Ahhh Star Ocean 2: The Second Story, oh how I love thee, let me count the ways. You inspired me to no end, let me know that anything was possible, and that the grandest of adventures can start with a single humble step. You showed me a world that was beautiful and bold, a world that needed heroes. A world full of vibrant characters that interacted with each other almost as real as any other. You let me live such a grand and epic adventure, full of planets colliding, stars falling from the sky, and technology that blended so well it was magic.
Star Ocean 2 is a most excellent and grand video game. You start out as 1 of the 2 main characters, playing as either Claude C. Kenny or Rena Landford. Claude is a low level soldier in the federation when suddenly, an explosion sends him far away from a planet he is surveying with his father. He doesn't much care for his service in the federation, always in the shadow of his father. And Rena? Well Rena lives her life in a small town called Arlia. Her healing abilities were not of this world, and sages and wise men believe her to be meant for bigger and better things.
With over 80 endings (lets be honest here, it was just 80 possible combinations of endings that were written out for the 11 characters in the game, depending on their affinity for eachother) there was a ton of replay value in this game. The crafting and talent system was something I couldn't get enough of, and I wish other games would follow suit. And the battle mechanics? Oh my god... It is extremely satisfying to use special attacks. I still have many of the voice acting sound bites burned in my neurons. "SHOOTING STARS" and "AIR SLASH", "HURRICAN SLASH" "BURST KNUCKLE" "DRAGON HOWL" and "TRI-ACE" (the move that is named after the game company!)
The battle system is a real fun challenge, and if I remember correctly there was a pretty awesome arena that gave great rewards to all those who proved themselves on its bloody sands. It was high octane action, with momentary pauses to choose and cast spells and watch their effects. The spell effects were awesome at the time, and today I still say they hold up in that "oh my god it is 1998 again look at death raining from the sky" or "look at that 100g weight drop!" lol.
The characters and the story were all well written. They interacted with each other in meaningful ways, and there was just so much content when it came to interactions between any two characters. There were so many cool things you could do like forge documents, pickpocket, cook special items, craft armor and weapons, jewelry, and more! Each character even has a 'favorite meal' and if you craft them and use them they will recover all of their hp and mp.
So far I'm not too hot on how the remake looks but I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Star Ocean is back.
Star Ocean 2 is a most excellent and grand video game. You start out as 1 of the 2 main characters, playing as either Claude C. Kenny or Rena Landford. Claude is a low level soldier in the federation when suddenly, an explosion sends him far away from a planet he is surveying with his father. He doesn't much care for his service in the federation, always in the shadow of his father. And Rena? Well Rena lives her life in a small town called Arlia. Her healing abilities were not of this world, and sages and wise men believe her to be meant for bigger and better things.
With over 80 endings (lets be honest here, it was just 80 possible combinations of endings that were written out for the 11 characters in the game, depending on their affinity for eachother) there was a ton of replay value in this game. The crafting and talent system was something I couldn't get enough of, and I wish other games would follow suit. And the battle mechanics? Oh my god... It is extremely satisfying to use special attacks. I still have many of the voice acting sound bites burned in my neurons. "SHOOTING STARS" and "AIR SLASH", "HURRICAN SLASH" "BURST KNUCKLE" "DRAGON HOWL" and "TRI-ACE" (the move that is named after the game company!)
The battle system is a real fun challenge, and if I remember correctly there was a pretty awesome arena that gave great rewards to all those who proved themselves on its bloody sands. It was high octane action, with momentary pauses to choose and cast spells and watch their effects. The spell effects were awesome at the time, and today I still say they hold up in that "oh my god it is 1998 again look at death raining from the sky" or "look at that 100g weight drop!" lol.
The characters and the story were all well written. They interacted with each other in meaningful ways, and there was just so much content when it came to interactions between any two characters. There were so many cool things you could do like forge documents, pickpocket, cook special items, craft armor and weapons, jewelry, and more! Each character even has a 'favorite meal' and if you craft them and use them they will recover all of their hp and mp.
So far I'm not too hot on how the remake looks but I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Star Ocean is back.
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.
port of SNES game
perfection
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
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.
(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.
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.
The story has always been weak,
And the writing's easy to critique,
But the gameplay is king,
And Gemdrop's big swing,
turns this classic into something chic.
And the writing's easy to critique,
But the gameplay is king,
And Gemdrop's big swing,
turns this classic into something chic.
Do this treatment to all PS1 RPGs and take my money !
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.
The natural rizz of a PS1 RPG
Beat Star Ocean 2 R last night. An excellent PS1 remake Everything that I was hoping for. To be fair, I have a ton of nostalgia for Star Ocean 2, but I think it did a good job of updating what was originally a pretty grindy game and streamlining a lot of those hurdles with QoL updates to make the game go by quicker and smoother. It is very rewarding to dabble in its skill system which can provide you some game breaking items if you invest enough time into which was the case in the original. The battle system takes some degree of adjustment but is reminiscent of the original Star Ocean in execution. Star Ocean has always been kinda janky which is part of its charm. I'd say SO2 is definitely the most successful in the series and it's a shame they haven't been able to reach those heights since.
I played the original PSX game back in The Day and jfc experiencing it again in this high fidelity with so much polish and QOL updates but also they kept all the weird ways you can cheese this game-- it's amazing. I love it, I love all the fiddly skills, I love gaming the game, I love fishing, I love how you start with all the skills and don't have to fucking buy them in sets from the guilds anymore, it's good! It's really good! You can still savescum a goodie box to get the Marvel Sword two hours into the same if you want! There are no more random encounters! Yes!
The best Star Ocean game gets the love it deserves
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
Played the 3-hour demo and liked A LOT of what I have seen.
The remaster was masterfully done and it shows how much the public liked this newer style of game, with pseudo-2d characters and 3D backgrounds.
I will buy this when it comes out, a delightful experience. If you like jRPGs with a more dynamic combat system, look no further.
The remaster was masterfully done and it shows how much the public liked this newer style of game, with pseudo-2d characters and 3D backgrounds.
I will buy this when it comes out, a delightful experience. If you like jRPGs with a more dynamic combat system, look no further.
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!"
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
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.
Chisato gotta be one of the most cracked characters I’ve seen in a jrpg..
STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R
Bien, supongo que en su momento era muy innovador, la primera parte es muy ZZZ. Y la segunda esta más guay, y tiene algún gimmick que ojalá en el Octopath o algo. En general un JRPG típico sin nada muy innovador en la trama.
(6/10)
Ta ok.
Bien, supongo que en su momento era muy innovador, la primera parte es muy ZZZ. Y la segunda esta más guay, y tiene algún gimmick que ojalá en el Octopath o algo. En general un JRPG típico sin nada muy innovador en la trama.
(6/10)
Ta ok.
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 lesson on how to mix the old with the new.
A really insane game. CRPG-esque character skills encompassing a weird crafting system that begs you to break the game entirely (and tbh I think it demands you to for those superbosses).
The pacing is brisk and never feels like you're spinning wheels (a plus of the PS1/SNES era), the characters are charming, Motoi Sakuraba proves his talent (arranged & original soundtracks? this is what remakes should be like).
One complaint I had turned out to be a skill issue (i thought fishing had no easy indicator of what you could catch but turns out you just stand there) but the only thing I do think is a problem is how hard the combat is to parse at times. Particle effects and clouds can make you lose track of your guy pretty often.
Also love the ability to choose between different art styles but not a fan of how it only matters in the Status menu. And not a fan of the PSP art which looks like shit. How to Draw Manga-ass garbage
Time to be let down by all the sequels!
The pacing is brisk and never feels like you're spinning wheels (a plus of the PS1/SNES era), the characters are charming, Motoi Sakuraba proves his talent (arranged & original soundtracks? this is what remakes should be like).
One complaint I had turned out to be a skill issue (i thought fishing had no easy indicator of what you could catch but turns out you just stand there) but the only thing I do think is a problem is how hard the combat is to parse at times. Particle effects and clouds can make you lose track of your guy pretty often.
Also love the ability to choose between different art styles but not a fan of how it only matters in the Status menu. And not a fan of the PSP art which looks like shit. How to Draw Manga-ass garbage
Time to be let down by all the sequels!
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.
perfect remake actually
This review contains spoilers
Normally I don't rate games I don't finish, but I had gotten to basically the end of the game and had seen most of what it had to offer by the time I put it down, so I'm making an exception this time. I know this game is in its honeymoon period right now, so I don't want this to come off as me raining on y'all's parade. Have fun with the game, seems like everyone else is loving it, and I'm glad to see people are having fun. However, I did not, and I want to air my grievances about the game without coming across as some mindless contrarian who goes against the grain for internet points.
Let me preface this by saying that this was my first real exposure to Star Ocean. The demo for this game really impressed me, and I was really excited to play the full game when it came out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat, but I generally don't mind simple action RPG combat, so I let that slide, because I was really excited to see how the story would play out. When I was a couple hours past where the demo left off in the full game, that excitement quickly deflated as the game turned into the same "we need to defeat the SUPER EVIL GOD MAN" story I've seen a hundred times before, only somehow even less interesting, with some really questionable and dated design choices that ruined my experience with the game, even in spite of the QoL changes; so much so that I couldn't even bring myself to finish the game, despite being right outside the final dungeon.
My biggest problem with the game is pretty much the entire second half of the game, once I arrived on Energy Nede. The game was pretty easy up to this point, but the difficulty spiked tremendously here; when I was having even normal enemies smoking my entire team in a matter of seconds, despite it being the reverse back on Expel, I should have known that that was a pretty bad omen of what was to come. The enemies from that point on, especially the bosses, used every dirty trick in the book to make it impossible to win without grinding to hell and back to overlevel my team and level their defensive skills up, but even then, that didn't stop a lot of the bosses from stunlocking me to death over and over with their bullshit multi-hit attacks. Even after I set the difficulty to the lowest it could get, it still felt like it wasn't enough, the experience was pretty much the same. Dodging was so finicky and requires such precise timing that I'd get broken more often than actually dodge the attack; my party would get their shit blown, no matter how many times I retried the battle, despite several of them having capped HP and the best gear available at the time, no matter what strategy I tried; and even when I did a bit of grinding to overlevel myself, it was still the same result, every time. The last straw was the three Wise Men guarding the final dungeon; it felt like no matter what I did, no matter how well I executed my strategy, they'd always pull something out of their ass and demolish me after several minutes of wailing on their super inflated health bars, doing double-digit damage with the weapons that the story says are literally designed to destroy them. It was at that point, after probably an hour and a half of attemping that boss, when I just said no, I'm done. It's not like I was invested in the story enough to want to continue, and I wasn't having fun at any point in the second half of the game, so I decided to just put the game down. It's almost certainly just a skill issue, but I don't want to continue playing a game if I'm not having fun.
Speaking of the story...God, it's just so uninteresting to me; I have never been that uninvested in a story since...probably Callisto Protocol, a few weeks ago...bad example, but you probably get my point. It starts off with a really strong premise: Claude gets isekai'd to Expel while on a mission with his dad, completely lost and out of his element. After a chance encounter with Rena, he gets involved with the locals' troubles, despite explicit orders not to get involved with an underdeveloped planet, in an effort to investigate the planet's strange occurrences caused by the enigmatic Sorcery Globe in the vain hope that it'll lead him back home. It's a pretty simple premise, but acts as a fantastic hook. This could have led into so many interesting directions, but instead, the story feels like it actively forces itself to follow a generic, JRPG-trope-filled story that very rarely does anything actually interesting with that amazing premise. I get that this type of story was the standard for the time the original came out, but like, man, really?
That's not even the biggest part of my dissatisfaction with the story, because there's something far worse. The Ten Wise Men are by far the biggest offenders of my distaste for this game's story; they're some of the most bland and uninteresting villains I've ever seen in a JRPG, and that's saying something, because I've played a lot of JRPGs. This is gonna be a bit of a rambling rant, because I want to make it known that I really do not like these guys. Not only do they have even a hint of presence in the story before the literal and figurative end of Expel, making their sudden introduction and importance to the overarching story a complete blindside; but none of them, except maybe the one who talks in caps lock (because that's, like, his only defining trait), feel like they have any distinct personality from one another, so they all just blend together as a result. All 10 of them are just Generic McEvilguy who wants to rule the entire universe, and are Big Mega Evil™ because the protagonists need someone to be fighting against, or something. Even comically evil villains who are basically just a means to an end for the overarching plot, like Iago and Hans from Fire Emblem Fates, or Kaneshiro and Okumura from Persona 5, are at least somewhat entertaining whenever they're on screen (especially in regards to Iago and Kaneshiro), have some kind of connection to the main characters to make the player more invested, and both said connection and their comical evilness makes them that much more satisfying to take down. The Ten Wise Men, on the other hand, have literally none of that; They're all just, so...B O R I N G. Their utter lack of both screentime and personality makes me not even slightly care for them. That moment when the Ten Wise Men nuke the shit out of Claude's dad and his ship felt so much like an artificial raising of stakes, like a last-ditch effort by the game to invest me into taking these villains down, but I just did not care. The ship had long since sailed on that. (I do understand the irony of spending all this time typing out something about how much I didn't care for the villains of a video game.)
The way other party members are handled outside of the main duo also bogged down my experience with the game. As I said before, this was my first exposure to Star Ocean, and from what I can tell, having pretty much everyone but the main two characters be optional is kind of just Star Ocean's thing. That doesn't make me like it. It makes the game so much less streamlined, and with this game, it feels like I have to go out of my way to actually fill up my party. I don't like that a bunch of playable characters, let alone the prospect of having a full party, is something that's entirely missable because I didn't go to A location at B time to witness C missable event to get D party member. There's literally no way I would have ever known about recruiting someone like Chisato had I not consulted a walkthrough. It's dated and "unique" shit like this that really ground my gears with the game. The way character recruitment is handled also hurt their presence in the story; it's like Fire Emblem's issue with the existence of Classic Mode: they often can't have most characters show up in the main story in any meaningful way past their introduction, because there's a possibility they might be dead. Sure, the optional characters in this game show up in story scenes after their introduction, and it's cool that they do, but... they very rarely actually do anything outside of exist. That moment near the end of the game when everyone finds out what we've known since we first got to Energy Nede; that Expel is gone and everyone on the planet was wiped out by the collision; is exemplary of what I'm talking about, and it hits as hard as a passing breeze. You're telling me that these characters just found out that Expel, and everything on it; their friends, family, homes, everything; were completely wiped away and they couldn't do shit about it, and their reaction is barely anything more than something out of a SniperWolf video? Like, yeah, they never saw Expel get blown to smithereens like we did, but considering that Claude, one of their most trusted allies, reaffirms the truth about what happened, you'd think they'd have much more of an emotional reaction to them losing everything they've ever known, right?
Bit of a nitpick here, but I feel like it's worth mentioning; They took the effort to rerecord the voice lines for the Japanese voiceover for the game, which is pretty awesome, I like when studios go that extra mile for 1-1 remakes. That being said, why not do the same for the English voiceover too, which, arguably, needed a reworking far more? It's reused audio from the PSP version of the game, and to say the English voice acting is rough, would be a comedy routine. This game's English dub is from that era where English VO in Japanese media were damn near universally bad because of both how flat performances were due to bad direction, and a lack of diversity in the talent because of how few big names were in the industry at the time, leading to, I'd argue, pretty frequent miscasts. The industry has gotten much more refined and diverse over time, with some really talented actors and directors, and, in many cases, I'd say even outshine the performances from the original language; to reuse an example from earlier, Persona 5's English dub runs miles around its original VO, especially in Royal, and for non-game examples, the English dubs for both Love is War and Code Geass are legendary. To see the general increase in talent over the years, compare the original Evangelion dub to the Netflix redub; the difference is staggering. It's such a strange choice to not redo the VO for the English dub, especially for a dub that awful. Seriously, listen to Leon's voice in literally any scene he's in, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I really wanted to like this game; it was the last game in a year full of nothing but straight bangers that I was super excited for, only to be severely let down in the end. I'm glad y'all are having fun, but I just can't with this game.
Let me preface this by saying that this was my first real exposure to Star Ocean. The demo for this game really impressed me, and I was really excited to play the full game when it came out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat, but I generally don't mind simple action RPG combat, so I let that slide, because I was really excited to see how the story would play out. When I was a couple hours past where the demo left off in the full game, that excitement quickly deflated as the game turned into the same "we need to defeat the SUPER EVIL GOD MAN" story I've seen a hundred times before, only somehow even less interesting, with some really questionable and dated design choices that ruined my experience with the game, even in spite of the QoL changes; so much so that I couldn't even bring myself to finish the game, despite being right outside the final dungeon.
My biggest problem with the game is pretty much the entire second half of the game, once I arrived on Energy Nede. The game was pretty easy up to this point, but the difficulty spiked tremendously here; when I was having even normal enemies smoking my entire team in a matter of seconds, despite it being the reverse back on Expel, I should have known that that was a pretty bad omen of what was to come. The enemies from that point on, especially the bosses, used every dirty trick in the book to make it impossible to win without grinding to hell and back to overlevel my team and level their defensive skills up, but even then, that didn't stop a lot of the bosses from stunlocking me to death over and over with their bullshit multi-hit attacks. Even after I set the difficulty to the lowest it could get, it still felt like it wasn't enough, the experience was pretty much the same. Dodging was so finicky and requires such precise timing that I'd get broken more often than actually dodge the attack; my party would get their shit blown, no matter how many times I retried the battle, despite several of them having capped HP and the best gear available at the time, no matter what strategy I tried; and even when I did a bit of grinding to overlevel myself, it was still the same result, every time. The last straw was the three Wise Men guarding the final dungeon; it felt like no matter what I did, no matter how well I executed my strategy, they'd always pull something out of their ass and demolish me after several minutes of wailing on their super inflated health bars, doing double-digit damage with the weapons that the story says are literally designed to destroy them. It was at that point, after probably an hour and a half of attemping that boss, when I just said no, I'm done. It's not like I was invested in the story enough to want to continue, and I wasn't having fun at any point in the second half of the game, so I decided to just put the game down. It's almost certainly just a skill issue, but I don't want to continue playing a game if I'm not having fun.
Speaking of the story...God, it's just so uninteresting to me; I have never been that uninvested in a story since...probably Callisto Protocol, a few weeks ago...bad example, but you probably get my point. It starts off with a really strong premise: Claude gets isekai'd to Expel while on a mission with his dad, completely lost and out of his element. After a chance encounter with Rena, he gets involved with the locals' troubles, despite explicit orders not to get involved with an underdeveloped planet, in an effort to investigate the planet's strange occurrences caused by the enigmatic Sorcery Globe in the vain hope that it'll lead him back home. It's a pretty simple premise, but acts as a fantastic hook. This could have led into so many interesting directions, but instead, the story feels like it actively forces itself to follow a generic, JRPG-trope-filled story that very rarely does anything actually interesting with that amazing premise. I get that this type of story was the standard for the time the original came out, but like, man, really?
That's not even the biggest part of my dissatisfaction with the story, because there's something far worse. The Ten Wise Men are by far the biggest offenders of my distaste for this game's story; they're some of the most bland and uninteresting villains I've ever seen in a JRPG, and that's saying something, because I've played a lot of JRPGs. This is gonna be a bit of a rambling rant, because I want to make it known that I really do not like these guys. Not only do they have even a hint of presence in the story before the literal and figurative end of Expel, making their sudden introduction and importance to the overarching story a complete blindside; but none of them, except maybe the one who talks in caps lock (because that's, like, his only defining trait), feel like they have any distinct personality from one another, so they all just blend together as a result. All 10 of them are just Generic McEvilguy who wants to rule the entire universe, and are Big Mega Evil™ because the protagonists need someone to be fighting against, or something. Even comically evil villains who are basically just a means to an end for the overarching plot, like Iago and Hans from Fire Emblem Fates, or Kaneshiro and Okumura from Persona 5, are at least somewhat entertaining whenever they're on screen (especially in regards to Iago and Kaneshiro), have some kind of connection to the main characters to make the player more invested, and both said connection and their comical evilness makes them that much more satisfying to take down. The Ten Wise Men, on the other hand, have literally none of that; They're all just, so...B O R I N G. Their utter lack of both screentime and personality makes me not even slightly care for them. That moment when the Ten Wise Men nuke the shit out of Claude's dad and his ship felt so much like an artificial raising of stakes, like a last-ditch effort by the game to invest me into taking these villains down, but I just did not care. The ship had long since sailed on that. (I do understand the irony of spending all this time typing out something about how much I didn't care for the villains of a video game.)
The way other party members are handled outside of the main duo also bogged down my experience with the game. As I said before, this was my first exposure to Star Ocean, and from what I can tell, having pretty much everyone but the main two characters be optional is kind of just Star Ocean's thing. That doesn't make me like it. It makes the game so much less streamlined, and with this game, it feels like I have to go out of my way to actually fill up my party. I don't like that a bunch of playable characters, let alone the prospect of having a full party, is something that's entirely missable because I didn't go to A location at B time to witness C missable event to get D party member. There's literally no way I would have ever known about recruiting someone like Chisato had I not consulted a walkthrough. It's dated and "unique" shit like this that really ground my gears with the game. The way character recruitment is handled also hurt their presence in the story; it's like Fire Emblem's issue with the existence of Classic Mode: they often can't have most characters show up in the main story in any meaningful way past their introduction, because there's a possibility they might be dead. Sure, the optional characters in this game show up in story scenes after their introduction, and it's cool that they do, but... they very rarely actually do anything outside of exist. That moment near the end of the game when everyone finds out what we've known since we first got to Energy Nede; that Expel is gone and everyone on the planet was wiped out by the collision; is exemplary of what I'm talking about, and it hits as hard as a passing breeze. You're telling me that these characters just found out that Expel, and everything on it; their friends, family, homes, everything; were completely wiped away and they couldn't do shit about it, and their reaction is barely anything more than something out of a SniperWolf video? Like, yeah, they never saw Expel get blown to smithereens like we did, but considering that Claude, one of their most trusted allies, reaffirms the truth about what happened, you'd think they'd have much more of an emotional reaction to them losing everything they've ever known, right?
Bit of a nitpick here, but I feel like it's worth mentioning; They took the effort to rerecord the voice lines for the Japanese voiceover for the game, which is pretty awesome, I like when studios go that extra mile for 1-1 remakes. That being said, why not do the same for the English voiceover too, which, arguably, needed a reworking far more? It's reused audio from the PSP version of the game, and to say the English voice acting is rough, would be a comedy routine. This game's English dub is from that era where English VO in Japanese media were damn near universally bad because of both how flat performances were due to bad direction, and a lack of diversity in the talent because of how few big names were in the industry at the time, leading to, I'd argue, pretty frequent miscasts. The industry has gotten much more refined and diverse over time, with some really talented actors and directors, and, in many cases, I'd say even outshine the performances from the original language; to reuse an example from earlier, Persona 5's English dub runs miles around its original VO, especially in Royal, and for non-game examples, the English dubs for both Love is War and Code Geass are legendary. To see the general increase in talent over the years, compare the original Evangelion dub to the Netflix redub; the difference is staggering. It's such a strange choice to not redo the VO for the English dub, especially for a dub that awful. Seriously, listen to Leon's voice in literally any scene he's in, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I really wanted to like this game; it was the last game in a year full of nothing but straight bangers that I was super excited for, only to be severely let down in the end. I'm glad y'all are having fun, but I just can't with this game.
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.
Absolutely stellar remake. Probably the best one I’ve played. Keeps everything that made the original good without over remaking it yet adds a lot of qol improvements on top. This is how remakes should be going forward.