Squeenix STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R [2nd Nov. 2023]

[Prince(ss)]

Indeed, I'm really glad the spellcasting doesn't freeze combat anymore. Quite looking forward to playing it.

Best one in the series.

Ummmm, this isn't SO3 sweatie.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Maybe full power indelecio will not be as infuriating. I do kinda wish they'd improved the sprites Ala Live a Live remake.

 

[Ash]

wow, massive gameplay update. Given the gameplay wasn't very good originally (OK at best, mostly shit though), this is great news. A remake that makes the game more hardcore/complex (actually meaningful) in seemingly intelligent ways, now that is unheard of. Though there was a couple casualification features there too.

I tried the original game for approximately 10 hours for the first time last year, and it was really quite lackluster but not without charm or value. So it is definitely in need of some incline like this.

Given my lack of experience with the entire game and lack of nostalgic attachment to it, my only request would be they not touch this masterpiece:

 

[Grampy_Bone]

SO 2 is also infamous for most of the "secret" characters being worse. It will be interesting if they make Dias, Earnest, or Opera non-shitty.

 

[Mauman]

SO 2 is also infamous for most of the "secret" characters being worse. It will be interesting if they make Dias, Earnest, or Opera non-shitty.

Ok....Ernest I get and Dias was only ok as a one use wonder (i.e, spamming his low level moves that came out STUPIDLY fast), but Opera was fine. Maybe not as good as Ashton (possibly 2nd best character, and a tough trade to make), but putting her in the same pile as those two is cruel.

The remake made Dias better. Ernest is still rather meh.

ANYWAYS, having watched the trailers, I can say I'm cautiously aroused hopeful. Hopefully the final product keeps my stiffy hope up.

edit - also, I'm glad they changed the character portraits from the psp one. The Rena portrait in that game was especially bad.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Does Opera have any decent moves like Sword Dance? I remember her weapon being impossible to get, spam machinery w/ orchestra for hours and never got it. I was so annoyed by a character with a gun who's basic attack is a melee swipe.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Does Opera have any decent moves like Sword Dance? I remember her weapon being impossible to get, spam machinery w/ orchestra for hours and never got it. I was so annoyed by a character with a gun who's basic attack is a melee swipe.

It's been a looong time, but I remember she had a healing move, which is pretty special, and a move called 'Alpha on One' that was at least decent. I'd still rank opera pretty damned low. Still better than Precis I suppose? But Bowman, Chisato, Dias and Ashton I'd all rank above her. And obviously Claude was OP bullshit. Dias is better than people give him credit for, spamming cheap moves was quite effective, even if he did have some really terrible ones like that full moon slash. I never did use Ernest enough to see what his moves were like after being practiced.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Precis sucks unless you pair her with Ashton, then she copies his Sword Dance move, easily making her 3rd best.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

I'm sorry but this artstyle looks like complete retardness!

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Was played the demo for this last night.

It’s a very charming game. Same of that may be me remembering playing the original PSX game, which outside of remembering that I did play it over at a friends house when it was new, if you asked me to recall anything about it before playing this remake I’d be hard pressed to really tell you jack shit about it at all. But it’s not just that, because the game is just in and of itself incredibly charming. It’s a little too easy, at least within the first three hours of the demo I played, but it’s definitely a very enjoyable game. And the demo definitely made me want to play more of the game.

Was really enjoy the abstraction of the world overview map more than how most larger modern JRPGs have been doing it, where the “world map” visually gets treated more like a large open world area, but the way enemies move about these areas is still functionally exactly the same as the old style abstraction...but removing layers of abstraction from it just makes it look weird.

Would be interesting to see tri-Ace return to something similar to this formula for some bigger new Star Ocean title sometime in the future. With 2D fighting games coming back in the last 15 years, they could definitely return to that belt scroll beat ‘em up presentation for combat without any problem of it feeling “outdated” or whatever.

The character portraits, which I think are done by Akira Yasuda, (Akiman) look pretty great.

What's with that look? There's 2D-HD and then there's cramming two totally different styles together.

The original PSX game has pre-rendered 3D backgrounds mixed with 2D sprites too.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Would be interesting to see tri-Ace return to something similar to this formula

Tria-ace would have to return, period first. It got merged with enix shortly after Star Ocean 2 came out iirc. After this long, there's obviously nothing left of the original team, which is a shame.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Would be interesting to see tri-Ace return to something similar to this formula

Tria-ace would have to return, period first. It got merged with enix shortly after Star Ocean 2 came out iirc. After this long, there's obviously nothing left of the original team, which is a shame.

They just released that Star Ocean: The Divine Force game last October.

 

[Modron]

Wasn't that just a last hurrah?

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I tend to agree that simply rendering 16 bit sprites in HD is wrong-headed, specifically because many of these games were meant to be played on a CRT TV that created a natural blending, anti aliasing effect.

https://wackoid.com/game/10-pictures-that-show-why-crt-tvs-are-better-for-gaming/

That's why I think the Live A Live remake was smart for using smooth sprites vs Octopath and the Pixel remasters. This game has kinda the same issue and the two art styles clash in a bit of a jarring way, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

 

[Amurada]

I tend to agree that simply rendering 16 bit sprites in HD is wrong-headed, specifically because many of these games were meant to be played on a CRT TV that created a natural blending, anti aliasing effect.

https://wackoid.com/game/10-pictures-that-show-why-crt-tvs-are-better-for-gaming/

That's why I think the Live A Live remake was smart for using smooth sprites vs Octopath and the Pixel remasters. This game has kinda the same issue and the two art styles clash in a bit of a jarring way, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Kinda dumb take. While I own two CRT televisions - a Trinitron & PVM I got before the boomers started this new gold rush - for retro gaming for precisely the reason you laid out here, that pixel art was made for the particular context of the development environment they are made in. Owlboy may possibly look better with a shader applied - or configured with VGA cables to be playable on a CRT - but the game looks great regardless. Its understandable to be anal on how old games ought to be played, but this isn't as much the case with newer games. I wouldn't even be surprised if the SO2 remake looks a little janky on a CRT given these reasons. Probably better to use ReShade with a decent shader like Royale, Hylian, etc.

 

[Mauman]

Evidently dataminers have discovered that it's likely that the

Spoiler

phase gun

will be making a comeback. I had hoped that might be the case when I saw Claude

Spoiler

shoot it at the Wise Men in the animated opening

Honestly? Rather happy about this if true. It always bothered me that Claude didn't

Spoiler

plug the damn thing into a wall socket or something

the second he got to Nede.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Huh, I'd never thought of that. To be fair, by that point you might have gotten Opera on your team, and other high tech stuff doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as Claude's insane 'sword' techniques. I'd probably stick with a sword too if I could use one to summon dragons.

I wonder if they'll do a balance pass on the various weapon arts. I didn't mind the wild discrepancies in usefulness, made it feel rewarding to figure out which ones were awesome, especially when they only became so after training. But I wouldn't mind having a bit more variety on the other melee characters, who are mostly one trick ponies compared to Claudes arsenal of good shit.

 

[Mauman]

Huh, I'd never thought of that. To be fair, by that point you might have gotten Opera on your team, and other high tech stuff doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as Claude's insane 'sword' techniques. I'd probably stick with a sword too if I could use one to summon dragons.

I wonder if they'll do a balance pass on the various weapon arts. I didn't mind the wild discrepancies in usefulness, made it feel rewarding to figure out which ones were awesome, especially when they only became so after training. But I wouldn't mind having a bit more variety on the other melee characters, who are mostly one trick ponies compared to Claudes arsenal of good shit.

Hell, just watching the gameplay trailer made it look like Ernest of all freaking people is pretty decent. So there's probably some general buffs going around.

edit - also, in case you haven't played the demo yet, it's immediately apparrant that Phase Gun is way different. For one, the damage was NERFED to that of a slightly stronger air slash, but the damage now noticeably scales as you level (and even in the nerfed state it's still a zero mp ability that will demonlish anything in it's path). Furthermore, it has distance now ( a fairly good medium range) and fires in a straight line piercing enemies.

So I suppose in hindsight it was obvious they were going to do something with it.

 

[Abu Antar]

Went to my local pick-up place, to grab my PS5 copy.

It's really fun, and probably my favorite version of the game. Everything about it is good, even the remixed OST. Although I prefer some older tunes, they did a good job.

Having a smooth 60fps experience. Read that it is 120 fps on PC.

 

[Phinx]

One more day till the steam release. Can't wait.

 

[Mauman]

Oh...fun fact.

The new(ish) trailer that dropped a few days ago flat out confirms that

Spoiler

phase gun

is back, as the trailer SHOWS CLAUDE USING IT ON THE FINAL BOSS

 

[mediocrepoet]

Oh...fun fact.

The new(ish) trailer that dropped a few days ago flat out confirms that

Spoiler

phase gun

is back, as the trailer SHOWS CLAUDE USING IT ON THE FINAL BOSS

I haven't really been following this one, but they'd confirmed that awhile ago in the earlier rounds of hyping the game. Basically, they changed the way it works and damage scaling or something, so you could potentially keep using it.

One of the things I always found bizarre about this game when it was new was that you had this whole starship sci fi intro and then drop into generic fantasy whateverness and your phaser breaks. Total bummer.

 

[Mauman]

Oh...fun fact.

The new(ish) trailer that dropped a few days ago flat out confirms that

Spoiler

phase gun

is back, as the trailer SHOWS CLAUDE USING IT ON THE FINAL BOSS

I haven't really been following this one, but they'd confirmed that awhile ago in the earlier rounds of hyping the game. Basically, they changed the way it works and damage scaling or something, so you could potentially keep using it.

One of the things I always found bizarre about this game when it was new was that you had this whole starship sci fi intro and then drop into generic fantasy whateverness and your phaser breaks. Total bummer.

Oh, it still breaks (or specifically, the battery runs out), it's just you evidently can plug it back in at some point once you're in a more advanced area.

 

[Abu Antar]

Game is out.

Been enjoying it. The best game in the series by a wide margin, imo.

 

[deama]

Any other reviews? Any good?
What about a complete newcomer to the series, would this be any good?

My JRPG experience so far has been:
- Liked wandering sword, story was a bit meh though.
- Didn't like any of the FF games, tried 6, 7, and 8, and the MMO if that counts.
- Xenogears was ok, probably best JRPG I played so far, but wasn't anything crazy in the grand scheme of things. Though still, never finished, got close, I think I done 70% of it.
- Legend of Dragoon, pretty generic JRPG, never finished.
- Arcturus, was ok, story seemed kinda more interesting than the other JPRGs, though half way point pissed me off with something so I gave up.