izigame.me

I'd say that's worth 10/10!

Overall just an amazing remake of Star Ocean 2 from Square Enix and Gemdrops! As a longtime fan of the entire Star Ocean series (seriously, the other Star Ocean game are awesome too; go check them out!) and as someone whose very first RPG ever happened to be the original PS1 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story, this remake is literally the perfect blend of old and new.

It has all the things I loved about the original version (and the PSP remaster, Second Evolution) and weaves it together brilliantly with a plethora of quality of life improvements that just benefit the overall experience of the game for the better.

Whether you're a longtime Star Ocean fan like me who has played the heck out of all the amazing entries in the Star Ocean series, or if you're completely new to the Star Ocean series, this is genuinely worth every fol (the in game currency for the Star Ocean series; kind of like gil from the Final Fantasy series).

And if you happen to be new to the Star Ocean series, this is honestly the best place I can recommend starting.

The quality of life improvements and clearer tutorials for things like item creation are perfect for those just discovering the greatness of overpowering all your party members and breaking the game (in the best possible way that the Star Ocean series is known for), and even very helpful for longtime veterans like me who may just discover a thing a two they didn't know they could do in the game despite having literally beaten the PS1 and PSP versions multiple times over already.

It's an amazing remake for fans of Star Ocean 2 and the Star Ocean series in general, and also a perfect way to learn the ins and outs of the game-breaking-ly fun stuff this amazing series really lets you do.

And then if you decide to try some other amazing Star Ocean titles afterward like Star Ocean: First Depatrure, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, or Tri Ace's latest one, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, I think you'll really have the advantage of the great way this remake of Star Ocean 2 does its tutorials so that doing the same fun game breaking stuff in the other games can come to you more easily.

Not that the other games' item creation systems are super hard to figure out or anything, but the tutorials in this remake of Star Ocean 2 are more straightforward and clear than anything this longtime Star Ocean veteran has seen in the series. That's why I think this one is one of the best starting points for newcomers.

And again, for a longtime Star Ocean veteran like me, this is also just the perfect mix of everything that made the original Star Ocean 2 amazing combined with a lot of really beneficial quality of life improvements that simply just make the experience even better. I highly, highly recommend Star Ocean: The Second Story R for both longtime Star Ocean fans like me and newcomers just discovering the series.

Now if only we can convince Square Enix to do a modern remaster of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time with some quality of life improvements and also convince Tri Ace to make a 7th mainline entry in the Star Ocean series and keep the franchise going, then I can officially say my life is fulfilled.

(Disclaimer: I 100% completed both Claude's and Rena's routes on the PS5 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story R, but at the time of writing I have only tested about 20 hours of this PC version. So my review is based on my experience with the PS5 version of the game mostly. So far, it's running incredibly well on my gaming laptop, and I have not yet encountered any issues with the PC version. Although it's the same exact game on both platforms, I just wanted to be transparent and honest here that my experience with the game is mostly on PS5 at the time of writing. That being said, again, the PC version is also running flawlessly on my end thus far too.)