Line #69 VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jStar.JPG]]
2	[[quoteright:300:Two worlds, one fateful encounter]]
3
4	''Star Ocean: The Second Story'' is the second game in the ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' series. It was first released for the Platform/PlayStation1, and unlike [[VideoGame/StarOcean1 the first game]], ''did'' get a Western release.
5
6	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. Claude, hailed as a prophesied savior, joins forces with Rena, the only person on the planet who can cast healing magic, to investigate the "Sorcery Globe," a recent meteorite which has changed Expel for the worse. But there's more at stake here than one primitive planet....
7
8	In addition to being the first ''Star Ocean'' title to be localized into English, ''The Second Story'' is the TropeCodifier for the franchise as a whole. There are ten recruitable party members, but only six can be acquired in one playthrough, and a few are MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers. Claude and Rena have intertwined but distinct stories, and while every scene in the game canonically happens, a Rena player will not ''see'' the scenes that only involve Claude, and vice versa. In any town, the player may dismiss the party, turning them into {{NPC}}s wandering around who can be talked to via "Private Actions" -- and, therefore, have their RelationshipValues with other characters modified. A comprehensive SkillScore system couples with a gigantic ItemCrafting mechanic, allowing players to obtain reagents and then produce anything from MedicinalCuisine to new equipment to encyclopedias. And the game features a truly mutable ending, with the game choosing from around 100 different scenes depending on the Relationship Values between any given pair of characters.
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10	There was a Platform/GameBoyColor sequel to ''The Second Story'' entitled ''VideoGame/StarOceanBlueSphere'', [[NoExportForYou that was not released outside of Japan.]] This was remade for cell phones in 2009. There were also manga and 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 its art-direction changes were retained for the PSP version.
11
12	The game has been re-issued several times. An UpdatedRerelease for the Platform/PlayStationPortable, titled ''Star Ocean: Second Evolution'', was released in early 2009, upgraded with re-recorded voice acting, {{anime}} {{cutscene}}s and a new recruitable character. ''Second Evolution'' was ported to Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStation4, and Platform/PlaystationVita in 2015, but only in Japan. A full VideoGameRemake entitled ''Star Ocean: The Second Story R'' was then released on November 2, 2023 for the Platform/NintendoSwitch, Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/PlayStation5, and PC via Platform/{{Steam}}. As with ''[[VideoGame/StarOcean1 Star Ocean: First Departure R]]'', the game allows Japanese-language players to switch between the original [=PlayStation=] voice cast and the ''Second Evolution'' cast. (English-language players are stuck with ''Second Evolution'' cast; the [[{{Narm}} somewhat uneven]] [=PS1=] cast is nowhere to be found.)
13	----
14	!!This game provides examples of:
15	* 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 concludes a long [[ItsAllUpstairsFromHere climb up a tower]].
16	* AerithAndBob: Precis, Dias, Bowman... Celine and Ashton.
17	* AffablyEvil: Ruprecht/Zadkiel, Jibril/Raphael, and Camael/Nicolus take a minute to introduce themselves before they attack the party.
18	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Dias, to Claude. Of course, Claude being TheHero...
19	* AnachronicOrder: Second game in the series but the middle game in the series' internal chronology.
20	* AnEconomyIsYou: There are a wide variety of shops, including ones selling cooking ingredients, musical instruments, and crafting supplies, in addition to the more usual ones selling weapons and armor.
21	* AngerBornOfWorry: Happens halfway through the DiscOneFinalDungeon. Not that Claude was actually in any danger; he was just [[spoiler:returned to the Calnus. But, when he came back,]] Rena was certainly steamed...
22	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: ''Second Story R'' gives a lot of quality-of-life features.
23	** There is now a visible relationship meter, allowing players to plan their endings in advance. Items that affect said meter are also more descriptive, telling how much they add/subtract and to which character it will affect the change.
24	** Item Creation is now streamlined. The success rate and the different results are now indicated, the item creation animation can be skipped and the player can input how many materials they wish to use, up to 10 at a time.
25	** As with most modern [=RPGs=], dialog can be skipped or fast-forwarded.
26	** Fast travel is now available on visited towns and dungeons, especially on their sub-areas. Indicators are also visible whether it has an important event or Private Actions available, with an additional icon if it's a limited-time PA.
27	** And speaking of Private Actions, players can now initiate this on the fly inside the town. No more going out of town just to press a button!
28	** Certain items that require Claude/Rena to equip them to be used in the field (like Mud Boots, the two Pickpocket gloves, and Combo Link) don't need to be worn anymore.
29	** Pickpocketing is overhauled. Aside from not needing to wear the gloves, pressing the Steal action brings up a small list of pilferable items with matching success rate. The player is given 3 tries to steal per NPC, and this can be restored with a perfume item.
30	** Upon receiving Combo Link, all fighter characters are immediately allowed to use two additional special moves rather than requiring it to be worn as an accessory. In the original game, you are given two (one from Leon, another from Mayor Narl), but because the change renders a second Combo Link moot, Narl instead gives you a fixed Phase Gun.
31	** Skill Points are now awarded for battles, and not just leveling up or by learning new talents, making them infinite. A new currency called Battle Points are also awarded, which can be used to upgrade Arts and Combat Skills. This is a less tedious process than manually upgrading Arts in the original game, where you had to use them continuously to master them.
32	*** If acquiring them is still slow, completing Challenges rewards the party with a plethora of points. Note that characters not yet recruited will not receive the rewards retroactively.
33	** Item Creation (IC) and Combat skills now use their own resource to level up, BP and SP respectively, so there's no need to worry about which one of them to focus on. The IC Skills menu can also be toggled on whether to focus on leveling up skills individually or if the player wants to level up the IC itself, making it so that all the required skills are leveled up at the same time until the next skill level for the IC skill is reached.
34	** The Eternal Sphere (Aeterna in the remake) is easily lost for good in the original if you miss or sell the sword you receive as a tournament prize. The remake gives you another chance to get it in Fun City, but only once.
35	** When playing The Devil's Aria using the Music specialty, the player can now choose which level to play, so it is no longer necessary to hold back one character's music skill to use different levels in order to refight specific bosses from the Cave of Trials.
36	** When using the Familiar specialty, the player can choose which bird to call, again making it unnecessary to hold back one character's skill level to get a specific result.
37	** To prevent the player from making the final boss (near)-impossible to beat with the equipment they have available at that point of the game, the second PA with Philia that unlocks his limiter isn't available until EndgamePlus.
38	** A new Super Specialty skill called "Bodyguard" causes your three other members to rush ahead and run interference for your player character, blocking enemies from touching the PC and starting a battle. At higher levels, this will let your allies just straight-up ''kill'' the enemies without entering a battle, streamlining the process of exploration ''and'' grinding as you still get EXP, Fol and Items (though not [[TechPoints Skill Points or Battle Points]]) from enemies slain this way.
39	* ArbitraryGunPower: Precis's normal attacks use a mechanical hand that appears out of her backpack, but the damage is still based on her strength stat. Strangely, most of Opera's killer moves do the same, even though her weapons are all guns.
40	* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Four active, four [[LazyBackup on the sidelines]]. Twelve recruitable characters - with one more added in the ''Second Evolution'' version.
41	* AssistCharacter: The remake adds the ability to call in your inactive party members or assist-only characters to perform a pre-set attack or spell during battle and you can set up to 4 assists at the same time. The assists undergo a cooldown once used, but you can greatly reduce it by dealing damage to the enemy. The assist-only characters include the main characters from the previous SO games and with the newest update, [[spoiler:once you beat the game, the Ten Wise Men can also be used as assists after you beat their newly added raid enemy versions found on both Nede and Expel]].
42	* AwesomeButImpractical: Many of the higher-level Killer Moves have an overly long startup time, making them easily interrupted or dodged. Probably the worst is Chisato's Missile Strike move, which can take about 6 seconds from activation to damage. Six seconds in which everyone else is still acting, meaning her target is probably dead by the time it hits.
43	* BabiesEverAfter: Sort of; one of the endings Claude has with [[spoiler:Rena state that he's going to be a father in 6 months. Note that this portion of the ending is canon; in every game which takes place after this one chronologically, there's a member of the Kenny clan with Rena's blue hair.]]
44	* BalanceBuff:
45	** Spellcasting in general gets upgraded. They deal more damage, more hits, and don't interrupt the flow of the fight. Then there are spells that do pause the fight, but you can skip their animation.
46	** Ernest was once considered a trash character to use. His special moves in the remake got upgraded and his normal attacks now come out faster.
47	** Noel was sadly relegated as a MasterOfNone with his skillset. Not only did the spell upgrade allowed him to deal multiple hits with his spells, he gains a unique equipment that allows him to resurrect allies when he heals.
48	* BeautyIsBad:
49	** Gabriel/Indalecio and Lucifer/Cyril are the most beautiful of the Ten Wise Men. They are also the most evil/crazy.
50	** Zadkiel is alright too, but he just has stuff in his hair.
51	* BettingMiniGame: One can be found in Fun City.
52	* BigDamnHeroes: The very first battle of the game is this. Claude saving Rena from an attacking monster.
53	* BittersweetEnding:
54	** You saved [[spoiler:the entire universe from destruction, ''and'' brought Expel back from destruction]]. Congratulations! Unfortunately, [[spoiler: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 ''millions of innocent people are dead''. Additionally, it appears that the ''Calnus'' (including Claude's father) was not restored, though the game's director has said it's up to the player to decide if they came back or not.]]
55	*** Although in ''Second Story R'', [[spoiler:the credits show the ''Calnus'' and the Psynard flying atop of Expel]].
56	** Chisato and Noel's endings are, no matter what, sad. [[spoiler: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...]]
57	* BlindIdiotTranslation: ''The Second Story'' translates a monster supposed to be named "Scylla" as "Sukula."
58	* BootstrappedLeitmotif: The now company-wide theme "Incarnation of Devil" first played during the battle against Lucifer/Cyril, 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. And then Ethereal Queen yanked it from Gabriel Celeste and has since stuck to her.
59	* BoringButPractical:
60	** 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.
61	** The ''best'' way to defeat the later bosses? Stunlock them and spam these abilities until they die.
62	* BossAlteringConsequence: Participating in both of the Private Actions involving Philia will remove the limiter on the final boss, making him more difficult.
63	* {{Bowdlerized}}: The [=PlayStation=] version of the game came with a fair amount of censorship. All alcoholic beverages that could be brewed and consumed became tea drinks, and any scenes that (intentionally) invoked HoYay were clumsily altered. The remake keeps the former but seems to go out of its way to purposefully exaggerate it to FrothyMugsOfWater level by calling a pint of beer a "cola" despite the obvious color difference and still having plenty of obviously drunk [=NPCs=] inside bars which are still called that.
64	* BrainsVersusBrawn: Generally, the MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers are represented on which one utilizes physical skills more (Brawn) and which one can is more technologically OR magically attuned (Brains).
65	** Ashton is a physical-oriented Expellian (Brawn), while Opera is a technologically gifted Tetrageniot, as does Ernest (Brains).
66	** Precis is a technological genius despite being an Expellian (Brains), and while Bowman is a smart man on his own, he's not as advanced, technological science-wise, being able to hold his own with fist-fighting (Brawn).
67	** Dias is a MasterSwordsman (Brawn) while Leon is a BlackMage (Brains).
68	* BreakingTheFourthWall:
69	** After a private action wherein Rena wipes a computer hard drive, the game brings up a message directly to the player. (See DontTryThisAtHome)
70	** If you initiate the PA to recruit Welch with Claude, at first you are not given a chance to reject her and have to say no three times before she leaves. Claude even complains about it.
71	-->'''Claude:''' There's something odd about [[DialogueTree this menu]]... [[ButThouMust none of the choices let me say no!]] [[LampshadeHanging I've never been asked to make a decision that didn't have two real choices before...]]
72	* BreakoutCharacter: Rena. It might feel strange to call the female ''lead'' a breakout character, but in the wider franchise and for any crossover material outside the franchise, she is the ''undisputed'' most-loved character out of any of her franchise-mates. Any time the franchise has a crossover of some sort, she's there at the forefront and for things like games, is always a valuable gameplay addition and prize. And in ''Anamnesis'', she was the ''first'' person to get multiple seasonal variants, and in under a ''year''. All of this is simply fed by fan demand - whenever it happens, the Rena fans show up in a big way.
73	* BrutalBonusLevel: The Cave of Trials, a seriously challenging dungeon. As a matter of fact, it's just about the only way late game LevelGrinding isn't a complete pain.
74	* CallForward: Welch in ''Second Evolution''. Among other things, she introduces herself as [[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime "a creator", then mentions that she's from Elicoor II, and in one Private Action, she tells a fairy tale about two warring kingdoms (clearly Airyglyph and Aquaria, which are on Elicoor II).]]
75	* CallingYourAttacks: Subverted when Claude uses Helmetbreak in ''Second Evolution'': he just lets out a "Haaaaah!" {{kiai}} while using it. In the original version, he also shouts "Teeaaar into pieces!!" instead of "Ripper Burst." But basically every other attack in the whole game, in either cast recording, plays this straight.
76	* CannotSpitItOut: After arriving on Energy Nede, Claude can't bring himself to tell Rena and the rest that [[spoiler: Expel was destroyed]] (If they're in the party, Ernest,Opera and Welch will also show the same reluctance). [[spoiler: The Elders of Nede break the news for him and reveal, in the same sentence, that there's a way to bring it back.]]
77	* CantDropTheHero: Notably averted. You can go about 3/4 of the game without even using both Rena and/or Claude.
78	* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: If you pickpocket people while the party is assembled, (ie. you aren't in Private Action mode) your relationship values with everyone will decrease. In ''Second Evolution'', this happens even if you are in Private Action mode. Subverted in the remake, where the relationship value loss happens at random and one of the dishes you can make with Master Chef has the effect of preventing affinity loss for 2 pickpocketing attempts.
79	* CaptainErsatz: Hey, when did [[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Cless]] join Starfleet?
80	* ChallengeRun: There's an option to turn the final boss into a God-like being with insane amounts of HP and spells capable of killing your entire party in a single hit. The game also provides a dungeon specifically designed to help train your party to a high enough level so that this battle won't be completely impossible. But, even at level 255, the highest possible level one can achieve, this battle is ridiculously hard.
81	* CharacterLevel: Notable for the series in that the level cap is 255, instead of the usual 99.
82	* ChekhovsGun: Rena's pendant, mentioned early in the story, is [[spoiler:the key to bringing back Nede at the expense of Expel]].
83	* ChekhovsGunman: A subversion, actually. You actually can finish the game without ever knowing anything about Philia and Dr. Lantis, but the story gets richer if you pursue this subplot.
84	* 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 later 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.]]
85	* ColonyDrop: [[spoiler:The collision of Expel and Energy Nede.]]
86	* CombatMedic: Rena and Bowman both qualify for this to varying degrees. Bowman's a melee fighter with some healing skills, but Rena's a white mage [[BareFistedMonk who traded in her staff for a pair of duster knuckles.]] A highly effective strategy for early bosses is to trap them between her and Claude and administer a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, but she falls behind and sees better use as a {{white mag\|ic}}e once Ashton and other combat specialists become available.
87	* CookingDuel: InTheStyleOf ''Series/IronChef''.
88	* CoolSword: During the Armory Tournament, Dias remarks that Lacuer's weapons only ''look'' nice, but are actually of lower quality than before, and that the city is living on name alone nowadays.
89	* [[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. ''Anamnesis'' also utilizes the scenario where Ilia is Claude's mother. 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]]).
90	* DeadCharacterWalking: Easily doable, just use a Mandrake on each member of your active party, which kills anyone it's used on. The game also has another, far more annoying inversion of this: often later in the game when facing powerful enemies that can easily kill, paralyze or petrify you, you'll end up getting a Game Over right after you use a healing item or spell to cure one of said statuses due to the game not bothering to check if someone's currently in process of being cured from them before declaring the battle lost due to all 4 characters being considered dead at the same time for a brief period of time (ie. a mage casts a status recovery spell and gets killed while it's going off). This means you'll often end up with a freshly-healed character standing there while the battle fades out and you're forced to reload your save.
91	* DeathFromAbove: Several [=AoE=] spells work this way.
92	* DemonicPossession: While exploring the ruins of a Heraldic civilization, Ernest becomes possessed by a malevolent ghost. When Claude, Rena and Opera finally find him, he tries to take Opera hostage so that Leon will give the ghost the [[MacGuffin Energy Stone]]. Once the heroes destroy the ghost, Rena will heal Ernest and he can join the group.
93	* {{Deuteragonist}}: [[PlayingWithATrope An interesting twist]] here: depending on who you choose as your main protagonist (Claude or Rena), the other becomes the deuteragonist.
94	* DevelopersForesight: If you have recruited both [[spoiler: Chisato and Noel]], the ending scene of the PSP version will indeed have a voiced line saying that they [[spoiler: knew all along, kept it to themselves, and Nall will say the three of them, including Rena, are the last of their kind]].
95	* DiscOneFinalDungeon: Elluria's tower.
96	* DiscOneNuke:
97	** The [[InfinityPlusOneSword Eternal Sphere]] can be obtained soon after the InevitableTournament in ''The Second Story''.
98	** One can get the Marvel Sword with 1100 attack so early in the game that most weapons are in the 100-200 range.
99	** There's an item that can be stolen from a character in Mars early in the first disk that spawns three random items. These items can be anything from blueberries and herbs to weapons and armor from late in the second disk, and the contents of the box are selected at random when the box is ''used'', not when it's ''acquired''. A player who's patient enough to get the items necessary for pickpocketing at this point in the game and who's patient enough to reload their save game a lot can potentially get ''three'' {{Disc One Nuke}}s out of this one item.
100	*** This is only the tip of the iceberg for [[VideoGameStealing the pickpocketing skill]], it can "borrow" not only incredible weapons, but also up to three copies of the 3rd best armor, before the end of Disc 1.
101	* DontTryThisAtHome: In one Private Action, Rena accidentally wipes out a computer database in the library in Nede, after saying "Reformat hard drive", and is frustrated when she can't get anything else. The game says, "Gamers -do not try what Claude and Rena just did."
102	* DreamSequence: Both Rena and Claude get four sequences during the Nede power fields dungeons.
103	* EncounterRepellant / EncounterBait:
104	** The scouting ability can be used as either, depending on whether "look for enemies" or "run from enemies" is chosen.
105	** There are items which can fulfill either function.
106	* EscapePod: [[spoiler: Of the Time-Space Travel variety. Rena's mother put her on one and sends her to another planet 700 million years in the future.]]
107	* EveryoneCanSeeIt: About Claude and Rena. Take one event during the InevitableTournament as an example. Heck, even ''Dias'' can see it.
108	* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Phynal/Fienal and Elluria.
109	* EvolvingAttack: The killer moves: in the original version, they become stronger with enough uses, while in the remake, you can use BP to do so instead.
110	* {{Filler}}: For the most part, ''Star Ocean EX'' used plot points or private actions from the original game with [[AdaptationDistillation some distillation]], except one episode which used a storyline which is never used in any form of private actions or subquest within the game. [[labelnote:If you are curious what kind of event is this]]When the party attempts to get to Hilton via ship, they had to use a boat due to ships not sailing out of a ghost island/ship rumor. A kraken-like creature wrecked the boat, Claude and Rena got stranded to an island, [[MsFanservice Celine]] [[DistressBall got kidnapped]] by mind-controlled pirates and spent a majority of the episode BoundAndGagged and later put on UnwillingSuspension and used as a hostage. Claude only got out of this situation because [[BigDamnHeroes Dias just happened to be around]] to turn the tables and reveal the mastermind of who's mind-controlling the pirate, a gigantic zombie kraken monster, once that was disposed of, they could resume the trek to Hilton after they find [[TheChewToy Ashton who's still stranded in the middle of the sea.]] Pretty much a {{Fanservice}} type of {{Filler}}, in the game, the journey to Hilton ''always'' go smoothly without any events whatsoever.[[/labelnote]]
111	* FinalBossPreview: The DiscOneFinalBoss is a HoldTheLine boss battle against Berle/Metatron and serves to introduce the true {{big bad}}s of the game, as well as present them as a very potent threat.
112	* FishOutOfWater: Claude specifically in the Expel portion of the game.
113	%%* FlavorText
114	* FreakyFridayFlip: A PA involves Leon making Ashton a guinea pig in an experiment. The result? Ashton is sound asleep, but his body is being controlled by his dragons Creepy and Weepy.
115	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When the party is preparing to board the ship to El, [[GadgeteerGenius Precis]] can be seen bouncing up and down while looking at the dock equipment.
116	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
117	** That whole business with the Sword of Light gets dropped after the first two towns or so, but Claude ''might'' wind up saving Expel with a more literal [[LaserBlade Sword of Light]] if you get your hands on [[InfinityPlusOneSword the Eternal Sphere]].
118	** Precis and her father reverse-engineered a piece of alien technology (implied to be [[spoiler:Nedian that arrived with the Sorcery Globe]]) and figured out how to reproduce electricity, robots, and all kinds of other things. As a result, Precis starts with the skills necessary for the [[ItemCrafting Machinist specialty]] before the game lets anyone else learn them.
119	** Ashton describes himself as unlucky, and in fact he has pretty terrible luck throughout the game...''literally'', his luck stat is abysmal and doesn't get better. This also applies to his hobby of collecting good luck charms-his best weapons, as well as certain other equipment, give him huge bonuses to his Luck, so that it can potentially be ''highest'' in the game.
120	** Ernest's status as a ChickMagnet is alluded to by the other party members' starting relationship values with him. Opera and Celine both begin with high Romance ratings for him.
121	** Dias's starting relationship values reflect his cold, antisocial personality. His starting values are low for everyone except Rena, who he grew up with, and Claude, who's earned his respect by the time he joins the party.
122	** Chisato always starts with the Writing talent, which reflects her skills as a journalist.
123	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Fighting Dias in the tournament of arms as Claude, he is completely invulnerable and wipes the floor with your character no matter what, but the characters all comment on what a close match it was.
124	* GenericCuteness: The PSP version dispensed with the more detailed anime art style, giving everyone generic cuteness instead. A particular offender was Rena, who went from [[http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.com/behindthevoiceactors/_img/chars/rena-lanford-star-ocean-the-second-story-8.65.jpg this]] to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160730212201/http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starocean/images/3/32/SE_Rena_Lanford_Screenshot.png/revision/latest?cb=20090831124229 this]].
125	* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Claude does this to Leon, but it's slightly subverted in that Leon doesn't snap out of it right away.
126	* GlobalAirship: [[spoiler: Subverted. The OpeningTheSandbox moment happens when you get the Psynard, who isn't a ship, but a living giant bird. The last adult wild one of its species, no less.]]
127	* GoodLuckCharm: [[BornUnlucky Ashton]] likes to collect lucky charms, especially after having been possessed by the two dragons on his back.
128	* GuideDangIt:
129	** 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.
130	** 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). Complicating matters is that the Ashton vs. Opera case has farther-reaching examples than initially appears: if you recruit Ashton, then it's impossible to also recruit Opera's beloved Ernest, and if you recruit Opera, then it's impossible for Precis to learn all of her combat skills due to Ashton needing to teach her one in a PA.
131	** Did you forget to pick up that one sword after the InevitableTournament? Or did it suck so much compared with what you have that you sold it? Oh well, I guess you don't get the DiscOneNuke listed above.
132	** Good luck in figuring out how the RelationshipValues actually work in-game, and by extension, how to get certain endings. This is especially bad for characters that have painfully few Private Actions and Dias in particular who has ''none''.
133	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Nall, the mayor of Nede's Centropolis, planned for the Symbol of Divinity/Crest of Enhancement to direct the power of the Symbol/Crest of Annihilation onto Energy Nede, knowing fully well that the planet's Energy Field is the only force strong enough to stop the Symbol/Crest of Annihilation, although at the cost of Energy Nede itself being destroyed in the process. He believes that it's a way for the Nedians to atone for the sins that they have committed so long ago. Nall even made sure that Claude and co. would never find out until the last moment, and made Noel and/or Chisato (if they are in the party) swear that they keep their mouths shut about the whole plan.]]
134	* HopelessBossFight: The game has a fair amount of battles where you have to either lose or last a certain time. A notable example is the DuelBoss between Claude and Dias in the Tournament of Arms, where Claude has to lose.
135	* HopeSpot: Somewhat literally, with the introduction of the [[WaveMotionGun Lacuer Hope]].
136	* HumanShield: [[spoiler: In the Field of Love, one of the Ten Wise Men henchmen uses one of your characters as a hostage to get your Rune Codes]]
137	* IdenticalStranger: Claude and Chris, [[spoiler:the prince of Krosse.]] Lampshaded by Ashton if he's in the party during a certain event.
138	* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Earth, Galaxy, and Universe.
139	* InexplicableTreasureChests: All the time. You can even pickpocket one from a old man or make them using ItemCrafting, though in the ''Second Evolution'', the ones kept in your inventory are called Goodie Boxes instead of Treasure Chests.
140	* InfinityPlusOneSword: There's multiple varieties of ultimate weapons of varying effectiveness depending on the version:
141	** The original, Eternal Sphere/Aeterna, can be gotten much earlier than other ultimate weapons, but it's also easily missable and for it to properly qualify as a DiskOneNuke in the original version, you need to know how to make full use of the Item Creation system to upgrade an unremarkable weapon twice with low success rate and materials you wouldn't normally gain access to until later. The remake both makes getting the materials easier and lets you have another chance to pick up the base weapon in the Fun City.
142	** Holy Sword Farwell and Demon Blade Levantine are both found deep into the Cave of Trials, both of them being able to outdamage Eternal Sphere and they're useable by any swordman, but you naturally need to be strong enough to get that far in the BonusDungeon.
143	** The remake adds an ultimate weapon for every character with unique effects not found on any other equipment which either function as sidegrades for the Levantine for characters that can use it or are their actual ultimate weapons due to not getting one with compareable power in the previous versions: these are found from specific chests on the world map or new chests in [=CoT=], getting enough points in total in the CookingDuel minigame, from a raid enemy or from completing the FishingMinigame. The latest update adds the ability to upgrade them into an even more powerful form with the materials gained from beating the new raid battles, at which point none of the other weapons can match them in power.
144	* InfoDump: Mayor Narl is quite fond of these.
145	* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: In Fun City, there's a little fence circling the Gift Shop, that you can't get past it. Lacuer Castle City and Krosse Castle City also have a little circular fence on the entrance that you can't jump it.
146	* InterfaceSpoiler: During the mission wherein Ashton wants to get rid of the dragons on his back, certain fights can have him talk affectionately to both of them, which all but spoil the fact that he's not going to get rid of them any time soon.
147	* KarlMarxHatesYourGuts:
148	** Generally played straight. You sell items for a quarter of their retail price, but a certain skill can increase this by 30%.
149	** A noteworthy ''inversion'' occurs in the BonusDungeon via the infamous "Ripping Off Santa" trick. You can buy Sage's Stones from Santa for 50,000 FOL, then immediately sell them back to him for the same price, and if you have the above skill, you can sell them back for up to 65,000 FOL each.[[note]]There is no limit on how often you can do this, either.[[/note]]
150	* {{Kiai}}: See the subversion to CallingYourAttacks above.
151	* KillerBunny: One random encounter you can find is a Teddy Bear. A ridiculously fast Teddy Bear.
152	* KleptomaniacHero: One of the only games that actually punishes you for stealing, in the form of relantionship decreases with everyone in the group.
153	* LastChanceHitPoint: Party members can survive otherwise lethal attacks with one HP remaining. This chance is proportional to the character's Guts stat, and there's no limit to the number of times a character can survive this way, willing their way out of a barrage of otherwise lethal attacks.
154	* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler: Rena, Noel, and Chisato are the last Nedians alive. Made even worse if you don't recruit Noel so their race ''will'' go extinct. The third game's dictionary reveals that Noel and Chisato's descendants at least were absorbed by the Expellians.]]
155	* LawOfCartographicalElegance: Played straight and subverted. When you get to [[spoiler:Virtual Expel]] on Disc 2, it is played straight. Energy Nede on the other hand is subverted because the ''world'' is actually [[spoiler: just an asteroid amidst an energy mass floating in a corner of the universe.]]
156	* 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]].
157	* LoveDodecahedron: The first puzzle in the [[BonusDungeon Cave of Trials]] revolves around the story of one.
158	* LovePotion: One of Celine's Private Actions involves her accidentally brewing one up in Fun City. It causes ''everyone'' to become instantly attracted to her, male and female.
159	* LuckStat: Note that Ashton's is extraordinarily low and stuck that way; [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it's because he's canonically incredibly unlucky.]] His InfinityPlusOneSword [[ThrowTheDogABone gives a massive boost to his Luck Stat for some reason...]]
160	* MeaningfulName: Nede backwards is Eden [[spoiler:which is totally appropriate considering how backwards Energy Nede is anyway.]] Then there's the ocean base L'Aqua, the [[spoiler:place where you fight the final boss, Fienal/Phynal]], the [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer theme park-esque]] Fun City, the university city Linga, the armed-to-the-teeth weapon-factory city of Armlock, the +-shaped Krosse Continent, second university town Princebridge (Princeton meets Cambridge).
161	* MergingTheBranches:
162	** The game only allows the player to recruit six optional characters, but ''Blue Sphere'' and the manual of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' explicitly state that all ten optional party members, sans Welch, were canonically recruited.
163	** Two of Claude and Rena's three endings are subject to this, with the third falling to CuttingOffTheBranches. ''Blue Sphere'' works off the Equal Affection ending, where Claude and Rena explore space together on behalf of the Federation. ''VideoGame/StarOceanIntegrityAndFaithlessness'' includes a character that is heavily implied to be descended from both Claude and Rena; this implies that the Rena's Affection Greater ending, where Rena tells Claude that [[BabiesEverAfter she is pregnant]] occurred some time after ''Blue Sphere''.
164	* 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 considered this too when they decided to do their HeroicSacrifice.]]
165	* MinigameZone: Fun City in Disc 2.
166	* 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.]]
167	%%* MoneySpider: All over the place.
168	* MultipleEndings: 87 possible endings, depending on characters' relationship values with each other, with the UpdatedRerelease and the remake bumping the number 99 due to inclusion of Welch. See WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue.
169	* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: A prominent part of the game.
170	** Ashton and Opera can't be recruited into the same party, which also means Ernst can't be in a party with Ashton by proxy as he's tied to Opera.
171	** Precis and Bowman cannot be in the party together.
172	** Leon can't permanently join a party led by Rena (he's just a GuestStarPartyMember for her), and Dias can't be in a party led by Claude at all.
173	* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Dias blames himself for not being strong enough to save his parents and sister from being murdered by bandits]].
174	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
175	** You know [[ChekhovsGun Rena's pendant]]? [[spoiler: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.]]
176	** [[spoiler:Limitless Gabriel]] is actually a subversion. [[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.
177	** On a more hilarious note, this is why Ashton got the two dragons grafted on his back in the first place.
178	* NoFairCheating: The raid version of [[spoiler:Gabriel]] has a leader effect that specifically nullifies the effect of Bloody equipment to force you to fight him without an easily accessed version of invincibility. It's ultimately subverted since there are several other ways to grant characters invincibility to damage and use those instead, although they generally can't be applied to the entire party.
179	* NoHeroDiscount: Unless you use an ability or item specifically for this.
180	* NominalImportance: Only plot relevant characters have names.
181	* 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.
182	* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: A random party member tells you where you are supposed to be headed whenever you leave a town after a Private Action.
183	* OfficialCouple: Star Ocean is well known to be one of the early RPG's in the genre to offer multiple endings for their characters, including romantic ones. However, it's been confirmed that Claude and Rena are the official canon pairing for the game. The mainstream story also ships them heavily, regardless of any private actions the player takes to alter the ending romantic outcomes.
184	* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:Gabriel/Dr. Lantis]].
185	* OneWingedAngel: Alen, the first boss fight in the game and the Symbologist from the Marz village rescue mission. Both transform into monsters during the battle, though Alen got better after the battle.
186	* OrwellianRetcon: An [[InUniverse in-universe]] example. When the party first arrives on Energy Nede, Mayor Narl of Central City explains who the Ten Wise Men are, how they came to be, and what their objective is. He also mentions that the Nede of 3.7 billion years ago was a "nearly ideal form of government" in symbiotic harmony with other planets, and that Nede was sealed off to allow other planets a chance to grow and develop. This is all a lie fabricated by the Nedian Government of that time period, and a certain sidequest can be undertaken to expose what really happened.[[labelnote:The truth]]3.7 billion years ago, many planets launched rebellions against Nede to wrestle control from them; to put down the rebellions, the Ten Wise Men were created. Due to the deception by the Nedian Government regarding the death of his daughter, the principal scientist of the project, Dr. Lantis, changed their objective from "subjugation of the outer territories" to "domination of the universe" and superimposed his consciousness onto the final Wise Man, Gabriel / Indalecio. The Nedian Defense Force defeated the Ten Wise Men, but lost much of their strength in doing so; what was left was not enough to combat the rebellions, and the rebelling planets took advantage of this. As a last ditch effort to save themselves, the Nedians sealed themselves off behind a Class 9 Energy Shield, forever shutting themselves off from the outside world. On top of all of this, [[VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope the fourth game]] heavily implies that the Nedians had to deal with an internal schism on top of everything else, leading to creation of a splinter group that refused to seal themselves with the rest of their people and instead created their own artificial planetoid and set themselves up as galactic guardians.[[/labelnote]]
187	* OurElvesAreDifferent: The Nedians, who possess long pointy ears and have technological prowess far beyond any other race in the universe.
188	* PamphletShelf: Being an RPG, is par for the course.
189	* ParrotExposition: Claude does this pretty often, sometimes to the point of just repeating a part of the previous sentence.
190	%%* PartyInMyPocket
191	* PercussivePickpocket: In Kurik, a bored Ketil rams into Rena and steals her wallet. It's a ploy for attention since no one will play with him.
192	* PersonOfMassDestruction: The Ten Wise Men who also border on {{physical god}}s since it requires the special material to damage them.
193	* PoorCommunicationKills: There were moments when Claude and Rena argued with each other. Claude jumped into the wrong conclusion that Dias is Rena's boyfriend and is jealous of him which he did not confess of him feeling irritated until later whereas Rena did not bother to or did not know how to explain to Claude that she merely sees Dias as an older adoptive brother as well as explaining his backstory and also explaining the meaning behind Rena helping Dias in locating his sword for the tournament.
194	* PortTown:
195	** Harley and Hilton. And Kurik, though it's usually forgotten [[spoiler:because it gets destroyed before you can use it to go anywhere]].
196	** In Nede, there's L'Aqua, though it's more a military base.
197	* PowerCopying: In ''Star Ocean EX'', Claude doesn't so much learn techniques as rip off all of Dias' moves.
198	* TheProtagonist: The Player can choose either Claude or Rena as their protagonist. The story then shifts for the other to become the Deuteragonist of the story, each with unique scenes. However, one could argue that Claude is the defacto canon Protagonist given his [[LeadYouCanRelateTo relatable]] FishOutOfWater perspective provides a good AudienceSurrogate, a common feature for Protagonists.
199	* PurposefullyOverpowered: The newly added [[spoiler:Wiseman assists, specifically the last 4 you fight]] in the remake are far stronger than any assist actions your party members or the cameo assists from other SO games can provide, which is to be expected since to get them, you need to fight superpowered versions of them that are by far the hardest enemies out of anything in the game and include unique leader effects that greatly handicap your party.
200	* RagnarokProofing: 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.
201	* RecurringBoss:
202	** You will fight Shin three times. The first battle is a HoldTheLine fight where you must survive one minute in-battle. The second is a HopelessBossFight where one must lose to advance the plot; in both of these fights, Shin has infinite defense and his attack power is greatly increased. In the third fight, he can be damaged, and his strength is reduced to manageable levels, allowing the party to finally defeat him.
203	** The DiscOneFinalBoss is a (not-quite) FinalBossPreview with Berle[=/=]Metatron of the Ten Wise Men. Like the first Shin fight, the objective is to survive for one minute.
204	* ReimaginingTheArtifact:
205	** The guilds in the original game became irrelevant early on, as you could buy every possible IC and combat skill little more than a third of the way through. In the remake all IC skills are unlocked from the start, while additional combat skills are unlocked elsewhere. To compensate, guilds now offer missions that encourage experimenting with Item Creation, learning new specialties, or trying out the fishing minigame.
206	** The Orchestra Super Speciality, which was essential for increasing IC success rate in the original version, wouldn't really serve much of a purpose in the remake, as all IC success rates have been vastly increased, often granting you a base 100% success rate if you have the respective support item(s) and high enough skill level and the necessary character traits for it. Instead, it greatly increases the trigger chance for the support items' ability to not consume the material items, letting you use the same stack of 20 items for up to 5-8 times, as opposed to 3-4 normally.
207	* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Most of The Ten Wise Men are named after apostles or angels. Examples include Gabriel, Lucifer, and Metatron. {{Bowdlerise}}d in the North American [=PS1=] version.[[note]]Their names are Indalecio, Cyril, and Berle, respectively.[[/note]]
208	* TheRival: Dias to Claude. Claude is immediately a little jealous of how close Dias is to Rena, and they come to blows in the Lecour Tournament, in which Dias promptly wipes the floor with him.
209	* SchizoTech:
210	** 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.
211	** Linga as a whole seems to be centuries ahead of other towns in terms of medical and technological advancement. It has a relatively modern pharmacy (run by Bowman and his wife) and a supply store that sells things like materials for making high-grade explosives or cameras capable of copying three-dimensional objects.
212	* SchrodingersPlayerCharacter: Averted. Whichever character you don't pick in the beginning winds up in your party, is still a main character, and is an available love interest.
213	* SharedFamilyQuirks: A few of Claude's specials (such as Meteor Palm) were used by Illia back in the first game, and he also shares her habit of rating the party's performance on a scale of one to ten after a battle. Both traits further support the theory that she is his mother.
214	* ShowSomeLeg: Pick Opera in the Fun City Arena for Bullying Battle, and she'd try to show her legs to prove she's a woman, when the announcer says "Battle between men and men".
215	-->'''Opera''': ''"Can't you see these shapely legs!? I'm a woman!"''
216	* SpamAttack:
217	** Claude's "Shooting Stars" special.
218	** Dias' "Air Slash." Just spam this move at the start of almost any regular battle and it'll be over within [[{{CatchPhrase}} 10 seconds]].
219	* SpritePolygonMix: In the original [=PlayStation=] and [=PlayStation=] Portable releases, the battle backgrounds are rendered in 3D with all combatants being sprites. The trailer for the 2023 remake reveals that the [[PreRenderedGraphics pre-rendered location backgrounds]] have been replaced with fully 3D worlds, while still retaining sprites for the characters, similar to Square Enix's HD-2D titles.
220	* StarPower: Among its overload of elements, there's "Star" as distinct from both "Light" and "Vacuum" (which itself is distinct from "Void"). Most of the Star-elemental spells get cast by Celine. In ''Second Evolution'', Star elemental spells were lumped in with the Light element.
221	* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler:As shown in one flashback, Claude was this in his Academy days.]]
222	* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: While the Ten Wise Men from seek to [[TakeOverTheWorld rule the Universe]] as their primary goal, [[spoiler:Gabriel[=/=]Indalecio figures that if he cannot rule, he will destroy everything. The Crest[=/=]Symbol of Annihilation is set to activate with the expiration of his life force, which is designed to bring about the end of everything by generating sufficient mass-energy to collapse the universe into a Big Crunch.[[note]]Thankfully diverted by countermeasures devised by the Nede Defense Force[[/note]]]]
223	* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The Godslayer and the Knuckles of Hope, [[spoiler:weapons designed to defeat the Ten Wise Men.]] The Knuckles of Hope are also Rena's InfinityMinusOneSword, due to being tied for her highest magic power and halving the cost of her spells.
224	* ATasteOfPower: You start the game with a powerful laser cannon... with a single battery left. It's enough to let you take down a KillerGorilla enemy, your first battle, but then it runs out of juice and you continue with a dinky little sword as your StarterEquipment. Luckily you'll be fighting human bandits early on before moving to stronger enemies.
225	*** Not so in the anime where Leon is inexplicably able to repair it. Claude only fires it one time after that, but one has to wonder how Leon figured out technology centuries beyond his own and how such a huge laser could only do [[GameplayAndStorySegregation about 700 damage]] in the game.
226	*** In ''Second Story R'', Narl now gives you a fixed Phase Gun which can be upgraded to deal more hits.
227	* TemptingFate:
228	** 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.
229	** 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 two mandatory boss fights are against Cynne/Shin in 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.
230	* TitleDrop: Three times in ''Second Evolution''. Two from Item Creation book titles and one BilingualBonus in the AttractMode ThemeTune - "hoshi no umi" = "ocean of stars" = VideoGame/StarOcean.
231	* TimeLimitBoss: Some [[HopelessBossFight Hopeless Boss Fights]] are like this. In a subversion, you don't have to kill it in the time limit, you have to survive long enough.
232	* TrappedInAnotherWorld:
233	** 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.
234	*** The whole "Claude is the Hero of Light" thing is pretty much dropped within two hours of the game. Literally two towns make a big deal about it, and its only ever brought up again as a rather rare post battle taunt. And after the phaser burns out, you never hear about that again, either.
235	** Cue [[spoiler:not only Claude but all of party members, save for Noel and Chisato, falling into the overdeveloped world of Energy Nede]]. While a number of party members such as [[spoiler:Claude, Opera, Ernest, and even Rena (for other reasons)]] are used to the sudden advanced state, it is surprising that culture shock among the other cast members [[spoiler:(namely the Expellians)]] is minimal.
236	* TraumaInn: Resting fully recovers the party.
237	* {{Tsundere}}: Rena's a Type B. Just see Welch's introduction in ''Second Evolution'', and AngerBornOfWorry mentioned above.
238	* UpdatedRerelease: ''Second Evolution'', for the PSP, features general gameplay improvements over the original [=PS1=] version, introduced a new playable character, new anime cutscenes and added [[CharacterPortrait Character Portraits]]. This version also received a HD remaster for [=PS3=], [=PS4=] and [=PSVita=].
239	* VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Phynal/Fienal.
240	* VideoGameCaringPotential: Choosing to recruit Chisato and Noel, as they are the only party members stay dead in the ending if not recruited.
241	* VideoGameRemake: ''Second Story R'' is a full blown remake, with HD-2D graphics, improved arts and music, and a rehauled battle system to keep up with the more modern ''Star Ocean'' games, which includes spells no longer freezing time and allows for hitting multiple times (which fixes the problem with offensive spellcasters before) and being able to call for help from your reserve party members (akin to modern ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' entries).
242	* VillainExitStageLeft: The Ten Wise Men at the end of the first disc.
243	* VisibleSilence: With Emoticon to boot.
244	* WelcomeToCorneria: Hard to take seriously when you go back to the first town and everyone is still saying the same things.
245	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
246	** Player characters that you encounter in the game just disappear if you did not recruit them.
247	** 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]].
248	* WhatTheHellHero: A silent example happens in the gameplay mechanics. Any character who makes use of the Pickpocketing ability with the party assembled will have their RelationshipValues trashed. In the UpdatedRerelease, this happens even in private actions.
249	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Depending on how your characters' relationship values align with each other, any of up to 87 possible endings will play, showing little snippets of their lives after the game has concluded. There are solo endings for each character, between one and three endings for each pair of characters, and a secret ending where the whole party gets back together if all the characters each like each other enough.
250	* WorldOfActionGirls: All of the female cast.
251	* YouAllLookFamiliar: Even some plot relevant characters have the same sprite as common folks, like Marianna.
252	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Gabriel says this almost verbatim relating to Expel.]]

Context VideoGame / StarOceanTheSecondStory