Star Ocean The Second Story R is a remake of the classic Japanese role-playing game by Tri-Ace and Square Enix released in 1998. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Review Overview
Star Ocean The Second Story R Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Amazing Characters Great Visuals and Design Faster Dialogue and Traversal Improved Gameplay |
Not-So-Great New Soundtrack Daunting Skill System Complicated Party Recruitment |
Star Ocean The Second Story R Overall - 90/100
Star Ocean The Second Story R is a faithful remake for people to experience the magic of the series. With a top notch story, engaging gameplay, and unique characters, everything blends together into an amazing game. While there are a few hiccups here and there, in terms of skill improvements and the like, the quality of life changes they made were able to modernize one of the beloved classics into a whole new experience.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Story - 10/10
The story of the game is a gripping slow burn; the plot unfolding with details as to how Claude and Rena really affect the fate of the world. The side stories or “Private Actions”, on the other hand, give the characters depth and life. These stories range from serious philosophical talks about the future to goofy quests that may involve multiple characters.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Gameplay - 9/10
The gameplay has always been fast for an old JRPG, but a major gripe players of the series had was the balancing of magic or “Symbology” as it slows down combat since the higher tier spells had unskippable cutscenes and was generally weaker than physical damage. These balance changes in combat as well as the multitude of options with crafting, cooking, and the other special skills make for an amazing experience. While the core gameplay is improved, the game suffers from having to juggle many different skills and special crafting options in text heavy menus which may overwhelm people who are new to the series.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Visuals - 9/10
The game’s visuals are top notch, heavily taking from the recent successes of HD 2D games like Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, and more. Featuring completely new portrait art for the main characters of the game as well as having gorgeous high definition backgrounds that really modernizes the look of a once-old game. While personally, I am a fan of the sprite work and its inclusion to keep the game familiar, some may argue that they could’ve just modernized the character models and that the sprite art isn’t to everyone’s taste.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Audio - 7/10
The original Star Ocean 2 soundtrack is amazing and having the option to change between the arranged version and the original version brings out the nostalgic feelings back. While there isn’t particularly anything wrong with the arranged versions, I felt that the soundtrack was a lesser version of itself than the original and lacked a little flair. The game features both Japanese and English voices as well as different versions for the Japanese voices. Voice acting is a hit or miss on some characters with some being annoying in combat as they have to announce all their skills as they’re doing them. Sound effects aren't particularly noteworthy as it may actually be the same as the older versions.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Value for Money - 10/10
This game is probably one of the best entries to the Star Ocean franchise. It features a dual protagonist set up which already means that you may need to replay the game as the other character to get the full grasp of the story. Multiple usable party members, each with their own storylines and recruitment processes, allow for experimentation of party compositions to find the perfect team. This along with the multitude of side content like post game dungeons, side missions, among others easily racks up to more than a 100 hours of playtime which makes it a very worthwhile $50 purchase.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Review: Revisiting Greatness
Star Ocean is a series that has had a lot of ups and downs throughout the course of its existence. The series features space and interdimensional travel which wasn't really common in the JRPG genre at the time. Boasting a real-time combat system and crazy concepts from its inception, it was a franchise that offered a way different experience from the run-of-the-mill JRPGs. Star Ocean 2 specifically, was one of the games that I personally enjoyed and talked about when it comes to the JRPG genre time and time again. The gripping story, unique character designs, numerous side content, and more makes me realize how crazy it was for Tri-Ace and Square Enix to have a game that was ahead of its time.
While some may argue that Rena has the more interesting story than Claude, it is undeniable even in the previous versions of the game that the latter had the more interesting and engaging gameplay. Earlier I pointed out that there was a huge balancing issue between Symbology and Physical attacks as the latter just outperforms the other due to the game’s combat mechanics. A core feature in the Star Ocean franchise has been to stun lock enemies by stringing skills and attacks together to ensure that adversaries never get to move. While they did balance the current version with magic being a little more powerful, it is still easier to achieve this with martial prowess instead.
The remake features a new combat option called Assault Formations which are support actions from special characters from the series and reserve party members. Personally, I think this addition is a little too strong, as I was able to beat mobs at harder zones due to the damage it deals and the amount of uses that you have. Along with this change, the multitude of rewards they give you trivialize the early parts of the game where it may not feel great as you are one shotting enemies and it may make the combat sections a slog due to how easy they are.
While I am of the mindset that JRPGs tend to become “broken” where you will have obscene levels of damage, defense, and the like, Star Ocean 2 is a prime example of that. Being able to acquire a specific armor piece and two specific weapons will 100% carry you through to the endgame up until you have access to stronger options from the game’s post game dungeon and story. Optimizing skills is also another thing to learn about as the game offers you a lot of skills to choose from but not that much to go on other than stat improvements and some skills having misleading tooltips.
All in all, Star Ocean The Second Story R is a worthwhile remake that is a fresh experience to new players and familiar to veterans of the series. The amount of in-game content is massive and the interesting characters offer such a unique experience to the player. Being able to balance a little comedy in a story involving impending doom is honestly pretty great. It takes the edge off from being too serious while being scattered enough to not be the sole focus of the game.
Pros of Star Ocean The Second Story R
| Things Star Ocean The Second Story R Got Right |
|---|
|
Amazing Characters Great Visuals and Design Faster Dialogue and Traversal Improved Gameplay and Combat |
Amazing Characters
Star Ocean The Second Story R features a very diverse cast of characters. While both protagonists may be a little basic on the design, they stand out by having great characterization and personalities especially in comedic dialogues. On the topic of comedy, some of the side characters have unexpectedly comedic stories and are paired with great backstories as well. The interactions between all of the characters in the Private Actions make multiple playthroughs worth it to experience all the different dialogue from the different protagonists.
Great Visuals and Design
The game features an HD 2D design of having sprites overlaying amazing high definition backgrounds. The sprite work has always been one of its charms ever since the original releases and it’s here to stay. To add to this, tweaks to the character designs and artwork have also been added to match dialogue with different expressions. If you’re not a fan of the current character portraits, you also have the option to change it to their old designs from the newer ports and the original ones.
Faster Dialogue and Traversal
One of the main things that always stops me from revisiting older JRPGs is traversal. Older games having a slow means of moving around the world is one of the things that just pads playtime and doesn’t really add anything substantial. Being able to fast travel in the remake is such a great addition to minimize downtime as well as maximize being able to access side content and dialogue. Additionally, you can skip and speed up dialogue to finish story segments faster. While it is quite jarring that the voices aren’t segmented when skipped in the same talking point, it still is a welcome addition to streamline your progress with the game.
Improved Gameplay and Combat
One of the main things they addressed in the remake is the use of Offensive magic in the game as these are particularly underwhelming and weaker in comparison to physical attacks. They streamlined combat by having the option to skip Magic cutscenes as well as having the higher tier spells hitting multiple times have made magic a slightly more appealing option. While combat is still more engaging using the martial characters, this offers other magic-focused characters some much needed love as they were normally pushed off to the side if they weren’t healers.
Perfect dodging from the other games in the series also make an appearance in the remake, andmakes close-range fighters even more potent as they can regain MP when executed perfectly. However, the risks are also huge as failing a perfect dodge will result in your character being applied with the “Break” debuff which stuns and doubles damage dealt to your character during the effect which can be punishing.
Cons of Star Ocean The Second Story R
| Things That Star Ocean The Second Story R Can Improve |
|---|
|
Not-So-Great New Soundtrack Daunting Skill System Complicated Party Recruitment |
Not-So-Great New Soundtrack
To put it plainly, the new arranged soundtrack doesn’t quite hit the mark. I found myself changing it to the Original versions instead of the new Arranged versions. Some of it may be attributed to having some of the main melodies of some arrangements be softer in comparison to the original which makes the melody not carry the track. It may be the nostalgia talking, but the original version just seems to have that extra edge over the new soundtrack and may just be different hits or misses of the massive soundtrack the game has to offer.
Daunting Skill System
Star Ocean The Second Story R brings back the simple yet text heavy skill system which allows for different crafting options and a multitude of combat buffs that you could have. While there’s a multitude of options, you can also get lost in the amount of different things to choose from. The game does explain how to obtain and upgrade these skills, but what to upgrade at the start with limited skill points may prove to be daunting as the tooltips aren’t exactly clear on what they give you. You can’t necessarily destroy a character’s build since you can grind out the skills anyway, but not choosing the right skills at the start may make your experience a bit harder than it has to be.
Complicated Party Recruitment
The game features many different characters that are potential party members throughout the story. However, this game in particular has missable and unrecruitable characters depending on how many characters are already in your party as well as who are the characters you recruited first. There are also certain characters that are exclusively usable only to a specific protagonist so that may sour the experience if you’re playing it blind and looking for a specific character in the game.
Is Star Ocean The Second Story R Worth It?
Absolutely. 100% Worth It.
The remake not only improves upon the existing things already, but also has quality of life changes to make it easier for everyone to play the game. It offers multiple playthroughs, numerous side and post game content, and an amazing story that will keep you playing for a long time. This remake is also a good sign that they’re willing to revisit their older games and improve and modernize them to cater to people who have yet to experience it.
Star Ocean The Second Story R Overview & Premise
Star Ocean The Second Story R, often known as Star Ocean 2, is about a Federation officer named Claude C. Kenny who accidentally goes to another planet via a portal. There, he meets Rena Lanford, who seemingly has mystical abilities. They quickly become embroiled into a plot that could lead to the destruction of the world and it is up to them to stop it.
Star Ocean The Second Story R FAQ
In Star Ocean The Second Story R, what do you get for preordering the game?
You get the following in-game items for pre-ordering the game:
● Sunrise Ring
● Sets of recovery items (Mixed berries x20 + Resurrection Potion x20)
Customers who purchase the game during the early purchase bonus availability period (*) are eligible to acquire an accessory that can be equipped by all playable characters and two different types of recovery item as a bonus.
- Customers who purchase the game by 23:59 on November 16th, 2023 are eligible to acquire the early purchase bonuses.
Does Your Save File From the Demo Carry Over in Star Ocean The Second Story R?
Yes, any progress made in the demo will carry over to the game once it's released–along with experience points, skill points, battle points, obtained items, and more.
Game8 Reviews
Star Ocean 2 The Second Story R Product Information
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| Title | STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 2, 2023 |
| Developer | Tri-Ace, Square Enix |
| Supported Platforms | Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, PC |
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Star Ocean The Second Story R |
