Topic: Star Ocean the Second R

Seems as though the physical release has nice reversible box art for those who hate the download banner.

I'll be grabbing this in December. No time as of right now.

I'm only an hour in but it's been amazing so far. Looking forward to playing more of it this weekend 👀

last time i played Star Ocean 2 aka Second Evolution was when i had it for my PSP like 18 years ago

I played the remake of the first Star Ocean on the Switch and I liked it, but there was one problem. I felt like I had to grind alot and the game still felt hard sometimes. Is this game easier and less grindy, or is it comparable to the first remake?

@Magician What I'm hearing online is that the full game is on the cartridge, and the download just pulls in additional language options or something.

Anyone wish to confirm or deny this?

@Ralizah Yes, the ESRB version has a 833MB update for languages other than English and Japanese.

Bit disappointed that they are forcing a download of 3GB instead of having it be complete on cart. Nintendolife to my knowledge never once said a download would be required for the physical release. I’m not happy at all. That’s 3GB that could’ve been saved had they just used the appropriate size cart.

Edit: if that’s the case why not have it be an optional download on the eshop for the additional languages instead of a forced download.

Can the game not just be played without the update?

@Ralizah
Well it says on the back it “requires a download of at least 3gb”. So required means that you must.

@GameOtaku Have you actually tried?

Well, I put in like 5 hours today and I've gotta say this really has the potential to be my personal GOTY. It's so weird, I always thought Star Ocean was supposed to be a mid tier JRPG series but this game has been phenomenal so far, and the story hasn't really gotten off the ground yet lol. This is my first game in the series though, so idk if I just picked a really good starting point.

Kudos to developer Gemdrops.

Never heard of them prior to this release, but it's very well done.

http://www.gemdrops.co.jp/

Edit: Master Detective, ONI, Cogen, Sakuna, Oninaki, Lost Sphear, etc.

Hmm, no wonder I like this version of Star Ocean 2nd, I'm not sure I've played one game of theirs I didn't enjoy.

Update: I put it on airplane mode and tried to see if it gave any messages about needing to download x amount to fully play and it never did and I played a bit so apparently the banner is misleading about requiring a download.

I hit just under 10 hours yesterday and I am amazed at how good this game is. I'm curious how many of these features are exclusive to the remake. I feel like I've been engaging with every bit of side content that the game offers lol. You can actually write books and collect royalties as a whole separate skill.

I'm now 26 hours into this game and it still hasn't lost any steam to me. I'm pretty impressed that it has so many things to do yet it doesn't feel bloated. The story started to pick up around the time I reached Eluria. I also find it amusing that you can actually reject everyone who tries to join your party permanently lol.

I thoroughly messed up the Claude game play as I missed alot of tips and powerups with Rena that I figure finally how get the best options. So now I will have to redo Claude and hopefully powerup sooner and get better at the storyline gameplay. But right now playing Rena and finally figure out the gameplay and powerups. But I did also buy the DLC packages and it does help the gameplay leveling when reaching the rock tower and fighting the Bosses. They can be very hard and loosing your special powerup isn't fun if you don't watch your character so they don't die or your character dies but save often at those save points helps to redo if need be.

I found some places to get level-ups and money without having to run around but requires one have enough potions when doing these grinding runs. I found at the Castle entrance if you face towards the directions you came you can always fight and not get backstabbed by the monsters and get easy BP, SP to level-up their ranks. At this level you should be at least level 30 so Claude can survive the fights and earn the points same with if your using Rena Claude will do the fighting and survive fights earning points. Another is the Rock Tower is if you want fast Level-up but slow BP, SP points but you get faster money in this process but this requires your main Claude or Rena to be at least level 40 when doing this as those Boss fights if you get linked more then 3 will be hard if you don't have enough potions for Revive, Mana, HP, Petrification, Paralysis at least have 20 for the last 4 and 10 for Revive. The Rock Tower will level-up fast but if your looking for faster BP, SP the Castle location is the best location at the start of the story. By doing both I can level-up and rank levels to 10 to get good stuff. The Rock Tower the best location to stay is after the save point there is a curve in the path and you put Claude/Rena facing outward so when monster attack your facing them head-on thus giving your survival chances and same at the Castle Bridge facing the monster means they can't backstabb you and loose your Bonus wheel which if you collected the power ball should be at 300% which helps in both situation. But if your level is too low under 30-35 at the Rock Tower expect to die and loose the Power Wheel is what you want to have at full power when at this location.

Well, I just finished the game last night at about 40 hours. My highest level party member was 107 and the lowest was 98. Given that this was my first Star Ocean game I was expecting a pretty mid experience based on the reputation of the series, but this exceeded my expectations. I think I utilized every single possible skill in this game. I loved the train, scouting, and bodyguard skills. Train rewards you with higher exp gain in exchange for lowering your stats, scouting allows you to increase or decrease enemy spawn rate, and bodyguard allows you to instantly kill weaker enemies without having to enter battle with them. Those were absolute God sends and it made leveling up a lot of fun.

I also used the enlightenment skill to gain more BP/SP but it lowers money earned by a pretty significant amount. So my source of income came from the writing, replication, and appraising skills. I'd have the party members write books that were then published for royalties. Replication allows you to duplicate items, so I could duplicate expensive items and sell those as well. The appraising skill made this even better because it allows you to change the prices of items at shops. With it, I was able to buy items for less money and sell items for more money

Unfortunately, I did find the story to be quite average. I think it's awesome that you could actually reject everyone who tries to join your party permanently and I did every PA I could find. However, many of the characters don't seem to have much plot relevance. After they join your party some of them don't even seem to talk at all outside of the occasional PA conversation. That being said though, I am willing to play through the game again. I played through the game with Claude and I guess playing through with Rena offers a different perspective on the story.

It's pretty funny, sometimes RPGs like Xenogears or Triangle Strategy have me convinced that I prefer story first and gameplay secondary. But then there are some like Shin Megami Tensei V that have me thinking I prefer good gameplay over a good story. Star Ocean The Second Story R seems to fall under the latter. Despite the story not hooking me entirely, the gameplay never once got boring to me. I loved exploring the world map and in the dungeons, I found myself fighting every possible enemy before moving on. I even used the fishing skill in new areas constantly because it was oddly satisfying finding each fish in the game 😂. Looking forward to returning to this game for Rena's route sometime in the future.

@Vortexeo, Did the world before ever return when you finished the game or it completely gone at the end of the story?