STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R

This was one of those games where after I finished the story I was left with a void of just wanting more of it. Well fortunately there is a lot more to do in the game and I will be but the core story is completed. I randomly decided to purchase this game when I saw it on sale and I had been interested in trying the star ocean series for a long time. I had little to no expectations but this game is now on the top of my list as one of my favorite JRPGs ever. From the story, the characters, the gameplay, how much there is to do, and the villains (I like to call them space god hand because they remind me of the god hand from berserk) it's amazing. I played on Universe difficulty, one below the hardest which is chaos, and it provided a really good challenge as well. And not the artificial kind either. It felt difficult but fair. I logged 53 hours before completing my first run with Claude, which was also me doing a lot of extra stuff too though. So now I got another playthrough to do with Rena and also to attempt Chaos difficulty. Also the other endings which there are 99 of but uh, I'll probably just knock out 15 for the achievement and call it idk lol. When I looked into the star ocean series I saw this one was almost unanimously considered the best across the fanbase and I can certainly see why. Anyways for the price point I absolutely recommend this game. You get so much content and such a great story with great gameplay at a value you just don't get with games often. It is absolutely worth it. Especially if you're a fan of JRPGs I would say playing this game is a must. ============================================= EDIT GAMEPLAY: I wanted to add this into the review since I didn't delve too deep into it. I was mostly just keeping it simple to why I enjoyed the game so others thinking about trying out the series could take it into account. However, I saw some reviews that are really inaccurate about the gameplay. "Just mash B and you win." just isn't a fair representation of the gameplay unless you're playing on the easiest difficulty and not using any of the many mechanics this game has that many JRPG's, even modern ones, just do not provide. The game has a complex system of tactics, strategies, and formations etc that are all utilized to get the most damage and damage reduction possible to win battles especially against later dungeons and some of the endgame and post game bosses which is super important to learn if you're playing on Universe difficulty or higher. Below that yes it can be a mash B button and win simulator I suppose. Was why I changed the difficulty myself very early on. Chaos was too difficult for me as I was still learning the game and its many systems. But Universe was just right for learning but still having a challenge. It also has an elaborate crafting system and alchemy for creating better gear should you need to. This, in my Chaos playthrough, has become extremely important as getting good equipment to get me through some fights just by finding it early game hasn't been enough. Compounding (A system for creating healing items and MP restorative items etc) and even cooking have also been extremely vital for being able to progress in chaos mode. It was good and helpful in Universe too but it is completely necessary on Chaos. TLDR: So my point is yes. If you lower the difficulty as much as you can it's going to be really easy and a mash B and win game but for people that don't know anything about the game. There is a lot more to it than just pressing a single button.

God awful writing and not so great VA for english. But by god this game is gorgeous.

Ist mein erstes PS1 spiel gewesen.

懐かしかった

I accidentally turned my only weapon into a plate of donuts.

10 hours in so far an amazing remake. The feel is the same, maybe even more intimate with the enhanced graphics. 1- Graphics, art, Audio, Music, environment, fidelity, and world reconstruction. The setting and remade environments are impressive. The attention to detail for villages, dirt paths leading to an open range, give the player plenty to look and enjoy during the journey. The research into real life construction of castle towns and villages shows, all the while conserving the pixel art of the characters well. The original game did have closer angles for cutscenes, that I'd argue were better for the intimacy it created without the distraction of the remade environments. The voice acting is great, but I'm missing some of the old terms, "shooting star" for example, but that is just nostalgia speaking, the new voices are far superior to the robotic sounds of the past. To compare the old art of towns/villages/cities, the old game still stands on it's own with what they were working with. They have a unique feel that the digital remake can't replace, but the space between the beautifully painted houses, the layer where npc's walk and the ground itself was always hard to look at, limited by the hardware of the time. That problem has been solved in the remake, detailed cobblestone walkways, layered bumps and hills and uneven terrain immediately give off a feel of century old construction. Npc's walk, move, and stand in the environments rather than feeling superimposed. The overall look is an improvement, but the comparison shows how impressive Triace were with their work so long ago. The new character portraits are a welcome addition to the nostalgia of the aging player base, with Claude and Rena giving off far more mature expressions than their older counterparts. Claude far more fitting of a young military officer and Rena more fitting of the harsh lifestyle of 12th century technology. If there is anything negative about the remade assets, it would have to hidden behind the preference of nostalgia, understandable, but ultimately the remake does do it justice. The audio is superior in all ways, finely polished, and the music properly arranged make for a very pleasing listen. Some may want to choose to listen to the old music, but I can't imagine that is the outlier here. 2- Gameplay, progression, U.I. Gameplay in terms of combat does not feel the same, it borrows heavily from later SO titles, and not in a good way. The difficulty curve has been heavily scaled back for the modern casual audience and mass appeal. The negatives are that there are far too many rewards to make the game too easy. Every 3 minutes of play it seems to have unlocked another challenge with some reward, most of which are not trivial. The combat feels very different as well, enemies are far less punishing, and the progression system of combat skills seems to have been overhauled, and for the worse I'd say. The focus on skill usage to gain a more powerful skill was a grind, but with deserving rewards. Now 1 and rarely 3 cheap upgrades to a combat skill and it's never getting any stronger or changing in animation. This to me was very disappointing and is deserving of very real criticism. The original game in every way feels superior when comparing battle and level progression. For example the skill shooting star, now named meteor palm, was very weak skill early on with very little usage hitting once leaving the player open to punishment, and a large mp sink for almost zero return. It had some niche uses against pinned enemies where, without pushback, the skill could hit on what seemed like every other frame if the enemy was getting hit dealing a lot of damage (x30 times per second). After using the skill 1000 times or 2000 times it turned into a devastating skill that used properly could provide a game changing power boost in combat. The one hitting weak expensive mp cost shooting star, that leaves you defenseless, becomes a longer range, consistent, multi-hitting, high damaging end game skill, is something missing from the game. This is a huge problem for the game, it shortcuts entire progress trees for every character, and the unveiling of unique skill animations. I highly suggest playing the game on a higher than normal difficulty by default, the game gives much needed quality of life in the form of retries on battles, and the removal of random encounters. The increased difficulty should compensate for the changes, and to be fair to the devs, this is a difficult balance to achieve considering the changes they made. The U.I. is far superior, everything is still a bit confusing at first, with some menus not as easily noticed, where some I hadn't even seen that multiple tabs could be cycled through with L1 and R1. The old U.I. was more of an all eggs in one basket, where everything was thrown in a large text box with little to no organization. SO 2 R devs have done a great service to the QoL of this title in so many ways, leaving many of the problems behind for newer, streamlined solutions. There are some issues and failures, such as no apparent way to remove fishing bait that I have found, and if so, very difficult to see how. The devs could have put in far more handholding for the player, and as evidence that they didn't, shows their respect for the fidelity of the original. Despite the loss of combat skill progression, the u.i. tells the story of tensions in the making, that preserving and changing anything were discussed thoroughly by the team. So far so good, I started on GALAXY difficulty and feel it would be a better experience to try it over on a more difficult setting. I highly suggest this for any fans of the older game and newer ones, it really was ahead of its time in so many ways. A casual playthrough without being concerned with grinding out xp is certainly worth it. The story is one of the great ones and the world of SO is also very worth getting to know.

Has been one of my favorite RPG's since I played it as a kid on my playstation ages ago, and the remake lived up to every bit of that. 10/10