(WARNING: spoilers abound, sirs)

I finally started a playthrough on Star Ocean: The First Departure earlier tonight. I like the characters so far (except Dorne) and the story seems interesting. ... But, slight problem is, I am just wondering if the story isn't being presented very well in the dialogue, because it has only been about 90 minutes into the game so far and already I can present to you ->

Thee of the Most Ridiculously Stupid Sentences Ever Uttered in Games, Other Than What T-Elos Says At 1:01 in The Following Video:


1) Ilia refers to something as "invisible matter".

.... I know RPG's - or video games in general - require us to suspend our disbelief to a certain degree on many things, especially concerning the stories themselves, and Star Ocean 1 is a game whose story hinges largely on the advanced technology that some races discover upon following their dreams of sailing the stars (e.g. column jumping, space compression, dimensional travel, warp speed, basically all manner of things that will probably never happen in real life, etc.). .... Still, INVISIBLE. MATTER.? Just straight-up matter that has no tangible form? I mean, Ilia says this like it is a naturally-occurring phenomena that is not made unseen to human eyes by magic or even some sort of scientific breakthrough. Matter is anything that has weight and occupies space, from what I can reach into and pull out from my elementary-school learning, so I just have a really hard time putting these two words - "invisible" and "matter" - in direct succession.

... I call it lazy scriptwriting. But, hey, even the best storyboards are bound to have a few small pieces of thoughtless dialogue here and there. This one I can forgive, even if it did just instantly stand out at me as profoundly stupid.
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2)Roddick: "What is Planet Styx, anyway?"

Ilia (not missing a beat): "It is a planet ..... (and so on)"


No, this one I refuse to forgive. Granted, Roddick and Milly are from a planet much like Expel in that its citizens live in such an under-developed civilization that they do not seem to acknowledge that other worlds outside their own even exist, much less possess the technology to travel space in order to explore those other worlds. But still, this is just a stupid answer to a question that is clearly intended for the replier to describe what this particular planet is like, NOT to reiterate the obvious fact that Planet Styx is, in fact, a freaking planet. Roddick and Milly have already had it briefly explained to them that there are other planets out there in space, and that Roak (where they are from) is just one of them, so I am sure they already understand well that Planet Styx is called PLANET Styx for a reason. Otherwise, I think logic would have just led them to the same conclusion, anyway. Thanks, Ilia. .... You know, it would have helped a little if you had actually described Planet Styx further than what we already know it be from its name alone, genius. All she says after "it's a planet" is that Styx is like Earth or Roak (in that it is planet).

Wow!
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3) (all paraphrased) Dorne: "I have caught the disease! I will eventually turn to stone!"

Millie: "Oh, no!"

Roddick: "We should take him home, then."

..... No, Roddick. Just ... no.

Allow me to exposite, here. 'Don't care if it isn't a word, I deem that "exposite" be made the official verb form of "exposition."

It is at this point in the game that everyone in the village the party has just left behind is turning to stone (or has already done so) as the result of a terrible epidemic that has just broken out. Millie's father attempted to venture up this mountain the party is having this conversation before in search of what he assume to be the only cure to this stone-inducing disease. He has contracted the disease himself, and by the time the party reaches the village through which the epidemic has already spread and affected everyone, they come to the conclusion that the disease could easily come to strike everyone on the whole entire planet, and since no one in the party's home village even knows for sure where they ran off to when they heard the news that Millie's father has failed in his quest to find the cure, the way I see it is, the party is now the only remaining hope of finding the cure on the mountain, or else the entire continent will be littered with the stoned bodies of its inhabitants before too long. ... No matter what happens, they have to go forward and try to find the cure, right?

On the way up the mountain, Dorne realizes he has come into physical contact with same carrier pigeon that Millie's father touched when he was already infected, and so there you go. It is always only a matter of time before the infected turn to stone completely, so this means that as of now it is all up to Mille and Roddick, right? They are the only two left who aren't infected for miles around.

... And yet, Roddick suggests they SPEND ANOTHER TWO DAYS TAKING DORNE ALL THE WAY BACK HOME. What an idiot! In anything, it should only spur them up the mountain faster before something else goes wrong and all hope for curing the stoned creatures is entirely lost! Why risk anything at all by returning home?! WHAT GOOD COULD THIS OPTION POSSIBLY DO?!!! This actually ranks up there in obvious stupidity with that one scene in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks when Liu Kang observes in person a Baraka clone using his sword arms to abuse, slice, stab, and toss around a completely helpless monk, only to ask after five minutes of the brutal torture "*gasp* Are you okay?!" Facepalm sentence of the century! Hello!!!!!

And, people, don't even get me started on that ridiculous summoning chant that Ronixis belted out without warning to make the time gate appear at about the 90-minute mark, just before I turned the game off for the night. That whole Time God bit just sort came out of nowhere, and especially in a game that focuses so much on space-faring technology, I don't understand why we couldn't have just settled for a Ronixis-unlocks-the-safety-on-a-special-not-yet-approved-for-actual-use-device-that-allows-their-work-of-modern-science-celestial-ship-to-travel-at-such-fast-speeds-that-it-actually-traverses-time-as-well-as-space-at-amazing-lengths-and-away-we-gooooooo!!!! I almost laughed at this dude's terrible performance during that scene.

.... Good game so far, and very reminiscent of Star Ocean 2 since it received an obvious make-over in graphics and other elements to suit the PSP, but, holy crap, I was getting some stupid dialogue vibes there for a while. Anyway, that's my blog for the day. 'Hope you found it enlightening.




MARY MAGDELENE!

Reminds me of when I played the SNES version, and about halfway through the game I had completely forgotten what my task was, until at some random point it was brought up again.

I don't think the original Star Ocean was going for much in the story and dialogue departments.

Remember though, it's just a game, inside of a game.

Please tell me that you weren't referring to SO1 when you said that, myoki. Wasn't the fact that none of the characters or the universe they lived in truly existed the main draw of SO3's plot? ... Which is the only reason I never intend to finish that game?!

You know, I don't care if the SO3 plot was referring to all other SO titles or not, but it's one of the stupidest plot twists in gaming history and refuse to accept Star Ocean 1, 2, or 4 to be a part of that. It seems every series of games has it's black sheep. SO's just happens to be 3.

As far as the dialog for SO1 goes, just remember this was the dialog used in a game originally released nearly 15 years ago. So cut it a little slack, dude.