The Maze of Tribulations on the world map
The Maze of Tribulations, also known as the Cave of Trials, is a secret dungeon in Star Ocean: The Second Story, its enhanced port, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, and its remake, Star Ocean: The Second Story R. This dungeon plays no role in the story, and it simply serves as post-game challenge for players.
This dungeon can only be accessed after the player saves at the final save point in Phynal (in the remake, they must finish the game and load a Save Clear data), and then talking to an old man in the Fun City Battle Arena in order to be teleported to Virtual Expel.
Every floor is named and has a different puzzle that the player must solve to proceed to the next floor. Players can find the best equipment in the game here, as well exclusive abilities for Leon, Celine and Ashton.
Floors[]
1F - Heraldic Ruins / Ruins of Symbols[]
The Ruins of Symbols
A straightforward floor. The player must find the stairs to the next floor and then fight a Dark Enchantress to proceed to floor 2.
A shortcut to 9F can be found in this floor.
2F - Love Alley / Lover's End[]
This puzzle is solved by making the stone statues face a direction (normally towards another person, showing "love"). At the start of the floor, there is a stone tablet which gives a riddle to guide the player in which way to face the statues.
The statues must be faced in the following order:
- Milena - South
- Luke - North
- Yuffie - South
- Lloyd - East
- Cistina - South
- Felia - East
- Sharon - West
In The Second Story R, the statues need to be facing this way:
- Sharon - East
- Milena - North
- Luke - South
- Felia - West
- Yuffie - North
- Cistina - North
- Lloyd - West
After all statues are facing the correct direction, the door to the next floor opens, where the player must fight a Blood Gerel.
3F - Single Path Cave / One-Way Cave[]
This puzzle involves the player entering 16 rooms which are positioned in a 4x4 square. The player must enter each room only once and make it back to the starting room.
The solution is as followed:
- Up x2
- Left x2
- Down x3
- Right x3
- Up x3
- Left x1
- Down x2
- Right x1
In The Second Story R, the solution is as followed:
- Up x2
- Right x1
- Down x3
- Left x3
- Up x3
- Right x1
- Down x2
After the player has completed the puzzle, the door to the next floor will open, where the player will have to fight 3 Dreamcasters. If the player returns to this floor later, they don't have to do the puzzle again in order to progress.
4F - Dancing God Altar / Altar of the Dancer[]
This floor contains fake walls, which hide treasures. To get to the next floor, the player must go to the top left most room and walk through the right wall near the top to find a Mirre 32 and the entrance to the next floor.
Players can find a chest that contains Extinction, Leon's Ultimate Spell. The chest cannot be opened if Leon hasn't been recruited; in the remake, this chest will contain a random treasure instead if Leon has not been recruited.
There is also the Goddess of Music, who requests the player to play her a beautiful song. In order to succeed, the player must choose a character with the Specialty Music at high rank (ideally level 10); having the Secret Talents Rhythm Sense and Acoustic Sense are not necessary, but help to succeed. The player is rewarded with the Illusive Shamisen.
5F - Lady's Revenge / Woman's Revenge[]
This floor introduces Puffy, a recurring character in the Star Ocean series. To complete the puzzle, the player must run into Puffy and reply her questions (it doesn't matter which answer, but the corrects are "Puffy" and "beasts"). Regardless of the answers, and then the player will go against a Phantom Salamander; the player must flee the battle as all damage dealt to the boss is reduced to 1.
Then, the player must find Puffy later in the other side of the floor. She'll be attacked by a monster, and the player can choose to save her or not; regardless of the choice, they'll fight Dreamcasters. After defeating the enemies, the player obtains the Phantom Slayer, a knuckle-type weapon which instantly kills any enemy with the name "Phantom", and can be equipped by Rena, Bowman, Noel and Chisato. After the Phantom Slayer is obtained, go to a room right of the first room to find the Phantom Salamander. Make sure the weapon is equipped and the Phantom Salamander will be killed in one hit.
Then the player must find the door to the next floor to proceed.
6F - Burglar's Nest / Nest of Thieves[]
This floor's puzzle involves strange Metal Scum enemies, which take 1 damage from anything and escape after a while. However, they can be insantly killed by equipping the Scumbag Slayer; each Metal Scum awards 35000 experience each.
Also, Santa, the mysterious seller, can be randomly found on this floor. His wares includes all minerals in the game, tri-Emblems, Santa's Boots and Jewels of the Frog. In remake, Santa will always be available in the floor.
To proceed past this floor, the player must enter the large room filled with Thieving Scum statues, a examine statue at the bottom right side of the screen; doing this will prompt to press a button, which will unlock the door to the boss. The player will then proceed to fight a Thieving Scum LV99; these can also be instantly killed with the Scumbag Slayer.
After the battle, the player can go back to the first floor via a teleporter or proceed further. In the remake, the player can also teleport back to this floor at the first floor.
7F - Goddess's Altar / Altar of the Goddess[]
This floor's puzzle requires the player to find the Flawed Orb, and use the Crafting Item Creation on it, to make the Orb of Fire, which must then be placed on a pedestal in order to unlock the door to the boss.
The boss is the Mithril Eater, which palette swap of the Barchian found in Minae Cave.
8F - Food God / God of Food[]
This floor requires the player to have possession of food items made through Cooking and Master Chef. The floor itself will have plenty of food items contained in treasure chests.
At the top side of the floor, the player will find the God of Food, who'll request food from the player. The player must give enough food to the God until they get a prompt to feed them something unedible (like Mandrake or Wolfsbane); by feeding the God of Food one of those poisonous plants, he'll reveal himself to be Puffy in disguise, who'll drop an Orb of Fire to proceed to the boss room.
The boss will be an Elysian Slug, a dangerous enemy that can swallow party members; if all party members are swallowed, it's game over.
9F - Sealed Coffin / The Sealed Casket[]
This floor is does not contain a puzzle. The player must continue towards floor 10 onwards. After floor 11 is completed, the player must return to floor 9 and to fight the Sorceror boss inside the casket, which rewards the player with the Demon Sword Levantine.
In the remake, if the Holy Sword Farewell is obtained early (through Santa's Boots) the player can unlock the coffin earlier, fight the Sorceror, and obtain the Demon Sword Levantine without having to go to floor 11.
10F - Decision Point / Moment of Courage[]
This floor has a 4x4 grid, which the player must step on, to open rooms in the floor. The safest route is, from the bottom left:
- Up
- Right
- Up
- Right
- Right
Other rooms may be opened, which will have a yellow color (HP Poison) or red color (HP and MP Poison with increased enemy encounter rate). These yellow and red rooms have items in them, whereas the green ones do not.
Players can find two special chests in this floor. One contains Meteor Swarm, Celine's Ultimate Spell, and the other contains tri-Ace, Ashton's Ultimate Special Art. These chests cannot be opened if those characters haven't been recruited; in the remake, these chests will contain a random treasure instead if Celine or Ashton have not been recruited.
After the player reaches the end of the floor, they must fight a Geo Guardian.
11F - Dragon's Nest / Dragon's Den[]
This floor doesn't contain a puzzle, just a boss battle.
The player must fight a Dragon Tyrant, a palette swap of the Psynard. After the boss is defeated, the player must leave the Maze of Tribulations and form a party of only two characters; the player will be prompted to form a party of two upon entering the dungeon again.
12F - Hall of Warriors / Warrior's Temple[]
To access this floor for the first time, the player must have a party of two. This is another floor without any puzzles; it only contains four chests and a boss.
Go north from the cross-section to fight a Phoenix, a palette swap of Zinae, who'll reward the player with the Holy Sword Farewell. After the Phoenix is defeated, the player must go back to floor 9 and get the Demon Sword Levantine (the strongest sword in the game) by defeating the Sorceror boss inside the casket.
13F - Hall of the Angel / Cave of the Archangel[]
The final floor of the Maze of Tribulations. The player must have acquired the Demon Sword Levantine and the Holy Sword Farewell to access this floor. After the conditions have been met, the player must find two switches to open the door to Gabriella Celesta's room.
Gabriella Celesta is the third toughest enemy in the game, and is extremely difficult to defeat. Once defeated, Gabriella gives the player the Silver Trumpet, which can play the Devil's Aria, a song that can summon the ultimate secret boss: Iseria Queen.