Squeenix STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R [2nd Nov. 2023]

[lametta]

Platform: Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5

STORY​

Space Date 366 - A Federation officer finds himself transported to a mystical planet. While searching for a way home, an encounter with a young girl draws him into a quest to save her people, just as an ancient prophecy foretold...
Choose your path and witness an awakened destiny.

 

[Poseidon00]

Best one in the series.

 

[Grauken]

that voice in the trailer sounds like a drunken, chain-smoking old woman

 

[OracleX]

where's the first game at SE...

 

[Grampy_Bone]

FOR FUCKS SAKE.

This is all anyone wanted from an FF7 remake. Take the original's graphics and make them full 3D instead of static cg; same gameplay, same perspective, and jazz up the character models. Done. Game remade. God. Damnit.

"We can't it's too harrrd we have to make the game a trilogy with massive filllerrrrr."

Looks great, instant buy. Star Ocean 2 is tits.

 

[Rahdulan]

What's with that look? There's 2D-HD and then there's cramming two totally different styles together.

 

[Jinn]

Welp, time for a Rena playthrough!

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Nobody actually plays as Rena do they??

 

[Jinn]

My last playthrough was with Claude for the second time, so it's time to switch it up.

 

[Poseidon00]

Nobody actually plays as Rena do they??

I did Rena for my third time through, considering you can just control someone else like Dias.

 

[Falksi]

How does it compare to the first entry on the SNES?

I enjoyed The Last Hope, but thought the SNES entry was awful (mainly due to the combat). I assume this was significantly different + better than the first?

 

[Abu Antar]

They have rebuilt combat from the groundup for this one. At least, that is how I understood it.

 

[Drowed]

WTF, I hate when companies make these mixtures between the characters/sprites and high-resolution background. The final effect is horrible. If you're going to use pixelated sprites, then go all in, like in Octopath, which offers a consistent and quite nice style. This fusion between detailed backgrounds and pixelated characters is horrible, reminds me of the equally poorly crafted Legend of Mana remaster.

I like the original game and completed both the Playstation version and the PSP remaster. And I don't think I'll be able to migrate to that one if I'm going to play it again someday.

 

[Derringer]

What's with that look? There's 2D-HD and then there's cramming two totally different styles together.

It's the 2.5 meme hd style pushed from Acquire's Squeenix releases and UE4 fan tech demos, the excessive bloom is a trademark. I didn't realize that Artdink developed Triangle Strategy though.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

How does it compare to the first entry on the SNES?

I enjoyed The Last Hope, but thought the SNES entry was awful (mainly due to the combat). I assume this was significantly different + better than the first?

Vast improvement over the SNES game. Idk what even happened with that game, I don't get how you go from Tales of Phantasia to that clunky mess.

This version appears to have even more jazzed up combat so it should be good.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Hmm I might have to give this another go. Back in the day, I fought that early unwinnable combat repeatedly, trying to beat it, blowing all sorts of consumables. When I kept losing, I was so pissed off I just shelved the game and didn't look back. I have always hated that JRPG trope and it's more or less always made me quit games.

 

[Derringer]

Hmm I might have to give this another go. Back in the day, I fought that early unwinnable combat repeatedly, trying to beat it, blowing all sorts of consumables. When I kept losing, I was so pee pooed off I just shelved the game and didn't look back. I have always hated that JRPG trope and it's more or less always made me quit games.

Star Ocean was pretty bad about using JRPG tropes like that, the appeal for the games was always the hockey alchemy system and partly the juggling combat.

 

[Jermu]

https://old.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/14ibn0o/star_ocean_the_second_story_r_new_information/

From the Famitsu interview (Link) we have learned the following:

• Faster battles: The game's combat tempo has increased, this is done through reworking the skill effects, number of frames, hit feedback, and more. Making for faster battles while still being faithful to the original atmosphere. This of course includes removing the time stop that spells used to have. This was done to make it a modern action stress-free RPG, where you feel more unity with your party members.
• Difficulty rebalance: Mid-game bosses have been given a boost, but to compensate they have also added new sidequests that rewards you with better gear and items. Also, all 3 difficulty settings (Earth, Galaxy, Universe), are available from the start, and can be changed at any time during the game.
• New soundtracks: The battle theme (Stab the Sword of Justice) has been rearranged to be even more uplifting along with another dungeon theme. Motoi Sakuraba has also remade two big tracks, one for the opening movie, and another for the mid-game climax event.
• Events now are fully voiced.

 

[Amurada]

The assist system is a definite improvement to combat. On top of that, it looks like some characters have new moves that make them funner to play (Rocket Pawnch lady in particular). I do question sticking to the 3D combat system, when games such as Tales of Eternia & Tales of Destiny: DC are far better as fast-paced 2D action games. It doesn't look like the in-battle traversal mechanics were expanded upon to accommodate a more engaging combat system, but eh, this game was far from perfect, but remains memorable for other reasons.

I hope that the field skill system is expanded upon, and crafting equipment such as the speed boots remains, with greater granularity between equip types; maybe even more equip slots for differing accessory types. Star Ocean 2 was great for having stuff like this in the first place. -- And yet, as the series went on: they diminished this aspect severely. It would be cool if there were more optional characters to unlock as well, but I doubt any of this will happen.

Pretty excited for the remake overall. Glad that they aren't fully committing to the HD2D style.

 

[James_xeno]

Awesome but I just hope they do it right and don't half-ass it. It was a great game.

Also kind of scared of "current year" crap as well. Don't trust SE as for as I could throw them at this point either.

What FFVIIR should have been instead of FFVII-2 lol


Edit: I've done a Rena run before. Takes some effort but not bad.

 

[Modron]

The demo is up on steam now: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2238900/view/3659792078263786963

 

[yes plz]

I was hoping they'd expand the script. Your party members kinda fade from existence after the first third or so of the game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I was hoping they'd expand the script. Your party members kinda fade from existence after the first third or so of the game.

I mean, by that point you've got access to potentially most of the cast, which is considerable. I think they struggled keeping the PA system going along with including all the optional party members (i.e. everyone except Claude and Rena) included the in dialogs.

 

[yes plz]

I was hoping they'd expand the script. Your party members kinda fade from existence after the first third or so of the game.

I mean, by that point you've got access to potentially most of the cast, which is considerable. I think they struggled keeping the PA system going along with including all the optional party members (i.e. everyone except Claude and Rena) included the in dialogs.

First game also has a sizeable cast yet manages to continue to use a lot of the party members in the plot, even having the game branch at certain points depending on who you recruited.

 

[kaisergeddon]

This is a massive update. It's incredible to see how they rebuilt the combat into a faster and dynamic form. You can actually use mages now! SO2 is possibly my favorite JRPG on the PSX, so I'm pretty excited about this remake.