Old-School Evolved
Star Ocean: Second Evolution revisits the 32-bit classic with a new translation and voice work, but is it still worth experiencing?
Published: March 5, 2009
Square Enix has become the master of taking their back catalogue and re-packaging it a few years later for different platforms. It seems like they've reached back into the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest archives dozens of times by now to pump out slightly-upgraded takes on their 8- and 16-bit bread and butter. Every once in a while, we'll get an actual prequel (remember that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII game? Yeah, it's still one of the best on the PSP), but more often it's stuff like Star Ocean: Second Evolution that's made its way to handhelds this generation.
Not that I'm complaining, of course. Second Evolution, as the name change from the original PS one release, Star Ocean: Second Story, would imply, is not quite the same game as was released almost a decade ago. The then-hilariously-bad voice work and par-for-the-day (read: painful) translation have been completely redone, making for a game that's far more palatable in today's more exacting localization climate. That's a good thing, as it allows the game's original story to essentially stand on its own as it should have originally.
Here's the thing, though: for me, at least, the story never bit. I never really got involved with any of the characters, and while the storyline eventually starts gaining a head of steam, it was seriously about 15 hours into the game before I overcame the urge to just keep putting the damn thing down as I bounced back and forth using the wholly uninformative in-game map. This is an older game, and like older RPGs, it's rather straightforward in how it handles things. You're told where to go, not shown, and if you don't remember where you're headed, there can be some running in circles -- especially since side quests are sometimes mixed right into things without an obvious break between the major story-driven stuff and the optional bits.
Ah, but here's where I mention that I never played The Second Story when it was first released (I know, I know, sacrilege), but that also means I'm not hampered by nostalgia and a bunch of "ohhhh yeahhhhh" moments in the game. It's not that I don't dig old-school (and I can't believe I'm using that term for a PS one game, but it is a decade old), but this one in particular just feels... boring. It's not for a lack of effort in updating things either; Squenix culled the considerable talents of Production I.G (of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor fame) to create a new intro and a handful of hand-animated cinematics that look gorgeous on the PSP's screen. The character designs were also updated just a bit, and even the 2D sprites in the otherwise polygonal battles were given a touch-up.
Nor is it because of the gameplay, which blends 2D, pre-rendered backgrounds while in towns with a full 3D overworld (think Final Fantasy VII's world map). The fights are quick and are really quite customizable, allowing you to flick off what spells or what kind of behaviors your other AI-driven comrades will use or make (or you can directly command them if that's your bag, but the quick pace and almost Action RPG-like flow of things isn't really conducive to juggling a handful of characters and targets at once).
As characters level up, they're awarded skill points which can then be poured into special skills for everything from combat to crafting to cooking. In fact, new skills can be purchased and leveled up, leading to a serious amount of depth to how the characters progress. My problem was just that their personalities themselves were so flat and lifeless, delivered with hitching, long pauses between voice clips (though character portraits have been added too) that it all just felt old rather than old-school. There's nothing wrong with classic gameplay, but when it puts along at the rate this one takes, it can seem downright tedious. It's a shame, too, because there are parts of Second Evolution that rock, but they're mired in so much slo-mo tedium that unless you have already played through the original and know when things pick up, it's tough to recommend.
Shrinking everything down to a lower-res (but 16:9) screen has done plenty to help the game look nice; the pre-rendered backgrounds were already teeming with details, but they look even better here. The sprites, too, look better (if still rather simple), so the overall feel of the game is tighter, even if it's not going to wow anyone most of the time. The same goes for the soundtrack; Motoi Sakuraba's work, while not quite as universally amazing as, say, Yasunori Mitsuda's, is solid enough, and reproduced here faithfully. The new voice work and classic effects both hold up nicely as well, but like the visuals, they aren't going to floor anyone.
I wish I could recommend Star Ocean: Second Evolution to everyone, but the truth is that it just doesn't hold up all that well, and if you didn't experience the original and can't temper some of the game's languid, glacial pacing and trite, overly-polite dialogue (to say nothing of the wafer-thin plot for the bulk of the game's set-up), there's little reason beyond the battle system to actually check this out. Fights are well and good, but they won't offset the snore-inducing spats of talking, which are ample.
Not that I'm complaining, of course. Second Evolution, as the name change from the original PS one release, Star Ocean: Second Story, would imply, is not quite the same game as was released almost a decade ago. The then-hilariously-bad voice work and par-for-the-day (read: painful) translation have been completely redone, making for a game that's far more palatable in today's more exacting localization climate. That's a good thing, as it allows the game's original story to essentially stand on its own as it should have originally.
Here's the thing, though: for me, at least, the story never bit. I never really got involved with any of the characters, and while the storyline eventually starts gaining a head of steam, it was seriously about 15 hours into the game before I overcame the urge to just keep putting the damn thing down as I bounced back and forth using the wholly uninformative in-game map. This is an older game, and like older RPGs, it's rather straightforward in how it handles things. You're told where to go, not shown, and if you don't remember where you're headed, there can be some running in circles -- especially since side quests are sometimes mixed right into things without an obvious break between the major story-driven stuff and the optional bits.
Ah, but here's where I mention that I never played The Second Story when it was first released (I know, I know, sacrilege), but that also means I'm not hampered by nostalgia and a bunch of "ohhhh yeahhhhh" moments in the game. It's not that I don't dig old-school (and I can't believe I'm using that term for a PS one game, but it is a decade old), but this one in particular just feels... boring. It's not for a lack of effort in updating things either; Squenix culled the considerable talents of Production I.G (of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor fame) to create a new intro and a handful of hand-animated cinematics that look gorgeous on the PSP's screen. The character designs were also updated just a bit, and even the 2D sprites in the otherwise polygonal battles were given a touch-up.
Nor is it because of the gameplay, which blends 2D, pre-rendered backgrounds while in towns with a full 3D overworld (think Final Fantasy VII's world map). The fights are quick and are really quite customizable, allowing you to flick off what spells or what kind of behaviors your other AI-driven comrades will use or make (or you can directly command them if that's your bag, but the quick pace and almost Action RPG-like flow of things isn't really conducive to juggling a handful of characters and targets at once).
As characters level up, they're awarded skill points which can then be poured into special skills for everything from combat to crafting to cooking. In fact, new skills can be purchased and leveled up, leading to a serious amount of depth to how the characters progress. My problem was just that their personalities themselves were so flat and lifeless, delivered with hitching, long pauses between voice clips (though character portraits have been added too) that it all just felt old rather than old-school. There's nothing wrong with classic gameplay, but when it puts along at the rate this one takes, it can seem downright tedious. It's a shame, too, because there are parts of Second Evolution that rock, but they're mired in so much slo-mo tedium that unless you have already played through the original and know when things pick up, it's tough to recommend.
Shrinking everything down to a lower-res (but 16:9) screen has done plenty to help the game look nice; the pre-rendered backgrounds were already teeming with details, but they look even better here. The sprites, too, look better (if still rather simple), so the overall feel of the game is tighter, even if it's not going to wow anyone most of the time. The same goes for the soundtrack; Motoi Sakuraba's work, while not quite as universally amazing as, say, Yasunori Mitsuda's, is solid enough, and reproduced here faithfully. The new voice work and classic effects both hold up nicely as well, but like the visuals, they aren't going to floor anyone.
I wish I could recommend Star Ocean: Second Evolution to everyone, but the truth is that it just doesn't hold up all that well, and if you didn't experience the original and can't temper some of the game's languid, glacial pacing and trite, overly-polite dialogue (to say nothing of the wafer-thin plot for the bulk of the game's set-up), there's little reason beyond the battle system to actually check this out. Fights are well and good, but they won't offset the snore-inducing spats of talking, which are ample.
