GameSpot writes: "Star Ocean: Second Evolution is an enhanced remake of developer Tri-Ace's Star Ocean: The Second Story, a popular PlayStation role-playing game. It shares much with First Departure, a recent remake of the original Star Ocean, highlighted by incredibly striking anime sequences courtesy of Production I.G., full voicing, and even an updated, smoother translation. The two games look and feel nearly identical, but while First Departure suffered from gruesome backtracking, Second Evolution frees itself from the constant barrage of pointless globe-trotting by focusing on engaging gameplay and a cohesive plot."
The Good
* Gorgeous anime sequences and full voicing
* More strategic play
* Intensive crafting and skill systems
* Fresh translation shows off a branching plot
* Little forced backtracking in comparison to First Departure
The Bad
* You can't skip past spell animations
* Some minor pop-up on the world map
* Optional private action scenes feel like a waste of time
In the years since Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom made its English debut in 2012, otome games have enjoyed a surge of popularity worldwide. The genre went from an unknown to one that received multiple releases on various platforms each year. Sony handhelds have long been a haven for such titles, with people who own a Vita enjoying the fruits of this bevy of releases.
Phil writes, "It's the Jewish new year today, and I'm glad I could catch it before the day's end. The Jewish calendar is more than a few thousand years ahead of the standard Roman calendar that we generally use. And it's around more than four thousand digits ahead of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs VGM volume total.
Regardless, as is customary on Mondays, the Favorite VGMs are here to deliver great video game music to all readers of SuperPhillip Central. This week, the critically mixed Star Fox Zero leads off with its version of Corneria. Then, Mario Kart 7 races onto the scene. Star Ocean: The Second Story is one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time, so this week I'm showing off a world map theme for the game. Next, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars delivers a titillating tune. Finally, Me & My Katamari busts out a ten minute-long funk-a-licious song.
As always, click on the VGM volume name to reach the YouTube video featuring that song. And if you want to listen to past VGM volumes featured on SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, look no further than the always-updated VGM Database. Now, let's get on to the music!"
Following its October launch on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita, Square Enix has released Star Ocean: Second Evolution on PlayStation 3 in Japan for 2,268 yen.
The port features a new opening theme song sung by twin duo Rina Eri, Trophy support, paid “support” downloadable content (items, level-ups, etc.), and improved graphics and background music quality.
Anyone know if they plan on releasing this for the PS4 in the west? I didn't even know about this until just now, Second Story was always my favorite one in the series.
They want to skip magic animation ? -_-
And the private scenes are useless ?
You can get items somethimes, and even hidden characters with the private scenes, also they provide backstory for invidual characters, also they are optional.
They are seriously underscoring the star ocean ports for the psp.
A score of a 7.5 or even a 7 never stopped me from playing an RPG game.
I played this game on ps1 when it came out and was hooked. An amazing game and well worth the time.