Nothing but nice words for DarkForce and staff!

-Steve- · Post by **-Steve-** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:08 am

I was going to send this as an email to DarkForce, but his folder was full, and I couldn't find anyone else's email address. So I'll post this here in the hopes that he or the other staff members will read it and have something to smile about

Please, add your kind words as well... if you have any

Hi there, my name's Steve and I just started playing SNES ROMs a few months ago. After beating all the classics such as Seiken Densetsu 3, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, etc, I decided to move on. I remembered beating SO: The Second Story countless times on the PlayStation and decided to try and find the original.

I needn't have searched through more than four message boards before I realized your site came up on each one; I knew where to go! I found the ROM easily enough and headed over to your site. Your instructions on the graphics pack and English patch were easy to follow, and I had it patched up and ready to roar in under 5mins.

I just wanted to say thank you. Keep up the *magnificent* work, because I know many people, such as myself, are very grateful for what you do and the time you take to do it.

Sincerely,
Steve

PS: Good Luck on dubbing the voice-overs!

joe_devore · Post by **joe_devore** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:18 am

SO you just started playing StarOcean?
What do you think of it?

I started playing a month or so ago using SNES9x,
because ZSNES still does not have SDD-1 support.
However, When I read the post on the SO Graphics Packs,
Well that solved that problem, and I am now back to using ZSNES for SO.
Those I have not played it much anymore do to PC Spec problems.
300Mhz
48MB SDRAM.

As for the DEJAP staff goes they are the BEST.

Post by **Agozer** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:50 am

I started playing it more than a year ago.

I want to get technical, so I'll correct you: It's the S-DD1 chip.

Paul Bunyan · Post by **Paul Bunyan** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 1:43 pm

Did anyone actually beat it? I think it took me about 3 days and ~30 hours.

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 2:31 pm

Paul Bunyan wrote:Did anyone actually beat it? I think it took me about 3 days and ~30 hours.

Beating it is not hard, even with the extra dungeon.

I used ~40 hours per game to make everybody master every skill and stuff. I only miss the 'get all the talents for everybody' part, which is (1) unnecessary, (2) tedious and (3) prone to bugs, so I won't probably do that.

joe_devore · Post by **joe_devore** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 3:51 pm

Agozer wrote:I started playing it more than a year ago.

I want to get technical, so I'll correct you: It's the S-DD1 chip.

Sorry, another post in this section mentioned it.
It's just that I went knowing it as that.
It may be a while before I have that down perminately.
S-DD1

-Steve- · Post by **-Steve-** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 8:36 pm

joe_devore wrote:SO you just started playing StarOcean?
What do you think of it?

I don't consider it as good as The Second Story, but it's still turning out to be quite fun.

And did I read right? It only takes 40hrs to do EVERYTHING? Wow... that's a shame

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 8:47 pm

That's 40 hours with my leet power.
Meaning it could be from 30 to 120 hours, depending on your own gaming skills.

DarkDragoon · Post by **DarkDragoon** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:19 pm

I've done most of the stuff in the game (save teaching characters a few skills and doing the extra dungeon), and I'm at roughly 48 hours

darkbenny · Post by **darkbenny** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:42 pm

The first time I beat it I missed out on some cool characters.

-Steve- · Post by **-Steve-** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:04 am

DarkBenny wrote:The first time I beat it I missed out on some cool characters.

Same thing happened to me in The Second Story

That's why I love the game so much; huge replay value. Beaten it 10 times with Claude and 7 or 8 with Renae

Post by **grinvader** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:06 am

Well, the fact that you can't get some characters in SO2 unless you started with the right hero helps a lot in missing them.

You can't 'miss' Leon if you start with Rena, and you can't miss Dias if you start with Claude, because there's just no way you can get them.
The thing that I slightly dislike with SO2 is that getting Opera cancels getting Ashton, and Ernest can only be gotten this way.
Oh well.

My 1st game:
Claude / Rena / Ashton / Celine / Leon / Precis / Noel / Chisato

I guess I could also try:
Rena / Claude / Celine / Opera / Ernest / Dias / Bowman / Noel...

Spoony · Post by **Spoony** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:07 am

Ashton is a million times better than anybody in any video game ever.

Post by **grinvader** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:10 am

Spoony wrote:Ashton is a million times better than anybody in any video game ever.

Amen.

PGN-X · Post by **PGN-X** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:01 am

Makes me wonder why they didn't release Star Ocean in the US....

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 2:50 pm

How are the 80+ endings or whatever the hell they are in STar Ocean 2? I've been wanting to play through this game, but I get turned off thinking about missing a bunch of cool characters and getting a crappy ending and/or missing the other SEVENTY-NINE endings.. I don't plan on ever replaying it more than once probably. There are too many RPG's I haven't played to waste much time replaying them.

Cidolfas · Post by **Cidolfas** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 5:02 pm

Not really worth it. There are descriptions of the endings at the SO2 Shrine:
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/psx/so2/

Let that be your fix and go on to more productive things.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 6:04 pm

Jesus! That's a heck of a complex system that game has for endings.

I have to then ask.. are ANY of the endings worth playing the game for? I have no idea which one I'd get. They all sound pretty short and lame.

I hope it's not like Chrono Cross..

Nice shrine by the way.

Cidolfas · Post by **Cidolfas** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:32 pm

Thanks.

That's just the "extra scene" part of the ending. The ending's a bit longer (including an FMV ending scene with credits). It's been a while since I beat it, so I don't remember exactly how long it is. It's not a SaGa Frontier-type lame ending, that I know.

I think the best part of the ending is the satisfaction you get by beating the last boss, actually. 8p Which means it's even better to beat the Cave of Trials, especially for the victory music and "free lap".

Tomato · Post by **Tomato** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:17 pm

Say, Cidolfas, I recently realized something - Earth Grave should be Earth Glaive. Dunno if you're capable of making changes, but just thought I'd let you know since you're more involved with SO than I am now.

Cidolfas · Post by **Cidolfas** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:13 am

Well... it was Grave/Earth Grave in SO2. And neither of them makes much sense, to tell the truth (unless you can explain why) so I figured we might as well go with that one. I always figured it was "Grave" because it was earth-elemental, like graves are in the ground. ^^;

Spoony · Post by **Spoony** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:21 am

But then, wouldn't saying earth grave be a little redundant? Glaive certainly makes more sense to me, assuming the weapon is a type of polearm.

Tomato · Post by **Tomato** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 6:08 am

I just saw some screens from the translated SO3 and they have Glaive there too. Given SO2's pretty bad translation, I think it's okay not to rely on it 100%.

-Steve- · Post by **-Steve-** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:59 am

I thought it was Glaive as well... but who knows, Grave is redundant, but could be right

Post by **grinvader** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 10:36 am

Spoony wrote:But then, wouldn't saying earth grave be a little redundant? Glaive certainly makes more sense to me, assuming the weapon is a type of polearm.

It's not a weapon, it's a spell. If it was a weapon, there wouldn't be any doubt...

And if the spell looks like a sword, then I'm the queen Victoria.
I don't try to understand why they called it Earth Grave. Do you understand why a spell called Wounds makes your own shadow attack you ?
Oh well, glaive is fine.