maiji: The aftermath of the Calnus' [spoiler]: bad, or brilliant, perspective-based storytelling (Star Ocean 2 spoilers)

As I’m working away on If/Then scenes and looking up little things in Second Story R to jog my memory and flesh stuff out, I’m reminded of something that’s always bothered me from the first time I ever played Star Ocean 2, which was a Claude playthrough.In subsequent playthroughs of Rena’s story, I actually found the way they tackled it interesting—even rather clever—in some respects, considering the perspective mechanics of the game. So my dislike of it is primarily because I think the approach they chose to take is cruel character development.This is a major story spoiler in the latter half of the game, when you visit Fienal/Phynal the first time. (plus voice acting commentary!) [READ-MORE]Fienal is the stronghold of the Ten Wise Men, final bosses of the game. The first time you visit, it’s set up as if it were the final showdown. But it’s a trick—you end up forced to retreat. During this part of the story, the Wise Men demonstrate their powers using the Calnus as a target, as it happens to be flying over Energy Nede. This, of course, is the ship Claude was on, captained by his father. The destruction of the Calnus is a painful, drawn-out affair as the Wise Men slowly amp up the output of each attack, ignoring all attempted communication from the Calnus (where the crew has no idea what they’re even fighting, all their actions are based on estimates and calculations as they can’t see Energy Nede and have no idea what’s happening there), as well as Claude screaming and begging them to stop. Soon after, you hightail it out of there.  Videos of the scene in question (with some comparison and voice commentary) Second Story R version - English with Japanese voices. Ueda Yuuji (original PS1 voice brought back for the remake) as Claude. Second Evolution version - Japanese. Namikawa Daisuke as Claude. Second Evolution has the same cinematics as the original PS1 game. Second Evolution version - English (same voice cast as English Second Story R). Spike Spencer as Claude. It’s really interesting to compare all the versions. I’ve always found the music in the actual scene so effective, and it’s really neat to see how the colour palette shift in Second Story R contributes to the tension, plus how they changed the architecture of Fienal and where they put the screen to see the Calnus. And the way Second Story R strips out all the interstitial moments showing the Calnus’ crew onboard, replacing it with new cinematics where you only see the ship exterior in space... somehow this makes this sequence more devastating. Just watching these gorgeous visuals of this iconic spaceship attempting to defend itself, overlaid with the dialogue and the voices of all the crew in their final moments. In the original, after the final blast, the cutscene ends with a shot of debris floating silently in space. In Second Story R, the cutscene ends with the blast and the entire screen going white, as if there’s no debris at all, just annihilation. And, as always, I love hearing how all the voice actors tackle their lines. The English voices even have a bit of ironic humour injected into the delivery, when Ronixis adds the directive to raise shields “just in case”.  With regards to Claude, this is definitely one of the, if not the, “All right! Give it everything you’ve got in the recording studio!” scenes for his character. Namikawa Daisuke is usually my preferred voice for most scenes throughout the game that I’ve heard, but here, I’m not so sure. There are things I like about each of the voice actors’ choices. Also Spike Spencer played Ikari Shinji in the Evangelion dub, so that should give you a good idea of his screaming and freaking out voice range. And Ueda Yuuji, holy crap. He seriously just went "Oh is this a 'give it everything you've got' scene? OK!" and dialed everything over 9000. His screaming is super impressive. Though I do find the intensity in a few of the earlier lines may be a bit on the high side, like his dad is dying even before the Calnus is touched. But the effect is undeniable! Listening to the other two after listening to his performance makes them sound so subdued.  I will also say, I do think Spike Spencer has it a little tougher with “No!” in the English translation, versus a multisyllabic “やめる!” (“Stop!”) in Japanese. There’s only so much you can do to stretch out and emphasize one syllable before it starts sounding ridiculous. And Ueda Yuuji is definitely pushing it for me with the length of that last yamero. But great work on all fronts, water and throat lozenges for everyone! The next part of the story is to go to a long-forbidden weapons laboratory to try to upgrade your capabilities. The first time I played through this, I was mad. I mean, yes, at the enemies, because bad guys do what bad guys do, but also at my teammates. In the weapons lab scene, Rena finally learns the truth about her real mother, and runs off in shock. In Claude’s story, every single character in your party tells—in some cases, practically scolds—him to go after her to console her. I’m like, excuse me? Did you not notice he just watched his father die like yesterday?? and we haven’t seen any consoling or sympathy from anyone?? When there’s voice acting, it infuriates me even more. (The only thing that adds levity is English Second Evolution Leon saying “Go, dude!” which causes me a different kind of pain.) Funnily enough, Dias is the only character I don’t have this resentful association with—because he can only be in your party if you’re playing Rena’s story. In her version of this scene, since she’s run off, everything fades before you can see/hear what anyone says to Claude. So you’ll never see Dias nagging Claude on this. Claude’s opportunity to reflect and mourn is a mere footnote to Rena's scene. After he consoles her, she offers him a (this is all paraphrased), “You must be feeling bad about your dad too”. To which he basically says, “I’m fine”, and that he thinks his father wouldn’t want him to be sad. After Rena leaves, Claude looks up at the sky and says, “You wouldn’t, would you, dad?” And that’s all you get in Claude’s story. I searched my (admittedly very far from great) memory and do not remember ever coming across anything else after all my playthroughs and PAs in Second Story and Second Evolution over the years, and a quick search turns up nothing else. Not surprisingly, a lot of people say that it’s weird the game just leaves it at that. Like he’s not deeply affected by the violent death of his father and colleagues, when we’ve been told and shown repeatedly how Ronixis was such a shadow, good and bad, over his entire life, and knowing what Claude’s last moment with his father was (he had to lie to his dad). That going straight to acceptance is a storytelling fail. The first time I played this, that’s definitely how I felt.So. The game actually doesn't leave it at that. If you play Rena’s story, there is a period of time where you can access a PA in Central City (Centropolis); once you go to Fienal again, it will no longer be available. In it, you notice Claude in the furthest, most isolated part of a back alley. You can leave him alone, talk to him, or secretly watch him. If you talk to him, he puts on a positive, encouraging face, just like back at the weapons lab scene. But if you secretly watch him instead, you get to see him blame himself and rage over what happened. His little sprite even punches something angrily. That is the only time you will ever have a sense of Claude’s true feelings on the matter. It’s still strange (and personally a big miss) that they chose not to give Claude anything in his own story, but I do find the existence of this PA makes it more an interesting decision, with more intention, than a simple storytelling oversight. Because it does seem like forgetting to make your main character upset about the main tragedy of his story would be a pretty big oversight. In light of assumed intentionality, it bothered me to no end that the way this is presented means that he buries his real responses. Considering everything we learn about how he used to put on a front for other people... toxic masculinity sucks.You can see the PA here. I can’t find a version of the original PS1, nor can I find a full version of the PA in English.  “Talk to him” option in Second Story R, English: I find it a little weird that he’s now standing on a porch in full view of other characters. I guess they got rid of the layout where there’s a back alley? Full PA in Second Evolution, Japanese: I really like the Japanese voice acting of this scene. Namikawa Daisuke delivers the lines in both options superbly. His line in the beginning of the “talk to him” answer sounds just a bit lighthearted, and strikes a good balance between “I’m clearly faking it” (for the player) and “I’m faking it but I don’t want you to be able to tell” (for Rena). [/READ-MORE]Since I can’t find the full version of the last PA option in English and I can’t play an actual copy right now, I attempted a translation from the Japanese for referencing.とりあえず様子を見でいる / Third option: Wait and see what happens. [READ-MORE]Claude: バカだよな、ぼくは。言いたいことはいっぱいあったのに。素直になれなかった...I’m such an idiot. There was so much I wanted to say. I couldn’t be honest…死んでしまってからじゃ、もう遅いんだよ！Now that you’re dead, it’s too late!*he punches something angrily*仇は取るよ。父さんの代わりに...。I’ll avenge you. On behalf of my father…未開惑星調査船「戦艦カルナス」艦長、ロ二キス・J・ ケニー提督の代わりに、ぼくが必ずあいつらを止めてみせる。***On behalf of the captain of the underdeveloped planetary research vessel, the battleship Calnus, Admiral [or Commodore] Ronixis J. Kenni, I’ll definitely stop them.それが...父さんに対するせめてもの罪ほろぼしだから。That’s… the least I can do to atone for my sins against my father.Rena *still secretly watching him*:  (クロード...。) / (Claude…)(If Rena talks to him after) Claude: 大丈夫だよ。心配しないで、レナ。Everything’s OK. Don’t worry, Rena.Rena: …*** So much complex formal kanji, I hope I transcribed it correctly.[/READ-MORE]