STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R

Full disclosure: yes, I am an old fan with nostalgia. Also full disclosure: I've started this game five or so times, and have gotten a decent bit in, but for one reason, lost my save (PS1 memory card lost, emulator saves messed up, my emulator handheld's battery exploding, etc). I was quite committed to never trying this game again due to my bad luck, but then I saw the remake version. Even then, I still held off, wondering if it was worth it to start that hour+ long slow-ish start. Yes, it's worth it! This version of the game is everything that I've ever wanted and more. So many quality of life improvements, so many ways that it explains mechanics that I've never understood before, so many ways that it gives you options on how you want to play your game. Plus, the presentation is fantastic. I will admit: if you're not an old fan and don't know some of the tricks, it may not hit as hard. But the thing about this game is that the more you get to know it's INSANELY high level of customization and crafting, the more that you'll feel so empowered. Level up the right skills (like Cooking and Smithing) and the more that you're actual combat stats will go up. "Chef Knife" (now just "knife") makes your attack go up immensely. Learning Herbs and minerals makes your mages more effective with their magic. Etc. But then, you can actually crafting food, herbs, armor, weapons, etc, and you'll start to create items that are better than what you can find in the stores. Even better, there are certain skills and items that basically find items for you as you walk around the world. And if enough party members have a shared skill set, they can combine into "Specialties" and "Super Specialties" where you're really changing your game in a variety of deep ways. For example, if you learn "Writing," you can create books based on skills. When read, your party can level up skills that you have unlocked (up to a certain point). If you have the money and penmenship skill high enough, you can basically level up your whole party's basic skills in no time. But then you can also unlock Publication, where you can sell special books based on your party...and you can actually receive royalties from them, over time, that give IMMENSE money back. At this point in my playthrough, I have so much money and so many items that I don't know what to do with myself. And most of it is just me experimenting when I have time. Combat-wise, it's a bit of a simple real-time action battler. But, this version adds some new complexities that make combat slightly more complex. Plus, you can eventually unlock special guest characters in a way that sort of summons them temporarily, and between that and parrying/countering, I feel like I have enough to keep me engaged. And, the last thing is how much I adore the Private Action feature of the game. You not only recruit characters and follow a JRPG story...you get little vignettes and side-interactions where your characters can split up as a team in a town, run into each other, and have small moments. They're mostly for humor, but some actually share lore or backstory content that is meaningful to the overall world and plot. A lot of it is, admittedly, anime crush humor, with the two main characters constantly dancing around their being paired as a couple by nearly everyone they meet. But overall, I've really enjoyed this feature, and I'm glad the remake allows you to easily track and revisit locations so that you don't easily miss any of them. I started this game as a tween shortly after it debuted, not understanding most of the systems. I replayed it as an adult, understanding some of the systems. Now I'm playing it approaching middle age, and I finally feel empowered to understand all of its systems, and play the game at a fast pace in a way that makes sense for my life right now. I can't recommend this enough; if you are love classic JRPGs but don't have the time to wander aimlessly around trying to remember the quest you were on when you played two weeks prior, this is your game. It values your time and wants you to value your time playing. So do just that. Play this game if you like classic JRPGs. And thank me later. And thank the studio, Gemdrops, for their amazing job!