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There are several anime sequences throughout the game is more importantly, the gameplay remains unchanged. At least on important dialogs with the other characters. Action based RPG at its finest. I played the original game on PS1 many years ago. When I learned Square Enix was relaunching this game for the PSP I knew the game was still good enough for today's standards.The game is mostly voiced.
The first game was waaaay to easy. Second, it's a lot harder than the first one. After about 15 hours of expected story development, twists and turns happen that draw you in even more. Great game that fixes the biggest the biggest problems from the first game. Traveling the world map has less random encounters and goes by a lot faster; a lot less tedious than the first game.
The melee attack feature also improves other characters like Ernest and Dias from the PSone version. Other than that, 2 perspectives on the storyline enhances replay ability (so you can try out all the recruitable characters and see which ones you enjoy most). A definite drawback to me though is how you improve techniques (assigned to the L and R buttons) in this game. The game has it's flaws, but it's easy to pick up and play and the button mashing free-for-all it leans towards is more fast paced than a traditional RPG. The anime cut scenes enhance the storyline overall, and this story is deeper, darker, and more involved than First departure (and it still has multiple endings).I'll admit that the story starts off really slowly. Having played the PSone version of Star Ocean 2 about 6 years ago, I have to say that this PSP version is far superior to it. Barring the voice acting (which you're either gonna love or hate), the graphics are overhauled for this version. Choosing between Claude and Rena changes the perspective of the story, and allows you to recruit unique characters for each one.
They wield unique weapons with devastating techniques. There are ways to make the final boss really difficult but I would just refer to an online strategy guide if you're intrigued. The problem is that it often takes a ridiculously high number to max out a move's potential, which makes it so you have to level grind and really retracts from the flow of the game overall (unless you don't care about maximizing the strength of a technique). I would recommend it for any Star Ocean fans, and for any modern RPG fans since this battle style seems like it's being phased into newer Final Fantasy games. Only pickpocket the most important items (such as rare armor or weapons or bunny shoes). Picking Claude if you're new is a good bet since his perspective provides more background information on the story (and also allows you to pickpocket valuable armor more often during the game). A word of caution though: pickpocketing too much (even when you are in a private action) changes the ending you can get. the spells don't lag and are less pixelated in this version.
Each time you use a move, it increases it's proficiency by 1, and greater proficiency means a stronger and more devastating attack. Some character recruitment is complicated, and recruiting great characters like Opera prevent you from recruiting other great characters like Ashton, but these characters are far superior to the one's in First departure. To speed things up, you wanna make sure you enable the ability to click through spoken dialogue since you can probably read faster than they can talk. The features that were great in First Departure are included in this one (like the ability to melee attack 3 times in succession by hitting the x button).
All of the bad glitches have been fixed now and a change in the voices too. The original version is on the PSX and Enix not Square Enix. It is still one of the best games I have ever played. Some anime cuts added and one more optional character Welch. It is called Star Ocean the Second Story. This one has had some changes of course but is still a great game.
The pros for this game, however, do outweigh the cons. Enjoyable and demanding, this game tends to encourage marathon play times and can be a bit hard to put aside. Played this over a long trip and it definitely was a good way to pass the time. It is difficult without being impossible, it is stingy at times with money and goods, and has a unique and interesting skill "tree" that has more intellectuality rather than function. The cons, however, are that you have to mash the buttons a lot to get through the more grueling dialogs that seem to be focussed more on the characters repeating each others names followed by a very slow animated ".". Sequences which must be replayed due to failure can get grating.
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