A game for the self-acclaimed RPG lover experience! Worth every cent!
An excellent game! Works great and I'm very happy with it.
For those who speak and breath video games like I do... if you take Final Fantasy-style plot development and character depth (only applies to Final Fantasy 10 and below), and mix it with a high-energy smooth action RPG system (imitating the flow styles of Threads of Fate, Dark Cloud/Chronicle series, or even some of the older RPG such as Parasite Eve 1 and Vagrant Story), you would get this masterfully done game.
For no spoilers, you follow the story of your pick, either the female Rena, or the male Claude, that involve themselves with a journey evolving and ending differently depending on the choices the player makes.
Unlike in a typical RPG, skills take on a new breath of life in this game with a comprehensive Skill system. Nine different batches of skills are sold in in-game shops; once unlocked this way, they must be learned by committing battle-earned "Skill Points" to them. Some skills raise a character's statistics; some unlock Specialty abilities; and some provide bonuses in battle (such as the ability to counter-attack). Specialties allow the characters to create a wide variety of items, and include Cooking, Writing, Composing and Musicianship, Pickpocketing and Training. Furthermore, the entire party can contribute to "Super Specialty" skills such as "Master Chef", Blacksmithing, Publishing and "Reverse Side", which allows the character to counterfeit valuable items at the risk of lowering their allies' opinion of them. Every item created has some sort of tangible benefit—foods restore Hit Points and/or Magic Points, training increases the gain in Experience Points, and written novels can be submitted to a publisher, with royalties collectable later—but every attempt requires the expenditure of a consumable item, and may fail to produce anything useful.
Second Story offers something that was a rare sight for RPG lovers in North America, a mechanic called "Private Actions". They allow the player to influence relations between their characters. During a "Private Action", the player's party temporarily breaks up during a visit to a town, with each character going their own way to shop, visit friends and family (if applicable) or otherwise relax. The player's main character (either Claude or Rena) can then interact with their allies, often with the option of making one of those allies like another character more (or less). This "relationship point" mechanic can have a major effect in battle—if Character A's close friend is felled, Character A will get major combat bonuses for a short time—and also determines what ending the player will see, as each party member's scene plays out differently depending on who they did (or didn't) befriend. There are 86 possible endings (or 87, depending on how one wants to count them). Don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of endings, though, they are a direct connection with your choices throughout the game play, so whichever ending the player does receive, it will likely please the player as a result.
Also, depending on who the main character of control is (Claude or Rena), and the choices made in certain Private Actions, will influence who ultimately joins the party as the game progresses. If anyone who starts this game expects to obtain all the characters in one play-through, sorry, that just won't happen, but that's the excitement!
This game is highly recommended to play for those who would consider themselves a true RPG lover!Read full review
