This is my first foray into Star Ocean, I’ve never really seen much of the series before, and only with the likes of this game did I finally give it a try. I had an absolute great time playing it, I don’t play many Action RPGs, so when I finally get around to playing a good one, it feels great. There’s really a lot that I adore about this game, and a lot that I think is really strong about it, though as I’ll describe later one, I feel as if this game has one major flaw to it. Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an amazing game, though at least to me, there’s one aspect that keeps me from loving it as much as I could.
First off, I really like the idea of having two protagonists you can start out with, and for reference, I chose to play as Rena. With how the game structures itself, the character you start out with will have unique story moments. I really like this idea, especially as there could be some aspects of the world left unexplained in one storyline, answered in the other, and vice versa. If anything, I wish this happened more. Aside from a couple cutscenes, it felt like there were only 2 or 3 moments where these characters were separated, it’d be nice to have some more moments like this. Especially in the second half of the game, where it seems to happen even less so.
The game’s combat is excellent, though then again I’m sucker for Action RPGs like this. I love fighting around in arenas, absolutely combo-ing enemies. And with how you can break enemy shields after dealing enough damage, it’s even more satisfying. I tend to play as the more fast paced melee characters in action RPGs, and Rena isn’t exactly that I’ll be honest. Rena has melee options, and for most of the game they’re really good because melee in general is ridiculously powerful. But spells as well are really good I find, especially Rena, who seems to be the only character who can heal allies. Though I’ll be honest that’s also where a lot of the difficulty I had through the game came from, I forgot I was the healer, and I forgot to heal my allies. I also really like the Assault Actions, though it’s another mechanic that I rarely used. Being able to summon your allies to help in battle is really fun, though I mainly used it either once an enemy’s shield was broken, or to help break an enemy’s shield. The combat still is amazing, and with how fast most battles end, they’re always a rush.
I found that some bosses fluctuated in difficulty until around the last leg of the game. That last leg of the game is a proper challenge, but everything before then fluctuates from easy to hard. One boss that I don’t particularly like is the one where it’s a stationary, but attacks only with revenge damage. The thing is, that revenge damage is guaranteed to do half your allies’ health, even if they’re at the maximum total. It took me a couple tries, but I eventually figured out a strategy to beat it, and that strategy was to just completely overwhelm it with damage, and I still needed to heal multiple times. I think that boss is what allowed me to beat every following boss in the story, as I planned better, used everything I had at my disposal, and used spells a lot more, which I didn’t do as much. Most boss fights that were difficult were ones that had multiple enemies in it at the same time, but that’s probably an issue I had.
I also adore how much you can upgrade your characters in this game. If anything, I do wish it was easier to obtain the points required to upgrade these skills though, as some skills have heavy point costs. Even then, there’s so much you can upgrade. You can upgrade character skills, which can increase stats, or allow characters to gain new skills. These skills can introduce modifiers to help in certain ways, introduce crafting systems, or open up new mechanics like fishing. There’s also Battle Skills which give stats boosts during battle, or modify how your characters acts during battle which is really good. And you can also simply upgrade your in-battle attacks, though those can only be upgraded once or twice. The level of upgradability is really nice, especially as it can help build characters in some way.
And I mentioned it in the previous paragraph, but some of the modifiers you can get while playing this game are absolutely absurd. Particularly, Train, Enlightenment, and Bodyguard. Train sacrifices a percentage of a character’s stats for an equivalent percentage boost to their EXP yield. This in turn is already great. Enlightenment sacrifices a percentage of money you gain after a battle for an equivalent percentage boost to the Skill Point yield. These two modifiers combined are already spectacular, and they help so well in the early game grind. But what makes things far crazier is Bodyguard. Bodyguard is an overworld modifier that gives aa chance for one of your allies to run over to a weak enemy and instantly kill it, instantly giving you the EXP yield without having to fight. This simply means that if you’re in an area of exclusively weaker enemies, you never have to fight a battle and you can still gain levels. It’s absolutely absurd how convenient and time saving not having to grind this much actually is. Though I will say, I don’t want every game to feature this sort of system, especially with how early on you can feasibly obtain Bodyguard. While I appreciate how convenient this all is, sometimes I’m fine with things not being heavily convenient like this. It just feels like it removes a whole lot of the challenge, if that makes any sense.
The story of Star Ocean The Second Story R is rather interesting I’d say. First things first, I really like the setting and the characters. I really like this sort of blend of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, having a couple of characters who are Sci-Fi characters, but trapped on this alien planet that’s more fantasy in design. It’s a really interesting and fun blend of the two. It really feels like two worlds combining into each other. And as well I really love the character writing. Aside from the main two, the main cast of characters you can add to your party aren’t anything too complex, but they’re really fun. While I got a full party of 8, the main characters I used throughout the game are Rena, Celine, Precis, and Welch, so those were the characters I got most attached to. I also really like the idea of the 99 potential endings of the game. It’s not entirely accurate to say that the game has 99 endings, there’s really only 1 actual ending. Those 99 endings are little character endings, that describe what the characters are up to after the events of the game. It’s a fun way to incentivize playing the game again, especially if you want to play the opposite protagonist’s route. Though I will say, I don’t see myself replaying the game so many times in order to not unlock unlock every character, but to see every single ending. But what I will say is that the game’s main ending itself is really interesting, and rather dark as well.
And that brings me to that one fatal flaw that I mentioned all the way back in the introductory paragraph, that being the pacing of the game’s story. For a game such as this, the pacing is ridiculously fast. This is most prominent in the second act of the game, where it feels like there’s very little time to breathe until you’re in another dungeon, fighting another boss. Especially with the major character revelations that happen during the second of the game, I never felt like I was able to fully process what was revealed, and I was suddenly brought into another dungeon. Some of these revelations are extremely drastic too, which makes the little time to digest the information all the more jarring. The biggest moment of this is the ending of the game itself, aside from those little character epilogues, the game just ends. There’s no real moment to see what happens after that final moment. I think if the game allowed itself to be slow in that second act, it would be a lot better paced, and fix a lot of issues I had with the story, though that’s just me.
Pacing issues aside, I really enjoyed playing Star Ocean The Second Story R. Action RPGs are still really good to me, and it felt so good fighting battles in this game. There didn’t seem to be too many music tracks, but they’re also really good music tracks so I don’t mind too much. And I really love the characters of this game, and when the story is good, it’s really good. Even though it’s not a perfect game, I still do recommend it, it does a lot right, and it’s a really fun action RPG. I’m unsure if this game particularly was the best entry point for me to get into Star Ocean, but it definitely hooked me in, and I plan to play more of this series.
First off, I really like the idea of having two protagonists you can start out with, and for reference, I chose to play as Rena. With how the game structures itself, the character you start out with will have unique story moments. I really like this idea, especially as there could be some aspects of the world left unexplained in one storyline, answered in the other, and vice versa. If anything, I wish this happened more. Aside from a couple cutscenes, it felt like there were only 2 or 3 moments where these characters were separated, it’d be nice to have some more moments like this. Especially in the second half of the game, where it seems to happen even less so.
The game’s combat is excellent, though then again I’m sucker for Action RPGs like this. I love fighting around in arenas, absolutely combo-ing enemies. And with how you can break enemy shields after dealing enough damage, it’s even more satisfying. I tend to play as the more fast paced melee characters in action RPGs, and Rena isn’t exactly that I’ll be honest. Rena has melee options, and for most of the game they’re really good because melee in general is ridiculously powerful. But spells as well are really good I find, especially Rena, who seems to be the only character who can heal allies. Though I’ll be honest that’s also where a lot of the difficulty I had through the game came from, I forgot I was the healer, and I forgot to heal my allies. I also really like the Assault Actions, though it’s another mechanic that I rarely used. Being able to summon your allies to help in battle is really fun, though I mainly used it either once an enemy’s shield was broken, or to help break an enemy’s shield. The combat still is amazing, and with how fast most battles end, they’re always a rush.
I found that some bosses fluctuated in difficulty until around the last leg of the game. That last leg of the game is a proper challenge, but everything before then fluctuates from easy to hard. One boss that I don’t particularly like is the one where it’s a stationary, but attacks only with revenge damage. The thing is, that revenge damage is guaranteed to do half your allies’ health, even if they’re at the maximum total. It took me a couple tries, but I eventually figured out a strategy to beat it, and that strategy was to just completely overwhelm it with damage, and I still needed to heal multiple times. I think that boss is what allowed me to beat every following boss in the story, as I planned better, used everything I had at my disposal, and used spells a lot more, which I didn’t do as much. Most boss fights that were difficult were ones that had multiple enemies in it at the same time, but that’s probably an issue I had.
I also adore how much you can upgrade your characters in this game. If anything, I do wish it was easier to obtain the points required to upgrade these skills though, as some skills have heavy point costs. Even then, there’s so much you can upgrade. You can upgrade character skills, which can increase stats, or allow characters to gain new skills. These skills can introduce modifiers to help in certain ways, introduce crafting systems, or open up new mechanics like fishing. There’s also Battle Skills which give stats boosts during battle, or modify how your characters acts during battle which is really good. And you can also simply upgrade your in-battle attacks, though those can only be upgraded once or twice. The level of upgradability is really nice, especially as it can help build characters in some way.
And I mentioned it in the previous paragraph, but some of the modifiers you can get while playing this game are absolutely absurd. Particularly, Train, Enlightenment, and Bodyguard. Train sacrifices a percentage of a character’s stats for an equivalent percentage boost to their EXP yield. This in turn is already great. Enlightenment sacrifices a percentage of money you gain after a battle for an equivalent percentage boost to the Skill Point yield. These two modifiers combined are already spectacular, and they help so well in the early game grind. But what makes things far crazier is Bodyguard. Bodyguard is an overworld modifier that gives aa chance for one of your allies to run over to a weak enemy and instantly kill it, instantly giving you the EXP yield without having to fight. This simply means that if you’re in an area of exclusively weaker enemies, you never have to fight a battle and you can still gain levels. It’s absolutely absurd how convenient and time saving not having to grind this much actually is. Though I will say, I don’t want every game to feature this sort of system, especially with how early on you can feasibly obtain Bodyguard. While I appreciate how convenient this all is, sometimes I’m fine with things not being heavily convenient like this. It just feels like it removes a whole lot of the challenge, if that makes any sense.
The story of Star Ocean The Second Story R is rather interesting I’d say. First things first, I really like the setting and the characters. I really like this sort of blend of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, having a couple of characters who are Sci-Fi characters, but trapped on this alien planet that’s more fantasy in design. It’s a really interesting and fun blend of the two. It really feels like two worlds combining into each other. And as well I really love the character writing. Aside from the main two, the main cast of characters you can add to your party aren’t anything too complex, but they’re really fun. While I got a full party of 8, the main characters I used throughout the game are Rena, Celine, Precis, and Welch, so those were the characters I got most attached to. I also really like the idea of the 99 potential endings of the game. It’s not entirely accurate to say that the game has 99 endings, there’s really only 1 actual ending. Those 99 endings are little character endings, that describe what the characters are up to after the events of the game. It’s a fun way to incentivize playing the game again, especially if you want to play the opposite protagonist’s route. Though I will say, I don’t see myself replaying the game so many times in order to not unlock unlock every character, but to see every single ending. But what I will say is that the game’s main ending itself is really interesting, and rather dark as well.
And that brings me to that one fatal flaw that I mentioned all the way back in the introductory paragraph, that being the pacing of the game’s story. For a game such as this, the pacing is ridiculously fast. This is most prominent in the second act of the game, where it feels like there’s very little time to breathe until you’re in another dungeon, fighting another boss. Especially with the major character revelations that happen during the second of the game, I never felt like I was able to fully process what was revealed, and I was suddenly brought into another dungeon. Some of these revelations are extremely drastic too, which makes the little time to digest the information all the more jarring. The biggest moment of this is the ending of the game itself, aside from those little character epilogues, the game just ends. There’s no real moment to see what happens after that final moment. I think if the game allowed itself to be slow in that second act, it would be a lot better paced, and fix a lot of issues I had with the story, though that’s just me.
Pacing issues aside, I really enjoyed playing Star Ocean The Second Story R. Action RPGs are still really good to me, and it felt so good fighting battles in this game. There didn’t seem to be too many music tracks, but they’re also really good music tracks so I don’t mind too much. And I really love the characters of this game, and when the story is good, it’s really good. Even though it’s not a perfect game, I still do recommend it, it does a lot right, and it’s a really fun action RPG. I’m unsure if this game particularly was the best entry point for me to get into Star Ocean, but it definitely hooked me in, and I plan to play more of this series.