responding to anything I said in that post. Was I wrong in how I summed up your points? Say where and how. Do you disagree with what I said? Be specific.

>You keep posting like he comes with HS for some reason
I specifically said that due to the speed of his basic attack and due to his high strength, he does acceptable damage in the early game before he gets hurricane slash. I've also mentioned a few times that at end game, his basic attack is incredible when paired with the slayers ring or meteor rings, which you've yet to comment on.

[Anonymous No.4707512]

>>4707464
How different is the battle system? Did they move any of the super cheap things you could do in the PSX version? (Like stealing the treasure chest in like the second town and making the Eternal Sphere as soon as you get the sword?)

[Anonymous No.4707564]

>>4707512
I hope they didn't change that. Getting pickpocketing on the first continent, getting that box, and then waiting for rng to give you the right pull is all so obtuse that you won't do it unless you know you can, and then it's a really cool secret.

[Anonymous No.4707591]

>>4707512
The only substantial alteration to the gameplay was replacing each character's basic attack with a short combo. Some characters are made a bit worse by this, others are made a bit better. It's a pretty substantial boon for Dias in particular, because his basic attack is terrible in the original.

Outside of that, I can't think of much important that changed aside from bugfixes. It's a port with a few minor changes, not a remake.

[Anonymous No.4707657]

>>4707591
Cool! Thanks for your help.

[Anonymous No.4707661]

>>4707591
I think if you know both versions exist, you should look at the character art and listen to a few voice samples then just choose based on aesthetics. Personally I dislike the modern anime style and I love the cheesy old voice clips, so I'll always go with the original. I guess I also do not like the combo system they added too

[Anonymous No.4707818]

>>4699784
i rage quit after countless defeats from the last boss spamming attacks, i was probably under leveled, around lvl 70, didn't want to grind for xp, too tedious

[Anonymous No.4707827]

>>4699784
anyone else mistakenly released the end boss limiter? I remember i played the game and did a few things on one run and the end boss was unstoppable. when I finally got internet I found out that i had made the boss harder through interactions.

[Anonymous No.4708118]

>>4707827
I'm surprised you managed to trigger that by total accident. I didn't know about it for forever

[Anonymous No.4708134]

>>4707827
I did too, but I'm not sure I beat the game on that save

I just kept getting to the final save then going all the way back to fuck around in the sekrit expel cave that I always stopped halfway through

[Anonymous No.4708278]

>>4707661
I've never had the PSP version freeze on me, which is a decent perk. It was a rare occurrence when playing it on the PS1, but it's nice not to have to worry about it. The new character art is pretty awful, though, especially Rena's.

>>4707818
Level 70 is fine for taking on Indalecio so long as you're playing on normal difficulty and didn't release his limiter, even if you're not taking advantage of any broken equipment/combos. You just need a way to deal with divine wave spam, and enough elemental resistances to not get one-shotted by his magic (or you can rely on guts if you want to leave it in the hands of the RNG, or try to stun-lock him forever so he never casts anything.) He is a pretty substantial step up in difficulty from all the other non-optional bosses, though.

[Anonymous No.4708291]

one of the most fun parts about star ocean 2 is learning that the character artist, minato koio or whatever the fuck, also did a bunch of star ocean 2 hentai

[Anonymous No.4708312]

>>4708291
Listen dude, we made it 125 posts without Rena wetting the bed. Don't steer this ship into dark waters.

[Anonymous No.4708324]

>>4708312
I think that's the blue sphere artist you're thinking of

speaking of which, when the fuck is blue sphere going to get translated? those nip bastards ported the damn game to mobile recently and still haven't given us a translation

[Anonymous No.4708342]

>>4708324
Never ever.

[Anonymous No.4708348]

>>4708324
The GBC game, right? It got fan translated years ago but I haven't played it. What's it like?

[Anonymous No.4708354]

>>4708348
it got translated to french, anyway
there's like 3 different people working on an english translation and none of them are complete which is a shame

[Anonymous No.4708482]

>>4705650
Oh?
I stand corrected, then.

[Anonymous No.4708657]

>>4708348

like a long episode of star trek with too many characters. It's neat, but bringing back the entire cast was kinda insane. Not much pay off if you're a major fan of the characters. The gameplay is ok too, little too condensed for me, but the overworld puzzles can be fun. It's skippable for sure, but if it got a remake Id be happy.

[Anonymous No.4708675]

>>4708348
It's decent, and had mini-games that would have worked excellently in a DS remake. It had a mobile phone remake which is essentially lost forever.

[Anonymous No.4708678]

>>4708657
I mean, weren't the other 2 star ocean games also just really long episodes of star trek?

that was kinda star ocean's appeal, honestly

[Anonymous No.4708704]

>>4708678

SO2 totally has star trek type stuff in it. SO1 I guess a little? but SO2 is really a star trek type guy gets stuck in a fantasy planet.

[Anonymous No.4708901]

Has any game in this series had co-op similar to Tales games? I know that one of them had a versus mode but not sure about co-op. Sometimes with older games it's reported as single player when it really has multiplayer that's hidden behind an item\menu, which is why I ask.

[Anonymous No.4709015]

>>4708901
I think SO4 had multiplayer but you should probably Google that

[Anonymous No.4709107]

>>4707472
I did comment on accessories albeit them not being relevant, read again.

[Anonymous No.4709108]

I don't know why you guys are having this argument about character viability like it matters.

[Anonymous No.4709112]

>>4707472
Ive been specific lol, wrote out an equation on the game and you cant put your big boy pants on and read it, not my fault.

[Anonymous No.4709113]

>>4707423
You didn't play the PSX version when it came out if this is your discussion on psx vs psp. Leave 4chan.

[Anonymous No.4709141]

>>4709113
I did and the PSP version is far superior. The only flaw is the annoying 3 hit combo thing they added.

[Anonymous No.4709145]

>>4708342
>Rena's outfit
So the ending where she leaves Expel to work in Space with Claude is canon eh?

[Anonymous No.4709245]

>>4709108
What else is there to do on an Indonesian basket weaving forum

>>4709112
>wrote out an equation on the game
What equation did you write? You said that Cross Wave is good because "MP+DMG dealt+active frames+ease of proficiency," which is just a bunch of words and no numbers. Do you have actual frame data of any characters' killer moves? I can't find any resource for that but actual frame data would go a long way toward making a point.

Later today I'm going to go get some saves and record a few comparisons to judge damage dealt and efficiency. Which characters are most important to compare; I think we're mostly talking about Ashton, Dias, and Opera here.

[Anonymous No.4709565]

>>4709245
Done yet? Ashton sucks, re-read posts.

[Anonymous No.4710567]

>>4709565
>there are people who unironically believe ashton sucks
what the hell?

[Anonymous No.4711157]

>>4709565
A'ight bud I've got a few clips here. I took a max save file and compared Ashton and Dias in two ways; their basic attack, and one killer move spam. For Dias I chose Cross Wave, since that was the move you brought up in comparison. I'll gladly try a different move.

Both characters use the exact same gear. Both have maxed skills, but Flip and Float are turned off. Comically, mashing attack with Ashton in this fight takes 10 seconds.

4 clips: imgur.com/a/Iimqo

When equipped with the Slayer's ring, it seemed like Dias wasn't getting multiple hits as intended. It's probably just because he blows but I'll test some more. This small sample size doesn't wholly prove my points, but it should at least be clear that Ashton's two viable strengths are exceptional.

[Anonymous No.4711175]

>>4711157
You're correct. For some reason, Dias doesn't get the extra hits from equipment that normally grants that.

[Anonymous No.4711213]

>>4711157
Goddamn, that tech sucks.
Just use Illusion, anon. At least the hits will connect.

[Anonymous No.4711217]

>>4711213
Dude said Cross Wave was good so I had to test it.

I can't find a save that has a max level Opera to test. Does anyone have one handy?

[Anonymous No.4711428]

>>4709145

blue sphere unfortunately shits all over people's ships and has particular canon endings.

[Anonymous No.4711434]

>>4711175
it's because he uses iaijutsu.
>>4711157
Dias' most powerful techniques are Air Slash and Hawk Scream Blast.

Though it's not realistic for him to get multiple hits on HSB by himself unless he gets wedged into a corner by an enemy that's immune to knockback, HSB beats out everything else in the game in terms of DPS.

[Anonymous No.4711503]

I love SO2 but I always get distracted trying to successfully pickpocket every NPC in the game in a Private Action and end up burning out before I finish.

[Anonymous No.4711540]

>>4711434
Thanks, I went and made another couple clips of mashing air slash and hawk scream blast just to have them up.

HSB has the same MP cost as Hurricane Slash, so if that's his most useful move then a person can't celebrate HSB while also arguing that Ashton's an MP sink. Air Slash seems legitimately good for getting consistent hits in but not particularly impressive damage wise. Dias spamming HSB is clearly very strong but if it's not consistent with multiple hits then it will definitely lose out against something like hurricane slash or pills (but shit bro pills beat, like, everything.) It seems like the best way to use HSB is to manually run up to an enemy and activate it at short range. Air Slash has a benefit of short range being very fast and having a very respectable AoE centered on Dias. A real great move for clearing out trash mobs and making space. HSB seems to have real trouble hitting with its startup hit at short range, losing out on what should be an easy hit.

Clips appended to https://imgur.com/a/Iimqo

[Anonymous No.4711560]

>>4711503
don't do that, it lowers the affinity between characters

just pickpocket the good steals and leave it at that

[Anonymous No.4711573]

>>4711560
>it lowers the affinity between characters
Wow, it's fucking nothing.

[Anonymous No.4711582]

>>4711560
You lose affinity in a PA? I thought the whole point was to not let party members see you

>>4711175
That's kinda shitty but his basic attack is so bad, multi hit accessories would be wasted anyway

[Anonymous No.4711635]

>>4711560
Pretty sure you don't lose it in a PA

[Anonymous No.4711659]

>>4711635
>>4711582
huh, I guess you don't lose it in PAs

I always pickpocketed with my party because rena or claude didn't have sticky fingers
>>4711573
yeah and then you just get shitty endings for everyone because you insisted on pickpocketing everyone

[Anonymous No.4711701]

>>4711540
What would you say if I told you I stunlocked Unlimited Indalecio using Bobot Kick, Ripper Blast, and Rena's basic punch and wedged him and Dias inbetween the other party members sustaining every hit of Hawk Scream Blast?

I think a lot of people misunderstand what KMs are actually good and how early you can make stunlocking a reliable tactic

[Anonymous No.4711704]

>>4711701
I should mention that in this circumstance of a foursome sandwich (plus Precis, who watches and throws things) that every .frame. of HSB is a hit.

[Anonymous No.4711729]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38UZ3buLdac

[Anonymous No.4711731]

The only Star Ocean I ever really played was the PS2 one, which makes you think you'll go on a grand space adventure, but then it's just like any other JRPG since you're stuck on a generic Dragon Quest planet for 90% of the game.

I just wanted JRPG Mass Effect where I can travel around to tons of different planets and do quests and shit...are any of the Star Ocean games like that or not? Or is it like how people say Saga Frontier is open world but they don't mean Elder Scrolls open world but more like Fable.

[Anonymous No.4711756]

>>4711731
Play Rogue Galaxy faggot

[Anonymous No.4711813]

>>4711731
There's actually a bunch of games like that but they never got translated

[Anonymous No.4711816]

>>4699784
If you like torturing yourself with the hardest difficulty, play it on PSP. The PS1 version can glitch out during long fights. ... Also remove all spellcasters from your party because the novelty is replaced with "hurry the fuck up!" pretty quickly. The stronger the spell, the more time wasted.

[Anonymous No.4711817]

>>4711731
Try Cyber Knight

[Anonymous No.4711824]

>>4711731

Each star ocean game tends to go with the advance species stuck on a primitive planet trope. SO4 is a mess but more exploration-ish, a bit. I don't remember it. SO1 and 2 keep to the trope.

My favorite part of SO3 has to be when maria and the other aliens show up to that world. The game got so good then and then got wonky.

[Anonymous No.4711843]

>>4711731
there's star ocean 4 if you want actual star oceans
1 and 2 are long episodes of star trek, 3's a goddamn mess, 4's less of a mess yet also more of a mess at the same time, and I haven't touched 5

[Anonymous No.4712029]

>>4711157
Dias is the biggest disappointment in the game. He's hyped as this uber badass then you get him and he just sucks compared to all your other fighters
Why do games constantly do this?

[Anonymous No.4712031]

>>4711428
Dias ends up with Chisato wtf?

[Anonymous No.4712076]

>>4711701
I would say that's a really cool use of the characters and a great way to beat a ridiculous boss. My only goal was to provide evidence that Ashton is a strong character, because this fucking idiot >>4709565 can't understand how to use him.

[Anonymous No.4712113]

>>4711731
Star Ocean 4 is the most like that compared to the other games. You start by crash landing on a primitive planet, but you get your own ship and hop off there after a few hours. It's episodic in how you go from planet to planet, but there's variety.

[Anonymous No.4713482]

>>4711817
What is cyber knight?

[Anonymous No.4713495]

>>4713482
idk try putting VIDEOGAME and CYBER KNIGHT into google you selfish fucking asshole

[Anonymous No.4713685]

>>4713495
Damn I can't even stealth bump a thread

[Anonymous No.4714391]

>>4712031

And precis with Leon, and the obvious opera Ernest pair. SO2 hints so strongly at precis-ashton it's baffling. They threw curves and we're boring.

[Anonymous No.4714538]

>>4714391
>And precis with Leon,
They're not together, they just both follow Claude in the name of science and work. Ashton and Precis still have their usual awkward scenes in Blue Sphere.

[Anonymous No.4715460]

>>4714538
>>4714391
I was about to say

my boy ashton doesn't deserve to get cucked by some jackass shota catboy

[Anonymous No.4715478]

>>4715460

Ashton canonical has the lowest luck, it'd be kinda fitting to lose precis some how.

Which reminds me, they're huge fools for not focusing on characters of the series. They explicitly said they moved so3 to hundreds of years away from so2 to focus on the setting. I think people, even now would like another game featuring so2 characters.

[Anonymous No.4715491]

>>4715478
SO3 taking place hundreds of years later made me so mad because I fucking hate that trope

it's just an easy way to cop out of references to old characters, and if they can straight up imply that one of the 4 main characters of SO1 gets killed while his son watches, then they could make another game with SO1/2 characters

I mean, shit, even 4 had direct references to SO1 with the roak section, including another Kenny

[Anonymous No.4715495]

>>4715491
SO5 had a Kenny, too.

[Anonymous No.4715497]

>>4715460
Leon gets adopted by Claude's mother

[Anonymous No.4715501]

>>4715497
is his mother ever revealed in it?
>>4715495
neat. maybe it won't be THAT bad a game, especially since it's dirt cheap for a new copy
I actually liked 4 over 3 on account of the battle system alone

[Anonymous No.4715505]

>>4715501
His mother is never outright stated, but the game very strongly alludes to Ilia being his mother
Claude says his mom is a science officer
Claude has her winning quotes of rating enemies
Claude has her moveset

[Anonymous No.4715506]

>>4715501
This is his mom

[Anonymous No.4715518]

>>4715506
I figured it was ilia after playing SO1 but it never actually said if it's ilia or not, just implies

[Anonymous No.4715523]

>>4715518
That pic I used is what pretty much states it. Her redesign is made to look like Claude

[Anonymous No.4715543]

>>4715523
That "redesign" is the result of the talentless artist from First Departure being too lazy to redraw Illia in her martial artist clothes.

[Anonymous No.4715667]

>>4715501

I liked 4, mostly, it just lacks a strong narrative, it was fun to play. 3's final act is pretty bad and feels like a meme. I feel, and uh, sorta spoilers for SO games, the whole wizard of Oz type reveals are good for the series. I like the idea of these underdeveloped world's being baffled by alien tech. I don't mind slugging through a fantasy dark ages planet before then. I just wish 3 went more low key with their reveal, it got too meta.

[Anonymous No.4715752]

>>4715543
Damn, Crawd's mom looks like that?

[Anonymous No.4715756]

>>4715752
you have a disease anon

[Anonymous No.4715768]

>>4702289
I'm only about nine hours in and the only voice that really bothers me is Lymle (and Welch but she's supposed to be obnoxious so I don't count her.)

[Anonymous No.4715774]

>>4705058
Star Ocean is all about grinding like a maniac until strategy becomes pointless because you're so OP.

[Anonymous No.4715892]

>>4715752
haven't you watched the anime? it's clearly pronounced clode

>>4715768
have you met sarah?

[Anonymous No.4716183]

>>4711756
I've got that and it's pretty grindy for my tastes, but the gameplay is good, though.

>>4711817
I do have both of those games but never game them much beyond just making sure they worked and didn't look like shit so I wouldn't delete them.

[Anonymous No.4716845]

I wish star Ocean 2 had a button to manually jump in combat

[Anonymous No.4717375]

>>4715892
No I just beat the big monster on Lemuris and got back to the Canis.

[Anonymous No.4718005]

>>4717375
sarah is like lymle but somehow even more uncomfortable, you'll meet her somewhere near the end of, I think, the second disk

[Anonymous No.4718198]

>>4716845

This is why you should keep characters music skill low till the end. Since you can then have levels 3 through 10 to have the ability to summon those monsters and just write code to bot it.

[Anonymous No.4719184]

>>4718198
I don't understand what music has to do with a jump button but thanks

[Anonymous No.4719452]

>>4718198
Dude what

[Anonymous No.4720439]

Is there a difference between Claude and Rena's story besides pickpocketing on the calnus if you don't accept any extra party members?

[Anonymous No.4720464]

>>4720439
rena can get dias, a shitty character, and claude can get leon, a shittier character

rena goes into the forest with dias and fights a bunch of bandits while claude and celine fight the boss, the entire first like hour of the game, and everything else is mostly just slight pov differences outside of the tournament

[Anonymous No.4720467]

>>4720439
You get a sweet phase gun if you pick Claude.

[Anonymous No.4720475]

>>4720467
only for the first, like, 20 minutes though

[Anonymous No.4720536]

>>4720464
I said without picking extra characters; I meant just a 2 char play through, so those don't really factor

[Anonymous No.4720562]

>>4720464

I think all the calnus stuff is way more interesting than the little stuff you get as Rena. I don't even remember the special stuff she gets on nede, it's not much though.

[Anonymous No.4721267]

>>4720536
If you're only using Claude and Rena, then always go with Claude. His story is far more interesting than Rena's bits.

[Anonymous No.4721485]

>>4720562
Rena actually has an entire optional side story on Nede where you actually find out her dad helped to create the wisemen and through that sidequest you gain access to the data files that describe how they were made by inscribing symbology logic runes on their dna, and Indalecio was the head scientist who used his own body as the material for their ultimate weapon as a means of sealing its power.

I might have remembered that completely wrong though and I'm sure you can see most of that (but not Rena's memories) when you're playing as Claude.

That laboratory overgrown with vegetation is my favorite dungeon in the game

[Anonymous No.4721487]

>>4699784
Then fucking play it? What's stopping you?

[Anonymous No.4721492]

>>4721487
Anon.
This thread is 10 days old. A bit too late to reply OP, don't you think?

[Anonymous No.4721513]

>>4707109
>Over 80 possible endings
....really?

I rented this game a lot as a kid and always played as Rena because I was so excited to be able to play as a girl in a video game that wasn't a fighting game. I never finished it though. Christ, are there really 40 endings per protag?

[Anonymous No.4721552]

>>4721513
>Christ, are there really 40 endings per protag?
nah it's more like there are like 4-8 endings per character and you'll get some combination of endings that uses up all the ones you brought with you

[Anonymous No.4721589]

>>4721513
The thing about character pairings is that each character has an internal matrix of values that represent how they feel about the other characters in the party, both as friends and as romantic interests. These values all change over the course of the game based on things you do; the common example is if you pickpocket, the person who does it is liked less by any members currently in the party, so you usually want to do it during PAs. At the end of the game it tallies up who likes and loves each other and there are multiple scenarios that play out based on the members and their feelings.

[Anonymous No.4721632]

>>4721589
>The thing about character pairings is that each character has an internal matrix of values that represent how they feel about the other characters in the party,
each character just has a list of values representing how much they like other characters that is literally just 1 to 10

it's a rigged system so it's say, easy to get Clena and Preshton or Clopera and Reas but you could also get Bowna or Clisato

there are even same sex endings!

how are you guys liking these horrible shipping names

[Anonymous No.4721664]

>>4721632
is reas dias/rena or rena/ashton or what
also am I the only one who thought noel was just an older leon somehow because he's the only other fellpool in the game and his name is literally leon backwards

also what the fuck do character portraits even do

[Anonymous No.4721696]

>>4721664
Wait a sec

Why is there a fellpool on energy nede

[Anonymous No.4721717]

>>4721696
Noel is the same race as Rena and Chisato

[Anonymous No.4721727]

>>4721696
>>4721717
really? his sprite was definitely a fellpool sprite

[Anonymous No.4721729]

>>4721727
literally what the fuck are you even talking about

[Anonymous No.4721732]

>>4721664
Don't character portraits increase intimacy?

[Anonymous No.4721742]

>>4721727
It was, but he's Nedian. Though on later character portraits, he does get some fur on his ears.

[Anonymous No.4721750]

>>4721732
do they?
I honestly never understood what they did

>>4721729
his ingame sprite clearly has a tail, anon

[Anonymous No.4721764]

>>4721750
>his ingame sprite clearly has a tail, anon
you can't jump to conclusions like that man

he has a "tail" because he's a furry who works on a nature reserve

[Anonymous No.4721781]

>>4721764
you can't just call a man a furry with no evidence. alien or not, that's unethical

[Anonymous No.4721789]

>>4721781
If I say it was in a private action I can get away with it because nobody is going to check all of them

[Anonymous No.4721792]

>>4721789
you underestimate how autismic people can be

private actions were half the appeal of star ocean for me

[Anonymous No.4721842]

>>4721792
The contents of this thread should make the levels of autism surrounding star ocean 2 fans plainly evident.

[Anonymous No.4721852]

>>4721727
Fellpool have animal ears, Nedians have elven ears, sometimes with hair. Expellians have neither because they're a crossbreed of Fellpool and Nedian, and in very rare cases two expellians can give birth to a felinefolk, which is the ancient form of a fellpool.

[Anonymous No.4722467]

>>4721792
please dono't confuse the concepts of autism and OCD thanks

[Anonymous No.4722553]

>>4722467
Is it autism or is it ocd that's making me keep an eye on this thread just in case this dude ( >>4707403 >>4709112 ) tries to refute evidence that Ashton is good >>4711157

[Anonymous No.4722583]

How long is this game and what's the replay value?

[Anonymous No.4722603]

>>4722583
It's 30-40 hours for a normal playthrough your first time. There are a bunch of characters in the game, many of whom require certain sidequests to find, and some exclude others from joining the party. Also you can only have 8 total characters before you can't accept any more. Going further with the characters, at the game's start you pick one of two characters as your main point of view, and both of them have a few unique cutscenes and interactions throughout the game.

There are also multiple difficulty modes, and the last boss has a secret limiter that can be removed to bring him to his ultimate form, but that's only possible if you see a specific cutscene in an obscure place in the first few hours of the game. So between all the different characters and difficulties, it's got a surprising amount of replay value compared to RPGs of its era. Dialog can drag a bit though, especially when you've already read it once before.

[Anonymous No.4722689]

>>4722583
I probably spent a good 60 hours at least because I kept trying to get aaaaaaaall the PAs, going back to every city to check for new PAs once anything happened

and honestly? aside from the first hour or 2 and the lacuer tournament, I'd say the replay value is infinite because I must've gotten to the sekrit dungeon and accidentally dropped it at least 6 times now

[Anonymous No.4722714]

>>4722603
>>4722689
Thanks for the replies. What's a PA?
I know I played it long enough as a kid to meet Bowman, but I always dropped it at some point. I played Rena every time. Must've started new at least 4 times in my life. I don't know why I've never finished it. I guess I should retry.

[Anonymous No.4722727]

>>4722714
PA means private action. Outside of a town, if you hit square, the party will split up and your main character will explore on his or her own. This is an opportunity for a bunch of unique interactions with your party members.

I think most of this thread agrees that its better to play as Claude, unless you have some particular reason to choose Rena.

[Anonymous No.4722931]

>>4699784
any one else become an addict at the bunny races

As soon as I got to that theme park I was making sure I won as many bunny shoes as possible.

[Anonymous No.4723189]

>>4722931
Oh man that shit is intense. It can take hours to get just one pair if you get unlucky. Speaking of bunnies, is there any real use for the super specialty Come On Bunny! besides just skipping random battles? The overworld in energy nede is real small and you get a synard fast anyway

[Anonymous No.4723201]

>>4723189
Just skipping random battles.

[Anonymous No.4723213]

What's the point of two person parties?

[Anonymous No.4723457]

>>4722727
I chose Rena the first time I played because she was cute.

[Anonymous No.4723460]

>>4700560
The center one?

[Anonymous No.4723492]

>>4700560
>her boots are also stockings in second evolution

wtf i love psp now

[Anonymous No.4723498]

I've played the PSP version of this but is it worth playing PS1 version?

Is it more challenging or was there anything interesting in this version that didn't make it to PSP.

[Anonymous No.4723517]

>>4723498
Nope.

[Anonymous No.4723532]

>>4723498
different, delightfully cheesy voice acting
rena's heal all spell is a cross instead of a monolith
no welch

[Anonymous No.4723534]

>>4699784
Ok. It is easily playable on an emulator and is under 40 bucks for both Playstation and Playstation portable.

[Anonymous No.4723591]

>>4700560
>freebleeding

[Anonymous No.4723672]

>>4708324
> those nip bastards ported the damn game to mobile recently
>recently

You mean like 10 years ago.

[Anonymous No.4724194]

>>4723189
>Oh man that shit is intense.

I remember yelling at the screen as if i was one of these guys. this game is great cause it has some good side stuff like the cooking, the writing getting published, the artist to make the portraits, the bad checks. The iron chef competition was also my jam.

lmao I gotta start a new file soon.

[Anonymous No.4724195]

>>4723532
dont forget the charming polygon representations of items like the food

[Anonymous No.4724238]

>>4724195
Star ocean is a fun game to emulate since you can decompress the textures on all the items

[Anonymous No.4724795]

>>4724238
What does it look like when you do that?

[Anonymous No.4725064]

>>4724195
oh yeah, I forgot the 3d items that spin around

my discs were so messed up that there'd always be missing polygons, but goddamn if I didn't play the shit out of that game

[Anonymous No.4725669]

This thread made me realize I never beat the game. I'm on disc 2, at the Cave of Power or whatever. Am I close to beating it?

[Anonymous No.4725682]

>>4725669
the bonus dungeon that you go back to expel for?

you're literally at the final point of the game and could always go back to the final dungeon behind the barrier to go fight indalacio or whatever whenever you want if you are

otherwise you're probably 80% done

[Anonymous No.4725689]

>>4725669
The field of power is one of several dungeons you have to do to open the way to the last dungeon. You've got like five hours left minimum, not counting secret dungeon

[Anonymous No.4725739]

>>4725689
>>4725682
Ah, sweet--thanks. I have the Eternal Sphere on Claude and the Marvel Sword on Dias. I think I wanted to make this game my bitch when I started it forever ago. Can't imagine why I would drop it.

[Anonymous No.4725815]

>>4725739
Got a levantine sword kicking around? That would be a better pick for Dias. Don't give him any multi hit accessories though, that shit won't work for him

[Anonymous No.4726361]

>>4721485

you see the vast majority of the plot points and secret files exactly the same as claude. You just need chisato, it's not rena exclusive. Renas dad stuff....I don't think is either actually. I don't remember that, but I do think it's in there as claude.

[Anonymous No.4726376]

>>4722553

Ive been keeping away from the ashton bashing, but I'll finally step in. Ashton is a good fighter. However, he should not be used in higher difficulty settings in runs where you plan to beat optional bosses, like the queen or limiter off. Because of his stats and his higher chance of having items break on him. It limits his gear potential. In long fights with low luck, he can screw over a fight for you.

That said, no casual person should worry at all over ashton, he's very usable otherwise and really great for most people.

[Anonymous No.4726842]

>>4721485
Dude, you can do this with Claude too.

[Anonymous No.4726846]

>>4699784
Star Ocean 2 is alright, but not that good considering DUAL ORB 2 came out a few years prior

[Anonymous No.4726850]

So who here found out how to get back to Expel without using a guide? That shit was shocking to me when I stumbled into that guy

[Anonymous No.4726914]

>>4726376
He has bad luck but he does have one of the highest strengths. At max level its certainly higher than Dias and Claude. One of my arguments is that he's the best character to use for multi hit accessories, with his attack speed and range making him significantly powerful in that regard. A character like bowman might have a faster basic, but its so small it won't hit easily, and Dias evidently refuses to hit more than once with his basic, so by that logic he's still a reliable character even in higher difficulty fights. I totally agree that you have to consider his luck when using him, but I posit that its just a matter of risk and reward for something with relatively low impact on the overall game.

[Anonymous No.4726951]

>>4726914
Dexterity is better than Strength at high levels.

[Anonymous No.4728010]

>>4726914

It's not about the difficulty, it's about him causing you a loss because of his luck factor. In Earth or Galaxy and not doing the massive HP sponge bosses it's less noticeable. In a long fight in Universe you only have more and more risk. Consistency becomes key there. If you have to change strats due to gear loss, why not just build yourself into those strats to begin with? Your potential for a loss and then a hindrance in those fights only grows. The risk doesn't out weigh the reward, so you have to gear him appropriately. Im not at all saying not to use him. Again though, this is for a specific play through though. I don't think anyone on earth or galaxy play throughs should worry. You can try to manipulate his luc through skills. In universe though, you want to manipulate other stats and not deal with a character that has luc as a dump stat. He becomes a burden in universe if you plan to do optional bosses.

Basically, think of crafting with ashton, he fails a lot, no bigger, crafting is quick. Doing long fights and having him screw it up? Nah....

[Anonymous No.4728015]

>>4726951
He's got the same/slightly better Dex as Claude. Both of them have significantly worse Dex than Dias. Here's all three of them naked.

[Anonymous No.4728023]

>>4728015
Stat gains are actually randomized in Star Ocean 2 giving a range from 1-6 or so each level, when you see small discrepancies on large numbers it means they've actually just got different rolls but the same rate of gains.

We can determine from your image that Claude is better than or equal to Ashton in everything other than stamina.

[Anonymous No.4728028]

>>4728023

except luc

[Anonymous No.4728041]

>>4728023
That's interesting. Is it always specifically 1-6 and there's no instances of a higher boost? I remember watching ulillillia play FFXII where he would reroll HP boosts for hours on end, reminds me of that.

>>4728010
Maybe I'm retarded but what are you talking about in regards to item/gear breaks? If you're just referring to the failure rate of his item creation then yeah there's no arguing that it's a problem for him, but that's outside of a battle. I also don't disagree at all that you need to carefully plan your party and maybe decide to not use Ashton for universe mode--Opera's healing is almost certainly better for survival--but I don't understand him being a burden in a long fight, especially since I think he makes fights significantly shorter. Can you give me an example?

[Anonymous No.4728065]

>>4728041

yes, gear breaks in battle. Its based on luc. Im at work and cant cite examples atm, but I'll get back to you on it.

[Anonymous No.4728083]

>>4728041
>That's interesting. Is it always specifically 1-6 and there's no instances of a higher boost?
It depends on which stat. 6 was the high range for dexterity, and if you re-rolled every level up it would reach the 1600s.

[Anonymous No.4728084]

>>4728065
Okay. I don't remember that ever happening aside from things specifically meant to break, like Reverse Dolls. Is it just a universe mode specific thing? I've done some searching and can't find anyone talking about such a thing.

[Anonymous No.4728085]

>>4728084
Disregarding what the other guy is saying, what it does have an effect on is parries and other ability activations which is kind of a big deal on universe.

[Anonymous No.4728141]

>>4728084

Im trying to find it myself, by and large accessories can break. Not sure if there's a good guide on chance and which. I know lots of rings and hit stuff are susceptible.

[Anonymous No.4728158]

>>4728141
I don't think I've ever seen any decent accessory, like a tri emblem or atlas ring or whatever other stat boosting item, break. This seems like it must be incredibly rare.

[Anonymous No.4728205]

>>4728158
As far as I know, the only items that can break are things like the Reverse Doll, as well as some of the accessories that absorb / prevent damage.

[Anonymous No.4728230]

>>4728141
>>4728158
Only a handful of accessories can break, mostly powerful defensive ones like the protection ring, reflection ring, and lunatic ring.

I have no idea how the chance of them breaking is calculated, but most of them don't last long at all in my experience and cannot be relied upon regardless of the character's luck stat.

[Anonymous No.4728231]

>>4728085
Does playing on higher difficulties make skill/ability activate less often?

[Anonymous No.4728267]

>>4715518
http://www.jp.square-enix.com/soa/dame/comic20.html
It's depend whether you think these official joke manga is canon or not.

[Anonymous No.4728276]

>>4728085
>>4728028
>>4728023

This is why Ashton sucks(but not really read to the end). The item break thing is based on builds dealing with petrify, but most people that's a non-issue these days. Those are old gear olds and its not significant issue now.

Stat manipulation in this game is really interesting. They are not set. Except luc. You can raise luck through skills which modify stats and through trial and error raise luck.

Luck determines a huge amount of things and it was play tested a lot. Things like crits, parry, item breaks, item misses, crits on you, random insta kills, insta deaths, item fail, resists and so on. Ashton's luck is so much lower that he will noticeably fail on these things more than anyone else.

Though you can work around this and get his luck up. Which takes some doing and planning. He still is one of the most consistent fighters. Claude, Dias and Ashton are the best to use. You'd much much better off fixing ashtons luck over using say, ernest or precis. It just takes more planning and most won't bother.

[Anonymous No.4730147]

>>4715491

SO2 accidentally became the most popular in the series. I don't know what they were thinking. During production of SO3 they commissioned a SO2 spin off to keep the series relevant because of how long it would be between 2 and 3's release. It's popularity got it a manga and anime. It never took off and did well, but still had a strong enough following to move forward with those works.

It's like, what would they have done if Star Ocean EX got 4 seasons and a movie? I just don't get how the series as so mismanaged.

[Anonymous No.4730209]

>>4728231
It just makes it more punishing when they don't activate, it doesn't change the rate except insofar as it might change the stats of your enemies.

[Anonymous No.4730221]

>>4728276
Precis fills a roll that Ashton doesn't as a support stunlocker. He doesn't have any truly spammable moves and is basically a worse, heavier version of Chisato.

[Anonymous No.4730228]

>>4730147
>I just don't get how the series as so mismanaged.
It's almost like you think the people who make these decisions actually care about videogames or something

[Anonymous No.4730319]

>>4730209
Then unless higher difficulties make bosses more resistant to stun/star cheese, I think it'll be alright.
>>4711729
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k70olfnBYoM

[Anonymous No.4730329]

>>4730319
>Then unless higher difficulties make bosses more resistant to stun/star cheese, I think it'll be alright.
It makes them much faster requiring far fewer frames to escape with stars usually being insufficient to trap them.

you can still beat the bosses with basically any party members if you grind enough

[Anonymous No.4730348]

>>4730221
What isn't spammable about hurricane slash?

[Anonymous No.4730593]

>>4730348
distribution of damage frames is uneven

[Anonymous No.4730871]

>>4730228

i figure they care about making money and made dumb choices they saw them get less money.

[Anonymous No.4731751]

>>4726850

I don't think Id have ever found out. I still don't think I quite like, get how the game was supposed to hint at this being a possibility. I think it's great, but yea, the guide was mandatory for me.

[Anonymous No.4732952]

The best team is Claude (Ripper Blast + Mirror Slice/Energy Sword), Opera (Alpha on One + Healing Star), Bowman (Explosion Pills + Secret Medicine, and Chisato (Tear Gas + 10,000 Volts). Fight me, dweebs.

[Anonymous No.4732965]

>>4732952
I always just used ashton, rena, celine, and whoever else I can spare

I now realize that celine is a waste, though, and I always did struggle choosing between opera and ashton but her low damage in early game kinda makes me go for ashton in the long run

[Anonymous No.4732973]

>>4732965
Celine (and every other magic user) is generally awful by mid/end-game. Not that the game is that hard. Opera is better than Ashton because she has the best, fastest, and cheapest heal in the game (allowing her to replace Rena) and Alpha on One is long-range and does great damage. I'd probably take Ashton over her based on DPS, but given that she allows Rena to be replaced by someone better, I think it's a no-brainer.

[Anonymous No.4733138]

>>4732973
Out of the whole thread, this is probably the most sensible comparison between Ashton and Opera

[Anonymous No.4733154]

>>4732973
>>4733138
I'd honestly take opera more often if I could have her dealing the damage ashton does as quick as he does, but making weapons for her requires a much more expensive skill and a weapon that DOES make her viable also forces you to either ditch her or waste a party slot with ernest
and if I'm gonna have someone in my party that I'll never use they better have enjoyable private actions

[Anonymous No.4733162]

>>4733154
>either ditch her or waste a party slot with ernest
>and if I'm gonna have someone in my party that I'll never use they better have enjoyable private actions
Noel is there for you to drop though