#Star Ocean: The Second Story R

[vgadvisor]

[satoshi-mochida]

Star Ocean: The Second Story R announced for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC

Gematsu Source

Publisher Square Enix and developer tri-Ace have announced Star Ocean: The Second Story R for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (Steam). It will launch both physically and digitally on November 2 worldwide for $49.99.

Pre-orders for the standard digital edition are available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. Digital edition pre-orders for Switch will open at a later date. Players who pre-order the physical or digital editions will receive the following digital content as a pre-order bonus:

Pangalactic Federation Longsword

Forest Knuckles

Sunrise Ring

Set of recovery items (Mixed Berries x20 + Resurrection Potion x20)

A $199.99 Collector’s Edition will also be available exclusively via Square Enix Store as a special, limited quantity set. It includes the following content:

-Star Ocean: The Second Story R standard edition game

-Collector’s Edition goods box

Star Ocean: The Second Story R original soundtrack Collector’s Edition

Star Ocean: The Second Story R art book

Star Ocean: The Second Story R mini acrylic stand collection box

Here is an overview of the game, via Square Enix:

About

Brought to life with a unique 2.5D aesthetic, this remake includes everything that made the original release so great while adding new elements too!

Story

Two worlds, one fateful encounter.

In an endless sea of stars, at the edge of the universe, two people who live in different worlds go on a journey to save planet Expel.

Choose your path and witness an awakened destiny.

Key Features

Fantasy and Science-Fiction Collide in a Unique Visual Style – From dangerous dungeons to bustling towns, the world of Star Ocean: The Second Story R is depicted in beautiful 3D graphics with nostalgic 2D pixel characters.

Experience a Story with Dual Protagonists – Start your journey with either Claude or Rena. Depending on your choice, the perspectives and the allies you can recruit will change. Get to know party members via the unique Private Actions system, grow relationships and unlock various endings.

Thrilling, Visually Explosive Battles! – Enjoy fast-paced combat and use new mechanics to strategically defeat foes. “Break” by continuously dealing damage and order your allies to follow-up with an Assault Action to deal massive damage.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here: English, Japanese.

Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[stellarstardust]

My dude. I had to use a resurrection elixir on you during your fight with possessed Allen. You need all the help you can get!

[pixelpoppers]

Star Ocean and Non-Person Characters

For me, the most important thing an RPG can do is make its setting feel like a real world inhabited by real people. Having recently played Star Ocean: The Divine Force and Star Ocean: The Second Story R back to back has provided me with a couple nicely illustrative examples to share. Minor/vague spoilers follow for both games.

Divine Force does something weird with its townsfolk NPCs: it doesn't let you talk to them. Some of them do have chatter, but you can't read any of it (unless you turn on an obscure option buried in a menu somewhere that I went the entire game without finding). It's voiced but barely audible, and even if you stand still in the right place long enough to hear it there's a good chance your party members will start talking over it to remind you where the next plot trigger is (which is completely unnecessary as there's always a map marker for that as well). It quickly becomes clear that it's just not worth the bother.

I can't wrap my head around this. Why in the world would a game do this? It feels like a decision by committee where the result is far more expensive and far less effective than just having text bubbles. And because you don't talk to the townspeople, the world feels empty apart from the major characters.

The most frustrating instance of this is a part where you are visiting a town to meet someone who lives there. Their home is all the way in the back, so you need to walk through the entire town past many NPCs to reach it. Once you get there, the cutscene dialog implies you've learned a lot about the person you're meeting by talking to the townsfolk about the things this person has done for the town. This had not happened for me even a little. Again, it feels like design by committee: in most RPGs, putting the character's house at the back of the town would absolutely have had this result and it would have been a great way to introduce this character, but here the effect was ruined by how Divine Force handles NPC dialog.

Contrast this with a couple scenes in Second Story, which has the traditional talk-to-any-NPC-for-text-bubble-dialog approach. When you reach the game's second town, the tavern is full of miners. If you talk to them, you learn that work in the local mine has been stopped. As you advance the plot, you eventually solve the issue that required closing the mine. If you return to the bar after this, it's empty and the barkeep laments that all the miners have gone back to work so his business has slowed to a crawl.

I love this little touch. It makes the world feel real, like your actions are actually making a difference to real people.

Sometimes an RPG will do something so bizarre that it destroys its illusion in one fell swoop (see my reaction to Lost Sphear). It can be harder to see the more spread-out impact of having or not having NPCs to react realistically to a story's events (see Shamus Young writing about this in the first two Mass Effect games), but it can make a huge cumulative difference in how satisfying a game's world is to inhabit. It's definitely part of why I still consider Second Story to be the best Star Ocean.

[cruorlupus]

This update

[zerohourseraphim]

Star Ocean: The Second Story R - Introduction to Spending Skill Points and (Super) Specialties

My introductory insights to the Skill system of Star Ocean: The Second Story R.

          My favorite entry in the Star Ocean series is now available on modern consoles. Some changes have made it easier than the original by far. But even with that ease, engaging with the interconnected systems that make it so can be daunting. Haphazardly spending Skill Points and Battle Points is hard to do, but if you’re like me you just want the most efficient path, and I am here to add my…

[gmileycollier78]

[DEMO] Star Ocean: The Second Story R

[ladyarrowhead]

I massively enjoyed the Star Ocean: The Second Story R demo! It's fun for nostalgic reasons, the areas are fun to explore and feel new and familiar at once - but most of all, I'm just really, really in awe with the arranged soundtrack? The songs feel so much fuller without losing their old charm! Generally just excited for this game to come out, even if I will wait till Christmas to play it.

[theplaystationbrahs]

The Demo for Star Ocean The Second Story is LIVE!

Star Ocean fans, if the plethora of SO gamed coming to PS Plus Extra and Premium wasn’t enough for you, then Square Enix decided to drop a demo for Star Ocean The Second Story R which is live to download! That’s right, if you click here, it’ll take you to the PlayStation Store to download it! While you download the demo, watch the latest gameplay trailer from this morning! Don’t worry, Star…

[fostersffff]

They simply do not make them like this anymore, so I'm glad they're remaking it.

(from this twitter thread)

[cute-girls-from-vns-anime-manga]

Smug, blunt, Ponytail

Welp best girl right there be!

[cocosnowlo-drawings]

SO2 Remake coming to Europe tomorrow, I’m so excited!!

[satoshi-mochida]

Star Ocean: The Second Story R opening movie.

[stellarstardust]

This cracked me up during my playthrough of the SO2R demo XD

[pixelpoppers]

Star Ocean: The Second Story R Ending Checklist

I've been playing Star Ocean: The Second Story R and loving it.

Among the many improvements in this remake are some that make it much easier to collect different endings (much appreciated since there are ninety-nine of them). I decided to make myself a checklist tool, and then I figured I might as well publish it. Pretty niche, but maybe someone out there will get some value from it. So here it is.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R Ending Checklist

Oh, and happy new year.

[cruorlupus]

As soon as I saw screens I needed it. 2.5D is perfect for their style imho. One of my all time fav games