" Starocean:The Second Story, which none of you have played"
Don't cut us short, there. I bought Star Ocean when it came out, way back in '99. July, I think it was.
Yet, I wasn't all that impressed with it. It was a decent RPG, there's no opposition from me there, but it certainly wasn't spectacular. It is highly under-rated, though, as it came out when so many other RPGs came out as well. I remember buying Final Fantasy Anthologies, and FF VIII all around the same time.
However, I've never been a big fan of Enix, and their failure to release the First Star Ocean had upset me, a bit. But, SOII's battle system wasn't all that amazing to me, mainly because I had played Tales of Phantasia before hand. While I'm sure that means nothing to you, ToP had a battle system very similar to SOII, but was released a year or so before on the SNES, in Japan only.
Star Ocean's Story was a little dry at first, but it wasn't as bad when you played as Rena Lanford. I disliked Claude's branch quite a bit. But feh, I've strayed way off topic. In conclusion: Yes, I have played Star Ocean 2.
As for Mario Sequals, I would like to see another Mario RPG, as well. I didn't care much for Paper Mario. However, I would like the turn-based Style to continue, as that is my prefered RPG battle system. Oh course, if they wished to move it to ATB (Active Time Battle), then that would be fine as well.