Let me start off by saying that Star Ocean: Second Evolution is hands down one of THE BEST RPG's I've played in a while, and this game is now 11 years old. This game has really held its own against the test of time, and I am just simply amazed. Here it is folks, my first official review.
Star Ocean: Second Evolution

Story



This is what can either make or break an RPG, if the story can't hold your interest in 30 minutes then there's no point in even bothering. Well that wasn't the case here at all, in about 10 minutes I was hooked from the end. To start off you have the option of either picking between the two main characters of the story, Claude or Rena. I thought this option was very cool because you have two different perspectives of the story, and this offers much replayability because once you beat the game with one character you can start off with the other character. Major kudos to Square Enix for this. Although the story does start off a bit slow, it will keep you on the edge of your seat after those moments. The voice acting is a mixed bag to say the least, it ranges from superb to just plain annoying, but that should be expected from a game that is translated from Japanese to English. Other than those few gripes, I would give this section a 8/10






Gameplay



The gameplay is really what sets this RPG above many others. It doesn't play as your typical turn based RPG, you can almost say that it plays like a fighting game. When you enter battles, instead of standing in one place (take Final Fantasy for example) you are able to move freely around the screen, pressing different buttons to execute different types of attacks. Pressing x is your standard run of the mill attack, and believe me when i say this, you will be using this alot. To the point where you will be wondering why they didn't use any of the other face buttons for different attacks. You can also set special attacks set to the Left and Right button, and once you figure out which ones work best, you can basically keep spamming it until you either run out of MP points or the enemy is dead. Those are probably the two biggest problems I have with this game. While it is nice to get away from the typical battle system, I just feel like more could've have been implemented with it. There is a saving grace though, this game has probably the most addicting creation systems ever. You can craft jewelry, use alchemy, pickpocket and MANY more things. You really get that sense of accomplishment creating new things because the items you create give you bonuses but can also have negative effects so it really adds a strategic element in one way that hasn't been done so well. Trust me, you will get addicted to this. I give this section a 9/10



Sound



While I talked about how voice acting was a mixed bag, I never really got into the music department. Basically it's the same thing as the voice acting but in a different sense. If you do not have access to headphones and have to play using the PSP speakers, you will be dissapointed at the quality. It comes off quite static in a sense, as in you can't hear every note that the beautiful music offers. On the other hand if you have headphones then your in for a treat, the music is amazing but is sometimes recycled. For some reason it never got old (to me anyways), the sound of hitting enemies with your sword or using magic spells to decimante your enemies is very rewarding to the ears. 8/10






All in all, this is a VERY good game that should be experienced whether your a newcomer or someone who has already played the PS1 version but wants to experience the game again. While it does have it's problems: slow story build up, voice acting, and repetitiveness. It's the overall quantity of the game that makes it so amazing. Oh, and did I mention you have the option of over 100 endings? :D I give this game altogether a 9/10