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

[Grampy_Bone]

What about a complete newcomer to the series, would this be any good?

It was the first SO I played so I'd say yes.

My JRPG experience so far has been:

Not sure what you're looking for. Most people will just recomend you their personal favorites, I at least try to match the game to the gamer. Are you looking for something more open and player-driven? Try a SaGa game (Romancing SaGa 3 is very approachable). Do you want something with a lot of stats and 'crunch'? Try FF Tactics. Want action combat? Try Tales of Graces. If you want something with a deeper story, try Persona 2. If you want something more quirky, try Earthbound. If you want something grindy and comfy, try Dragon Quest 1 (I recommend the SNES port).

 

[deama]

What about a complete newcomer to the series, would this be any good?

It was the first SO I played so I'd say yes.

My JRPG experience so far has been:

Not sure what you're looking for. Most people will just recomend you their personal favorites, I at least try to match the game to the gamer. Are you looking for something more open and player-driven? Try a SaGa game (Romancing SaGa 3 is very approachable). Do you want something with a lot of stats and 'crunch'? Try FF Tactics. Want action combat? Try Tales of Graces. If you want something with a deeper story, try Persona 2. If you want something more quirky, try Earthbound. If you want something grindy and comfy, try Dragon Quest 1 (I recommend the SNES port).

Ideally I'd want something like planescape torment or baldur's gate 3, but isn't a thing yet for JRPGs?
What about something like xenogears but with a more evil protagonist?

Actually, is there any decent JRPG with an evil protagonist? Maybe some overlord or something?
If he becomes evil after 50% of the way then that's fine also.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

any decent JRPG with an evil protagonist?

(Most) Disgaea games are "tongue in cheek" evil. Feature a character who wants to become the lord of the underworld. They have silly mechanics where breaking laws gives you felonies, then you have to go to court (which is located inside a randomly generated dungeon inside an item), then you can throw your entire party into the courtroom and they'll all get the felony because the evil courts aren't picky, but since it's the underworld being evil is good so felonies give you an XP bonus.

Other than that you're probably looking at eroge games like Rance where you go around raping everyone.

*edit* Oh yeah, there are a couple: Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64 both have a villain path, and so does Soul Nomad and the World Eaters. In OB64 all the heroes from the first game will team up and try to kill you. They're strategy RPGs though. Tactics Ogre has multiple paths but they are Law/Chaos, though oddly the Law path is the most 'evil' one.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Any other reviews? Any good?
What about a complete newcomer to the series, would this be any good?

My JRPG experience so far has been:
- Liked wandering sword, story was a bit meh though.
- Didn't like any of the FF games, tried 6, 7, and 8, and the MMO if that counts.
- Xenogears was ok, probably best JRPG I played so far, but wasn't anything crazy in the grand scheme of things. Though still, never finished, got close, I think I done 70% of it.
- Legend of Dragoon, pretty generic JRPG, never finished.
- Arcturus, was ok, story seemed kinda more interesting than the other JPRGs, though half way point pissed me off with something so I gave up.

There’s a demo. Let’s you play for 3 hours, should be able to get a nice feel for it in that time.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Ideally I'd want something like planescape torment or baldur's gate 3, but isn't a thing yet for JRPGs?

Similar in what regard? You're not going to find anything using a DnD engine. But customizing parties, character classes, open worlds filled with sidequests, rewarding exploration or focus on narratives are all things that can be on the table. You mentioned like Xenogears which implies to me you enjoy the narrative over other factors. I'd maybe recommend this or Valkyrie Profile. For what it's worth, I don't think anything you've played on that list would make my top 10, and I've played it all except wandering sword and arcturus. Actually at this point those games probably wouldn't rate in my top 20. FF7 would probably have the best shot. I like FF6 as well but that's just nostalgia talking, it was my first rpg. I'm more of a gameplay whore.

I haven't played this remake, but I'll vouch for the original game having a cool story with some mutually exclusive recruitable characters and excellent music. Combat can be fairly mindless on the lower difficulties (which you were forced to start on in the original, dunno if the remake fixes that) but I still often enjoyed it, it was just well paced and varied enough I suppose. A big aspect of this game is the 'private action' system, where you can start optional cutscenes/skits/whatever in various places, often gated by needing specific party members or being at the right time and place. They tend to be interactive cutscenes though, if that makes sense. You might enter a town and have everyone split up, giving you a chance to wander around and see what everyone is doing, or ignore characters you don't care about. I always thought it was a better system than shoveling everything down your throat. Feels way more natural to pop into a village for a pit stop on your way back across a continent and find your favourite member chilling in a library reading stories to the kids while another one is angrily haggling with the owner of a jewelry store or something.

Been enjoying it.

Question: Did they fix the knife skills bug, where an early game skill clearly intended to give you 2 strength per point was instead giving 20 and trivialized like the first half of the game?

 

[Phinx]

Ideally I'd want something like planescape torment or baldur's gate 3, but isn't a thing yet for JRPGs?

Similar in what regard? You're not going to find anything using a DnD engine. But customizing parties, character classes, open worlds filled with sidequests, rewarding exploration or focus on narratives are all things that can be on the table. You mentioned like Xenogears which implies to me you enjoy the narrative over other factors. I'd maybe recommend this or Valkyrie Profile. For what it's worth, I don't think anything you've played on that list would make my top 10, and I've played it all except wandering sword and arcturus. Actually at this point those games probably wouldn't rate in my top 20. FF7 would probably have the best shot. I like FF6 as well but that's just nostalgia talking, it was my first rpg. I'm more of a gameplay whore.

I haven't played this remake, but I'll vouch for the original game having a cool story with some mutually exclusive recruitable characters and excellent music. Combat can be fairly mindless on the lower difficulties (which you were forced to start on in the original, dunno if the remake fixes that) but I still often enjoyed it, it was just well paced and varied enough I suppose. A big aspect of this game is the 'private action' system, where you can start optional cutscenes/skits/whatever in various places, often gated by needing specific party members or being at the right time and place. They tend to be interactive cutscenes though, if that makes sense. You might enter a town and have everyone split up, giving you a chance to wander around and see what everyone is doing, or ignore characters you don't care about. I always thought it was a better system than shoveling everything down your throat. Feels way more natural to pop into a village for a pit stop on your way back across a continent and find your favourite member chilling in a library reading stories to the kids while another one is angrily haggling with the owner of a jewelry store or something.

Been enjoying it.

Question: Did they fix the knife skills bug, where an early game skill clearly intended to give you 2 strength per point was instead giving 20 and trivialized like the first half of the game?

Knife skill now gives 10 attack damage. First island is laughable. I was blitzing everything with ease on the hardest difficulty, so I started to avoid enemy mobs thinking I was over leveled. Then I got to the second island and could only beat a single enemy mob using every skill and bar of mana I had, then had to go back to town to heal to level up. Even now I still run into an enemy mob from quite often and get wiped in seconds.

They've also added this armor system, where enemies can still attack you whilst you attack them. So you have to be careful when combo-ing them as they will hit back. But the armor can be broken to stun the enemy for a short span. After first island hardest difficulty is ball busting. Although I didn't min max.

 

[deama]

(Most) Disgaea games are "tongue in cheek" evil. Feature a character who wants to become the lord of the underworld. They have silly mechanics where breaking laws gives you felonies, then you have to go to court (which is located inside a randomly generated dungeon inside an item), then you can throw your entire party into the courtroom and they'll all get the felony because the evil courts aren't picky, but since it's the underworld being evil is good so felonies give you an XP bonus.

Other than that you're probably looking at eroge games like Rance where you go around raping everyone.

*edit* Oh yeah, there are a couple: Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64 both have a villain path, and so does Soul Nomad and the World Eaters. In OB64 all the heroes from the first game will team up and try to kill you. They're strategy RPGs though. Tactics Ogre has multiple paths but they are Law/Chaos, though oddly the Law path is the most 'evil' one.

I've played the disgaea games for a bit, I liked the battles and stuff, but really didn't like how wimsical it was, I think at one point I rage quit when the main character did something "good" or something in one of the games.
I remember enjoying the more teenager one more, but it was roughly same problem for me.

Similar in what regard? You're not going to find anything using a DnD engine. But customizing parties, character classes, open worlds filled with sidequests, rewarding exploration or focus on narratives are all things that can be on the table. You mentioned like Xenogears which implies to me you enjoy the narrative over other factors. I'd maybe recommend this or Valkyrie Profile. For what it's worth, I don't think anything you've played on that list would make my top 10, and I've played it all except wandering sword and arcturus. Actually at this point those games probably wouldn't rate in my top 20. FF7 would probably have the best shot. I like FF6 as well but that's just nostalgia talking, it was my first rpg. I'm more of a gameplay whore.

I haven't played this remake, but I'll vouch for the original game having a cool story with some mutually exclusive recruitable characters and excellent music. Combat can be fairly mindless on the lower difficulties (which you were forced to start on in the original, dunno if the remake fixes that) but I still often enjoyed it, it was just well paced and varied enough I suppose. A big aspect of this game is the 'private action' system, where you can start optional cutscenes/skits/whatever in various places, often gated by needing specific party members or being at the right time and place. They tend to be interactive cutscenes though, if that makes sense. You might enter a town and have everyone split up, giving you a chance to wander around and see what everyone is doing, or ignore characters you don't care about. I always thought it was a better system than shoveling everything down your throat. Feels way more natural to pop into a village for a pit stop on your way back across a continent and find your favourite member chilling in a library reading stories to the kids while another one is angrily haggling with the owner of a jewelry store or something.

Probably arcturus had the more interesting narrative out of any of them, it starts off generic jrpg, then at one point turns into this weird mixture of despair, demons, main character starts ripping his enemies apart, etc...

I guess I'm looking for something like a doom jrpg? I just don't want the standard jrpg stuff to be there where the main character is either good, or has a good side, I just want him to rip and tear apart things for once.

 

[Phinx]

(Most) Disgaea games are "tongue in cheek" evil. Feature a character who wants to become the lord of the underworld. They have silly mechanics where breaking laws gives you felonies, then you have to go to court (which is located inside a randomly generated dungeon inside an item), then you can throw your entire party into the courtroom and they'll all get the felony because the evil courts aren't picky, but since it's the underworld being evil is good so felonies give you an XP bonus.

Other than that you're probably looking at eroge games like Rance where you go around raping everyone.

*edit* Oh yeah, there are a couple: Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64 both have a villain path, and so does Soul Nomad and the World Eaters. In OB64 all the heroes from the first game will team up and try to kill you. They're strategy RPGs though. Tactics Ogre has multiple paths but they are Law/Chaos, though oddly the Law path is the most 'evil' one.

I've played the disgaea games for a bit, I liked the battles and stuff, but really didn't like how wimsical it was, I think at one point I rage quit when the main character did something "good" or something in one of the games.
I remember enjoying the more teenager one more, but it was roughly same problem for me.

Similar in what regard? You're not going to find anything using a DnD engine. But customizing parties, character classes, open worlds filled with sidequests, rewarding exploration or focus on narratives are all things that can be on the table. You mentioned like Xenogears which implies to me you enjoy the narrative over other factors. I'd maybe recommend this or Valkyrie Profile. For what it's worth, I don't think anything you've played on that list would make my top 10, and I've played it all except wandering sword and arcturus. Actually at this point those games probably wouldn't rate in my top 20. FF7 would probably have the best shot. I like FF6 as well but that's just nostalgia talking, it was my first rpg. I'm more of a gameplay whore.

I haven't played this remake, but I'll vouch for the original game having a cool story with some mutually exclusive recruitable characters and excellent music. Combat can be fairly mindless on the lower difficulties (which you were forced to start on in the original, dunno if the remake fixes that) but I still often enjoyed it, it was just well paced and varied enough I suppose. A big aspect of this game is the 'private action' system, where you can start optional cutscenes/skits/whatever in various places, often gated by needing specific party members or being at the right time and place. They tend to be interactive cutscenes though, if that makes sense. You might enter a town and have everyone split up, giving you a chance to wander around and see what everyone is doing, or ignore characters you don't care about. I always thought it was a better system than shoveling everything down your throat. Feels way more natural to pop into a village for a pit stop on your way back across a continent and find your favourite member chilling in a library reading stories to the kids while another one is angrily haggling with the owner of a jewelry store or something.

Probably arcturus had the more interesting narrative out of any of them, it starts off generic jrpg, then at one point turns into this weird mixture of despair, demons, main character starts ripping his enemies apart, etc...

I guess I'm looking for something like a doom jrpg? I just don't want the standard jrpg stuff to be there where the main character is either good, or has a good side, I just want him to rip and tear apart things for once.

My recommendation then would be Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. It also has a phenomenal soundtrack.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I guess I'm looking for something like a doom jrpg? I just don't want the standard jrpg stuff to be there where the main character is either good, or has a good side, I just want him to rip and tear apart things for once.

Hmm, maybe look at SMT: Nocturne. The game has a bunch of fancy symbolism and shit, but at the end of the day you're just there to kill your way to the top of the hill. You don't go around rescuing villagers from dragons or whatever. It's a very combat/dungeon focused game with relatively little story, and that combat is arguable the best in the genre, certainly deserving a spot among the best.

 

[Phinx]

I guess I'm looking for something like a doom jrpg? I just don't want the standard jrpg stuff to be there where the main character is either good, or has a good side, I just want him to rip and tear apart things for once.

Hmm, maybe look at SMT: Nocturne. The game has a bunch of fancy symbolism and shit, but at the end of the day you're just there to kill your way to the top of the hill. You don't go around rescuing villagers from dragons or whatever. It's a very combat/dungeon focused game with relatively little story, and that combat is arguable the best in the genre, certainly deserving a spot among the best.

I was going to recommend that also, but it's not for everyone. Also one of my favs.

 

[Talby]

What the fuck is wrong with the graphics in this remake? Who thought mixing 2D sprites with hyperdetailed realistic 3D models and textures was a good idea? It clashes horribly and looks like trash.

 

[Reinhardt]

anyone tried it on emulator?

 

[Arthandas]

How's the difficulty? I'm interested but if it's braindead easy like 99% of jrps then it's a hard pass.

 

[Phinx]

How's the difficulty? I'm interested but if it's braindead easy like 99% of jrps then it's a hard pass.

Easy and medium difficulty (earth/galaxy) are brain dead easy. Universe difficulty past the first island will absolutely wreck anyone that does not use the crafting system to give their characters some quality gear. Even grinding won't save you.

If you are a first time player and use the crafting without looking at guides to min max, the difficulty will be rough on universe. I should also note that there isn't all that much variety in how you fight, although you will have to think about who's armor to break first and certain abilities you need to avoid at all costs.

 

[Arthandas]

If you are a first time player and use the crafting without looking at guides to min max, the difficulty will be rough on universe

Seems like there's hope of it having a semblance of challenge. Is Universe the hardest diff, is it selectable from the start?

 

[Phinx]

If you are a first time player and use the crafting without looking at guides to min max, the difficulty will be rough on universe

Seems like there's hope of it having a semblance of challenge. Is Universe the hardest diff, is it selectable from the start?

Yep, that difficulty is selectable from the start. First island is 3-4 hours will still be a walk in the part, pretty sure they made it that way so the player has the time to accumulate enough skill points to start crafting with some leeway.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

What the fuck is wrong with the graphics in this remake? Who thought mixing 2D sprites with hyperdetailed realistic 3D models and textures was a good idea? It clashes horribly and looks like trash.

It’s the same style as the original game. The original PSX game has pre-rendered 3D backgrounds with 2D sprite characters. It’s like the same style but without fix camera angles and with real-time lighting.

I wouldn’t even say the backgrounds are all that realistic looking. They kind of look like you’re running around a miniature. Maybe a real miniature, but nobody is going to confuse it for trying to mimic the reality of a real location.

 

[Falksi]

What about a complete newcomer to the series, would this be any good?

It was the first SO I played so I'd say yes.

My JRPG experience so far has been:

Not sure what you're looking for. Most people will just recomend you their personal favorites, I at least try to match the game to the gamer. Are you looking for something more open and player-driven? Try a SaGa game (Romancing SaGa 3 is very approachable). Do you want something with a lot of stats and 'crunch'? Try FF Tactics. Want action combat? Try Tales of Graces. If you want something with a deeper story, try Persona 2. If you want something more quirky, try Earthbound. If you want something grindy and comfy, try Dragon Quest 1 (I recommend the SNES port).

Ideally I'd want something like planescape torment or baldur's gate 3, but isn't a thing yet for JRPGs?
What about something like xenogears but with a more evil protagonist?

Actually, is there any decent JRPG with an evil protagonist? Maybe some overlord or something?
If he becomes evil after 50% of the way then that's fine also.

Tales of Berseria has you play as the bad guys, and your mission is one of revenge. It's cheesy, got a soft underbelly and you never feel heartless, but there's also no doubt that you're quest is one of merciless, single-minded vengeance either. Great game all round too, very funny.

 

[Yuber]

lol, this game is better than any Modern JRPG I have played in the last 10 years.
graphics look great.
already played it many times back on PS1 but I really like this version, only sad they removed random battles

 

[Nelka]

lol, this game is better than any Modern JRPG I have played in the last 10 years.
graphics look great.
already played it many times back on PS1 but I really like this version, only sad they removed random battles

thank you for info fren, now I will just wait 6 more months for Square to remove Denuvo.

 

[Arthandas]

now I will just wait 6 more months for Square to remove Denuvo

My kind of girl.

 

[Abu Antar]

The more I think about it, the more it dawns on me that this game is very influenced by Western rpgs. I laughed at myself at first, but then I said: Wait, hold up! You're not totally wrong. Mutually exclusive party members, build your characters the way you want, private actions, multiple endings. I would almost recommend it to non-JRPG players, but that's a bit too much. But the influences are there, I just never gave it any thought.

 

[Jinn]

The more I think about it, the more it dawns on me that this game is very influenced by Western rpgs. I laughed at myself at first, but then I said: Wait, hold up! You're not totally wrong. Mutually exclusive party members, build your characters the way you want, private actions, multiple endings. I would almost recommend it to non-JRPG players, but that's a bit too much. But the influences are there, I just never gave it any thought.

The series has always been heavily inspired by western RPG/tabletop mechanics, right from the first game. Tri-Ace in general has always had a western flavor to their games. It's part of why I love their games so much despite often being flawed in a number of ways. The combination of western RPG and JRPG sensibilities is a chefs kiss for me. Part of why I'm such a huge fan of the SaGa series as well.

 

[Arthandas]

Tri-Ace in general has always had a western flavor to their games

Yep, they even created the American School Simulator:

 

[Reinhardt]

American School Simulator

not black, not fat. nigga u wat