Doom_Bringer said:
whats so good about this game? Looks pretty average to me.
this is what i said, when asked about the battle system, in another thread:
http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=12094&page=2&highlight=star+ocean
SH2 is a big step up from the original.
the judgment ring system makes a return, but there's a lot more customization to it. you can add more segments to the ring (could you do that in 1? it's been a long time; i don't think you can) and you can also enlarge the segments to make it easier. you can pick different ring configurations -- i.e. normal (normal speed, normal size) or technical (smaller, but better damage) or auto (if you can't manage the system, you can still play the game.)
magic is accomplished by equipping demonic crests which grant spells (except for yuri, whose magic is inherent to his demonic forms, of which there are lots, though some are redundant.) every character has his/her own special attacks, too, like FF. karin has sword techs (forget what they're actually called) and joachim has wrestling attacks, etc. these are also cool because for each character, you have different ways of powering these up, which adds to the outside-battle gameplay.
another big addition is the combo system, where you link up attacks to do massive compounding damage to enemies. special attacks all have knock down, launch, or blowback built into them, so you have to do things in the right order to link 'em up. these are fun, and each of yuri's forms has a massive combo-ending spell that's unique, so it's worth puzzling out the elemental resistance of bosses to use this properly.
there's just a lot to this game. nothing terribly original, but tons of it, and an interesting story told well. it shames square enix's recent stuff IMO, if you want this kind of game. better than any of their RPGs this gen, FFX excepted, IMO. (i was going to say "games" but i haven't played FM4 much. nor do i know definitively how this stacks up to DQV, so japan-only releases are excepted.)
