A great port of the original PS1 Star Ocean, but not enough changes to call it a remake.
As the release date for the newest Star Ocean RPG creeps up on us, the latest re-release hits the PSP, this time porting over the PS1 Star Ocean, and re-dubbing it Second Evolution. While the first PSP Star Ocean release was a pretty big overhaul of the original Super Famicom title, the differences between this game and the PS1 original aren't quite as significant. Still, the translation has seen a much-needed improvement, and the game has widescreen support for the dimensions of the PSP screen, and overall it's a really solid port.
For new Tri-Ace fans it's also the most affordable way to check this title out. While Star Ocean 2 isn't super-expensive in the realm of another Tri-Ace title like Valkyrie Profile, it still carries a pretty high price on the secondary market, and having all the content on one UMD as opposed to two CD-ROM's is also pretty nice. The controls are intact, and like most PS1 ports the controls work really well for the PSP. All the content that I can remember from that original seems to have made it over intact as well, including the fairly robust item creation/cooking/skill trees that the game is well known for.
If you've never played Star Ocean 2, I'll break down the plot a little bit for you. It ties to the original, and in this one you'll play the son of the captain from the first game, who manages to get sucked into a portal that transports him to another planet, a world that's a bit backwards compared to his original home. Keeping up with the pseudo-Star Trek prime directive idea, the main character, Claude, doesn't want to interfere too much with the new world around him, and simply wants to return home. However, after rescuing the life of a young village girl, he ends up getting recognized as the fabled "Hero of Light", and ends up partaking in a series of quests as he tries to figure out how he can get back home. As a bit of a twist, when the game begins, you can opt to play the role of the young girl that Claude rescues instead, which will provide a somewhat different aspect on different story points throughout the game.
The plot itself carries a lot of typical JRPG trappings with it, and there's nothing that really stood out or surprised me when I originally played the game back in the 90's, and now with the new translation that's still the same. The new voiceover work does add a bit more emotion to the characters, and helps them feel a bit more distinct and gets the player involved in the story a little more, so it's nice to see that included. However, don't come in here expecting a modern level of quality that you might have grown accustomed to. It's not a particularly bad story; it's just a bit too similar to other JRPG titles that have come before it.
Combat is similar to the original, and bears a strong resemblance to other Tri-Ace games as well. There are random encounters on the overworld map and in the dungeons you'll explore, and when you trigger one you'll be transported to a small field where you'll have direct control over your main character, with AI assistance handling the other party members. On the bottom right corner of the screen there's a small grid divided into four panels to give you an idea of where the enemies and friends are on the map at any given time. You can execute basic attacks by pressing the square button, and you can map special moves to the right and left shoulder buttons on the PSP. You can perform some limited combo's to take out enemies, and ideally you'll want to try and hit them in tandem with your teammates to take them out of the fight quickly. If you've ever played a Tales game you'll notice some similarities between the combat in those titles as well, but Star Ocean 2 doesn't have anything in the way of juggling enemies into the air or making crazy long strings of combonations.
The crafting system in the game is developed after you start to learn certain skills, which is done by spending the points you'll earn after each level up. Dropping points into different areas can in turn unlock other skills, and the more points you drop into each skill will level it up further. For instance, if you keep dropping points into cooking you'll end up unlocking more and more recipes. There's a lot of item drops and vendors in the game to sell you different items you'll need, and you'll even run across skill vendors that will sell you sets of skills to help further your customization of each character in your party. Needless to say, there are a lot of different directions you can take with each character and the role you want them to have in your party, and it's nice to play a JRPG where you're not stuck with certain archetypes for the entire game.
Visually the game hasn't seen a complete overhaul of the graphics that the first Star Ocean port did, and while it didn't really need it nearly as bad since the generation difference isn't as great, I've never been a big fan of Star Ocean 2's sprite work. The pre-rendered backgrounds are definitely pretty, but the characters themselves all look really goofy, especially compared to the anime style talking heads you see during dialogue. They try to do little emote actions with them, and it doesn't come across all that well. There are some added cutscenes, which are really well done, but for the most part I'd like to have seen the sprites have a little bit of an overhaul here.
The audio, on the other hand, is great, and while Star Ocean 2 isn't the best JRPG soundtrack out there, it does hold up to that quality of excellent Square soundtracks from the PS1 era, and there are quite a few memorable tracks that stand out to me. Like I mentioned earlier, the new voiceover work is well done, and there's a surprising amount of it used, so that's nice to see in this version as well.
Second Evolution is a really solid port of the PS1 original, and for those of you that haven't had a chance to play it I'd say it's well worth picking up. For the people that already own the original, you might want to give this one a go for the updated translation and added voiceover work, but there are not nearly as many changes here as there was in the first Star Ocean PSP title. Still, it's definitely worth checking out, and I really enjoyed it.
