"Star Ocean: The Second Story" Quiz

Answer: true

The choice can be made at the start of the game. The main bearing of your choice is that Leon is exclusive to Claude and Dias is exclusive to Rena. There are other story implications, but both Rena and Claude can be part of the main group regardless of the choice.

Answer: Expel

Rena was originally a Nedian, but she was transported through time and landed on Expel many million years later. Specifically, she landed in the Shingo Forest, which has a similar feel to the forest around the Nedian Weapons Lab Rena was transported from.

Claude was originally travelling through space in a spaceship. Think something like the Enterprise from Star Trek. They check out a planet called Milocinia which is giving odd readings, and, against his father's wishes, Claude checks out a machine which is giving off strange energy. This transports him through space to the Shingo Forest in Expel, where he saves Rena from a gorilla. Thus the adventure begins.

Answer: Sorcery Globe

The Sorcery Globe is a meteorite. It helps the antagonists of the game eventually destroy Expel; but for the first disc, the aim is simply to reach it and work out its purpose. Unfortunately the origin of the Sorcery Globe (or Quadratic Sphere as the antagonists call it) is never really explained - it's just kind of 'there'.

It's used by the antagonists when they land on Expel, and it's shown again at the end of the game. This is one of the plot details which is never really neatly wrapped up, since it's not totally clear how they gained use of the Sorcery Globe originally.

Answer: Clik

The Sorcery Globe is situated on the continent of El (at least, when it's on Expel). Originally, the group were going to take a boat from Clik to El to get to it, however, the destruction of the town, implied to be by the Sorcery Globe, means they must take the longer route from the Lacour continent. Whilst waiting for a boat, the group befriend a rich child and help him experience the town and make new friends.
Filia/Philia, the daughter of the main antagonist, can be seen here in a Private Action - she tries to warn everyone to evacuate, but she is not listened to.

Answer: Lacour

The Tournament of Arms is a four-fight tournament consisting of one-on-one fights. The first two fights are rather easy, but the last two are less forgiving - in fact, the last one can't be won by conventional means. In any case, partaking in this tournament will open the story up again.

The Sharp Edge can be obtained by Gamgee (no relation to the hobbit!) after losing the final fight but only right after the tournament - he lives in the house at the west edge of town.

Answer: Celine

Celine is from Mars, a picturesque village that practises the Heraldry Arts (ie magic) and is, along with Leon, mainly a pure damage caster. Her main disadvantage is that her MP drains out quite fast, and her damage becomes somewhat middling by the end of the game when the physical attackers have their best multi-hit killer blows.

She's quite interested in Claude and Rena's relationship when seen in private action sequences, and is originally recruited to explore Cross Cave, and you have the choice to ditch her or keep her after that.

Answer: Ten Wise Men

The Ten Wise Men are first met when the group finally find the Sorcery Globe at the top of Eluria. They seem surprised at the ethnic diversity of your group, and a strange dialogue sequence, where they appear one at a time when they're talking, occurs. I guessed this was because they don't name most of the Ten Wise Men until just before their defeat, so needed to give them some visual identity as they talked.

After the dialogue, an unbeatable fight with Berle occurs, and then Expel is merged with their home planet Nede, destroying Expel. The group survive by virtue of their proximity to the Wise Men as they teleported out.

Answer: Bunny Races

They are all the main features of Fun City. The Battle Arena has many modes of combat involving one on one combat in various capacities; the challenge of winning is generally worth more than the rewards! The Fortune Teller can tell you your romantic chances with other party members. This can influence some of the dialogue and the ending, and also influence helping behaviour in combat - typically the romance boosting is done in private actions.

The Bunny Races are bets on which pair of four bunnies will win. If you get it right, you get the listed item (the better items may have worse odds). The descriptions don't seem to correlate very well with actual outcomes, so if you want any of the prizes you will just have to bruteforce it and hope to get lucky.

As for the Cooking Master, it can give some rare ingredients as its reward. I don't have much else to say about this because I didn't spend much time on it, and decent enough food can be made without these ingredients.

Answer: Sacred Tear

Rena also gets "Fallen Hope", which is her best weapon in terms of useful stats - Claude has better available, however (the best are in the secret dungeon). Mirage also gives the group Void Sphere, which allows the party to increase their weapon power in line with the main characters' weapons.

The explanation is quite sci-fi - simply put, the antiproton matter of the LEA metal allows it to pierce the Ten Wise Men's guards and kill them.

Answer: Indalecio

Indalecio is the final boss. He fights by moving around the battlefield quite quickly and casting spells - the best way to kill him is to lock him down with physical moves/combos. It's quite feasible that he won't be able to move at all if you have the right party, which makes things easier. His Divine Wave can be quite murderous to a first time player, also emphasising the need to stunlock.

The backstory behind him and the Ten Wise Men is quite lengthy to access; if you're not all that fussed, you wouldn't necessarily find out, and the game doesn't outright tell you - there isn't much dialogue from the main antagonists.

So, I'll just tell what I know of that story here. Do skip ahead if you don't like long sections...

Indalecio and Cyril are also known as Gabriel and Lucifer (the Japanese names). Indalecio is actually known as Dr Lantis, and the Ten Wise Men including Indalecio are actually biological weapons.

So, many billions of years ago, Nede ruled the roost and was the most technologically advanced planet. Eventually, however, other planets rose against them with what information they could find, leading to the Nede wars.

Dr Lantis, a genius scientist, made the Ten Wise Men to put an end to the war... and to eventually rule the world with them. However, Nede itself was not well disposed to using biological weapons in this manner, and his daughter, Philia, was killed, as part of the protest. Although he tried to recreate Philia, Dr Lantis was driven mad, and, instead of wanting to take over the universe, he reprogrammed the Ten Wise Men to eventually destroy the universe instead. He committed suicide, but not before implanting his consciousness within Gabriel/Indalecio, the last unfinished Wise Man, and sealing the Ten Wise Men in a void space where time does not pass, which would act as an eternal prison.

However, it was already planned that, billions of years later, the Ten Wise Men would escape. They landed on Expel, and, using the Sorcery Globe/Quadratic Sphere (it's unclear where it came from and how it actually functioned), drew Expel to Nede, in order to finish their plans of universal annihilation there through activation of the Crest of Annihilation.
It is quite possible only Indalecio had the instruction to destroy the universe, as Cyril refers to wanting to rule himself and overthrow Indalecio, and other Wise Men don't hint at any total annihilation. Whilst the crest was activated, it was rewritten by Rena at the endgame which was a bit of an oversimplified way to make things right.

Nede is actually 'Eden' backwards (I think that's more than a coincidence!), and Indalecio, Philia (who appears to limit Indalecio... unless you do a certain private action), Indalecio's Divine Comedy ability and Cyril all have certain angelic appearances, names or attacks.

This story could therefore be an allegory for playing God; Dr Lantis resided in Nede - full of beautiful gardens and the most technologically advanced place in the Universe... yet, even this place, 'Eden', was not enough for Dr Lantis. He wanted to rule the Universe, but when his daughter was taken away, his most important 'possession' was gone... In theory, he had everything, but also lost everything through greed, which parallels with the Biblical reference to Adam and Eve's exile from the Garden of Eden. That's just my take on it, anyway.