(Reuploaded)
The heavens aligned and miraculously I was blessed with a switch eshop refund. I honestly can not believe how dissapointed i am in this game. I absolutely adore the visuals, the music is grand, the combat is nostalgic and engaging. All that absolutely wasted on the most sterotypical below-grade jrpg writing i could ever even imagine. Literally every single boring shitty trope i can think of was introduced in the beginning hours of the game. It even goes down to the lines the npcs will give you, i feel like ive read the story of this game before a thousand times. If youve played a fantasy rpg before, youve played this game. There is no charisma or quality. I could waste words explaining why but if youve played a japanese video game before you already know what i mean.
I talk a lot with my friend uri about how video games in particular have a lot of qualities that separate themselves from other art forms, but none of them seem to want to utilize it. Thats what this game reminds me of. Jrpgs in particular will have 100,000 words dedicated to the most disingenuous, boring (and sexist) shit you can possibly think of. Highlight on the misogyny because dear god star ocean sure didnt want to break the mold when it comes to those tropes.
Called nintendo support the second i got to a line of dialogue which implied the aunt innkeeper character was gonna give Rena a room for free so she (17 years old) could go have sex in it with a guy she met like 2 seconds ago. Real fascinating stuff. Jrpgs gotta be stopped, smells like octopath 2 in here.
The heavens aligned and miraculously I was blessed with a switch eshop refund. I honestly can not believe how dissapointed i am in this game. I absolutely adore the visuals, the music is grand, the combat is nostalgic and engaging. All that absolutely wasted on the most sterotypical below-grade jrpg writing i could ever even imagine. Literally every single boring shitty trope i can think of was introduced in the beginning hours of the game. It even goes down to the lines the npcs will give you, i feel like ive read the story of this game before a thousand times. If youve played a fantasy rpg before, youve played this game. There is no charisma or quality. I could waste words explaining why but if youve played a japanese video game before you already know what i mean.
I talk a lot with my friend uri about how video games in particular have a lot of qualities that separate themselves from other art forms, but none of them seem to want to utilize it. Thats what this game reminds me of. Jrpgs in particular will have 100,000 words dedicated to the most disingenuous, boring (and sexist) shit you can possibly think of. Highlight on the misogyny because dear god star ocean sure didnt want to break the mold when it comes to those tropes.
Called nintendo support the second i got to a line of dialogue which implied the aunt innkeeper character was gonna give Rena a room for free so she (17 years old) could go have sex in it with a guy she met like 2 seconds ago. Real fascinating stuff. Jrpgs gotta be stopped, smells like octopath 2 in here.
The short version is, that Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a good remake of a PS1 classic that includes a lot of helpful features and tools to make this a good way to experience the game for the first time. With updated graphics that are quite appealing in the HD Pixel art era that other remakes like Live A Live have been utilizing. There are a lot of interesting ideas that are explored in Star Ocean Second Story R, and it is something other RPGs could learn from.
The long version, is that the gameplay can suffer from being incredibly unbalanced due to the way that the IC system interacts with the combat system. The IC system offers interesting ways to have characters do out of combat actions that all interact with each other in very interesting ways that then help your characters get stronger. Leveling up alchemy gets you materials to then craft into accessories and blacksmith into armor and weapons when you have enough party members with high levels of crafting. Your writing skill allows characters to write books that help other characters to learn these IC skills faster, and publish specialty books that earn you money through the game at publication houses, and cooking gives you very good healing items with effects that can improve other stats. Beyond these are many more combinations that fit into this addictive system. However, the major problem is the combat system is also reliant on this, as there were large difficulty spikes which make it so that the game seems to want you to be investing large amounts of time into leveling these stats up when the game itself is incredibly short outside of the grinding. It is fluff to expand game time when the actual amount of content as far as the main story is short even if it can be fun fluff. The issue is it not being optional by the last dungeon and being required to actually stand a chance against the final boss, let alone the upgraded and enhanced final boss.
Characters were initially interesting, but in the latter half of the game they fall off and are weaker than PS1 contemporary characters, with some of the weakest female characters I can think of from that era. Rena while being a good character, suffers heavily from being an optional protagonist who is so reliant on her other optional lead Claude who is clearly written as the main lead of the story. So much so that when large emotional moments happen for Rena, they are often ignored in favor of Claude to give him more moments even on Rena's route when Rena arguably goes through much more traumatic things than him. It is very much ripe with the feeling that Claude is the main character, and Rena is just an optional character you can play as for a second play through if you really want to. The different paths also don't feel as distinct as I would have liked, with only minor differences between each route, which usually just results in Rena getting kidnapped and trying to escape vs. Claude rescuing her. The major difference being then in the PAs, the system by which small side stories appear for characters. On paper PAs are incredibly interesting, but they fail in the end due to a few limited factors. First, they are very short, and not significant moments for characters most of the time. Secondly, they are very congested, usually getting a lot at the very moment you unlock a new character, before becoming sparse and empty until the latter half of the game, where there are again very few of them. There could definitely be more of them. Finally, they also highlight how shallow the writing is for the women characters, with all of them being either boy crazy, hysterical, or clumsy in a cutesy way to the point where there were no women characters in the party that escaped unscathed. There are two NPC women that actually do anything to the plot that are not mothers, boy crazy, or something similar, and both nearly die. It is that dire. The men for their credit usually have more fun scenes and are more enjoyable to watch PAs of.
A lot of this is cut in favor of the various different endings of the game, which come in the form of different character pairings based on which characters in your party have the highest affinity like the Fire Emblem series. However, similar to the PAs, while there are 99 different endings like the game boasts, they are too short and feel very insignificant compared to the Fire Emblem endings that usually use paragraphs of text to convey things in a better manner that feels more conclusive. Many of the ones that I had gotten feel rather disconnected from the actual central ending which is the same. It might have been that I had just gotten some poorly written ones, but that 4 of the 99 that I had gotten were so rushed, short, and inconclusive that they left me feeling kind of hollow at the end is staggering, especially as I repeat how short the central scenario of the game ended up being.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R has very interesting and fun gameplay that for the time of the original release of the game was something that made it competitive with its contemporaries despite its relatively lower level of storytelling and characters. However, in the modern day with a remake of it, it just highlights all those flaws that other games have learned from since then.
The long version, is that the gameplay can suffer from being incredibly unbalanced due to the way that the IC system interacts with the combat system. The IC system offers interesting ways to have characters do out of combat actions that all interact with each other in very interesting ways that then help your characters get stronger. Leveling up alchemy gets you materials to then craft into accessories and blacksmith into armor and weapons when you have enough party members with high levels of crafting. Your writing skill allows characters to write books that help other characters to learn these IC skills faster, and publish specialty books that earn you money through the game at publication houses, and cooking gives you very good healing items with effects that can improve other stats. Beyond these are many more combinations that fit into this addictive system. However, the major problem is the combat system is also reliant on this, as there were large difficulty spikes which make it so that the game seems to want you to be investing large amounts of time into leveling these stats up when the game itself is incredibly short outside of the grinding. It is fluff to expand game time when the actual amount of content as far as the main story is short even if it can be fun fluff. The issue is it not being optional by the last dungeon and being required to actually stand a chance against the final boss, let alone the upgraded and enhanced final boss.
Characters were initially interesting, but in the latter half of the game they fall off and are weaker than PS1 contemporary characters, with some of the weakest female characters I can think of from that era. Rena while being a good character, suffers heavily from being an optional protagonist who is so reliant on her other optional lead Claude who is clearly written as the main lead of the story. So much so that when large emotional moments happen for Rena, they are often ignored in favor of Claude to give him more moments even on Rena's route when Rena arguably goes through much more traumatic things than him. It is very much ripe with the feeling that Claude is the main character, and Rena is just an optional character you can play as for a second play through if you really want to. The different paths also don't feel as distinct as I would have liked, with only minor differences between each route, which usually just results in Rena getting kidnapped and trying to escape vs. Claude rescuing her. The major difference being then in the PAs, the system by which small side stories appear for characters. On paper PAs are incredibly interesting, but they fail in the end due to a few limited factors. First, they are very short, and not significant moments for characters most of the time. Secondly, they are very congested, usually getting a lot at the very moment you unlock a new character, before becoming sparse and empty until the latter half of the game, where there are again very few of them. There could definitely be more of them. Finally, they also highlight how shallow the writing is for the women characters, with all of them being either boy crazy, hysterical, or clumsy in a cutesy way to the point where there were no women characters in the party that escaped unscathed. There are two NPC women that actually do anything to the plot that are not mothers, boy crazy, or something similar, and both nearly die. It is that dire. The men for their credit usually have more fun scenes and are more enjoyable to watch PAs of.
A lot of this is cut in favor of the various different endings of the game, which come in the form of different character pairings based on which characters in your party have the highest affinity like the Fire Emblem series. However, similar to the PAs, while there are 99 different endings like the game boasts, they are too short and feel very insignificant compared to the Fire Emblem endings that usually use paragraphs of text to convey things in a better manner that feels more conclusive. Many of the ones that I had gotten feel rather disconnected from the actual central ending which is the same. It might have been that I had just gotten some poorly written ones, but that 4 of the 99 that I had gotten were so rushed, short, and inconclusive that they left me feeling kind of hollow at the end is staggering, especially as I repeat how short the central scenario of the game ended up being.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R has very interesting and fun gameplay that for the time of the original release of the game was something that made it competitive with its contemporaries despite its relatively lower level of storytelling and characters. However, in the modern day with a remake of it, it just highlights all those flaws that other games have learned from since then.
Starved Ocean
Star Ocean is a franchise that remained largely out of my view for most of my life as I didn't make the crossover to JRPG's formally until I played FFX after it hit the Switch in 2018 or so. As a result, many famed series' borne from the Golden Age 90's flew under my radar and I didn't have a chance to experience them until fairly recently. Over time I've tried to dabble into many of these in an attempt to understand gaming history and get a taste of the genre as it grew. I didn't "play" my first Star Ocean until the Divine Force demo release on PS5, immediately confused by the plethora of mechanics going on and monotonous combat I dropped it. I'd only gotten into it because of name recognition, knowing that Star Ocean was one of the "big" Square/Enix titles from the SNES/PS1 era, but dropped it because I figured it wasn't going to be up my alley. I didn't want to remove Star Ocean from my lexicon though, because I'd known that a unanimously "good one" had to exist out there somewhere, and with The Second Story getting the remake treatment... I figured it was time.
Upon launch of Second Story R, I immediately fell in love with the science fiction setting and incredible HD-2D visuals. As a big fan of the graphical direction of the Octopath/Triangle Strategy team, Star Ocean's graphical sheen was an immediate reward to my eyes. I paused every few moments of meeting characters, running through villages, and existing within the world to take screenshots and send friends images from my playthrough. Enamored I was by the world and the plot leaving your imagination of what could happen next to a pilot landing in an unfamiliar world. That's kinda where the praise stops unfortunately, as the curtain fell pretty quickly after that into my Second Story R playthrough... along with my rating.
The bad wasn't necessarily as grating as a lot of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's bad was for me (which I reviewed recently,) it was just confusingly grating. To start is the seemingly random difficulty spikes and settings of Star Ocean: The Second Story R. I played on the "normal" difficulty equivalent for a majority of the game and it felt, fairly hard. I figured with some time dedicated to grinding that I could make the experience easier for myself and breeze through what I considered to be the "tougher" dungeons at the time. I found out after about two hours of grinding and gaining some thirty plus levels that there was no different "feel" in my strength levels. Enemies could still one shot you and perma stun your party with remarkable ease, your characters didn't feel like they did any better damage per hit, and the game didn't actually get any easier. Now this changed a bit later on as I grinded north of level 100 and gained new abilities for my secondary party members because they gained access to new spells that seemed to disrupt more and do more damage, but they got one shot just the same. All the way from world enemies to dungeon encounters to the final suite of bosses, I found myself furiously mashing resurrect items and healing spells to get through encounters that felt like they should have been a breeze with how much I grinded. I spent hours effectively AFK just listening to my own music while I ran around in circles soaking free exp, and nothing actually felt easier. I tuned up my stats across the board, which mediated issues I had with the difficulty, but I was still dying with 9999 hp from petrifications and paralysis' all the same.
This brings up another issue I had with Star Ocean... information and skill overload. I joke a lot about how Persona 5 effectively tutorializes the player for the first like, fifty hours of gameplay, but hey nothing feels confusing or rushed at that point in the game. Within the first few hours of Second Story R, the entire skill tree and IC/Speciality suite is opened up to the player to understand and dive through. It's more than just levelling up your attack, magic, and defense. It opens up the Pickpocketing, Crafting, Music, Writing, Alchemy, Cooking, list goes on trees that the player is supposed to fully understand. From what I knew with my experiences with these tertiary skills is that they accented the player and made it easier for me to level and be strong... but outside of training and scouting I had absolutely no idea. I couldn't tell how worth my time it was to construct books to level attack or perform songs to summon certain enemies because the tradeoffs were completely unclear and the materials necessary to do so were obfuscated or gated behind currency. This resulted in my levelling up train (sacrificing damage for exp gain) and scouting (populating more enemies on the world map) so I could stand still and let my characters go to town on consistently spawning enemies. I'm not sure if this was the best way to go about it, but I didn't want to have to study Star Ocean tactics for longer than I did to understand it. Grinding is pretty much never fun in games, especially in older JRPG's where the heal/save options aren't as desirable as they probably could be, but Star Ocean's levelling systems felt like watching paint dry, but the paint occasionally personified to get up and slap you in the face before going back to the fence it was being applied to.
Combat was bad, voice acting even worse, and the plot was lukewarm at best. Star Ocean: The Second Story R was an ultimately milquetoast experience that I'm not really even glad I got to play. It lands and bombards the player with lots of great visual fidelity (and the cutscene work/character portaits are rather impressive throughout) but lacks the sticking power to create a compelling experience worthy of note. I cannot recommend Star Ocean: The Second Story R to anybody except maybe fans of the old Action JRPG genre.
Star Ocean is a franchise that remained largely out of my view for most of my life as I didn't make the crossover to JRPG's formally until I played FFX after it hit the Switch in 2018 or so. As a result, many famed series' borne from the Golden Age 90's flew under my radar and I didn't have a chance to experience them until fairly recently. Over time I've tried to dabble into many of these in an attempt to understand gaming history and get a taste of the genre as it grew. I didn't "play" my first Star Ocean until the Divine Force demo release on PS5, immediately confused by the plethora of mechanics going on and monotonous combat I dropped it. I'd only gotten into it because of name recognition, knowing that Star Ocean was one of the "big" Square/Enix titles from the SNES/PS1 era, but dropped it because I figured it wasn't going to be up my alley. I didn't want to remove Star Ocean from my lexicon though, because I'd known that a unanimously "good one" had to exist out there somewhere, and with The Second Story getting the remake treatment... I figured it was time.
Upon launch of Second Story R, I immediately fell in love with the science fiction setting and incredible HD-2D visuals. As a big fan of the graphical direction of the Octopath/Triangle Strategy team, Star Ocean's graphical sheen was an immediate reward to my eyes. I paused every few moments of meeting characters, running through villages, and existing within the world to take screenshots and send friends images from my playthrough. Enamored I was by the world and the plot leaving your imagination of what could happen next to a pilot landing in an unfamiliar world. That's kinda where the praise stops unfortunately, as the curtain fell pretty quickly after that into my Second Story R playthrough... along with my rating.
The bad wasn't necessarily as grating as a lot of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's bad was for me (which I reviewed recently,) it was just confusingly grating. To start is the seemingly random difficulty spikes and settings of Star Ocean: The Second Story R. I played on the "normal" difficulty equivalent for a majority of the game and it felt, fairly hard. I figured with some time dedicated to grinding that I could make the experience easier for myself and breeze through what I considered to be the "tougher" dungeons at the time. I found out after about two hours of grinding and gaining some thirty plus levels that there was no different "feel" in my strength levels. Enemies could still one shot you and perma stun your party with remarkable ease, your characters didn't feel like they did any better damage per hit, and the game didn't actually get any easier. Now this changed a bit later on as I grinded north of level 100 and gained new abilities for my secondary party members because they gained access to new spells that seemed to disrupt more and do more damage, but they got one shot just the same. All the way from world enemies to dungeon encounters to the final suite of bosses, I found myself furiously mashing resurrect items and healing spells to get through encounters that felt like they should have been a breeze with how much I grinded. I spent hours effectively AFK just listening to my own music while I ran around in circles soaking free exp, and nothing actually felt easier. I tuned up my stats across the board, which mediated issues I had with the difficulty, but I was still dying with 9999 hp from petrifications and paralysis' all the same.
This brings up another issue I had with Star Ocean... information and skill overload. I joke a lot about how Persona 5 effectively tutorializes the player for the first like, fifty hours of gameplay, but hey nothing feels confusing or rushed at that point in the game. Within the first few hours of Second Story R, the entire skill tree and IC/Speciality suite is opened up to the player to understand and dive through. It's more than just levelling up your attack, magic, and defense. It opens up the Pickpocketing, Crafting, Music, Writing, Alchemy, Cooking, list goes on trees that the player is supposed to fully understand. From what I knew with my experiences with these tertiary skills is that they accented the player and made it easier for me to level and be strong... but outside of training and scouting I had absolutely no idea. I couldn't tell how worth my time it was to construct books to level attack or perform songs to summon certain enemies because the tradeoffs were completely unclear and the materials necessary to do so were obfuscated or gated behind currency. This resulted in my levelling up train (sacrificing damage for exp gain) and scouting (populating more enemies on the world map) so I could stand still and let my characters go to town on consistently spawning enemies. I'm not sure if this was the best way to go about it, but I didn't want to have to study Star Ocean tactics for longer than I did to understand it. Grinding is pretty much never fun in games, especially in older JRPG's where the heal/save options aren't as desirable as they probably could be, but Star Ocean's levelling systems felt like watching paint dry, but the paint occasionally personified to get up and slap you in the face before going back to the fence it was being applied to.
Combat was bad, voice acting even worse, and the plot was lukewarm at best. Star Ocean: The Second Story R was an ultimately milquetoast experience that I'm not really even glad I got to play. It lands and bombards the player with lots of great visual fidelity (and the cutscene work/character portaits are rather impressive throughout) but lacks the sticking power to create a compelling experience worthy of note. I cannot recommend Star Ocean: The Second Story R to anybody except maybe fans of the old Action JRPG genre.
I went into this game without having played a Star Ocean game before and thus didn't know what to expect from one. After finishing it, what I got was a truly unique experience and my personal pick for 2023 Game of the Year. This is one of the few JRPGs I've played that feels like a real "role playing" game. Nearly every choice you make in the game has an impact, even down to which characters you choose to recruit and how you interact with them. Couple that with the robust skill/specialty systems and the game really allows you to make your playthrough your own. There's some bizarre abilities that you don't find in any other JRPG, like being able to publish books and collect money from royalties. The game just oozes charm throughout. The characters add to the charm as well through the Private Actions, where you get to see them interact with your protagonist or with each other and it's really fun. The story is pretty solid with some really nice reveals and twists and though it admittedly drops a little bit during the final act due to having really weak antagonists, the relationships between Claude, Rena, and the party still kept me invested. I chose Claude as my protagonist, and I do plan on replaying it as Rena to experience all the unique stuff to her.
In the words of Claude C. Kenny, "I'd say that's worth... 10 out of 10!"
In the words of Claude C. Kenny, "I'd say that's worth... 10 out of 10!"
This game is one of the best JRPGs that still holds up extremely well with this remade version making it even more accessible.
The game is extremely fun pretty much the entire time. The combat is some of the most fun in terms of action-like combat systems in JRPGs although it does get a little messy later in the game once your party and the enemies are spamming spells and abilities.
There is a pretty unique skill system that is really fun to engage with but can also be safely ignored for the most part (if you wish). You are able to invest points into a variety of skills that allow you to combine healing items, craft weapons, upgrade weapons, add secondary abilities to equipment, play music, cook food, summon a mount, summon superbosses, reduce your stats for more experience....you get the gist.
I think if you are a fan of JRPGs and have never played this you owe yourself a favor to do so.
The game is extremely fun pretty much the entire time. The combat is some of the most fun in terms of action-like combat systems in JRPGs although it does get a little messy later in the game once your party and the enemies are spamming spells and abilities.
There is a pretty unique skill system that is really fun to engage with but can also be safely ignored for the most part (if you wish). You are able to invest points into a variety of skills that allow you to combine healing items, craft weapons, upgrade weapons, add secondary abilities to equipment, play music, cook food, summon a mount, summon superbosses, reduce your stats for more experience....you get the gist.
I think if you are a fan of JRPGs and have never played this you owe yourself a favor to do so.
Wonderful remake of SO2. Took the old game and gave it the lift it needed. The quality of life was the best and the new art direction towards the end made me smile to be so much more epic. Well done, this was a perfect remake of a classic jrpg.
This is how you do a remake. IMO, this enhanced everything about the original, from the art style, touching up the character portraits, fleshing out the combat system more, adding in fishing(AMAZING), the QOL's sprinkled throughout the entire game. All around this was an amazing job, and I hope to see more from Gemdrops.
This game got my parents back together.
For as long as I can remember I have had a dream of making an RPG because I felt there wasn't one that felt exactly like what I wanted. when I played Star Ocean 2 I realized the game I wanted had existed this entire time
Might just have to put this on my best of all time list. This was such a good game... I really hope they release SO Blue Sphere soon as well. Either as DLC or as a full release. I need more Claude and Rena. But yeah besides Blue Sphere, I have now finished every Star Ocean game! Woooo!
I was hoping that I'd really love this game but everything about it was offputting. I put 6 hours into it, which I think is a fair shake. Let's start with the story and characters- pretty by the numbers. You have to investigate why a bunch of bad things is happening and animals are becoming monsters. Your two main characters seem to be your typical jrpg protagonists. The writing is pretty weird at times. There were a few instances during my play that I thought aloud "who the f*** wrote this?" For example, my two characters leave a house, say 2 sentences, then the owner of the house comes out and says something "oh, what are you guys still doing here?" I left a second ago! Minor gripe but there were a few other similar things.
The gameplay... was not up my alley. In my withering age (34) maybe AJRPGS just don't suit me. Sometimes your party can get completely buttfed in a matter of seconds. The game knows this and offers you a chance to retry the battle which is nice... but I'd rather not get repeatedly buttfed.
What I did like: the weird amount of customization and skills you can delve into. Random things like writing and art, however I don't fully know what benefits they give. I also liked the "private actions," which are entirely skippable bonding scenes between characters that can affect your ending. And finally the game is pretty.
The gameplay... was not up my alley. In my withering age (34) maybe AJRPGS just don't suit me. Sometimes your party can get completely buttfed in a matter of seconds. The game knows this and offers you a chance to retry the battle which is nice... but I'd rather not get repeatedly buttfed.
What I did like: the weird amount of customization and skills you can delve into. Random things like writing and art, however I don't fully know what benefits they give. I also liked the "private actions," which are entirely skippable bonding scenes between characters that can affect your ending. And finally the game is pretty.
This game is like a painting. Every frame looks so beautiful.The skill system is the highlight of the game of the game for me. All the skills really make the game feel unique even though they may be considered simple by today’s standards. The battle system is also pretty good but is a little janky sometimes. The story is pretty good but overall somewhat basic, but I think the characters make up for it.
Claude route completed (Nov 8 2023). Really fun game with great combat and loveable characters. I also love the voice acting, art style, and soundtrack.
My only negative is that I wanted more from the villains in terms of their character.
Easily one of my favourite jpgs
My only negative is that I wanted more from the villains in terms of their character.
Easily one of my favourite jpgs
perfection
Might come back to this at some point, but made it through like 6 hours at this point and it's just... not for me at this moment. Charming visuals, pretty bad writing, frustrating combat system. Too many other more appealing things to play right now.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R, Belo Como o Mar de Estrelas.
Bom, gostaria de começar essa Review aqui dando Feliz Ano Novo, para todas as pessoas que estão lendo ela, espero que seu ano seja fantástico, abençoado por Deus, e que você consiga dar os passos que deseja dar em sua caminhada.
De fato posso dizer que não conheço nenhuma das pessoas que fui apresentado nesse site, porém devo dizer que vocês fizeram parte, e de uma forma muito especial, no meu ano de 2023, então eu agradeço muito por isso, e desejo pra vocês o melhor! 🫠
Bom, com a primeira Review do ano eu queria começar com um jogo que um amigo meu me deu de presente de natal, já que ele sabia que eu estava em meu "arco de JRpgs." Obs: Eu tmb dei um presente pra ele, foi Elden Ring.
Ele disse que acreditava que essa era a melhor forma de começar na franquia Star Ocean, pois para ele essa era:
"A Melhor Versão, do Melhor Jogo da Série."
Essas palavras ficaram na minha cabeça, e por isso eu decidi começar a jogar ele logo depois de terminar o Final Fantasy IX. E eu devo dizer que eu gostei muito da experiência, por muitos motivos diferentes.
Mas antes de continuar eu queria descrever o que aconteceu logo que eu descobri quais jogos estavam saindo do Game Pass no meio de janeiro... Bom, eu já havia me planejado para jogar a franquia Persona por inteiro, ao menos tentar, e tinha o objetivo de jogar ao menos o 4 e o 3 pelo Xbox Game Pass, pra economizar algumas doletas de serem gastas... Mas eu descobri que Persona 4 e o 3 vão sair do serviço agora na metade de janeiro...
Como eu já estava praticamente no final do Star Oceano, bem perto da conclusão, eu decidi pausar ele e começar o Persona 4... Pois o 3 vai sair, mas o seu Remake vai entrar no serviço daqui a pouco então vou experimentar o terceiro jogo da série por ele... Acabou que eu consegui zerar o Persona 4 e terminar o Star Ocean logo em seguida. Por conta disso, ao menos por enquanto, eu vou me abster de escrever sobre Persona 4, talvez eu faça uma depois...
Voltando a Star Ocean, eu devo dizer que encontrei nele tudo que um JRpg trás de bom consigo, sua história é muito cativante, os personagens também são muito interessantes, principalmente pois me associei com eles muito rápido, então acabei me pagando a dupla da capa e os outros personagens muito rápido.
Devo dizer que o Remake em si ficou muito bem feito, sinto que eles tiveram muito carinho com a obra e respeito também... Mesmo que graficamente ele seja bem diferente, me parece que eles conseguiram reter o que tornava o original muito bem, inclusive na direção de arte... Que é um ponto que normalmente se perde muito facilmente nos Remakes e as vezes até torna a re-imaginação pior do que o original... Cof... Cof... Demon... Cof... Soul's.... Cof... Cof...
Em um geral Star Ocean: The Second Story é um jogo que me deu a sensação de ser muito completo e coeso, poxa, eu sinto que ele até tem seus probleminhas aqui e ali, mas definitivamente eu apreciei muito os seus pontos positivos, e um jogo que definitivamente eu recomendo bastante pra quem é fã do gênero, o Remake tá sim valendo bastante a pena, inclusive se você não jogou o original... Mas se quiser esperar uma promoção, acho que definitivamente é algo válido também.
Uma ótima adição aos meus jogos completados e um jogo que me fez ter muito carinho pelos personagens... Pra Star Ocean: The Second Story R um belo 9.3/10 ou 4.5/5.
Bom, gostaria de começar essa Review aqui dando Feliz Ano Novo, para todas as pessoas que estão lendo ela, espero que seu ano seja fantástico, abençoado por Deus, e que você consiga dar os passos que deseja dar em sua caminhada.
De fato posso dizer que não conheço nenhuma das pessoas que fui apresentado nesse site, porém devo dizer que vocês fizeram parte, e de uma forma muito especial, no meu ano de 2023, então eu agradeço muito por isso, e desejo pra vocês o melhor! 🫠
Bom, com a primeira Review do ano eu queria começar com um jogo que um amigo meu me deu de presente de natal, já que ele sabia que eu estava em meu "arco de JRpgs." Obs: Eu tmb dei um presente pra ele, foi Elden Ring.
Ele disse que acreditava que essa era a melhor forma de começar na franquia Star Ocean, pois para ele essa era:
"A Melhor Versão, do Melhor Jogo da Série."
Essas palavras ficaram na minha cabeça, e por isso eu decidi começar a jogar ele logo depois de terminar o Final Fantasy IX. E eu devo dizer que eu gostei muito da experiência, por muitos motivos diferentes.
Mas antes de continuar eu queria descrever o que aconteceu logo que eu descobri quais jogos estavam saindo do Game Pass no meio de janeiro... Bom, eu já havia me planejado para jogar a franquia Persona por inteiro, ao menos tentar, e tinha o objetivo de jogar ao menos o 4 e o 3 pelo Xbox Game Pass, pra economizar algumas doletas de serem gastas... Mas eu descobri que Persona 4 e o 3 vão sair do serviço agora na metade de janeiro...
Como eu já estava praticamente no final do Star Oceano, bem perto da conclusão, eu decidi pausar ele e começar o Persona 4... Pois o 3 vai sair, mas o seu Remake vai entrar no serviço daqui a pouco então vou experimentar o terceiro jogo da série por ele... Acabou que eu consegui zerar o Persona 4 e terminar o Star Ocean logo em seguida. Por conta disso, ao menos por enquanto, eu vou me abster de escrever sobre Persona 4, talvez eu faça uma depois...
Voltando a Star Ocean, eu devo dizer que encontrei nele tudo que um JRpg trás de bom consigo, sua história é muito cativante, os personagens também são muito interessantes, principalmente pois me associei com eles muito rápido, então acabei me pagando a dupla da capa e os outros personagens muito rápido.
Devo dizer que o Remake em si ficou muito bem feito, sinto que eles tiveram muito carinho com a obra e respeito também... Mesmo que graficamente ele seja bem diferente, me parece que eles conseguiram reter o que tornava o original muito bem, inclusive na direção de arte... Que é um ponto que normalmente se perde muito facilmente nos Remakes e as vezes até torna a re-imaginação pior do que o original... Cof... Cof... Demon... Cof... Soul's.... Cof... Cof...
Em um geral Star Ocean: The Second Story é um jogo que me deu a sensação de ser muito completo e coeso, poxa, eu sinto que ele até tem seus probleminhas aqui e ali, mas definitivamente eu apreciei muito os seus pontos positivos, e um jogo que definitivamente eu recomendo bastante pra quem é fã do gênero, o Remake tá sim valendo bastante a pena, inclusive se você não jogou o original... Mas se quiser esperar uma promoção, acho que definitivamente é algo válido também.
Uma ótima adição aos meus jogos completados e um jogo que me fez ter muito carinho pelos personagens... Pra Star Ocean: The Second Story R um belo 9.3/10 ou 4.5/5.
Never played Star Ocean before, but this was cool as hell! I really enjoyed the gameplay loop, something about it was just so addictive and it kept me locked in. The game is visually stunning, I kept taking screenshots in every new area because it just looks so damn good. Weakest part is definitely the story, I mean it's okay but nothing to write home about. I feel like there should've been more interactions with your other party members than just through the PA's. However I really like the setting that this takes place in and the sheer scaling in certain events.
A solid JRPG. Glad I gave this one a try because it was a fun time from start to finish.
A solid JRPG. Glad I gave this one a try because it was a fun time from start to finish.
Ahhh how I'm reminded of the good ol days when PS1/PS2 era RPGS were at their most peak.
As a long time Steam Ocean Fan I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the series was alive and still kicking but SO2 out of all titles in the series would be getting the (Octopath) remake treatment. Hesitant at first, knowing how companies and studios like to make shoddy remakes/remasters as a mean to make a quick buck but boy howdy was I disproven. Square is a lot of things but if there's one thing they get right now of day, it's trying to bring old titles back from the dead one last time for a new audience Legend of Mana, Live A Live, SaGa Frontier Remastered, Tactic Orge and Romancing SaGa are such examples (still holding out hope they'll bring Xenogears back from the dead).
Just like the additional dimension that the elder cousin Tales series is known for, SO2 is a party based action JRPG that takes place in a 2D space all the while happening in real time. With the remake rendition, triAce truly went above and beyond to bring in a whole host of new changes like complete 3D backgrounds, revamped 2DHD sprites and a plethora of QOL changes like adaptable spell animations that no longer take hours to cast, combat revamps, no enemy encounters, new enemy systems.. fishing?!
SO2R also has an in-depth item crafting system as an extension of its skill system that gives you plenty of room to create many items you wouldn't otherwise be able to access through regular game play or access powerful weapons early if you put the time into leveling up your skills and experimenting with combining items together. Plus, along with the deep leveling/specialization systems, it makes up for a meaningful way to refine your party, becoming more self-sufficient the further along you get. This complements some battle encounters that are deeper than many other RPGs on the market, always keeping you on your toes if you ever decide to foolishly to speed blitz the game without paying attention to the game mechanics. Since replayability is also a defining factor because of the different paths throughout the game, there are multiple difficulties that can ramp up the challenge if you so crave it (do be warn, if you see any dragon that's about to cast dragon breath, back the ♥♥♥♥ the away please!) and as part of triAce tradition, Star Ocean 2 features a pretty extensive post game that will really test your knowledge on the game's various systems.
Not only that but throughout the game, the events you see, the choices you make and the people you take into battle with you will start to cause characters to build affinity toward your player character and for each other. Not only does this open up more side story events, but plays into the game mechanics as well, such as, characters get enraged if someone they care for falls in combat. As a result of character pairing, each possible pairing also has multiple possible endings based on the pairing's affinities for each other, leaving you with a so much possible ending combinations.
It should also be noted that I applaud the team for trying to appease both old and new fans with fully voiced Japanese and English characters with the ability to pick two separate Japanese tracks that are recorded by the voice actors from not just the original PS1 release but the PSP version as well!! You also have the ability to freely swap between from the original OST or the newly arranged OST, all of which are remixed by the main man himself, Motoi Sakuraba, who composed the original soundtrack.
Truly a fine display of what a remake SHOULD be, modernizing old time classics with QOL improvements but not completely removing its identity on what made them enjoyable to begin with.
For new fans, welcome, enjoy one of the best Star Ocean games in the series and one of the most underrated JRPGS.
For long time fans, finally, we are eating good today. T-T sniffles
As a long time Steam Ocean Fan I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the series was alive and still kicking but SO2 out of all titles in the series would be getting the (Octopath) remake treatment. Hesitant at first, knowing how companies and studios like to make shoddy remakes/remasters as a mean to make a quick buck but boy howdy was I disproven. Square is a lot of things but if there's one thing they get right now of day, it's trying to bring old titles back from the dead one last time for a new audience Legend of Mana, Live A Live, SaGa Frontier Remastered, Tactic Orge and Romancing SaGa are such examples (still holding out hope they'll bring Xenogears back from the dead).
Just like the additional dimension that the elder cousin Tales series is known for, SO2 is a party based action JRPG that takes place in a 2D space all the while happening in real time. With the remake rendition, triAce truly went above and beyond to bring in a whole host of new changes like complete 3D backgrounds, revamped 2DHD sprites and a plethora of QOL changes like adaptable spell animations that no longer take hours to cast, combat revamps, no enemy encounters, new enemy systems.. fishing?!
SO2R also has an in-depth item crafting system as an extension of its skill system that gives you plenty of room to create many items you wouldn't otherwise be able to access through regular game play or access powerful weapons early if you put the time into leveling up your skills and experimenting with combining items together. Plus, along with the deep leveling/specialization systems, it makes up for a meaningful way to refine your party, becoming more self-sufficient the further along you get. This complements some battle encounters that are deeper than many other RPGs on the market, always keeping you on your toes if you ever decide to foolishly to speed blitz the game without paying attention to the game mechanics. Since replayability is also a defining factor because of the different paths throughout the game, there are multiple difficulties that can ramp up the challenge if you so crave it (do be warn, if you see any dragon that's about to cast dragon breath, back the ♥♥♥♥ the away please!) and as part of triAce tradition, Star Ocean 2 features a pretty extensive post game that will really test your knowledge on the game's various systems.
Not only that but throughout the game, the events you see, the choices you make and the people you take into battle with you will start to cause characters to build affinity toward your player character and for each other. Not only does this open up more side story events, but plays into the game mechanics as well, such as, characters get enraged if someone they care for falls in combat. As a result of character pairing, each possible pairing also has multiple possible endings based on the pairing's affinities for each other, leaving you with a so much possible ending combinations.
It should also be noted that I applaud the team for trying to appease both old and new fans with fully voiced Japanese and English characters with the ability to pick two separate Japanese tracks that are recorded by the voice actors from not just the original PS1 release but the PSP version as well!! You also have the ability to freely swap between from the original OST or the newly arranged OST, all of which are remixed by the main man himself, Motoi Sakuraba, who composed the original soundtrack.
Truly a fine display of what a remake SHOULD be, modernizing old time classics with QOL improvements but not completely removing its identity on what made them enjoyable to begin with.
For new fans, welcome, enjoy one of the best Star Ocean games in the series and one of the most underrated JRPGS.
For long time fans, finally, we are eating good today. T-T sniffles
It's been 3 long years since I first experienced this game on the PSP. I had just recently finished First Departure and was locked in for this series. And every since then I've been carving to play the rest of this series. And lo and behold we get a beautiful remake with QOL and gameplay enhancements. COUNT ME IN!
The graphic redesign of all the areas in the game were great. I never really though twice about them before but now I can't stop thinking about that. The new OST is pretty good, a few I wasn't too big on but for the ones I liked originally were done right. The new portrait art look amazing, a little bland in showing emotion compared to the PSP ver. but are objectively better looking. They made mages better and their moves look incredible. The new combat, formations and Assaults were all great additions, they made an already fun battle system even better. Also fishing.....it's ok but I liked Reef and her design.
The QOL is literally what I was wishing for when I played 3 years ago. I loved being able to see when PA were available, I missed some good one back then. Fast travel will always be a godsend. IC/Specialty made things a lot easier to understand. The new cutscenes were very good, a certain event had more impact thanks to it. The Challenge Mission and Sidequest were good additions, made me pay more attention to all the systems in the game. Being able to see FP/RP at anytime was significant better than having to go to Fun City, I could get several endings without it being a pain.
I see myself playing this game several times throughout my life. This remake is perfect.
The graphic redesign of all the areas in the game were great. I never really though twice about them before but now I can't stop thinking about that. The new OST is pretty good, a few I wasn't too big on but for the ones I liked originally were done right. The new portrait art look amazing, a little bland in showing emotion compared to the PSP ver. but are objectively better looking. They made mages better and their moves look incredible. The new combat, formations and Assaults were all great additions, they made an already fun battle system even better. Also fishing.....it's ok but I liked Reef and her design.
The QOL is literally what I was wishing for when I played 3 years ago. I loved being able to see when PA were available, I missed some good one back then. Fast travel will always be a godsend. IC/Specialty made things a lot easier to understand. The new cutscenes were very good, a certain event had more impact thanks to it. The Challenge Mission and Sidequest were good additions, made me pay more attention to all the systems in the game. Being able to see FP/RP at anytime was significant better than having to go to Fun City, I could get several endings without it being a pain.
I see myself playing this game several times throughout my life. This remake is perfect.
My funniest surpise going through Star Ocean games is that there's seemingly a series trend of introducing the true main villain in the last 5% of the game who exists to deliver some suprisingly based critique of globalism for one cutscene then immediately die
This was everything I hoped the remake was going to be, and much more. Gemdrops gave this remake the love and care it deserved by keeping the original feel and look, while streamlining the game itself. It's hands down my Game of the Year.
I don’t think I’ve ever come into a game with such middling expectations only to end up with it being one of my absolute favorite games. Star Ocean First Departure R was a real mess of a game, its ambitions were sky high but it flew too close to the sun and ended up being a real let down. The discussion around Star Ocean at large has really made it seem like these games are just kind of a mess like that and it’s a love it or hate it thing, but Star Ocean: The Second Story is a game that not only realizes all those lofty ambitions that First Departure had, but evolves past that to such a degree it’s astounding.
The Second Story is such an insanely systems-heavy game for a JRPG and yet it never feels overwhelming. Everything from the battle mechanics, to the encounter mechanics, to the skills and itemization all comes together in such a harmonious way that allows you to get completely absorbed by the gameplay loop. Often times I’ll stop dead in my tracks between story beats to fiddle around in the menus for like an hour, and that’s not because the game is forcing me to do it, it’s because I wanna see what kind of stupid shit I can do. This is a game that absolutely begs for you to break it over your knee, it wants you to get overleveled, it wants you to get the best equipment in the game by the halfway point, it wants you to plow through a whole dungeon without ever doing an actual encounter, and when you do finally do an encounter for it to end the second your first hit connects. This kind of systems heavy design seems very reminiscent of a CRPG to me rather than a JRPG, but it pulls it off so effortlessly it’s as if these were JRPG conventions all along.
The HD-2D aesthetic is starting to get played out a bit at this point, I still think games like Live A Live look great but when every JRPG remake looks like that it’s a bit tiresome. The Second Story R takes that HD-2D idea and evolves it in what feels like the leap from the SNES to the PS1. It legitimately looks as if every area in this game is a pre rendered background brought to life, the 3D level geometry also allows for the lighting to pop so much more than in any HD-2D game, and the ability to move the camera around the environments in a way not possible in the original leads to some beautiful moments.
I love all the characters too, yeah they are all anime tropes to a T but I think the private actions allow them to all punch well above their weight. There were quite a few PAs here that legitimately made me laugh in a way that I never thought this sort of thing would, especially compared to Tales Of skits that constantly try to make you laugh and fail miserably. I think if I had one real complaint about the writing it’s that the endings I ended up with felt a little limp, which is definitely a consequence of there being so many possible endings, but not getting a satisfying conclusion to some of the character relationships is definitely making me want to give it another go.
All in all just a truly astounding game, I think if I played the original when it came out this would have been my entire personality for a decade plus, but playing it now it’s still something I feel like I’m gonna carry with me for a long time.
The Second Story is such an insanely systems-heavy game for a JRPG and yet it never feels overwhelming. Everything from the battle mechanics, to the encounter mechanics, to the skills and itemization all comes together in such a harmonious way that allows you to get completely absorbed by the gameplay loop. Often times I’ll stop dead in my tracks between story beats to fiddle around in the menus for like an hour, and that’s not because the game is forcing me to do it, it’s because I wanna see what kind of stupid shit I can do. This is a game that absolutely begs for you to break it over your knee, it wants you to get overleveled, it wants you to get the best equipment in the game by the halfway point, it wants you to plow through a whole dungeon without ever doing an actual encounter, and when you do finally do an encounter for it to end the second your first hit connects. This kind of systems heavy design seems very reminiscent of a CRPG to me rather than a JRPG, but it pulls it off so effortlessly it’s as if these were JRPG conventions all along.
The HD-2D aesthetic is starting to get played out a bit at this point, I still think games like Live A Live look great but when every JRPG remake looks like that it’s a bit tiresome. The Second Story R takes that HD-2D idea and evolves it in what feels like the leap from the SNES to the PS1. It legitimately looks as if every area in this game is a pre rendered background brought to life, the 3D level geometry also allows for the lighting to pop so much more than in any HD-2D game, and the ability to move the camera around the environments in a way not possible in the original leads to some beautiful moments.
I love all the characters too, yeah they are all anime tropes to a T but I think the private actions allow them to all punch well above their weight. There were quite a few PAs here that legitimately made me laugh in a way that I never thought this sort of thing would, especially compared to Tales Of skits that constantly try to make you laugh and fail miserably. I think if I had one real complaint about the writing it’s that the endings I ended up with felt a little limp, which is definitely a consequence of there being so many possible endings, but not getting a satisfying conclusion to some of the character relationships is definitely making me want to give it another go.
All in all just a truly astounding game, I think if I played the original when it came out this would have been my entire personality for a decade plus, but playing it now it’s still something I feel like I’m gonna carry with me for a long time.
In the span of a week or so, I went from an apathetic “I should try that out sometime” stance on Star Ocean into a giddy little man grinning ear to ear with love because I took that plunge after all this time and was rewarded handsomely. Star Ocean Second Story is such a wonderful video game and I couldn’t be happier.
It’s been a while since I have played a game with a story that feels so vividly “golden age of JRPG”. The main plot kicks off and is so endearing and exciting, in large part due to the outstanding and incredibly lovable dual protagonists. I love the story setup, and even just in my first play session was fully on board with everything being presented, but that momentum just continues for the entire game. It paints an incredibly vibrant and detailed picture of the world of Star Ocean, yet is simultaneously paced brilliantly and always serves to grow the characters just as much. Midway through the game has a twist that brings it all together and really cemented this as an all time great for me. Such a great time.
The beginning couple hours were a bit confusing due to the wealth of mechanics tossed to you to play with, combined by battles so easy I was finishing them within seconds- not allowing me the breathing room to comprehend the aforementioned mechanics. However, once the game kicked into full gear and my learning increased alongside it- I had a blast. Combat leans a little bit into the “mashy flashy” side of things, but the depth in its systems and leveling don’t make it feel mindless. You are given an absurd amount of agency into growing your characters with different skills and abilities, and finding a way to use the many tools given to you effectively is where the game really shines. I love the battles- they’re fast, exciting, and still give lots of tactical decision making- but even more so was doing things like leveling up Rena to be an author so other characters could bypass using skill points on other skills, making characters good at pickpocketing and stealing amazing gear early, or giving everyone the option to nerf stats in exchange for experience boosts. Combine that with the character recruition (which allowed me two entirely different parties by the endgames for my two playthroughs) and I just think it's pretty damn cool that everyone can adopt their own ways to play and still be validated, challenged, and rewarded for it. I found it to be just as addictive as it was mechanically dense, and I did go out of my way to fight every superboss and reach max level.
Structurally the game is a little more linear than the rest of the mechanics might make you think, always having a destination you need to go to for progression, but it still gives plenty of agency in a way that feels liberating. I found myself wandering around the world map constantly, and finding extra hard enemies that rewarded me with extra experience and skill points was really cool- along with chests, new towns, new characters, and party dialogue. The world feels very lived in and has tons of lore and history going into its details, and the lovely characters you can recruit go a long way into making it feel as such, which is just a lot of fun. The towns often have interesting NPCs to talk to, architecture, and generally feel distinct and dense. Being a part of this universe is simply captivating, and it is tied together by the excellent soundtrack and wonderful visuals of this remaster and in the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original too.
There are a couple little nitpicks I could scrape together if I wanted to, but I see no reason to given how much I enjoyed this game. I have the platinum trophy on my Playstation- obtained simply because I was having fun and not due to a previous intention. The story is great, the world is exciting, it's incredibly fun, it's presented beautifully, and I want to go on adventures with Claude and Rena in real life. I love this game and will continue to love it for a long, long time. Great stuff here and an easy recommendation to anyone who loves PS1 era JRPGs as I do.
It’s been a while since I have played a game with a story that feels so vividly “golden age of JRPG”. The main plot kicks off and is so endearing and exciting, in large part due to the outstanding and incredibly lovable dual protagonists. I love the story setup, and even just in my first play session was fully on board with everything being presented, but that momentum just continues for the entire game. It paints an incredibly vibrant and detailed picture of the world of Star Ocean, yet is simultaneously paced brilliantly and always serves to grow the characters just as much. Midway through the game has a twist that brings it all together and really cemented this as an all time great for me. Such a great time.
The beginning couple hours were a bit confusing due to the wealth of mechanics tossed to you to play with, combined by battles so easy I was finishing them within seconds- not allowing me the breathing room to comprehend the aforementioned mechanics. However, once the game kicked into full gear and my learning increased alongside it- I had a blast. Combat leans a little bit into the “mashy flashy” side of things, but the depth in its systems and leveling don’t make it feel mindless. You are given an absurd amount of agency into growing your characters with different skills and abilities, and finding a way to use the many tools given to you effectively is where the game really shines. I love the battles- they’re fast, exciting, and still give lots of tactical decision making- but even more so was doing things like leveling up Rena to be an author so other characters could bypass using skill points on other skills, making characters good at pickpocketing and stealing amazing gear early, or giving everyone the option to nerf stats in exchange for experience boosts. Combine that with the character recruition (which allowed me two entirely different parties by the endgames for my two playthroughs) and I just think it's pretty damn cool that everyone can adopt their own ways to play and still be validated, challenged, and rewarded for it. I found it to be just as addictive as it was mechanically dense, and I did go out of my way to fight every superboss and reach max level.
Structurally the game is a little more linear than the rest of the mechanics might make you think, always having a destination you need to go to for progression, but it still gives plenty of agency in a way that feels liberating. I found myself wandering around the world map constantly, and finding extra hard enemies that rewarded me with extra experience and skill points was really cool- along with chests, new towns, new characters, and party dialogue. The world feels very lived in and has tons of lore and history going into its details, and the lovely characters you can recruit go a long way into making it feel as such, which is just a lot of fun. The towns often have interesting NPCs to talk to, architecture, and generally feel distinct and dense. Being a part of this universe is simply captivating, and it is tied together by the excellent soundtrack and wonderful visuals of this remaster and in the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original too.
There are a couple little nitpicks I could scrape together if I wanted to, but I see no reason to given how much I enjoyed this game. I have the platinum trophy on my Playstation- obtained simply because I was having fun and not due to a previous intention. The story is great, the world is exciting, it's incredibly fun, it's presented beautifully, and I want to go on adventures with Claude and Rena in real life. I love this game and will continue to love it for a long, long time. Great stuff here and an easy recommendation to anyone who loves PS1 era JRPGs as I do.
This is one of the best remakes of all time, without question. Whether we wanted it or not, we’re now firmly in the era where studios WILL put their hands all over our beloved childhood classics, and we’re in good hands if some of those are handled with anywhere near the level of respect that Gemdrops has shown for SO2 here. The Second Story R is a lovingly crafted return to a flawed, yet seminal PS1 classic - it updates in some much needed areas and preserves in others, but never once does it lose the original’s soulful, doujinesque flavor. If you’ve ever wanted to “get” Star Ocean, there’s no better game to play than this one. tri-Ace supremacy.
A lesson on how to mix the old with the new.
Never played a game that i wanted to love so much but just couldn´t.
The gameplay is phenomenal , the game is beautiful aesthetically and every other mechanic is so fun to use and experiment with.
My real problem with this game is the characters that are really really fucking boring and the plot that is just uninteresting
The gameplay is phenomenal , the game is beautiful aesthetically and every other mechanic is so fun to use and experiment with.
My real problem with this game is the characters that are really really fucking boring and the plot that is just uninteresting
While I am a pretty big fan of it's sister series, I have never played a star ocean game before, and I wasn't too sure what to expect. Overall I would have to say, I had a pretty good time. The first portions of the game are amazing. I got hooked by the story, and all of the gameplay elements that I was slowly being introduced to seemed like they would be really fun to play with. All of the different skills and specialties while being overwhelming, I was excited to be playing a game with all these in depth mechanics.
Unfortunately my mindset did sort of shift as I got to the more middle section of the game. I kind of came to the realization that while yes there are a lot of different things to put your points into, a lot of them are kind of samey. Like for instance you can level up a characters art ability, and have them create pieces that will heal and buff your party, or you could level up cooking, which lets you cook food that heal and buff your party, or level up compounding, which will let you create concoctions that will, (take a guess here), heal and buff your party. While certainly this isn't the case for everything, and even these one's I mentioned have a LITTLE bit of their own diversity, but it really seems to me they went for quantity over quality here. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it would allow for a little bit of diversity in a new game plus, (which is something that this game pushes heavily). But unfortunately, you are given more than enough SP to level up pretty much everything to full on one playthrough, so it's not like I would get to experience any new skill sets on another playthrough.
My other main problem is how the combat goes from an enjoyable albeit simple affair, it doesn't take very long to turn into one of the most button mashy games I have ever played in my entire life. You have to choose two skills from your entire arsenal (instead of being able to bind other buttons) and just mash those as well as your basic attacks (of which there is zero directional input). It gets to a point where you don't even see what's happening on screen because of all the visual noise and kinda just spam your abilities until the enemies are dead.
I think one of the things this game does incredibly is how much it communicates with the player. There are so many miss-able little sub events and private actions that would normally be so easy to miss, but the game really makes sure you know when and where anything will happen. And I really like the idea that there are all of these characters you can recruit, and they all have events with each other, so no two playthroughs are gonna be the same, at least story/character wise.
The story itself is also really good. But I was not at all expecting it to take that long to get into the sci-fi section. I feel like for a game called Star Ocean with all of the space imagery would have at least more than 15% of the game have anything to do with Sci Fi. Nothing inherently wrong with it but do not go into this expecting it to be some crazy science fiction story. And because so little of the time is delegated to the sci fi, a lot of it feels EXTREMELY shoehorned in, and they way they wrap of a lot of it up feels extremely forced. But whatever I still enjoyed it for what it was and the characters in it.
Unfortunately my mindset did sort of shift as I got to the more middle section of the game. I kind of came to the realization that while yes there are a lot of different things to put your points into, a lot of them are kind of samey. Like for instance you can level up a characters art ability, and have them create pieces that will heal and buff your party, or you could level up cooking, which lets you cook food that heal and buff your party, or level up compounding, which will let you create concoctions that will, (take a guess here), heal and buff your party. While certainly this isn't the case for everything, and even these one's I mentioned have a LITTLE bit of their own diversity, but it really seems to me they went for quantity over quality here. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it would allow for a little bit of diversity in a new game plus, (which is something that this game pushes heavily). But unfortunately, you are given more than enough SP to level up pretty much everything to full on one playthrough, so it's not like I would get to experience any new skill sets on another playthrough.
My other main problem is how the combat goes from an enjoyable albeit simple affair, it doesn't take very long to turn into one of the most button mashy games I have ever played in my entire life. You have to choose two skills from your entire arsenal (instead of being able to bind other buttons) and just mash those as well as your basic attacks (of which there is zero directional input). It gets to a point where you don't even see what's happening on screen because of all the visual noise and kinda just spam your abilities until the enemies are dead.
I think one of the things this game does incredibly is how much it communicates with the player. There are so many miss-able little sub events and private actions that would normally be so easy to miss, but the game really makes sure you know when and where anything will happen. And I really like the idea that there are all of these characters you can recruit, and they all have events with each other, so no two playthroughs are gonna be the same, at least story/character wise.
The story itself is also really good. But I was not at all expecting it to take that long to get into the sci-fi section. I feel like for a game called Star Ocean with all of the space imagery would have at least more than 15% of the game have anything to do with Sci Fi. Nothing inherently wrong with it but do not go into this expecting it to be some crazy science fiction story. And because so little of the time is delegated to the sci fi, a lot of it feels EXTREMELY shoehorned in, and they way they wrap of a lot of it up feels extremely forced. But whatever I still enjoyed it for what it was and the characters in it.
A fantastic remake that is insanely hard not to recommend over the original release. A shortlist of downgrades would be the overall difficulty being pretty easy, the camera angles of the interior and city scenes being pretty same-y and boring for the most part in comparison to some of the wild forced perspectives from the original, and a couple of tracks feeling decidedly weaker than their PS1 counterparts. That being said, the positives are far outweighing my complaints. Most songs are redone fantastically, giving a bit extra weight to the more emotional tunes. The combat overall is way more usable, allowing you to stop time with the hold of a trigger to determine your targets a little more decisively rather than just mashing to victory (when the game is still a little difficult at least). Ally spells are much quicker to watch through, putting more time and focus on the actual action of the combat and maintaining control of the player. Elements of the leveling and crafting systems are much less abstracted giving the player an actual idea of what they're doing from the outset of the game instead of having it be a sorta mess that'll make players feel alienated with missed opportunities and accidental skill allocations. Load times (on my PC) were non-existent. The new fast traveling is as fast as it gets with the player assuming control before the screen fully fades from black. I hadn't played the PSP version but I really like the audio track from it and am shocked that characters like Leon (a whiny 12 year old cat boy) managed to have a non-cringe performance. There's a lot to love in this remake, again with most asides just being a push for modernity getting in the way of that classic feel. What I will say distinctively as a negative is that the four fields segment later in the game feels way weaker, and each of the fields' gimmicks were replaced in favor of a much less impressive gimmick. It's a headscratcher why I'm just hunting enemies instead of having a unique battle style where I'm trying to prevent them from pulling a giant lever, and another field where the gimmick is LITERALLY to just walk in a straight line. NO idea why there was a switchup, but fortunately the gimmicks in the 2 following dungeons are definitely more pronounced and well thought out than in the original.
I'll say they had the opportunity to improve the story and they didn't. This goes two ways; is it better to stay faithful to the original idea as a testament to being a note for note remake, and be a lamer narrative, or should they take the opportunity of returning to a beloved game 25 years later to deliver a more satisfying story? Who knows. I understand their direction but can't help but imagine some sort of alternative ending where there's actually a little more intrigue in the assault on Phynal.
I'm not much of a JRPG buff but The Second Story was always my favorite growing up. I'm glad to say that this remake does it justice and I can fully recommend it over the original product, AND I can actually play it natively on my PC. I think Gemdrops did a fantastic job and I think I might be more swayed to play more of the franchise just riding off the high of my enjoyment of this game. Solid work.
I'll say they had the opportunity to improve the story and they didn't. This goes two ways; is it better to stay faithful to the original idea as a testament to being a note for note remake, and be a lamer narrative, or should they take the opportunity of returning to a beloved game 25 years later to deliver a more satisfying story? Who knows. I understand their direction but can't help but imagine some sort of alternative ending where there's actually a little more intrigue in the assault on Phynal.
I'm not much of a JRPG buff but The Second Story was always my favorite growing up. I'm glad to say that this remake does it justice and I can fully recommend it over the original product, AND I can actually play it natively on my PC. I think Gemdrops did a fantastic job and I think I might be more swayed to play more of the franchise just riding off the high of my enjoyment of this game. Solid work.
Antes de começar a análise, quero avisar que joguei a primeira vez na rota do Claude e não pretendo jogar a rota da Rena.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R teve um início bom, que da metade pro final começou a decair e tudo antes disso pareceu um grande filler. Personagens são jogados na party sem quaisquer motivos ou conexão com a história em si e não fazem sentido algum pro que está acontecendo, eles só te seguem e fica por isso (o jogo até tem um sistema de Bonding Event chamado PA, onde você pode ver coisas secundárias dos personagens da party ou ter uma interação com eles pra aumentar o nível de amizade que pode influenciar no final do jogo).
Fiquei desapontado, esperava mais, já que o jogo é bem aclamado pela comunidade de JRPG. Olhando por outro lado, os gráficos do jogo estão lindos, as cutscenes estavam maravilhosas e me animavam pra chegar no fim, pena que a história do jogo em si deixou a desejar pra mim. O bom é que a melhor parte do jogo era os combates e ver as paisagens, o combate também é bem parecido com o da franquia Tales of, o que me motivou mais a jogar.
Enfim, tive sentimentos neutros em relação ao jogo, personagens e história, e no final não me agradou tanto quanto eu esperava, podiam ter colocado mais algumas cenas aqui e ali, senti que algumas coisas aconteciam de repente de uma hora pra outra, ou enrolavam (como acontece no final do jogo onde falam pra você desafiar 4 testes e você estará pronto para a batalha final, mas não, você na verdade também tem que ir em tal local e derrotar tal monstro pra criar tais armas mais poderosas pra lidar com os vilões), broxante na minha opinião. É isso.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R teve um início bom, que da metade pro final começou a decair e tudo antes disso pareceu um grande filler. Personagens são jogados na party sem quaisquer motivos ou conexão com a história em si e não fazem sentido algum pro que está acontecendo, eles só te seguem e fica por isso (o jogo até tem um sistema de Bonding Event chamado PA, onde você pode ver coisas secundárias dos personagens da party ou ter uma interação com eles pra aumentar o nível de amizade que pode influenciar no final do jogo).
Fiquei desapontado, esperava mais, já que o jogo é bem aclamado pela comunidade de JRPG. Olhando por outro lado, os gráficos do jogo estão lindos, as cutscenes estavam maravilhosas e me animavam pra chegar no fim, pena que a história do jogo em si deixou a desejar pra mim. O bom é que a melhor parte do jogo era os combates e ver as paisagens, o combate também é bem parecido com o da franquia Tales of, o que me motivou mais a jogar.
Enfim, tive sentimentos neutros em relação ao jogo, personagens e história, e no final não me agradou tanto quanto eu esperava, podiam ter colocado mais algumas cenas aqui e ali, senti que algumas coisas aconteciam de repente de uma hora pra outra, ou enrolavam (como acontece no final do jogo onde falam pra você desafiar 4 testes e você estará pronto para a batalha final, mas não, você na verdade também tem que ir em tal local e derrotar tal monstro pra criar tais armas mais poderosas pra lidar com os vilões), broxante na minha opinião. É isso.
This feels a bit weird to say about a JRPG, but I think this game was absolutely carried by it's gameplay. I just couldn't bring myself to care about the story. You don't even meet the main villains until you're over halfway done with the game. And then they don't even reappear until the final dungeon. Aside from Rena and Claude, no party member ever felt relevant to the plot past their introduction, even though most of them had a lot of potential.
But, with all that been said, the gameplay was great enough to make up for it. The amount of options you have to absolutely break the game into pieces at every turn, was truly incredible. Every option felt overpowered in it's own way, and yet the game still felt really well balanced.
One other praise-worthy aspect of the game is just how wonderful of a remake it is. It includes all the quality of life features you could dream of, and graphics that bring the most out of the HD2D style.
Overall, I think I would recommend this game, as long as you don't go into it expecting some grand, incredible narrative.
But, with all that been said, the gameplay was great enough to make up for it. The amount of options you have to absolutely break the game into pieces at every turn, was truly incredible. Every option felt overpowered in it's own way, and yet the game still felt really well balanced.
One other praise-worthy aspect of the game is just how wonderful of a remake it is. It includes all the quality of life features you could dream of, and graphics that bring the most out of the HD2D style.
Overall, I think I would recommend this game, as long as you don't go into it expecting some grand, incredible narrative.