Alright, time to dive headfirst into one of the greatest, and longest games I’ve played in the last few years.

Star Ocean 2 was released to a less-than-excited North America. Not too many people had played the original, due to it only being available in Japan. The odd gamer would pick up a copy and be suddenly swept away by its awesomeness. On the back of the case if you were to read carefully it says there’s more than 80 possible endings to the game.

I’m not a math expert but if it takes about 90+ hours to beat the game, multiply that by 84(being the total number of endings). That’s over 7600 hours of game play, which if you played 24 hours a day non-stop that’s almost 1 year solid to see them all.

Massive endings aside, the game itself is spectacular! A newer open style of combat allows players the chance to run behind an enemy and attack, as opposed to the FF-style of pressing a button. The addition of unique ‘killer moves’ that get more powerful once you’ve used them a certain number of times lends a bit more variety to the battles.

An item creation option means you can spend even more time figuring out how to combine certain items to create either super-powered ones, or useless garbage. Some of the later parts in the game actually require you use certain items that can only be created, so it adds a bit more incentive to level those abilities up a bit.

I think the big reason the game has been such a hit here in North America is due to it’s ability to blend well with any persons style. If you prefer running in head first with enemies or playing it safer from a distance the game has characters that do just that.

The drawback is however, with the limited technology at the time of it’s release the voice overs in battle tend to get a bit annoying. One character in particular with use the same attack several times and after the second or third dozen times, you want to jump into the game and hurt him.

Overall, I’d give this game a 9/10. Based entirely on the fact that even being a few years older I still find myself unable to pull myself away once I start playing it.