The Star Ocean series can be hit or miss, and you never know if a game will be a stellar installment or, well, an Integrity and Faithlessness. Star Ocean The Second Story is among its best games in the series, and I believe the R release cements its role as the strongest entry.
Like many Star Ocean games, Star Ocean The Second Story R involves a technologically advanced person from future Earth finding themselves on a planet that’s more akin to a fantasy world, complete with magic. Here, we get to witness two sides of the stories. One is of Rena, a young woman who was found in a forest outside a small town as a baby and is a bit of a mystery due to her ability to use healing magic. The other star is Claude C. Kenny, son of Ronyx from the first entry, who ends up crash landing on the planet of Expel. Claude’s goal is to find a way home. Rena wants to find out who she is. Both get caught up in the investigation of a strange Sorcery Globe that descended to the planet and caused various disasters. Each character’s route offers different insights, as well as occasional opportunities to recruit certain allies or earn different endings.
Like other Star Ocean games and Bandai Namco’s Tales of series, Star Ocean The Second Story R is an action-RPG with free motion once encountering a foe. Running into an enemy without being caught off-guard or by sneaking up on it from behind allows you to maintain bonuses by collecting spheres after defeating opponents for stat boosts. You can also chain fights together by luring enemies together for more rewards. As for the fights proper, you need to use standard attacks, special abilities, and magic spells to damage all foes on the field to win. On occasion, enemies may be shielding, requiring extra effort to deal damage. It's all a very snappy and satisfying affair. You can set up formations, to help strategically position people in the field. You can invest in skills and abilities to make someone stronger and better define their role in battle. It ends up being incredibly satisfying.
When you’re not in battles, Square Enix, Tri-Ace, and Gemdrops send you exploring across two planets looking for answers about the Sorcery Globe and the cast. There are dungeons to dive into. You have towns to visit. While in towns, you can select Private Actions to split up from the party and encounter events with characters to build relationships or see scenes that can lead you to new situations and allies. Crafting is also a major element, with characters able to create (or write, in the case of Leon) new weapons, equipment, and items to use in and out of battle. It’s unique in that the sci-fi nature of it means you aren’t limited to a single planet, but there’s also that supernatural, fantasy element with symbology and the magic Rena possesses. It’s all tackled quite well, and the fact that you do have options when assembling your party and can factor in those extra events makes spending time in towns extra enticing.
But what makes this version of Star Ocean The Second Story stand out is that R includes both visual and audio changes in addition to new gameplay elements. The character sprites look fantastic and the lighting makes them pop against the new backgrounds. There are three voice acting options, with two being Japanese and one English. You can choose which soundtrack you want to hear, with the new arranged one by Motoi Sakuraba being fantastic. In general, the presentation is fantastic.
The actual new gameplay inclusions are great too. I always would get lost in the Star Ocean The Second Story skills and and IC/Specialty elements. You can now fish, as well as use a new Remaking specialty when crafting. It’s also clearer when considering success rates for making things, which helps a lot. Fast Travel is a godsend, especially since you can select which place you want to go to and it is tied to the D-pad. (As a item creation-obsessed person, I also appreciate being able to jump into skills via the D-pad shortcut as well.) There are also an array of Private Actions updates, like easily being able to see relationship statuses and know when there’s one you can miss via icons if you don’t get to it before story events. It's like there are all these little things that can easily help distract you from the big things you could, and maybe should, be doing. But that's fine, because the Private Actions can be rewarding, and trying to push beyond your comfort zone to see areas earlier could mean getting access to something like a Thief's Glove a little faster.
Combat was always a strong suit of the original version of the game, and Star Ocean The Second Story R improves on it in many ways as well. You have these Challenge Missions to reward you for facing these fights. Some arts and spells seem more practical than they were before. (For example, I made more use of Rena’s Crush than I did in any other game.) The Bonus Gauge is a great boon for extra buffs if you manage to avoid being ambushed and killed. I also appreciated the nod to other entries with the Assault Action gauge and ability to summon characters into fights, whether they’re allies or other heroes, to help with an opponent. It also encouraged me to go look for other characters to add to that support roster.
I’ve long said that if someone wants to properly get into the Star Ocean series and fall in love with it, Star Ocean The Second Story is the game to play, and that remains true with R. It looks gorgeous, with its new environments and design direction. It plays well, with the battle system still being fun, Private Actions and party member selection adding a little extra strategy and insight, and crafting being a highlight. The story still remains strong, and going through it is a prime example of the strong influence it had on entries up to The Divine Force. I didn’t expect this remake to be as robust as it is, and I’m delighted to see the care put into it.
Star Ocean The Second Story R will come to the Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC on November 2, 2023. The game can also immediately be found on the PlayStation and PSP worldwide and the PS3, PS4, and Vita in Japan.
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