Star Ocean: Second Evolution [Single Segment]

2014-06-25 09:25:33 pm

Howdy folks, I'm new here. I've only been watching speed runs for a few months, but I'm pretty interested in doing a SO2 run on the PSP. Obviously just capturing it is going to be a pain in the ass (component output to tv, HDMI capture from Hauppauge PVR 2), but I'm curious if there's even an interest in this. I can't say I'm a fan of segmented RPG runs period, but that's just me.

My current plan is to recruit just Dias and Bowman. Dias is great for keeping enemies still, and I don't have to go out of my way. I would really like to get Chisato instead because I play her better, but she's too much of a detour.

I'm not going to be getting the Eternal Sphere or the Marvel Sword early because it requires too much reloading for RNG. I honestly rarely bother getting it, its so OP it kinda breaks the game lol.

I'm gonna have to do some playtesting to see if any glitches from the PS1 version carry over to PSP. I know the battle pausing glitch for Hourglasses/Mages/Iseria Queen doesn't work anymore, and obviously you can't open the disk tray to avoid random combat anymore.

Any thoughts anyone?

Thread title:

Howdy folks, I'm new here. I've only been watching speed runs for a few months, but I'm pretty interested in doing a SO2 run on the PSP. Obviously just capturing it is going to be a pain in the ass (component output to tv, HDMI capture from Hauppauge PVR 2), but I'm curious if there's even an interest in this. I can't say I'm a fan of segmented RPG runs period, but that's just me.

My current plan is to recruit just Dias and Bowman. Dias is great for keeping enemies still, and I don't have to go out of my way. I would really like to get Chisato instead because I play her better, but she's too much of a detour.

I'm not going to be getting the Eternal Sphere or the Marvel Sword early because it requires too much reloading for RNG. I honestly rarely bother getting it, its so OP it kinda breaks the game lol.

I'm gonna have to do some playtesting to see if any glitches from the PS1 version carry over to PSP. I know the battle pausing glitch for Hourglasses/Mages/Iseria Queen doesn't work anymore, and obviously you can't open the disk tray to avoid random combat anymore.

Any thoughts anyone?

rinimt

Edit history:

rinimt: 2014-06-26 07:29:52 am

2014-06-26 07:28:34 am

Kupo!

Heya!

I had actually completed a full route for this game though it was for a segmented run. As far as I can tell (and remember, it's been over a year since I've touched it), none of the glitches carried over from the PS1 version. IIRC, I had figured out some weird thing where you could at least walk around encounters on the world map (didn't work in dungeons), but again, it's been over a year since I've touched it.

For the segmented route I had done, I believe I tested a few parties - one with Precis, one with Bowman, and I had started working on one with neither. I was personally never really a fan of using Bowman and felt Precis was better, and I do believe I felt the same in my route. Tongue

Also since it was segmented, I was going for Marvel Sword but I banned Aeterna (Eternal Sphere) just cause I felt it too OP. I was also going for Bunny Shoes.

Sorry I can't be of more help right now though! It's just been too long since I've touched this game in any capacity. Sad

(My most recent attempts at trying to do it were trying to route a SS PS1 route, not PSP. PSP was just going to be far too long for my liking.)

Heya!

I had actually completed a full route for this game though it was for a segmented run. As far as I can tell (and remember, it's been over a year since I've touched it), none of the glitches carried over from the PS1 version. IIRC, I had figured out some weird thing where you could at least walk around encounters on the world map (didn't work in dungeons), but again, it's been over a year since I've touched it.

For the segmented route I had done, I believe I tested a few parties - one with Precis, one with Bowman, and I had started working on one with neither. I was personally never really a fan of using Bowman and felt Precis was better, and I do believe I felt the same in my route. :P Also since it was segmented, I was going for Marvel Sword but I banned Aeterna (Eternal Sphere) just cause I felt it too OP. I was also going for Bunny Shoes.

Sorry I can't be of more help right now though! It's just been too long since I've touched this game in any capacity. :( (My most recent attempts at trying to do it were trying to route a SS PS1 route, not PSP. PSP was just going to be far too long for my liking.)

AZNRiceCannon

2014-06-26 08:57:30 am

@rinimt - Precis and Bowman are a hard choice since they're both kinda mediocre. I think Bowman has the edge though for explosive pills daze trapping. I'm also considering doing it only picking up Dias. I've done zero recruitment playthroughs before, and you level a lot faster since the xp is split evenly. The current WR spends a lot of time crafting to get OP equipment, but I think I could avoid that by leveling faster...

I've never done a speedrun before but I figured I could probably make a pretty competitive time since I've been playing it consistently for about twelve years. Realistically though, it's probably impossible to set a WR on the psp version, English at that.

rinimt

2014-06-26 09:21:37 am

Kupo!

Well, PSP would be a separate category from PSX anyways so it wouldn't matter. Tongue

They are too different.

I know I did some leveling in my route, abusing the XP split factor. It was mainly early (like in the Linga cave) leveling and the bosses carried me through the rest of the way.

AZNRiceCannon

Edit history:

AZNRiceCannon: 2014-06-26 11:24:56 am

2014-06-26 11:14:59 am

Interesting. I just assumed it would be treated as the same game since there isn't a seperate category for Second Evolution on the SDA games list.

rinimt

2014-06-26 02:17:32 pm

Kupo!

There isn't because no one has actually submitted a run of it yet. Smiley

It would be insanely stupid to categorize it with the psx version (at least IMO) because:

1) Glitches are fixed. You can't manipulate away encounters.
2) PSP loading times. The game isn't on PSN, the loading times suck.
3) There is flat out more dialogue because of retranslation, also the voices somewhat slow down the dialogue.
4) If you went for it, you could get Welch as a character

Like, if I remember right, even just getting Claude at the start (doing Rena's side) took about twice as long on PSP than it did on PSX, if not longer.

Speaking of which, that reminds me that I did do a test with Welch as a character as well. If I remember right, it didn't go too terribly. Tongue

AZNRiceCannon

2014-06-27 01:22:28 am

Well I did a bit of a crash test into the first half of the game today. It turns out that the same trick from the PS1 to prevent random enemy encounters, actually works here too lol. Once you enter a new screen, open the disk tray, then close it back and press X to go back to the game. You've now got about a fifteen-second window before the PSP spins the UMD again. Once you hear it spin again, open/close the tray again, and you're good. I didn't want to do it the entire test run, mainly because I don't know if doing that would even be allowed for a run. I will say, I got the Clarisage from the Linga cave without a single enemy encounter, or going into my menu Grin

...Unfortunately that led me to being raped by every single Salamander in the Hoffman Ruins because I was so under-leveled with only Claude and Rena lol. Now that I added Dias though, the game is gonna be cake. Spamming Air Slash annihilates damn near anything.

rinimt

Edit history:

rinimt: 2014-06-27 06:55:07 am

2014-06-27 06:54:52 am

Kupo!

While it's great you got that to work, you actually could not use that in a run for SDA. It is, as far as I'm aware (would need a green name or someone who knows more to jump in here) hardware manipulation (which is banned) to open/close the disk tray like that.

AZNRiceCannon

Edit history:

AZNRiceCannon: 2014-07-21 11:05:01 pm

2014-07-21 11:03:27 pm

Well I've been busy at work lately but I managed to do a few runs to test out some theories. Recruiting only Dias was a terrible idea, it made battles drag on too long and it was easy to get overwhelmed with only two fighters. While I was pretty high level just based on experience share, I still had no answer to high power spell casters. Without Celine to spell interrupt, I was raped my lucifer and the final boss over and over again. Subsequent playthroughs with Celine and bowman went much better.

I also decided to try for the eternal sphere on expel even though it's single segment, and it's surprisingly not that much of a time sink. There's a lot of reloading for mythril with ESP, but it's time well spent. It pretty much breaks the game lol. Next test run I'm gonna go for bunny shoes via pickpocket to make Claude even more OP.

The only place I'm still losing hella time on is getting Claude to a decent enough level to win at the tournament of arms. And since I need the eternal sphere, I have to win -_-

Well I've been busy at work lately but I managed to do a few runs to test out some theories. Recruiting only Dias was a terrible idea, it made battles drag on too long and it was easy to get overwhelmed with only two fighters. While I was pretty high level just based on experience share, I still had no answer to high power spell casters. Without Celine to spell interrupt, I was raped my lucifer and the final boss over and over again. Subsequent playthroughs with Celine and bowman went much better.

I also decided to try for the eternal sphere on expel even though it's single segment, and it's surprisingly not that much of a time sink. There's a lot of reloading for mythril with ESP, but it's time well spent. It pretty much breaks the game lol. Next test run I'm gonna go for bunny shoes via pickpocket to make Claude even more OP.

The only place I'm still losing hella time on is getting Claude to a decent enough level to win at the tournament of arms. And since I need the eternal sphere, I have to win -_-