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Star Ocean The Second Story R Achieves Over 1,000 Steam Reviews; 96% Positive

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
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Following the launch of Star Ocean The Second Story R earlier this month, the title has seen much acclaim from critics, newcomers, and veteran fans alike. Now, this praise has become even more evident from the official Steam store page.
As of the time of this writing, Star Ocean The Second Story R has reached over 1,000 Steam reviews, which are labeled as “Overwhelmingly Positive.” In particular, 96% of the 1,073 user reviews are positive, which is quite impressive for a Star Ocean title. Aside from the PC ports of other Star Ocean games not being especially great, the general reception of the games themselves is more mixed.
So, it’s neat to finally see a Star Ocean entry receive a plethora of genuine acclaim. Here’s hoping the series is given more opportunity to shine in the future. In the meantime, I’ll be in my corner wishing for a remake of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, my personal favorite entry.
Thanks to the Star Ocean The Second Story R director Yuichiro Kaito sharing the news regarding the positive Steam reviews.

 

Hugare

Gold Member
I will buy it eventually to check it out, but man, japanese devs cant name their games for shit

"The Second Story R". People may think "so its a sequel? Would I be lost?". I wonder how many sales they loose due to the game's name.
 

Needlecrash

Member
F98f4m4bsAA5KQG







It's amazing to see both new and older players alike enjoying the remake. Seeing the newer players saying, "WHY HAVE I NOT PLAYED THIS BEFORE!?!? THIS IS AMAZING!" was definitely entertaining. This game was truly one that was ahead of its time. From the combat, skills, lots of endings, level cap, and specialties for starters, this really was a cult classic and a game I never would have thought would receive the remake treatment. Considering Kitao was a former Tri-Ace employee as he worked on the original version, he knows this game through and through.

I really hope that Square Enix works with them again for further enhancements from the Tri-Ace catalog, especially Valkyrie Profile; as well as other games that can use the remake treatment....COUGH COUGH STAR OCEAN BLUE SPHERE PLZ.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
It’s almost the perfect remake. It feels like the people who made this fully understood what made the original good before they started monkeying around with it.

I think this was the perfect way to remake pre-rendered backgrounds on 3D. They preserved all the cool camera angles/focal lengths and visual composition of the scenes. I think it would’ve lost a lot if they went with a boring “behind the ass” user-controlled camera system, or like a fixed distance/fixed focal length 3/4 view.

Do you need to play the first to play this? I already bought it but still.
SO2 was the first one most of us played considering SO1 didn’t release in the west until the PSP remake several years later. You can definitely play in any order.

That said, First Departure R Is pretty great and worth playing if you like SO2. It’s on sale for $6.29 on PSN until the 18th
 
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Buggy Loop

Member
Wow what the hell, I either totally missed the news of this game's existence or I forgot?

Jim Carrey GIF by Coolidge Corner Theatre


Or Square Enix's marketing team sucks? Anyway good to learn about this either way, totally flew under my radar. Wishlisted.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Yep this game is fantastic and I highly recommend it.
I think it's gonna get me to do a second playthrough at some point not just because of the other protagonist route but because I missed out on some party members that I wanted to see.
 

wvnative

Member
I can't decide if i wanna buy this or not. Haven't liked any of the SO games that i have tried, (3, 4, and the 6 demo). tried the demo for this, it's really pretty and feels decent to play, but it felt so slow to get going. does the pace get better?
 

Nonehxc

Member
Now dare to be great and do Xenogears.
After Collection of Mana and Super Mario RPG Remake, maybe Nintendo (Monolith Soft) and Square are willing to give this a shot? Would be cool.

wnGc8vO.jpg


I'm one of those few privileged to own a OG Xenogears NTSC game and OST since release, imported ofc since it never released in Europe. It's one of my GOATs and if Monolith 🤨🤜🏼🤛🏼🤨 Square were to do a remake with Star Ocean R quality and why not wish it all, they finished the second disc, I would cum so hard Earth would GTFO of the usual orbit. 😆😆
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I can't decide if i wanna buy this or not. Haven't liked any of the SO games that i have tried, (3, 4, and the 6 demo). tried the demo for this, it's really pretty and feels decent to play, but it felt so slow to get going. does the pace get better?
Yeah IMO it gets much better when you get some more party members and get off the first continent. I always felt that the slow start was its biggest weakness.
 

WoJ

Member
Star Ocean is a weird series for me. I played SO2 as a teenager when I wanted every JRPG to be like Final Fantasy and was disappointed the game wasn't Final Fantasy in space. I remember thinking it was a good game but not quite what I wanted at the time.

SO3 was a let down for me. I was upset so much time was spent on medieval worlds and I still wanted it to be FF in space.

Never got around to the other games in the series but I know they've had mixed receptions.

This game looks fantastic though. I'll have to pick it up.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I can't decide if i wanna buy this or not. Haven't liked any of the SO games that i have tried, (3, 4, and the 6 demo). tried the demo for this, it's really pretty and feels decent to play, but it felt so slow to get going. does the pace get better?
I'm not a fan of 4 and 6 (although like 3) and 2 is much better than the newer games. Pacing improves the further you get in.
 

Hudo

Member
wnGc8vO.jpg


I'm one of those few privileged to own a OG Xenogears NTSC game and OST since release, imported ofc since it never released in Europe. It's one of my GOATs and if Monolith 🤨🤜🏼🤛🏼🤨 Square were to do a remake with Star Ocean R quality and why not wish it all, they finished the second disc, I would cum so hard Earth would GTFO of the usual orbit. 😆😆
As someone who never played Xenogears but always wanted to, I do hope that they remake it as well in that style. And why I would also love the remake to be multiplatform, I dunno if Nintendo would allow that if Monolith were allowed to work on that. And I don't want a Xenogears remake without Takahashi involved.
 

Shake Your Rump

Gold Member
I will buy it eventually to check it out, but man, japanese devs cant name their games for shit

"The Second Story R". People may think "so it’s a sequel? Would I be lost?". I wonder how many sales they loose due to the game's name.
They should have chosen the PSP remake title of “second evolution”. I’m not sure why they decided to revert to the PS1 title. They used the PSP remake title for the first game.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
If we don’t get xenogears I’m ok with parasite Eve remake as well.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I second this game beats Sea of Stars to hell. Its not that SoS is bad, but SO2 is superior.

Its just a very good JRPG, and perfectly remade without losing the vibe of the original game. This is how I want to see other classics being done. It puts the lazy efforts like Chrono Cross to shame.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I second this game beats Sea of Stars to hell. Its not that SoS is bad, but SO2 is superior.

Its just a very good JRPG, and perfectly remade without losing the vibe of the original game. This is how I want to see other classics being done. It puts the lazy efforts like Chrono Cross to shame.
The Chrono Cross "remaster" is a disgrace.

SO2R should be the blueprint and new standard for all the classic JRPGs that won't get FF7R treatment, but deserve more than a simple remaster or upscale
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
How was the Switch version
I played it on Switch, beat in about 30 hours and only had a single crash in that time. A tiny bit of slowdown on a few parts, but otherwise very good - and having the extra portability really helped.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
I feel like I'm nearing the end as I can't remember the story. Maybe not but there is some serious stuff happening now. Great stuff.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
We've gotten just a spoiled amount of amazing games this year.

Fucking unbelievable.

I don't want to hear shit about people crying over no RPGs, I don't want to hear shit about lack of horror games.

This was just a unreal year for quality in those genres for anyone to really complain for the remainder of this gen.
 
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NeoLed

Member
I bought the game been playing it still confused about how to do this in fights, but I will tell you all the voice acting is dog shit. No feeling to the lines at all really kinda bums me out from an immersion standpoint
English dub? Those are ripped from the psp version released at 2009. Yeah, it's kinda bad
 
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They took an already legendary JRPG, and fixed all the niggling little issues that have been talked about after a quarter century (you're welcome for that knowledge) since its original release. All I hoped for was a straight port of the PSP release, this goes above, and beyond my wildest dreams.

The only thing that would make me happier is for Squeenix to take this exact art style, and announce Star Ocean 3.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
They took an already legendary JRPG, and fixed all the niggling little issues that have been talked about after a quarter century (you're welcome for that knowledge) since its original release. All I hoped for was a straight port of the PSP release, this goes above, and beyond my wildest dreams.

The only thing that would make me happier is for Squeenix to take this exact art style, and announce Star Ocean 3.
Would love an SO3 in this style, but first this one needs to sell well!
 
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