The Star Ocean franchise has been an underappreciated one inside the Japanese RPG style. Regardless of being round for greater than 25 years, it is by no means had the breakout success that elevated it to new heights, as one thing like Persona or Tales have had in newer years. Many longtime followers think about 1999’s Star Ocean: The Second Story to be the perfect entry, and now Sq. Enix has remade it for contemporary consoles. Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a remake that manages to not solely have the retro really feel of its older PS1 and PSP incarnations, but in addition make it really feel contemporary with new battle mechanics, in addition to audio and visuals updates. It will not be the massive break that’ll lastly make the Star Ocean franchise explode in reputation, but it surely’s a fantastic Japanese RPG by itself phrases.
The Second Story’s plot follows an lively younger man named Claude C. Kenny and a caring younger woman named Rena Lanford. After disobeying his father’s orders and touching a malfunctioning piece of teleportation gear, Claude by chance lands on a backwater planet referred to as Expel, runs into Rena, and has to guard her from a monster. These two characters are the core focus of the story, and their respective motivations and conditions make for nice plot drivers. In an effort to discover a approach to return residence, Claude agrees with the native village to research the Sorcery Globe, a mysterious meteor-like object that crashed into Expel, inflicting the encompassing space to be infested with monsters. As he’s from a technologically superior society, he thinks that the thing may present clues on the right way to get off of Expel. Rena, in the meantime, is an orphan and hopes to uncover extra of her personal previous, as she is the one particular person on Expel to be blessed with pure therapeutic powers.
Whereas its story is not as complicated as extra fashionable Japanese RPGs equivalent to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, its simplicity permits character relationships to shine. The juxtaposition between Claude’s technological upbringing, the place flying in spaceships was an on a regular basis occurance, and Rena’s extra medieval background makes for an attention-grabbing dynamic between the 2 and the world round them–the villagers mistake him as some kind of prophetic determine as a result of he takes the native monster down with a laser gun, which the villagers suppose is a few kind of “sword of sunshine” straight out of a fantasy novel.
Star Ocean: The Second Story has a complete of 12 playable characters, together with Claude and Rena. Of those, eight could be recruited in a single playthrough. Because of the variable nature of your ultimate get together, that signifies that most of the characters do not have direct involvement with the plot. Nonetheless, that is made up for with Personal Actions, that are aspect conversations Claude and Rena can have with these characters all through the sport’s many cities. These add a variety of allure and are ample since they alter relying in your get together composition. For instance, having the younger engineer, Summary F. Neumann, and the merchandise inventor, Welch Winery, recruited in the identical get together unlocks a dialog the place Welch learns a brand new assault talent to make use of in battle. The sheer variety of potential get together combos provides to the immense replayability of the sport. It additionally provides some worth to characters that in any other case really feel like bit elements in the principle narrative.
The battle system retains its real-time action-based fight and as much as 4 get together members could be on display screen at a time. It’s much like Closing Fantasy XVI in that you just management one character in real-time with primary assaults and particular expertise whereas your different companions are managed by the AI. The fights are thrilling and dynamic, with particle results flying as swords repeatedly conflict with armor and magical spells conjure blades of wind and tsunamis to envelope the battlefield. Whether or not it is Claude chucking fireballs out of his sword or Rena summoning large stone orbs out of the sky, there’s not a uninteresting second throughout any battle.
Though this remake nonetheless has its authentic battle system, sensible modifications have been added to make it really feel extra fashionable. There are two new mechanics referred to as the Break and Assault Motion programs. Every enemy has a protect that dampens the injury you deal, and so it is crucial that you just use expertise that prioritize breaking defenses fairly than inflicting HP injury. As soon as the protect is damaged, enemies are briefly immobilized and you may wail on them. This technique incentivizes you to change up your assaults and retains the method different, like Tales of Come up.
The Assault Motion system takes characters in a roundabout way taking part in battle and means that you can summon them to unleash help assaults. It is a implausible approach to embody inactive characters in a fashion that makes them really feel like they’re nonetheless contributing to fights. Moreover, by finishing aspect quests, you possibly can typically earn the power to summon characters from different Star Ocean video games, equivalent to Laeticia from Star Ocean 6: The Divine Drive and Edge from Star Ocean 4: The Final Hope. As a very long time fan of this sequence, this mechanic was a wonderful approach to make the most of nostalgia with out feeling low cost. Whereas calling on cameo characters appears unusual from a story standpoint, they’re fully elective and you may select to solely summon characters from Second Story.
As you defeat enemies, you acquire orbs to construct up your Bonus GaugeBattle Bonus meter to grant passive bonuses, like elevated assault energy or extra expertise after battle, which helps preserve you engaged from battle to battle. This mechanic was launched within the third sport within the sequence, Star Ocean: Until the Finish of Time. Whereas it’s not a brand new mechanic to the sequence general, it’s the primary time Second Story has it, which is a welcome addition that makes this remake really feel extra consistent with later entries.
Regardless of the thrilling battle system, it’s held again by a flimsy dodge mechanic. Enemies glow crimson to point an incoming highly effective assault. Should you accurately time your dodge, you will zip behind the enemy and restore a few of your MP, permitting you to unleash extra expertise. However the timing wanted to drag off a profitable dodge feels off and the window is not beneficiant sufficient. Flubbing your dodge has disastrous penalties as not solely does it go away you large open to be massacred for a number of seconds, it additionally resets your Bonus Gauge. The cons vastly outweigh the professionals and I made a decision to simply tank incoming hits from enemies as an alternative of dodging. I may at all times heal my HP with an merchandise, so it merely wasn’t price doubtlessly being ganged up on and dying whereas additionally dropping my Bonus Gauge.
After a battle, battle factors earned by characters could be distributed into stats, battle expertise, and skills to make them stronger. You may select to deal with growing Claude’s general attacking energy, or degree up a sure battle talent in order that it unleashes further hits. For instance, I maxed out Claude’s Sword Bomber talent, which elevated the general injury and variety of fireballs launched. It’s a good way to tailor your personal playstyle as I targeted on Claude’s crowd management tactics–leveling up Sword Bomber effortlessly let me wipe out a number of enemies directly.
One other staple mechanic of the sequence, Merchandise Creation, is again. It is a comparatively easy idea the place you possibly can mix completely different elements to create a wide range of weapons, gadgets, and equipment. It is not crucial to grasp Merchandise Creation throughout a traditional playthrough, however on larger difficulties and post-game content material, it is positively helpful. With the ability to forge stronger gear and create particular setups for tougher battles goes a great distance. It provides a whole new dimension to gameplay as I used to be in a position to engineer bombs that might momentarily stun bosses and stop them utilizing their strongest assaults. There have been additionally situations throughout battle the place I wanted stronger therapeutic, so among the potions I made recovered as much as 100% HP. These larger tier gadgets weren’t usually present in common retailers, so it is an ideal incentive to tinker round with Merchandise Creation and uncover new recipes and formulation.
Sq. Enix teamed up with GemDrops, which additionally developed Cogen: Sword of Rewind and Crystar, for Second Story R. The remake follows the pattern of Sq. Enix’s 2.5D graphical video games, that are characterised by their 2D pixel artwork character sprites with retro-styled 3D environments and motion. These video games embody Octopath Traveler 1 and a couple of, Triangle Technique, and the Reside a Reside remake. Nonetheless, Second Story R takes this artwork fashion a step additional by conserving the 2D pixel artwork character sprites however utilizing absolutely fashionable 3D environments and buildings. The backgrounds, foliage, and lighting look superb to the purpose that it really appears to be like just like the 2D characters are a bit misplaced. It feels as if extra polygonal character fashions like within the authentic Closing Fantasy VII could be extra applicable.
This remake additionally consists of full English and Japanese voice performing, and that provides to the general status of this remake. The standard of voice performing has come an infinite method for the reason that early to late 2000s, and Second Story R’s new voice solid is lightyears forward of its earlier iterations. The voices have way more vary and emotion than ever earlier than.
Moreover, Motoi Sakuraba’s newly organized soundtrack for this sport sounds immaculate. The franchise’s battle themes are grandiose with their attractive strings combined with electrifying guitars, making them distinctly “Star Ocean.” Second Story R’s battle theme, “Stab the Sword of Justice,” would not disappoint. The newly drawn 2D character artwork within the menu is unimaginable, too; the strains and colours look sharp and crisp. Should you’re feeling further nostalgic, you possibly can change between the brand new character artwork and the older ones from the PSP and PS1 days and have them displayed within the menu. It is a good visible indicator of how a lot effort and care Sq. Enix and GemDrops put into this specific remake.
One other energy of Star Ocean: The Second Story R is its replayability. New Sport Plus means that you can expertise the story once more, however has different perks equivalent to carrying over your ranges and gear. Because of the variability of your ultimate get together, there are 99 completely different character endings relying on the connection degree between the characters in your get together and what number of Personal Actions you’ve got seen. There are endings for every single character, in addition to endings for every potential pair. Because you solely have a complete of eight get together slots with 12 twelve potential characters, a number of playthroughs are wanted to unlock each single one since completely different ultimate get together compositions are wanted.
Gallery
Making an attempt to view all of those all through a number of playthroughs is not for the faint of coronary heart. Moreover, you do not even have to instantly get began on New Sport Plus upon finishing the sport, both. The franchise’s signature post-game dungeon, Maze of Tribulations, returns and cooks up a beefy problem for gamers who wish to tackle the toughest fights the sport has to supply.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R strikes a super stability between staying devoted to the unique sport and updating it for contemporary instances. The revamped artwork fashion and music make it extra aesthetically pleasing whereas using 2D pixel character fashions provides a sure nostalgic allure. The battle system did not want an entire overhaul and the builders neatly added new options to make it really feel extra dynamic–the fights really feel exhilarating and enjoyable. Second Story R is jam-packed with content material that may final any Japanese RPG fan satiated for hours on finish.