Rena's Story: Rena is an Expellian saved by a strange man one day in the forest just outside her village. Rena suspects that this powerful young man is in fact the Legendary Warrior of Light!
Claude's Story: Claude is an Earthling and is the son of Ronixis J Kenny (from Star Ocean 1). On an expedition to a planet with his father, Claude is accidently transported to a world where he is mistaken for a legendary warrior sent by the Gods.
Claude agrees to go with Rena to investigate the 'Sorcery Globe', which has been the source of many problems and natural disasters on Expel.

In Star Ocean 1 you can play the game as Claude of Rena. Depending on whom you pick the scenes during the game and endings will change. In the game, Private Actions will give you a chance to talk to the party members in towns and villages. Choosing different responses as you talk to the characters will either gain or lose you Emotion Points which help get you the many different endings. There are… more »

Rena's Story: Rena is an Expellian saved by a strange man one day in the forest just outside her village. Rena suspects that this powerful young man is in fact the Legendary Warrior of Light!
Claude's Story: Claude is an Earthling and is the son of Ronixis J Kenny (from Star Ocean 1). On an expedition to a planet with his father, Claude is accidently transported to a world where he is mistaken for a legendary warrior sent by the Gods.
Claude agrees to go with Rena to investigate the 'Sorcery Globe', which has been the source of many problems and natural disasters on Expel.

In Star Ocean 1 you can play the game as Claude of Rena. Depending on whom you pick the scenes during the game and endings will change. In the game, Private Actions will give you a chance to talk to the party members in towns and villages. Choosing different responses as you talk to the characters will either gain or lose you Emotion Points which help get you the many different endings. There are some characters you can only recruit if you have Claude in your party- the same for Rena. Because of this the replay values are high. Some characters, however, aren't compatible with one another- and will not join your party if you have a certain party member already.

The original Star Ocean 2 game was released on the PS1. It was the first Star Ocean game to make it to a western audience. In the remake of this game, a few things have been added to make this game even more pleasing. The new Animated Cut Scenes are gorgeous. The Event Face Graphics show anime profiles of the characters in the bottom corners of the screen as they speak. The Event Face Graphics change with the character's emotions- so if the main character is annoyed- it will show on the picture of him.

The in game graphics have not changed since the Playstation 1 version. They remade Star Ocean 1 with graphics to match those of Star Ocean 2 because the sprites were so cute. Also, the surrounding towns and villages have a charming 3D-anime-like quality to them.

The battle system is awesome. The encounters are random, but when the battle screen appears, you will be able to run around freely and switch from character to character quickly. Pressing the triangle button will open a rotating menu from where you can select items and magic to use. Before battle, you should select battle skills to assign to the R1 and L1 buttons of your PSP. Then, during battle, you can attack normally with the X button, and then use a special attack in a chain of sorts. It's not a very complicated battle system, but it is heaps of fun. When the menu is open the battle is paused, which is great because then you can step back and decide what to do next- particularly good if you're in one of those last boss fights getting pawned. Other than a few tricky boss fights though, this game is pretty average difficulty wise.

The music of Star Ocean is a mixture of many styles of music- focusing mainly on classical meets techno. A wonderful composed soundtrack.

The best part about Star Ocean is the skills and inventing side of things. Each character has a list of skills which you can level up with skill points. There are skills for battle and skills for inventing. With the inventing menu, you can create your own items. Crafting accessories, cooking food to heal party members, making and synthesising strong weapons and armour. There are hours of fun and entertainment in the inventing system of Star Ocean.

Star Ocean 2 is a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. If you enjoyed Star Ocean 1 you WILL enjoy this game. If you wished Star Ocean 1 was longer, this won't fail to please. This is a game all RPG fans should at least try, because it such a great game. One of my favourites.