Star Ocean: The Second Story R

[SnowxSakura]

14 hours ago, starcrunch061 said:

It’s a shame it’s $50. It will be some time before I pick it up.

I half expected SE to charge the full 60 dollars for it

[Eraezr]

This is getting a physical release. Did 'Till the End of Time' get a similar privilege?

 

[SnowxSakura]

44 minutes ago, Eraezr said:

This is getting a physical release. Did 'Till the End of Time' get a similar privilege?

 

None of the newer remasters have gotten a physical release

[MidnightDragon]

Gameplay from Gamescom. It’s the Switch version, but still works.

 

 

[Alantor32]

Hopefully the remake to SO2 does well.

[MidnightDragon]

Opening video

 

 

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

This looks so nice, retro mixed with modern updates 

[Don_Chipotle]

Star ocean as a franchise is really good, i will grab this sooner or later

[MidnightDragon]

If you’re interested, there’s a demo on PSN

[Burritoprime]

25 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

If you’re interested, there’s a demo on PSN

Thanks for the heads up, I'm really excited to see the game with this new coat of paint.

[MidnightDragon]

I played it and it was pretty good. The art style may take some getting used to for those not into the 2D-HD look. 

[ZenaxPure]

Pleasantly surprised with the demo myself. One of my least favorite aspects of some of these older action RPGs (in particular SO and Tales) is the annoying MP system. I like this counter system they've implemented so you can get back MP and actually use your abilities instead of just running out after like 4 abilities and then having to waste recovery items or mindlessly spam the basic attack forever. Such a minor thing but it makes all the difference to me.

[TheSwordUserYT]

I've played through the demo and liked what I saw, though I'm concerned how trophies will play out.

Theres collection % for endings, unique spots, items, treasure chests and bestiary. Once again Item Creation is giving randomized results, though at least all possibilities are listed when selecting items. Given the nature of the game and how the story goes, there might be plenty of missable things to deal with. Gotta get that pickpocketing skill ASAP.
There are recruitable chararcters exclusive for each protagonist (like in SO6) and recruitable characters that are mutually exclusive (you can recruit only one or the other fro certain pairings). Since collected endings are also tracked, we may need at least 2 playthroughs for platinum.
Oh and there are challenges mission too that list things like reach level X or have Y % of item/enemy completion, we may be needed to do absoluetly everything in the game for plat.

Also demo has only 3 save slots, I hope full game will have much more (SO First Departure R has like 99 slots).

Edited September 16, 2023 by TheSwordUserYT

[Edunstar84]

On 9/14/2023 at 10:21 PM, ZenaxPure said:

Pleasantly surprised with the demo myself. One of my least favorite aspects of some of these older action RPGs (in particular SO and Tales) is the annoying MP system. I like this counter system they've implemented so you can get back MP and actually use your abilities instead of just running out after like 4 abilities and then having to waste recovery items or mindlessly spam the basic attack forever. Such a minor thing but it makes all the difference to me.

 

I think Tales of Graces f was like that. It's a more fluid combat system without taking the player out of the battle.

[Alantor32]

Planning on preordering or getting Star Ocean 2 R soon.

[starcrunch061]

On 9/14/2023 at 3:21 PM, ZenaxPure said:

Pleasantly surprised with the demo myself. One of my least favorite aspects of some of these older action RPGs (in particular SO and Tales) is the annoying MP system. I like this counter system they've implemented so you can get back MP and actually use your abilities instead of just running out after like 4 abilities and then having to waste recovery items or mindlessly spam the basic attack forever. Such a minor thing but it makes all the difference to me.

 

I don't know about the new game, but MP was never a factor in Star Ocean 2. While magic certainly cost MP, it was useless when compared with combat skills that used significantly less (which you would likely spam). This was true even at the level of Cure spells, where you could get an instant heal of 50% of health for something like 2 MP from Opera, or wait for a full casting of a cure spell for significantly more MP.

 

My hope is that magic becomes more viable, because magic looked really cool in SO2.

[ZenaxPure]

On 11/1/2023 at 10:59 AM, starcrunch061 said:

 

I don't know about the new game, but MP was never a factor in Star Ocean 2. While magic certainly cost MP, it was useless when compared with combat skills that used significantly less (which you would likely spam). This was true even at the level of Cure spells, where you could get an instant heal of 50% of health for something like 2 MP from Opera, or wait for a full casting of a cure spell for significantly more MP.

 

My hope is that magic becomes more viable, because magic looked really cool in SO2.

Never played any version of SO2 before this, but, I remember it being extremely annoying in the PSP version of the first game even when just spamming skills.

 

I am only 3 hours into this version so far but I can burn through my MP pretty fast just using melee attack skills with Claude. But it's a non-issue with the counter system, I am a big fan. That said, party member AI seems worse off. They'll burn through everything quickly if their AI is set to all out attacking and then just stand around doing nothing, not even basic melee strikes. But if I switch them to fight with a good balance they just stand around half the time doing nothing, even when they do have MP. The other 2 party members I have are casters though, so it wouldn't surprise me if that has something to do with it.

 

Though also this sort of iffy AI seems really common in these party based action JRPGs so I am kinda used to it at this point. I mean dang even in Tales of Arise, a game from 2021, the NPC party members are dumb as a sack of rocks most of the time.