Star Ocean Second Evolution
Story 6/10
Soundtrack 6/10
Graphics 9/10
Gameplay 8/10
Controls 9/10
Overall 7.5/10
Star Ocean: Second Evolution is the second installment to the Star Ocean series and it follows two characters, Rena and Claude. In this version of the game you can choose between the two. For my play through, I chose Claude as my main character. If you are looking to play the Star Ocean series in the proper order I recommend you check out the other SO game for the PSP, Star Ocean First Departure.
The game opens up with one of the main characters of the previous game, Ronyx J. Kenny who is the captain of a star ship, the Calnus and also the father of Claude who is aforementioned one of two of the protagonists of this game. They start off exploring a planet when Claude is pulled away from his family and friends and placed on another planet. This is where he meets Rena and the story begins.
Story 6/10
Much like the previous Star Ocean, this one is extremely story driven. I'd say even moreso than the previous one. I felt like I spent more time hitting X through dialogue in this game than I did fighting. Unlike the first Star Ocean though i didn't feel like the story was rushed in this one nor did it slack off in certain places. That said though, I didn't fully like the overall story of the game, towards the end I had to actually force myself to beat the game. I don't know if the story was just uninteresting or I felt it was too much shoved down my throat all back to back.
I hardly felt like I got to play the game a lot of the time with all the dialogue and some of the side characters and their stories weren't even all that interesting. Another thing, which is my largest gripe with Star Ocean games is so many of the characters are optional. Almost every single one is actually and that really takes away from the story of the game. The developers spent months making those characters and over half of us who play the game won't even have the chance to see them.
Soundtrack 6/10
The Soundtrack to this game has its moments, some songs are extremely catchy and memorable while others perfectly fit the mood for the location you're in. This game has a really awesome "about to fight a boss" song with a really catchy bass line that stuck with me even after beating the game. Most of the songs though do just enough to set the mood but don't really stick with you.
Graphics 9/10
This game is definitely beautiful. Graphically I am honestly pretty easy to please so there isn't much I can say about it. They hired voice actors for this remake and spiced things up quite a bit. The voice actors do a pretty good job, some of them are iffy but none of them are so bad that it totally ruins the experience. There are also a few full blown cutscenes in the game (fully animated and everything) which are really pretty for a handheld. Unlike a lot of the games out there with good graphics too you don't encounter any lag or hanging in Star Ocean from graphics rendering slowly. I honestly can't see anyone having any complaints about the graphics in this game.
Gameplay 8/10
Despite my underwhelming impression of the story, the gameplay of this game is really what kept me interested the entire time. I really enjoy the combat system of Star Ocean and the way they have setup how to make your characters better/the ingame tradeskills. In Star Ocean you can make your characters way better faster if you use their ingame tradeskill system and a little bit of thinking. In Star Ocean there is a tradeskill that lets you make books which will give you skill ups without having to spend skill points.
This and their skill point system in general are two things I really enjoy about Star Ocean. The people who made it must really like it too because they haven't changed it all these years! Even if you're like me and you find out you don't give a hoot about the story half way through, I think the gameplay is good enough to keep you interested until the very end!
Controls 9/10
The controls in this game are fairly straight forward and are good enough that you don't get frustrated while playing. The active battles may take some getting used to for those turn based RPG fans out there but that isn't the controls fault! Over all, I can't think of any way to improve the controls for this game, they did a solid job porting it from PS1 to PSP!
Overall 7.5/10
While Star Ocean: Second Evolution isn't the best game I have ever played it definitely isn't the worst one either. It was a good RPG that definitely captures your interest early on and remains intriguing throughout. The gameplay is awesome, definitely fun enough to bring you back again and again until you've beaten it. If you are a fan of the series or just looking to pick up and play a good RPG for the PSP I do recommend this game, who knows, it may resonate with you better than me!