Star Ocean: The Second Story Missable Achievements Guide - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki

Set developed by Altomar, guide written by benit149

Hello, and welcome to my achievement guide for Star Ocean: The Second Story. A lot of these tips can be applied to the PSP port Star Ocean: Second Evolution as well. Second Evolution introduces a new playable character named Welch Vineyard, but since this guide is primarily for Second Story, she will not be covered here in any meaningful manner.

If you’re brand new to the Star Ocean franchise, it is a JRPG series with real-time combat. You are able to pause the action with menus for things like using magic, items or skills. If you’re familiar with how the Tales series’ combat works, congratulations – you already know how to play any Star Ocean game. The similarities are due to some members of Tales of Phantasia’s development team leaving Namco and joining Enix to create Star Ocean 1 for SNES. Instead of a story- and character-heavy focus within fantasy settings seen in the Tales games, Star Ocean is more centered on gameplay and party micromanagement with a sci-fi setting inspired by Star Trek. The stories are not as in-depth, but you can easily sink dozens of hours into managing skills, creating items, fighting battles, and improving affinity values regardless.

Unlike in Star Ocean 1 where you just have a single protagonist, both Second Story and its two remakes Second Evolution and Second Story R allows you to choose one of two protagonists at the beginning: a boy from Earth named Claude Kenni, or a girl from the planet Expel named Rena Lanford. While the overall plot is not affected, you are able to experience certain points of the story from a given character’s perspective. This also affects which Private Actions are available, as well as recruitment for certain characters. The character you do not choose will become the deuteragonist for your main protagonist. Claude and Rena are always mandatory party members, so of your maximum roster of 8 characters, you can only recruit 6 out of the 10 remaining characters available.

This game is incredibly complex and dense with mechanics and information, which could overwhelm a newcomer to the series. If this is your first time playing, I strongly suggest you just do a blind run and play however you want to get comfortable with how these elements blend together. This also helps with unlocking the Universe difficulty since it’s tied with collecting voice samples. The important thing is to NEVER overwrite ANY save files, since the game reads all of the memory card’s files to compile the voice clips. You need to unlock 50% of the voice clips across all of these files to access this difficulty, and it is genuinely impossible to collect 100% of all voices without cheating. I’ve heard conflicting information about whether you need 45% or 50% of the clips, so just collect enough to reach that ballpark. Once you have enough, go into the Voice Collection and you'll hear the same chime used when a character is healed. Now start a new game and choose your character, and a new difficulty option will come up.

Note that from here on, there will be major story spoilers. If this is your first time playing the game and you wish not to be spoiled, please do not read any further.

For the nitty-gritty detailed explanation of the gameplay mechanics, please go to the In-Depth Gameplay Analysis page. If you’re just here for a basic story roadmap and to get the achievements, read on.

BASIC STORY ROADMAP

This is where I will explain in bullet point format for what to do through the story to acquire all of the missable achievements in chronological order. The cheevos themselves will be detailed further below. This outline can apply regardless if you choose Claude or Rena, although there is one story moment only experienced in Claude’s route that’s desirable for Pickpocketing purposes. I also throw in some optional objectives if you want to explore just a bit more of the game than usual. The vast majority of missables are in Disc 1, but you still need to watch out for some in Disc 2.

Disc 1

Choose your character, and go through the initial story involving Rena being kidnapped by Alen. In Rena’s route, give the full tour of Arlia to Claude for The Tour Guide
As a side note, unlock either 45% or 50% of the Voice Collection in Earth Mode (I’m not sure on the actual number) to unlock Universe Mode. Start working on this now, making multiple saves with different parties for this reason
Another side note is to decide which 8 characters you want for your final party in a given save file. You need a full party of 8 to allow for particular achievements to unlock, so plan this ahead of time
Once you have both C&R, go to Cross City and spend the night, have the audience with the king, then be forced to explore Cross Cave with Celine
OPTIONAL: Make a seed save in Cross Cave’s depths after acquiring the Ancient Writings. This is so you can decide if you want to keep or ditch Celine once you backtrack to the entrance. Make one save where you keep her, and another where you ditch her
Start a PA in Clik and watch a scene involving a woman named Filia. If you fail to watch this PA, you have missed out on removing the final boss’ limiter late in Disc 2. During this PA, you also need to steal the Mischief accessory from Filia for Good Fortune is on Your Side. This will require a lot of grinding in Lasguss Mountains to fulfill the requirements
Again in Clik, fail to steal from the woman in the changing room of the clothing shop for Pervert!!. Do this ASAP since the woman disappears after doing everything with Ketil. Speak to the captain, go through the events involving Ketil, then watch the town get destroyed
Go to Mars Village and do the events involving the kidnapped children
OPTIONAL: Once complete in Mars Village, update your ‘seed’ files from Cross Cave. This is when new characters can start being recruited, so these files are excellent starters for building a variety of parties
OPTIONAL: If you’re recruiting Ashton, go to Herlie to hear about a dragon in Salva Cave and do his quest line. This locks you out of recruiting Opera and Ernest
Take the ship to Hilton, then sleep at the inn for E.T. Home Phone
Go to Lacour and initiate the Lacour Arms Tournament storyline. Once Claude gets second place and receives his rewards from his sponsor, immediately go to Gamgee’s house and get the Sharp Edge from him! Do loads of grinding in Sanctuary of Linga to boost Claude’s Customize skill to level 10 and get two Mithril from the Radar skill, then forge the Eternal Sphere for Aeterna
OPTIONAL: If you’ve ignored Ashton and are recruiting Opera, this is when you go to Hilton and find her in the bar. Go to Cross City, get permission from the king, then go to Mountain Palace to find her. Assist in her search, and she’ll join. This locks you out of recruiting Ashton
Backtrack all the way to Salva to find Raddle. Give him the directions outlined in Raddle the Traveler
Go to Linga and have Bowman send the party to the Sanctuary of Linga. Go all the way to the back of the cave to fight the three Visseyers, fulfilling the requirements for Eat or Be Eaten, and get the herb for Dill Whip
OPTIONAL: This is when you want to recruit either Precis or Bowman. Precis can be recruited even before the Lacour Arms Tournament. Bowman must be recruited after clearing Sanctuary of Linga. If you recruit one, you cannot recruit the other
Go back to Lacour and agree to escort Leon to Hoffmann Ruins. Fight the Harfainxes and fulfill the requirements for Into the Storm
If you’ve recruited Opera, the Hoffman Ruins is your chance to recruit Ernest. He is important for stealing two Battle Suits, which are needed for Combat Ready. If Opera is not in your party, save this for another playthrough – there aren’t enough Battle Suits available without Ernest
Return to Lacour and volunteer to join the front lines. This is when you’ll fight Shin, a battle that cannot be won but must be survived for Live to Fight Another Day. Once you join the front lines, you will eventually be stranded on El Continent, not allowing you to go back to Cross or Lacour Continents for a long while
OPTIONAL: If you’re on Rena’s route, Dias can be recruited at the front lines. If you’re on Claude’s route, Leon can be recruited at the settlement on El. These two are mutually exclusive choices determined by which hero you choose
Explore Eluria Tower, finding a room with three treasure chests. One of these is the Trickster accessory for Trickster, and contributes to Good Fortune is on Your Side. Thoroughly clean out the treasures here too, because this is a one-time area that affects Treasure Hoarder
CLAUDE ONLY: Get beamed up to the Calnus and do some stealing from the NPCs here (one has a Battle Suit). Family Reunion is marked as missable because it is not available in Rena’s route
That’s everything for Disc 1, so just enjoy the game for a long while

Disc 2

OPTIONAL: Noel’s recruitment option occurs during the story. Chisato’s recruitment requires viewing some missable short scenes with her, then returning her ID to her after clearing Cave of Red Crystal and getting the Synard
There are a bunch of non-missable achievements you can get during this time
When you're in Field of Power, allow the apes to use the levers in those unique battles for When Enjoyment Turns to Disaster and Action and Fast Reaction
Progress the story until Berle attacks Mirage in Armlock. This fight occurs after you defeat Marsilio and Shigeo in Fun City. Fulfill the requirements for Lock and Load
Carry on for a while until you reach the game’s final story dungeon, Fienal Tower, and fight Vesper and Decus. Fulfill the requirements to get No More Second Chances
Remember that PA you watched in Clik involving Filia way back in Disc 1? The payoff occurs here. Reach Fienal Tower’s final save point (this sets a flag in the game's memory), then backtrack all the way to Central City and watch a PA there involving Filia in the lobby of the main building. You get an accessory, but more importantly, the final boss’ limiter is turned off, making him exceptionally more powerful. You need to do this process once in Earth Mode and again in Universe Mode, then fight him for both Unlimited and Galaxy of Terror. You could get them both in Universe Mode if you so desire
Go to Fun City’s coliseum and find an old man who will talk about creating a virtual simulation of Expel. Agree to his offer to be transported to Expel with a Synard. This is where Cave of Trials is found for the post-game content. To return to Energy Nede, speak to the purple penguin in Arlia and respond with "You silly Vern Vern!"

ACHIEVEMENTS LIST

Private Actions

I won’t list all of the cheevo icons here, but the basic gist is to view 35 Private Actions in Claude’s route, and 30 in Rena’s. RPG Shrines has already done the grunt work of compiling all of the possible PAs, but there is one line of PAs that tripped me up in Claude’s route, causing me to miss out on one. This involves a bratty little girl first seen in Lacour.

Location: Far east of town
Requirements: Linga quest not done yet
1. "Leave her alone, she's a pain."
Triggers a PA in Herlie.
1. "We can't just leave her..."
Triggers a PA in Linga.

However, this information appears to be incorrect. What it should actually be is:

1. “Leave her alone, she’s a pain.”
Triggers a PA in Linga
1. “We can’t just leave her...”
Triggers a PA in Herlie

What you want to do with this girl is choose #2, go to Herlie and choose #2 again (causes a battle to occur), then go to Linga and do the PA with her there. This sequence of PAs is not available in Rena’s route.

If you want to optimize the number of PAs available for each route, recruit these characters and/or do PAs involving important NPCs. From there, just follow RPG Shrines’ steps. I didn't do this in my Claude run and got his 35 PAs fine, so don't panic if you make different choices.

Claude: Bowman, Eleanor in Herlie, bratty girl in Lacour
Rena: Celine, Ashton, Precis (bigger bulk of PAs compared to Bowman), Chris in Cross City, Eleanor and Yul in Herlie

The Tour Guide (5)

[Rena] Give a complete tour to a stranger

At the beginning of Rena’s campaign, she will be able to show Claude around Arlia Village. Simply bring him to every building and have her explain what it is and who the people are. The last stop is Rena’s house to advance the story.

Good Fortune is on Your Side (10)

Obtain and equip all three accessories which periodically give you random items

The port city of Clik is where this missable achievement begins because it involves stealing the Mischief accessory from Filia during her PA there. This is not as easy as it sounds. You need to spend time leveling your hero’s Poker Face and Courage skills to unlock Pickpocketing, then save 40,000 Fol for the Bandit’s Gloves in Herlie before ever starting this PA. Getting money this early in the game takes a while, and the best place for grinding both levels and money is in the first screen of Lasguss Mountains. You want to abstain from spending on healing items, making this grind trickier than usual. Rest in Cross City’s inn if you want to heal for cheap, although you need to buy Cure Stone from the item shop to heal the Stone status. The payoff will be excellent however, especially if you wish to successfully steal from as many NPCs as possible for the Sleight of Hand and Finders Keepers cheevos. Clik will be destroyed shortly after starting the story there, meaning you lose access to a lot of NPCs.

The other two accessories you need for this cheevo are the Trickster and Fortune. Trickster has an achievement of its own that’s explained below, while Fortune is received after winning the Fun City Survival Battle.

Sleight of Hand (25)

AND

Finders Keepers (10)

Successfully pick 350 pockets, and attempt to pick at least 500 pockets respectively

If you’re going for the Mischief steal, you should be well and prepared for your journey into thieving from a massive pool of NPCs. The only other thing you can do to improve your odds is to craft the Magician’s Hand to replace the Bandit’s Gloves (this also nets you the Magician’s Hand cheevo). Other than that, steal away! Note that you want to save your Private Actions for when you finally get the Magician’s Hand so you can successfully steal from your party members, as they are one-time scenes that are permanently lost if you view them. Claude’s route also has a unique scene on the Calnus late in Disc 1, so that’s another opportunity to steal.

Story events will also change the number of available NPCs. These are the ones I’ve noticed in my own playthroughs:

Clik: the town gets destroyed, so you lose a bunch of NPCs here. Don’t forget to steal from someone in the bar’s bathroom, and fail to steal from the lady behind the curtain in the clothing shop
Salva: during Ashton’s recruitment, there are some mercenaries plus the guard in the cave
Lacour: during the arms tournament, there are a metric ton of NPCs available who disappear once the event is over. If you want to do this with the Magician’s Hand, there are a lot of caveats to this, so if you’re not interested, please move on to the next bullet point.

Craft the Magician’s Hand in Linga before attempting this if you want more successful steals. This will not be easy, and is very expensive since buying 20 Material Kits at a time costs 24,000 Fol. A character also needs the Talents for Dexterity and Sense of Design unlocked. Although Claude has a 50% chance to start with Dexterity and a 65% chance for Sense of Design, his odds for actually learning them are 7.8% each, making him the worst of the mechanic-type characters. He’s already investing SP into Pickpocketing (if he's your hero) and Customize anyway, so it’s wiser to choose someone else, though he’s the only option if you’re doing an Ashton + Bowman run. Opera does have a 100% chance to start with Dexterity and a 60% for Sense of Design, with a near 50% chance of learning it, but the problem is that you can't recruit her before the tournament - it has to be done after. On the other hand, Precis has a 30% chance each to start with both Talents, and a 62.5% chance to learn both. If you are dead set on using a Magician's Hand during the tournament, Precis has to be your go-to choice for Machinery. Again, you don’t have to do any of this if you’re not interested in a perfect steals run

During the arms tournament, you want to check through the town and castle two times over – once prior to the tournament day, and on the tournament day itself. There are also some guards in the viewing stands plus Suphia and Gamgee to steal from after the tournament concludes. If you’re in Claude’s route, you can’t do any stealing from people in the viewing audience because Claude’s equipment is taken away and replaced with his sponsor’s gear for the fights, so that means no Bandit’s Gloves/Magician’s Hand. I haven’t tested if you’re able to do these steals on Rena’s route. Her route has more steals on the whole anyway due to her additional scenes with Dias, which Claude’s route completely skips over

Linga: the party will stay at Bowman’s house after the scene with Keith. Steal from the two students in Keith’s house, Nineh and your allies in Bowman’s house, and from Bowman and Nineh if both of them are standing outside the house (Nineh will be alone if you recruit Bowman). Keith himself has a Beret, a head armor that increases the chance of successful item creation, so make a save outside Linga before trying to get this
Calnus: exclusive to Claude’s route. One of the cadets has a Battle Suit
Arlia: when the old man in Fun City warps the party to Expel, go into the lovey-dovey couple’s home to find a new boy there. He has the Santa’s Boots, which is a really good item

Pervert!! (5)

Next time try to pick the pocket instead of something else

Make a save outside Clik before attempting this. In the clothing shop, there is a woman behind the curtains. Fail the attempt to get this. A successful attempt nabs you an Odd Shirt.

E.T. Home Phone (5)

Watch a scene with Claude after you reach the continent of Lacour

When you finally cross the ocean on the ship from Herlie to Hilton, immediately rest at the inn even if you don’t need to. There will be a nighttime scene involving Claude attempting to use his communicator, and Rena spying on him.

Aeterna (10)

Create the Eternal Sphere with the help of your Item Creation skills

This is an incredibly powerful sword for Claude that you can craft on Disc 1 to help you breeze through the entire rest of the game. However, there is a missable aspect to this, and it occurs during the Lacour Arms Tournament. Do the whole thing and place second in the tournament (can’t lose to any battle prior to Dias), then when your party members start talking about leaving to continue their journey, immediately go to Gamgee’s house and get the Sharp Edge from him! If you accidentally leave town without doing this, you have permanently missed out. The Sharp Edge must be customized with a Mithril to first create the Minus Sword, then the Minus Sword must be customized with a second Mithril to create the Eternal Sphere. There is no other way to acquire the Sharp Edge whatsoever. Furthermore, Claude must win all three battles before losing to Dias to get the sword.

To acquire Mithril, level up the Radar skill one at a time and check your inventory for a new item. Mithril is part of the skill’s item pool, which is very broken if you have the patience to manipulate it. If you don’t get one, reset and try again. I suggest using one level of Radar for multiple characters rather than trying to do it one at a time. As long as you have the Sharp Edge, you can save getting Mithril and forging the weapon for later in Disc 2. I still recommend doing all of this in Disc 1 however – you can see how the game’s item creation system can get utterly busted like this.

The item pool for Radar is as follows:

Aquaberry x5, Blackberry x5, Blueberry x5, Cook From The Heart, Cure Stone, Feet Symbol, Frog, Healing Ring, Mental Ring, Mithril, Moonite, Orichalcum, Peep Half, Spectacles, Stardust Ring

Here are the requisite skills you’ll need - three for unlocking Customize, one for getting the Mithril, and one for reducing the overall SP cost.

Perseverance: Sensibility 2 in Herlie and Hilton, 1600 Fol
Radar & Functionality: Sensibility 3 in Lacour, 2700 Fol. Claude also starts with Functionality.
Craft: Technique 2 in Hilton, 1600 Fol
Metal Casting: Technique 3 in Linga, 3600 Fol

The Eternal Sphere can also be produced as a mystery ?WEAPON item, so have someone who can use Identify and some Spectacles as well.

If you’re curious as to whether or not you could do this process for the other Disc 1 characters’ gear, you potentially could if you have the time and patience. This was something I did in a casual playthrough, doing what I could to craft the best possible weapons and armor for every character except Noel and Chisato. These are the results of that work, which you can do the research at RPG Shrines to learn how to make everything. Note that I did not use the Treasure Chest from the old man in Mars to get myself anything potentially better than what’s shown here, and certain weapons were way too hard to Customize without Orchestra. Please don’t chew me out if you think a better piece of gear should be here.

Raddle the Traveler (5)

Help a lost traveler find his way

After the Lacour Arms Tournament concludes (and you get your Sharp Edge!), backtrack to Salva to find the scholar-type NPC Raddle the first time, who says he wants to go to Herlie. Tell him to “go north”. Find him next in Mars and tell him “it’s east of here”. Now take the boat to Hilton to find him there, and tell him “take the return boat”. He’s finally reached his destination in Herlie, so go to the town’s inn and receive a Funny Slayer from him, which will be invaluable for grinding MetalFunny in Cave of Trials way later. All of these are the first options, so you can just button mash the entire time. Don’t forget to steal from Raddle before talking to him each time, since he takes off after you give him the directions.

Dill Whip (5)

Discover a completely new species at Sanctuary of Linga and bring it to Bowman

In Linga, Bowman will send the party into the Sanctuary of Linga to prove their worth to him. The assignment is to find an undiscovered species of plant and show it to him. You’re actually able to find two rare herbs – Clarisage or Dill Whip. Do not interact with ANY of the green herb clusters you see throughout the cavern’s early and middle portions. One of them will be the Clarisage, which you don’t want because it’ll lock you out of getting Dill Whip.

Instead, go all the way to the back, right near where a hard-to-see gap in the northernmost room with a save point is. This room is so hard to see, I never actually knew about it when I was younger, and only accidentally discovered it years later. If you’re able to see the save point, you’re in the right spot. There is an herb just before this entrance, which will be the Dill Whip. Bring it back to Bowman and you’ll get the achievement. Be warned that Lacour’s state will update from ‘default’ to ‘evacuated’, so be 100% sure you’ve done everything you want to do with Lacour before turning in the Dill Whip. Read the next cheevo’s explanation for suggestions with busywork you can do to unlock other achievements before continuing the plot in Lacour.

Eat or Be Eaten (10)

Defeat all Visseyers without anyone get eaten

From the spot with the Dill Whip, go east into the area with the save point and reach the next screen to initiate a fight with the Visseyers. They’re capable of eating characters, which remove them from the battle unless the monster is defeated, which then spits the character back out. This happens with incredible frequency given that they are boss enemies rather than regular monsters. Stay very far away from them and use ranged attacks or spells. They’re also very slow, so running away from them is easy enough with an agile character.

My personal strategy was to only have Claude in the battle party and use the long-range version of Shooting Stars, combined with some bomb usage to clear my inventory. I had boosted Shooting Stars’ proficiency during my playthrough, but there are plenty of other long-ranged moves to rely on between your party members. I ran circles around them until I found my chances, making sure not to use the short-range Shooting Stars by accident. I got lucky and poisoned one of them with an item too, so the damage ticks eventually killed that one. Once two of them were left, the fight became much easier to manage.

Miscellaneous

Now that you have the Dill Whip, this is the last opportunity to run some errands before turning it in to Bowman. There’s quite a bit to do such as PAs, Pickpocketing, leveling up, spending SP on skills, unlocking Talents, crafting the Eternal Sphere, discovering favorite foods, obtaining better weapons and armor for everyone, writing Contracts, and plenty more.

A nifty trick I recommend if you want to get loads of money much later on in Disc 2 is to get Publishing to level 10, then author every available party member’s FP-boosting and RP-boosting books. Sell these at Lacour’s publishing house, and the royalties will build up in the background while you’re busy with the rest of Disc 1 and all of Disc 2’s story. Buy one of each of these books and hang on to them so you can sell them at Central City’s publishing house too. This will only work for Claude, Rena, Celine, Ashton, Opera, and Precis. The other characters are only available after Lacour is evacuated, and even then the publishing office will not be reopened until WAY later when you can go back to Expel.

A Super Specialty you can work on is Reverse Side (Pickpocketing + Reproduction), which produces Contracts to use at inns for the Monopoly achievement. It also produces Fill-Up, Lien, Forged Bills, Forged Checks, Forged Documents, and Forged Medals, which are all fantastic items. There’s also the Secret Ledger, which you want to use one to get the achievement Second Ledger. For the Contract, every town except for Arlia has an inn you can use one in to make it free. Excluding Arlia, Disc 1 has 7 inns, while Disc 2 has 5 inns, so you’d want to make 12 Contracts total. They are one of the harder items to produce, so expect to take some time with this process.

If you want better armor than what’s available, work on another Super Speciality called Blacksmithing (Alchemy + Customize). With intelligent manipulation of the Radar skill to acquire precious metals, you can craft some amazing gear this early in the game. If you want better weapons, I suggest sticking with items from Fill-Ups and Liens since farming SP will slow down at a certain point, and Talent management will be too difficult without Orchestra.

Also consider boosting Orchestra (Musical Talent + Art) to level 10 since the skills associated with it are pretty expensive. This will pay off at the beginning of Disc 2, which I explain in Seasoned Adventurer.

Into the Storm (10)

Defeat both Harfainxes in Hoffmann Ruins before they cast Thunderstorm

Before doing the boss battle, you can get the Demolition Man achievement by detonating all seven bombs in Hoffmann Ruins. All of them damage your party members, but one opens a new passage to a room with four chests. You’ll know when you found one when the screen zooms in a little as you approach the lever. There is no lever in the boss room, so if you’re missing any, just keep exploring every nook and cranny.

For the boss battle, this can be annoying because one of the Hairfainxes can cast Thunderstorm practically at the beginning of the fight, giving you almost no chance to retaliate. If you’ve gotten the Eternal Sphere, this will be a piece of cake with Claude spamming Ripper Blast on one boss while your other fighters concentrate their best moves on the other. If you don’t have the sword, Ripper Blast is still an excellent choice, with other moves like Precis’ Parabola Beam, Bowman’s Poison Pills, Opera’s Alpha on One, and the mages’ AoE spells providing support. Ashton doesn’t really have any moves he can execute quickly, so set him to “Conserve killer moves!” so he can use his regular attack.

Combat Ready (10)

Obtain at least four Battle Suits and equip them on any four active party members

If you’ve recruited Opera, this is your opportunity to recruit Ernest. He is invaluable for acquiring two Battle Suits as steals from him. One is during a PA in Mars Village, the other during a PA in Linga. There are five Battle Suits in total – two from Ernest, one from a cadet in the Calnus during Claude’s route only, and two in Cave of Trials. Ernest’s recruitment is mandatory if you want to get at least four. If you don’t have him and Opera in your party, ignore this for now until you do. Every party member can equip a Battle Suit, so you don’t have to worry about party management there.

Live to Fight Another Day (10)

Survive the encounter with Shin at Lacour Front Line without any casualties

During the story, the party will be sent to the Lacour Front Lines. There will be a boss encounter with Shin, an annoying flying enemy who can hit pretty hard and takes no damage from your attacks. The battle is on a timer, so you need to survive without anyone getting KO’ed. The easiest way to do this is to just use a party of Claude and Rena, controlling Claude and running around while Rena keeps up with healing. You ideally want her to learn Fairy Heal at level 52 for the best single target healing, but you may also want to use items for an emergency. Shin’s most dangerous attack is where he throws a spinning blade at someone, which is very difficult to dodge. His other attacks are Spoiling, which is simple to dodge, and the AoE spell Foehn that doesn’t do much damage.

Treasure Hoarder (25)

Open at least 250 treasure chests

Make sure you open every treasure chest in Eluria Tower, the last dungeon of Disc 1, because it’s the only missable dungeon in the entire game. The next achievement also applies to this.

Trickster (5)

Obtain a mysterious armband that attracts good fortune

The Trickster accessory is only found in Eluria Tower. From the entrance, go up the stairs on either side, then in the room with the chests containing Cure Paralysis, Sapphire, and Aquaberry, go through a door to the left into a room with three more chests. The Trickster is in one of these, plus Musical Software and Crestier Guard in the others.

Family Reunion (5)

[Claude] Have a temporary family reunion before you reach Energy Nede

As I have harped on probably a thousand times within this guide, Claude’s route has a unique area he can access when he is beamed aboard the Calnus in Eluria Tower for story reasons. While the event itself isn’t missable in Claude’s route, if you choose Rena’s route at the beginning, you will never see these scenes. The cadet standing to the right of the door has a Battle Suit, so be absolutely sure to nab it if you’re going for Combat Ready (or in general really, since it’s such a fantastic piece of armor).

Seasoned Adventurer (10)

Learn all 10 talents with any character

While this is not marked as missable, only Leon and Noel can reasonably learn all 10 Talents due to them having access to Blessing of Manna. Please read the section for Talents in the In-Depth Gameplay Analysis, as there are some crucial details you will want to know for unlocking Talents, along with a myriad of rules to worry about. This can get pretty frustrating if you don’t understand the meta game for Talents. There is the potential to miss recruiting Leon and Noel, and only Noel is available on Rena’s route.

I put this achievement here because reaching North City is finally the opportunity for you to open up the Super Specialty called Orchestra. With enough SP invested in Musical Talent + Art to level it to 10, plus a Conductor’s Baton, plus all of the songs learned on all six musical instruments (each instrument has two songs to unlock), you will be able to play a short song that dramatically improves a character’s success rate with item creation or other specialties like Scout, Musical Talent and Familiar. This allows you to unlock Talents that you previously couldn’t in Disc 1 due to the lack of instruments available. Another song you can use for Talent unlocks is Violin 2, “Hail the Goddess”, again only available once you reach North City since the Violin is sold there.

The biggest hurdle is leveling up the skills related to Musical Talent and Art. Their SP costs are very expensive, but if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, the payoff will be tremendous (like with many other things in this game).

Delicious Tastes (5)

Discover the favorite food for all 8 party members (7 if Chisato joined)

Not a missable achievement, but requires knowledge of what everyone’s favorite food is. When a character eats their favorite meal, they will recover a large amount of HP and MP depending on how much SP is spent on the Recipe skill. You also need a full party of 8 characters before you can get this achievement. Furthermore, Chisato’s favorite food is dummied out in the game, so it is impossible to discover hers. If you plan on recruiting her, you won’t get the achievement until she joins the party however. Thus, Noel is the final character whose favorite food you can actually discover, which is why I saved this for here. I’ve written what everyone’s favorite food is in the Character Recruitment section of the In-Depth Gameplay Analysis, but I’ll also write a short list here for quick reference.

Claude: Steak
Rena: Shortcake
Celine: Baby Rabbit Risotto
Ashton: Hamburger
Precis: Chocolate Crepes
Opera: Apple Cider
Bowman: Daikon Miso Soup
Ernest: Hassaku Tea
Dias: Chicken Skewers
Leon: Carrot Juice
Noel: Big Tuna
Chisato: dummied out, but is supposed to be Fruit Sandwich

Action and Fast Reaction (5)

Cause a disastrous event in Field of Power and escape from it

AND

When Enjoyment Turns to Disaster (5)

Cause a disastrous event in Field of Power but fail to escape from it

After reaching the Field of Power's summit, fighting the boss and doing the story sequence there, go back down three screens until you're at the area with the four entrances and a ladder. There is a platform nearby indicated by the red circle in this screenshot where you can initiate a cutscene of your protagonist being able to yell, which causes an avalanche. For Action and Fast Reaction, quickly run to the cavern on the lower right to escape the avalanche. If you try to run for the upper right cavern, the avalanche will definitely hit you. For When Enjoyment Turns to Disaster, just let the avalanche sweep you away to the mountain's entrance. This was implemented as a workaround in case you got stuck due to failing to prevent the apes from pulling the levers in those special battles, which changes the dungeon's layout and could softlock you otherwise.

Secret Charity – Fake Gallery (5)

Locate a secret shop somewhere in Energy Nede

Not missable, but is hard to find if you don’t know where to look. Once you have the Synard, you can find this well-hidden shop by landing on one of the tiny snow-covered islands located between Giveaway and the Field of Power. The shop has the best armor available without relying on Blacksmithing, but it is very expensive, so have a few million Fol on hand.

The Orchid Derby (5)

Complete the Bunny Race and win any award in Fun City

This is one of the rare opportunities to win Bunny Shoes, a type of foot armor that makes your characters run unbelievably fast on the battlefield. You can also steal a pair from the Bunny Mannequin receptionist in the Bunny Races hall, although the steal is rather difficult. This means you ideally want to win seven pairs from the races (or just three if you only want enough for your battle party). Just choose “No, I’m ready to bet” once the announcers give the option and choose your two Bunnies. If the Bunny Shoes are not on the list, other good prizes available include Magical Drops, Seltzer, Wisdom Ring and Fairy Ring. From there, it’s just pure RNG. The Bunnies that are tied to such good prizes tend to be bottom tier, but keep trying and you’ll get enough items eventually. Some characters can make Fairy Rings out of Green Beryls, and both Claude’s Sacred Tear and Rena’s Fallen Hope weapons halve MP consumption, so consider that as an alternative to sitting through Bunny Races for those.

If you still don't want to bash your head trying to get Bunny Shoes from races, there's always the option of stealing Santa's Boots from the boy in Arlia, then setting up a turbo button and staying at a free inn over and over again while you sleep overnight IRL, ideally with fast forward on. Bunny Shoes is part of the item pool for Santa's Boots, so you should get enough of them when you wake up. I still recommend getting at least four pairs to help with the Ten Wise Men battles leading up to Indalecio, since the Santa's Boots are not available until you reach the final save point.

Master Chef (10)

Complete the Fun City Cooking Master contest with any character

Another non-missable cheevo, but can be frustrating due to some vague requirements for success. The most obvious is the Talent for Sense of Taste unlocked. The next is making an All-Purpose Knife using a piece of Iron in Blacksmithing, plus acquiring a Beret, then equipping both on your chosen character before entering the contest. A much less obvious skill you want to boost is Courage - you have a Pressure gauge which fills up when you fail your cooking, and gets lower with every successful dish. Courage prevents the Pressure gauge from filling up too much. Without Courage, your character will frequently fail making dishes, and some of the contestants are very difficult to defeat. Since Courage is needed for Pickpocketing, have your main hero with that Specialty maxed out do the contest.

The basic premise is that you engage in a cooking battle against one of Yarma’s disciples (or Puffy from Star Ocean 1, who pops in as a surprise challenger). Once they’re all defeated, you’ll challenge Yarma himself. The theme ingredient is introduced, then you’re placed in your cooking area on the right. Run up to the ingredient to take as many as you need, then run back to the kitchen, enter the menu and get to work. Every ingredient has a common type and a rare type – the Slime battle has Slippery Slime as the common ingredient and Jiggly Slime as the rare ingredient, even though they produce the same things. You have five minutes to cook as many dishes as possible to accrue points that determine the judging.

Only use the rare ingredients for this. Don’t bother with the common ingredients because their point values are not worth the effort. The skills and tools I mentioned will boost your character’s likelihood of success, thus giving them a higher score. If your character wins, you will be awarded an ingredients set that includes the rare ingredients. You can use Reproduction to clone the ingredients so you don’t have to come back here. To get the achievement, your character needs to defeat Yarma, but that character will not be able to participate in the contest anymore.

The Truth is Out There (5)

Unlock and read all secret files

Ever wondered what the Sorcery Globe actually was, who the Ten Wise Men are, why you’re fighting them, and much more? The story does not hand a lot of that information out for free - you have to go looking for it yourself. First you need to do the story events in the Heraldic Weapons Institute, then follow these steps. Credit goes to RPG Shrines, but with a small amendment:

Read ALL the files in the North City database. The information's pretty interesting, but if you know it all already, set your message speed to 1 in the options menu and it'll go by pretty fast. Then try accessing the secret files.
Head to Giveaway and enter the university. Talk to the Dean (he's in the far right room on the first floor); he'll mention something about Reyfus.
Reyfus is in the far left room on the second floor. Talk to him now.
Go back to Central City and talk to Chisato (if she's in your party you'll have to enter a PA).
Leave Central City and go back in (again, going into a PA if she's in your party) and talk to her again.
Go back to North City and talk to the operator. You'll break through security, but you won't actually be able to read the files because your terminal is outdated.
Go back to Giveaway and talk to Reyfus; tell him you were the ones to enter the Research Lab, and give him the codes you saw there; you'll then be able to read the first two categories. Read everything, then try to access the last two categories and you'll be cut off.
Go back and talk to the Dean and he'll give you the Pandora's Box, a decrypting device.
Go back and talk to Reyfus and give him the Pandora's Box. Now you have to leave and come back later. This part is where RPG Shrines’ info is incorrect. You don’t need to have any amount of real time pass. Just do a PA in Giveaway, exit, then re-enter normally and speak to Reyfus to read the final two files.

Lock and Load (10)

Defeat Berle in the town of Armlock before he use his shield (Meta-Guard) a second time

There are a lot of story scenes and dungeons between Eluria Tower and Berle’s attack on Mirage in Armlock, so you’ll have plenty of time to make your characters stronger for this battle. You even defeat Marsilio and Shigeo at Fun City during this long stretch of story. After Shigeo, Berle will be the next of the Ten Wise Men, which is when this applies. You are allowed to have Berle use Meta-Guard one time since he has a 100% chance to use it anyway, but you need to prevent him from activating it again. Since magic isn’t very effective on him, use three fighters to stunlock Berle as much as possible, plus Rena for healing. The Eternal Sphere’s normal attack will be great for this, but I used a combination of Mirror Slice, Precis’ Parabola Beam, and Chisato’s Rising Dragon.

No Second Chances (10)

Defeat Vesper and Decus in Fienal without resurrecting or destoning any affected party member

Vesper and Decus are a notoriously difficult boss battle, especially Decus due to his AoE fire-elemental attack Spicule. It does have a charge-up time, so keep him locked down with your controlled character while the others gang up on Vesper. Even though Decus is the more dangerous opponent, Vesper is no slouch either, being able to do a lot of damage with a wide-range beam attack. You want to equip one accessory that boosts resistance to fire just in case Spicule goes off, and a Stone Check to prevent the Stone status. From there, it’s just a matter of surviving while dealing the heaviest damage you possibly can.

Unlimited (50)

Defeat Indalecio without his limiter on any difficulty (without equipping the Algol, Chaos Mail or Bloody Armor)

AND

Galaxy of Terror (100)

Defeat Indalecio without his limiter on Universe mode (without equipping the Algol, Chaos Mail or Bloody Armor)

These two have the same premise, with only the difficulty mode being the difference. You had to have seen the PA involving Filia way back in Clik during the story events in Disc 1. Next, you need to defeat Indalecio as intended and see the ending to be able to make a post-game save. Now backtrack to Central City and do a PA in the main building’s lobby involving Filia. After she vanishes, you will receive the Israfil’s Tear accessory, and will remove Indalecio’s limiter to make him much harder than his normal version. If you’re not getting this PA despite reaching the final save point, it’s because you didn’t defeat Indalecio normally.

Even with fulfilling those requirements, you must avoid equipping the specified gear as well. The Algol is an overpowered shield for Precis and Chisato, capable of instantly killing any enemy who attacks the wearer. Chaos Mail has strong defense, while Bloody Armor makes you invincible at the cost of constantly draining the wearer’s HP. The Algol shield must not also be equipped when taking on Iseria Queen, although Bloody Armor is acceptable.

CONCLUSION

That should cover everything you need to know to master this game. Yes, I don't include explanations for every single possible aspect of this game since I feel like I would be repeating everything that RPG Shrines already explains. I just want to explain anything that's relevant for mastering the set, especially due to how complicated the entire system is. If I may reminisce for a moment, Second Story is a game that's close to my heart due to it helping me through a difficult time in my life, keeping me distracted from many negative thoughts with learning how everything works. I hoped to convey both the knowledge I accrued over numerous playthroughs and my passion for it as an overall package with tremendous replay value. It is an understandably difficult game for someone not familiar to get to grips to, but I don't expect anyone to read this entire guide. Just read what's relevant to you, and play however you want. If you're looking for a JRPG that focuses on gameplay rather than story, I promise that you'll find great enjoyment with Second Story and its remakes.

Until the next guide, happy cheevo hunting!

benit149, June 2025