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.