My third favorite game was rereleased back in November. But I don't own a Switch, and I was playing Legend of Legaia, so I couldn't play it. I replayed it back in February anyway, and I don't want to make this blog redundant yet. So we're gonna do the next worst thing and play the sequel!
"Star Ocean: Blue Sphere" is a direct sequel to The Second Story. It's a Japanese only GBC game, so I'm using the fan translation from several years ago. I know there was a newer one that was surprisingly recent, but it vanished before I could download it. I also don't fully understand how patching works... Regardless, let's play something I've been wanting to play since high school!
A ship is flying through space, but it's moving erratically. The camera cuts to the cockpit to see Precis losing control of her spaceship. She and Ashton are having a mild quarrel about the whys of the imminent crash landing, but that's not important. The ship is forced to make an emergency landing on the correct planet but not in an OSHA compliant manner.
Precis is fine, as are the other members of the team. Diaz and Noel are with her, and the three talk about what happened. They have no answers, but Precis hops aboard Bobo (not Robbie!) and checks on the other crew members. She passes the teleporter room and medic bay, neither are useable at the moment, and enters the storage. Celine is upset that she almost died but is easily soothed by the thought of adventure. Noel is also annoyed but is more interested in figuring out why the machines broke. Chisato is there. Bowman and Ashton (ft. Ururu and Gyruru) are in the engine room. Ashton is stuck in something. After getting him out, all eight members meet in the cockpit.
They came here looking for Opera and Ernest. It seems they're in trouble. But now they're in the same predicament, so they'll be waiting for Claude and Rena, who are late, to pick them up. In the meantime, the crew will seek out anything that can be used to repair the ship. We make a party of three and begin to search.
My party is Precis, the apparent main character, Ashton, the love interest, and Celine, the adult.
Exploration feels like Zelda, as every transitional area and dungeon gives off square room in a grid vibes. You can destroy various obstacles, and each character has a unique field action. To experience everything, you'll need to switch up party members, and we can always quickly warp back to the ship to do that.
Combat, though, is clearly Tales inspired. It's slightly better than Phantasia, but it's still pretty clunky. I'm not big on it. But pressing a diagonal button lets physical attackers do a slightly different move. Precis can thrust forward with a drill or shoot a long (and slow) laser from afar. It has its merits, but I don't like it so far.
Skills are back, and they replace levels. Now, every fight rewards several skill points that we can use on any character we want to increase their stats. This also opens up item creation, but I haven't delved into that yet.
But the opening area, Scout Forest, is home to fur balls and fluffy (and violent) kobolds. There are also hornets in the bushes you can destroy. Scattered here and there are ruins, but we can't interact with them yet. There is a switch to the south, but I don't know what it did. We can also find Bowman walking around, gathering herbs. He tells us about how he can compound stuff to make medicine. Walking through the woods has us saving a boy from a kobold. He asks if Celene is his grandma, which upsets our token "young girl." I wonder how this goes if she's not the lead character? We're just outside the village of Scout, so he invites us in to meet his grandpa. He runs the inn, so we can rest there even though we can always warp back to base to heal. But world building is nice. Lent and his grandpa suggest we travel east, but the area is blocked off by rubble, so we'll need to find a bomb. They also tell us Scout is home to the Mile Ruins, an ancient tower from a lost civilization. Inside are mechanical men and gifts, which are strange items from the past no one can use. The team thinks they can find something of use in Mile. Before venturing in, look around Scout for the fun of it. There's a merchant who gives us a Bunny shaped communicator that doesn't seem to work.
Mile Ruins is an apt name because this place is super long. Inside are the standard sandworms that have appeared in the first three Star Ocean games. There are also a lot of surprisingly weak robots. But this place is a maze. We'll need to navigate the dilapidated facility, and several doors require a key and power to operate. The destination is floor five, but don't be afraid to fall through some of the holes in the floors. We can find new weapons for Ashton and several new armor pieces. Fol is hard to come by so far, so all chests are godsends. Dias can be found in here, and Ashton will ask him if he feels weaker from two years ago. Dias says "yes" even though he's been training so hard, but that's life... I switched to him because Dias' field ability is to sprint. There are also a few fun things with vending machines inside the stairwell. As we climb, we (the player) see that Lint is following us. We'll finally confront him at the top when the Mile guardian, Guriguri, is about to kill him. I barely survived, so I have no strategy. Defeating him saves Lint, who returns home, and we find the new field action, Bomb. We can blow open two walls in Mile to turn on the power and reach the sixth floor, which has some interesting puzzles for gear. We only get the one bomb, so we'll have to buy more from the guy who gave us the communicator.
Explode the rubble to the southeast and enter the Rupert Jungle, the only thing between us and the port town of Aba. There's a dude here who informs us he's seen a man with a third eye in his forehead in Aba. Everyone knows that's Ernest, so we'll seek my least favorite character...
...tomorrow!
I need to get used to using skills and figure things out. I like the idea, but can it click with me?
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