History VideoGame / StarOceanTheSecondStory

''Star Ocean: The Second Story'' is the second game in the ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' series. It was first released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, and unlike [[VideoGame/StarOcean1 the first game]], ''did'' get a Western release. An UpdatedRerelease for the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, titled ''Star Ocean: Second Evolution'', was released in early 2009. Claude C. Kenny, son of Ronyx from the first game, is a new ensign in [[TheFederation the Pangalactic Federation]] struggling to remove himself from his famous father's shadow. His first mission, exploring Milokeenia, is directly under Admiral Ronyx's command. He activates a {{precursor}} teleporter and ends up stranded on the primitive planet of Expel, where he saves the other main character Rena Lanford from a rampaging monster. Hailed as a prophesied savior, Claude sets off on a quest to find out why things have gotten so bad on Expel recently. But there's more at stake here than one primitive planet....

** Gabriel and Lucifer are the most beautiful of the Ten Wise Men. They are also the most evil/crazy.

* BootstrappedLeitmotif: The now company-wide theme "Incarnation of Devil" first played during the battle against Lucifer, which fits his character seeing that he's named after [[{{Satan}} the bibilical devil/fallen angel]]. However, the song eventually becomes more associated with "hyper-powerful OptionalBoss" like Gabriel Celeste, who has since become a recurring OptionalBoss throughout the franchise and Tri-Ace's other franchises such as ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile''. Gabriel Celeste pretty much yanked the {{Leitmotif}} out from Lucifer.

* AbsurdlyLongStairway: The game ends its [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon final dungeon]] with a needlessly long (straight) staircase leading up to the FinalBoss. Especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} in that the staircase conclude a long [[ItsAllUpstairsFromHere climb up a tower]].

* BootstrappedLeitmotif: The now franchise-wide theme "Incarnation of the Devil" first played during the battle against Lucifer, which fits his character seeing that he's named after [[{{Satan}} the bibilical devil/fallen angel]]. However, the song eventually becomes more associated with "hyper-powerful OptionalBoss" like Gabriel Celeste, who has since become a recurring OptionalBoss throughout the franchise. Gabriel Celeste pretty much yanked the {{Leitmotif}} out from Lucifer.

** In Rena's scenario, after recruiting Dias, Claude is overjoyed, saying that with Dias around, nothing can stop them because Dias is very powerful. Too bad that the next boss event fight is against Cynne/Shin in two scripted battles where he's invincible and you either have to stall time or [[HopelessBossFight lose]]. No matter how much more powerful Dias is than the rest, he's rendered unable to kill Cynne/Shin.

* TemptingFate: Rena walks into the Sacred/Shingo Forest alone and quips: "In a day like this, nothing could go wrong." Cue a monster appearing behind her.

* [[CuttingOffTheBranches Cutting Off the Branches]]: Never stated outright, but Claude's mother is strongly implied to be Ilia Silvestri. The first game's RelationshipValues be damned. Also, ''Blue Sphere'' and ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Till The End of Time]]''[='=]s manual confirm that every party member, except possibly Welch, was recruited. ''Anamnesis'' also utilizes the scenario where Ilia is Claude's mother. And regardless of the ending you set up, Claude's OfficialCouple is with Rena, which causes the Kenny family members afterwards to have blue hair from Rena (seen in [[VideoGame/StarOceanIntegrityAndFaithlessness Emerson]] and [[VideoGame/StarOceanTheDivineForce Marielle]]).

* [[CuttingOffTheBranches Cutting Off the Branches]]: Never stated outright, but Claude's mother is strongly implied to be Ilia Silvestri. The first game's RelationshipValues be damned. Also, ''Blue Sphere'' and ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Till The End of Time]]''[='=]s manual confirm that every party member, except possibly Welch, was recruited. And regardless of the ending you set up, Claude's OfficialCouple is with Rena, which causes the Kenny family members afterwards to have blue hair from Rena (seen in [[VideoGame/StarOceanIntegrityAndFaithlessness Emerson]] and [[VideoGame/StarOceanTheDivineForce Marielle]]).

** Ashton is a physically-oriented Expellian (Brawn), while Opera is a technologically gifted Tetrageniot, as does Ernest (Brains).

There was also an anime, called ''Star Ocean EX'', which documented the adventures of the cast up until the end of the first half of the game. It was cancelled before it could go any further; the story was later completed with the second half released as a series of five drama [=CDs=]. There were quite a few changes to the plot, but the characters and overall structure remained the same. Most of the art direction changes were retained for the PSP version.

** Party member recruitment is like this too. You can turn anyone down, recruiting one person may make you [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers unable to recruit someone else]] (eg Ashton vs. Opera), and two characters simply do not make themselves available if you are playing with the wrong main character (when the PSP port added anime cutscenes, they simply chose not to depict ''anyone'' but Claude and Rena). And if you recruit Ashton, which for all intents and purposes seems like a very reasonable and good idea? [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers Say goodbye]] [[PermanentlyMissableContent to ever being able to recruit one of the most powerful characters in the game.]]

* BeautyIsBad: Gabriel and Lucifer are the most beautiful of the Ten Wise Men. They are also the most evil/crazy.
** Well, Zadkiel is alright too, but he just has stuff in his hair.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: You saved the entire universe from destruction, ''and'' brought Expel back from destruction. Congratulations! Unfortunately, Energy Nede is destroyed completely. This would have been a good thing if not for the fact that they are all very nice people...and the fact that ''hundreds of millions of innocent people are dead''.]]
** [[spoiler: Chisato and Noel's endings are, no matter what, sad. Sure, if they hooked up with anyone they'll be able to find love, but they still have to live with the fact that they're the only ones who survived...]]
** [[spoiler: Yeah. The Nedeians brought back Expel. ... But... They didn't bring back anything else though. So... The Calnus, it's crew, and ''Claude's father'' are now very ''dead''.]]
*** [[spoiler:According to the director they could have been saved, but it's to the player to decide.]]

* BoringButPractical: It's probable that by the end of the game, you may be using some Killer Moves that you learned well over 20 gameplay hours ago (eg Opera's Alpha-on-One or Bowman's Exploding Pills). Slightly subverted in that, once you use a skill X amount of times, they get upgraded, which is partially why they remain viable. Dias' Chaos Sword will single-handedly get you through ''everything'' but the final boss, due to the fact that it's incredibly quick at close range, hits several times, and deals heavy damage with on each of those hits. Also it only burns 1 tech point per use.
** For that matter, the ''best'' way to defeat the later bosses? Stunlock them and spam these abilities until they die.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: After a private action wherein Rena wipes a computer hard drive, the game brings up a message directly to the player. (See DontTryThisAtHome)

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:Rena's pendant.]]

* TheChosenOne: Subverted. Rena mistakes Claude to be the destined Hero of Light, but he makes it clear that he's not. [[spoiler:Played painfully straight in the anime, complete with EvolvingWeapon.]]
** The game goes back and forth between this and TheUnchosenOne since [[spoiler:while Claude makes it clear that he's not the destined hero of light, he and his party are chosen by Energy Nede to defeat the Ten Wise Men.]]

* DiscOneNuke: The [[InfinityPlusOneSword Eternal Sphere]] can be obtained soon after the InevitableTournament in ''The Second Story''.
** Plus, one can get the Marvel Sword with 1100 attack so early in the game that most weapons are in the 100-200 range.

* GuideDangIt: Oh, you accidentally talked to a crazy lady twice? Hope you wanted to fight Gabriel with his limiter off for a final boss then. To be fair, it's actually quite easy to miss talking to her either time. It's actually more of a GuideDangIt since you have to catch the girl once in an easily missable scene that's [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] if you don't, and the second time by backtracking out of the final dungeon from the last save point and tracking her down in a town.
** Party member recruitment is like this too. You can turn anyone down, recruiting one person may make you [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers unable to recruit someone else]] (eg Ashton vs. Opera), and two characters simply do not make themselves available if you are playing with the wrong main character (when the PSP port added anime cutscenes, they simply chose not to depict ''anyone'' but Claude and Rena).

** Did you recruit Ashton, which for all intents and purposes seems like a very reasonable and good idea? [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers Say goodbye]] [[PermanentlyMissableContent to ever being able to recruit one of the most powerful characters in the game.]]

* InexplicableTreasureChests: All the time. You can even pickpocket one from a old man or make them using ItemCrafting.
** Though in the ''Second Evolution'', they are called Goodie Box, instead of Treasure Chest.

* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Averted as it's mages who become less effective as the party as whole levels up; at least healers are still crucial. Part of that may be because the best spells have [[OverlyLongFightingAnimation a really long cutscene (that can't be turned off)]] and will at best do [[{{Cap}} 9999 damage]], and they only hit once. Fighters can do loads more in the same time span, as most of their endgame attacks will do multiple hits. [[GuideDangIt Combining Leon's Gremlin Lair (which hits multiple times) with Celine's Thunderstorm]] lets it hit for more than 3 times as much. Even this is AwesomeButImpractical.
** That said, mages aren't there for damage output, but to prevent enemy mages from casting. The damage cap may be 9999, but so is ''your hit point cap''. That means enemy mages can take off a very large chunk of your health if not wipe you entirely before you can close with them (especially if enemy fighters are in the way). Your mages are there to prevent that by cutting them off with [[BoringButPractical weaker but quicker spells]].

* MergingTheBranches

* AMillionIsAStatistic: Played with the BittersweetEnding below example below. [[spoiler: One billion people died with the destruction of Expel, according to the reading on the Calnus. The population on Energy Nede is the same as the one when it was created with the destruction of Nede, after the population was decimated by the war with the Ten Wise Men, meaning it was cut down to about 5 to 10 millions. The Nedians put it on the balance this too when they decided to do their HeroicSacrifice.]]

* ModernStasis: Nede, flying far past absurdity into transcendent realms of impossibility. Its history stretches back longer than the existence of ''any kind of life on Earth''. An annual fighting tournament had been going on for 35 million years already when the dinosaurs went extinct. The cultural stagnation and genetic manipulation to achieve this kind of recognizable continuity from ancient Nede to modern is both staggering and terrifying. [[spoiler:Even Rena was born before anything recognizably hominid appeared on Earth, and Nedians from her time and Nedians in the present day look exactly the same.]] If this was about distance in space rather than in time, then SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale wouldn't even begin to cover it. It's not entirely unintentional either. [[spoiler: Not being able to evolve any further is why Nall and Mirage are willing to wipe out their own species.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:You know Rena's pendant? It's actually the key to destroying the world, and your team brings it straight to where it needs to go. Although to be fair, just having it on the planet already sped things up by centuries.]]
** [[spoiler:Limitless Gabriel.]]
*** Actually subverted. [[spoiler:When encountering Philia the second time, she asks the party to [[ShootTheDog kill her]] before Gabriel finds her. Gabriel ''did'' get to her before Claude/Rena could fulfill her request.]] Activating the Private Action [[spoiler:removed the limiter,]] but it's only because of the main characters' hesitation, and not of any direct action.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: In the game, Funny Thiefs are mostly generic level 1 enemies. [[spoiler:Dias' flashback, however, shows them killing his parents and sister]]. Also, they return in more stronger forms in Cave of Trials as Thief lvl. 99 and Metal Thief.
** They can even be a threat in regular gameplay. If you choose Rena as your main character on one of the higher difficulties, they can ''very'' easily one-shot her, making it pretty much impossible to level up before fighting the first boss since she's alone and they usually come in large groups.

* SchizoTech: Precis has a completely autonomous robot. And big punchy robot arm things. On a medieval world which doesn't even have electricity anywhere else. Semi-justified in narrative as she and her father found a strange object that fell from the sky which they reverse-engineered, figuring out the basics of a lot of technology as a result.

* SpamAttack: Claude's "Shooting Stars" special.
** Also Dias' "Air Slash." Just spam this move at the start of almost any regular battle and it'll be over within [[{{CatchPhrase}} 10 seconds]].

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: This is essentially what Claude is or at least, what he ''could've'' been; the script doesn't play up that detail much, with the sole exception of him having to obey the AlienNonInterferenceClause.
** Or at least trying to. For all of five seconds. [[TheDulcineaEffect Until he runs into a cute girl and decides to save her by]] ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill atomizing the monster attacking her]]''. Afterwards, he promptly proceeds to only passingly care. He's more concerned that his high-tech [[EnergyWeapon pulse pistol]] is out of juice and/or permanently broken than he is that he's shooting up things on an alien planet and making the natives [[TheCallHasBadReception think that he's a hero with a]] [[LaserBlade Sword of Light]]. Naturally, this leads to his father crying out "WhatTheHellHero" later on in the game.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Player characters that you encounter in the game just disappear if you did not recruit them.
** Averted with a rather large (if technically optional) aspect of the first part of the game which involves you finding an ancient text in Cross Cave and showing it to a linguist named Keith. Keith finally takes it and begins studying it, but before you learn anything about it, [[spoiler:the world explodes.]] It's later revealed in Bowman's solo ending that the text is a myth about an "ancient paradise" called [[spoiler:Nede.]]

* [[CuttingOffTheBranches Cutting Off the Branches]]: Never stated outright, but Claude's mother is strongly implied to be Ilia Silvestri. The first game's RelationshipValues be damned. Also, ''Blue Sphere'' and ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Till The End of Time]]''[='=]s manual confirm that every party member, except possibly Welch, was recruited.

A full WideoGameRemake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' is set to release on November 2, 2023 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. As with ''[[VideoGame/StarOcean1 Star Ocean: First Departure R]]'', the game will allow the player to switch between the original Japanese voice cast from the [=PlayStation=] version and the cast from ''Second Evolution''.

A full remake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' is set to release on November 2, 2023 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. As with ''[[VideoGame/StarOcean1 Star Ocean: First Departure R]]'', the game will allow the player to switch between the original Japanese voice cast from the [=PlayStation=] version and the cast from ''Second Evolution''.

A full remake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' is set to release on November 2, 2023 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. As with ''[[VideoGame/StarOcean1 Star Ocean: First Departure R]]'', the game will allow the player to switch between the original Japanese voice cast from the Playstation version and the cast from ''Second Evolution''.

A full remake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' is set to release on November 2, 2023 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: More than just chemistry, but the abandoned Heraldic Weapons Facility is somehow still standing after 700 million years, looking less damaged than a Chernobyl building given the explosions that caused its abandonment. It somehow survived oxidation (being in an atmosphere), the effects of solar radiation, and weathering...not to mention overgrowth, wildlife interactions, and countless treasure hunters. Even its computers still function. In that time scale, TechnologyMarchesOn can't explain this one.

A full remake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch is set to release on November 2, 2023.

* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The Godslayer and the Knuckles of Hope, [[spoiler:weapons designed to defeat the Ten Wise Men.]]

*** This is only the tip of the iceberg for [[VideoGameStealing the pickpocketing skill]], it can "borrow" not only incredible weapons, but also up to [[UpToEleven three]] copies of the 3rd best armor, before the end of Disc 1.

* MultipleEndings: [[UpToEleven 87 possible endings]], depending on characters' relationship values with each other. See WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue.

* ActionGirl: All of the female cast.