Star Ocean EX continued . . . .

Previously . . . .

My last post about Star Ocean EX gave a brief overview of the characters I experienced so far and how the story progressed. We have Claude and Rena, the two main characters, traveling through the planet Expel to find the Sorcery Globe. The show is looking and feeling a lot like the game minus the fighting. Rena is much more weak in the show than she is in the game, but Celine is more powerful in the show than she is in the game. There are also some plot changes that make the story of Star Ocean flow a little better than the game.

Show Vs Game

As the show progresses, it seems less and less like the game. The towns have become less important, as have the relationships of the characters to each other. Also, the show has introduced new characters such as Azamukiru which is a guy who will take care of Dias (Rena's childhood friend and their party's newest member: sort of). I believe it's clear that the creators want a completely separate story from the game. The characters appear to be past the city of cross yet Rena still can't fight and Claude hasn't learned any moves. In the game, the characters have learned special moves that make the battles easier. For example, Claude has an air slash move he should know by this point and Rena has press move she would know by this time (depending on how many monsters you fought). But alas, Claude isn't launching a beam of energy across the ground at his foes and Rena isn't dropping a 100 pound weight (falls from the sky) on her enemies. Although, I must say Dias (see below, guy with purplish flowing hair) has his air slash move and uses to promptly defeat Claude.

Problems

As the show progresses, Claude has accepted his role as the "warrior of light" but this seems strange since he has no real reason to think this. This could be, however, something lost in translation since the episodes are in Japanese. This is part of the reason why Dias fights him and wins. In the game the characters fight but they do it in a tournament (Dias still wins). This time it was in the woods. Since Dias leaves them at the end of the episode, it didn't seem necessary to even have them fight. Another thing, I've noticed is the characters never mention that they are on the planet Expel, but I know they are because I played the game. Than again, that would be like us saying Earth all the time instead of our city, state, or country. Also, the game offered more things like upgrading weapons (hasn't happened in the show yet), pickpocketing (perhaps the main character shouldn't steal), and item creation (you could make almost anything in the game with the right skills). Either way, the story is progressing nicely even though their are these minor problems.

Story so far

Things are turning out interestingly because the bad guys they are starting to introduce are new and their is more fighting, mainly done my Celine and Dias, that is until the bad guy uses "silence" on Celine (a move in most RPG's that prevents a magic character from casting). The good thing is, without Celine their to protect the party Claude has to "step up" and although he looses at first, he ends up coping the air slash move Dias used on him. I just hope Claude doesn't have to get hit to earn the rest of his moves!

side note: for those of you interested the move is called kuuhazan in the show and like the game Dias's is way stronger than Claude's

So Dias leaves his "new friends" and as they continue they meet Ashton, they guy with two dragons on this back. The strange thing is that you don't meet this character until after you've met a three eyed woman named Opera, but I wont go into it unless the show mentions her. When I played the game, I never received Opera, Ernest(her husband), or Ashton, but according to a online walk through, you meet her first if you choose otherwise you get Ashton. The show seems to be taking the Ashton route but unlike the game, Ashton trips and falls allowing the dragons to attach themselves to his back versus it being Claude and his friends fault. It seems with more party members the show has more action. The dragons can take over Ashton's body and increase his power ten times! So this makes me wonder what will more characters bring and will we see a party of eight like the game allows you to have? Or will we just be watching Claude finish the enemies with his now patented Kuuhazan?
(to be continued. . . .)