STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R

Star Ocean The Second Story R is a game I regret not having played the original of 26 years ago, the release on the PlayStation and subsequent rereleases went under my radar completely. I've been playing JRPGs for a long time, new and old, and this one really stands out; this is truly something special and has quickly risen the ranks for me as one of my favourites. When you think of JRPGs from the 90s you probably don't think of a hybrid action combat system, and while I've played a few JRPGs from the PS2 era with similar battle systems they never clicked for me the way this one did. You can free roam the arena in combat, dodge, attack, use skills bound to your triggers, and instruct your party members to use different skills or spells and doing all of this in real time makes battles fast paced and exciting. You can have up to eight party members but only four can actively participate in battle, typical JRPG affair, except that your other four party members can act as 'summons' of sorts where you can set one of their skills or spells to your arrows and they'll jump in to help in the fight; which is the first time I've felt like the entire party is contributing to the battle in a JRPG instead of it being my favourite guys and the Bench Warmer Brigade. You can tell your AI companions to take certain actions or prioritize tactics though your options are fairly limited, I found the AI teammates fairly reliable just left to their own devices though sometimes they'd run around and forget to actually fight. Speaking of party members, the system at play here too is also quite unique. You can recruit a total of six party members as Rena and Claude are mandatory, and once you have a full team of eight you can't recruit anyone else; which works out pretty well actually. This isn't a fourty to sixty hour game being more like twenty to twenty five hours for a full playthrough, and for those longer JRPGs, even ones I really liked, I never felt incentivized go for a second playthrough the way you are here; not only can the second playthrough be done as the main heroine Rena in the protagonist role, including new scenes and her unique perspective, but there being more recruitable party members than you can possibly get in one run will keep a second run from feeling like a rehash of what you've done before. Your party members will chime in at different parts in the story and unlock unique scenes between both your character and each other making getting different combinations of teammates feel worthwhile to see the differences in some scenes and their special events. The titular story of Second Story R is immediately gripping and interesting, blending fantasy and sci-fi which itself likely isn't something you haven't seen before though the twists here will still keep you surprised. Claude and Rena work great as narrative leads and their relationship with each other and their allies creates a great character drama throughout; as much as I'd like to go on about the story it would really be unfortunate to get spoiled by a review so just know that what's here is good. It doesn't always have the best dialogue from moment to moment, it certainly doesn't have the best voice acting or voice direction, but what it does have is an endearing cast that's always fun to be around and a high stakes story that sometimes feels like what you're doing isn't really important but never gets into boring territory. Some other high points of note is the unique out of combat skills you can learn, stuff like blacksmithing, cooking, alchemy and art; all which grant boosts to your combat stats as well as being useable skills otherwise for creating and upgrading accessories and equipment. These skills can get impressively dynamic too, like pickpocketing with your allies around will make them think worse of you so it's best to do it when you're alone. There's also the Private Action system which allows you to disperse your party members around town, letting you have some time by yourself and to find and encounter special scenes you won't find with your companions in tow, some being time limited and others even being unique to having certain combinations of characters in your lineup. Music is amazing, visuals are really great which surprised me a little; typically I'm really against the HD2D look as I usually find it blurry and kinda repulsive but even here this game is built different, with gorgeous 3D environments and crisp and expressive sprite work, complimented by the stellar art for the character portraits. This game is seriously a sleeper gem, and if you are a JRPG fan I really can't recommend this one enough; be it the fun combat, great characters, or engaging story it's really the full package and will surely have something you'll love. I'm not quite done my first complete playthrough as of writing this but it's already got me planning out my next run as Rena this time, and I look forward to putting more time into it. I never played the original and this remake is my first experience with a Star Ocean game, so I can't say for sure what differences there are from the original if any; but what I can say is that this game rocks.