Tales Of The Seven Seas 2 (Player Two Start)

Tales Of The Seven Seas 2 is the sequel to the pirate-themed 1995 hit Tales of the Seven Seas, published by Sony and devloped by Naughty Dog. The game takes place a year after the first game and features the same seven playable characters: Erick, Dona, Victoria, Creel, Albert, McKenna, and Jack, returning from the first game with largely the same abilities and skills, with a few new ones added in. Graphically, the game is largely the same as the first, though with a few added 3-D effects, the game is considered one of the best looking games to appear on the SNES-CD, and, like the original game, features a CD audio soundtrack and fully voiced dialogue. This time, instead of sailing on a ship for the majority of the game (though the seven characters still have their ship and travel on it from time to time), the game largely revolves around the bustling town of Port Seashell, the characters' main base of operations. Instead of wandering the ship talking to characters between missions, you can now wander the town and visit various places there, which, like in the original game, leads to dialogue trees and potential new missions. This game is a bit smaller in scope than the original, there are around 85 missions total, of which you'll complete somewhere between 20-30 if you take the straightest path through the story. There are once again endings for each of the main characters depending on the relationships formed during the game, though, like the original game, they're all “good” endings for the most part. The easiest ending to obtain and the “canon” ending is Dona's, as the main storyline somewhat revolves around her.

It's a year after the end of the first Tales of the Seven Seas, and Erick and his friends have found a port of call: Port Seashell, a relatively peaceful town that's home to pirates and refugees from all over the seas who are looking for downtown or somewhere stable to live. In Port Seashell, however, Dona has found her mother, father, and younger sister, all of whom she thought had died. The remainder of the crew wants to get back to sailing the high seas, but Dona is slowly reconnecting with her family and is thinking about settling down with them again. All of this is complicated by the arrival of Silverbeard, a vicious pirate captain who is launching raids on Port Seashell in search of information about an ancient hoard of gold that lies buried somewhere on a nearby island. The action of the game largely revolves both around doing favors for townspeople in Port Seashell and stopping Silverbeard from collecting clues to the treasure (and also defending the town). Over the course of the game, you'll battle various members of Silverbeard's crew (and in some paths you can turn them to your side as allies). Depending on how the story goes (and in the canon and most common branches taken by players), one or both of Dona's parents die at the hands of Silverbeard, and Dona's younger sister is kidnapped by him at the end of the story to be taken as his bride, leading to the final confrontation with the deadly pirate in an ancient fortress where the great treasure is buried. After Silverbeard's defeat, Port Seashell is made peaceful once again. Dona realizes that her true destiny lies on the high seas with her friends, and the crew once again sets sail for their next adventure...

Tales Of The Seven Seas 2, despite not QUITE reaching the same commercial success as its predecessor, is still one of the top selling new release games of the year and is fondly remembered as one of the last great hits on the Super Nintendo CD. It's also as well reviewed as its predecessor, with mostly 9s and even a few 10s. It doesn't kick off another huge pirate boom like the first game did, but it does solidify the series as one of Nintendo's best video game franchises.