Star Ocean II joins RPG flood

[12.14.98] » With a plethora of role-playing games shaping up for 1999, Sony signs on to port Star Ocean: Second Story. Could Dragon Quest VII be far behind?

Pretty battles...

   It may be a little old, but it seems like this juicy piece of news wasn't quite caught by the online gaming press. According to both Next Generation and the Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment America plans to port Enix's Star Ocean: Second Story to North America on the PlayStation sometime next year. Enix has long hinted at an American release.

   The original Star Ocean was a massive 48 Mb RPG for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) in Japan, featuring scads of voice acting as well as an innovative "emotion points" system -- characers developed deeper emotional attachments for those they spent the most time with. The sequel for the PlayStation, Star Ocean: Second Story, was released earlier this year. Taking place 20 years after the original, the game has been highly admired by players in Japan.

   After pulling out of the United States, Enix has not released any games for English-speaking gamers on any next-gen system. Now with Sony publishing two of Enix's titles (Bust-a-Groove as well as Star Ocean 2), chances seem likely that SCEA will also translate a game as massive as Dragon Quest VII for an English release.