Star Ocean: The Second Story Remake Announced for Switch/PS4/PS5/Steam releasing 11/2/23

Shame for the Switch version being 30 fps.

Seems like an obvious Day 1 buy on PC for the Steam Deck. Game was absolutely amazing back in the days.
 
What's up with the combat? It's just numbers filling the screen. People enjoy this?

I recently played through the first five hours of the PS1 game and didn't enjoy the combat there, either. The AI is brain dead, and the game was too easy despite that. The graphics and story were nice, though.
 
Shake Your Rump said:
What's up with the combat? It's just numbers filling the screen. People enjoy this?

I recently played through the first five hours of the PS1 game and didn't enjoy the combat there, either. The AI is brain dead, and the game was too easy despite that. The graphics and story were nice, though.
Click to expand...
I think it's a lot like turn based JRPGs in that almost all you do is spam direct damage attacks over and over, and 90% of the "strategy" is just showing up with the right party/equipment/skills/levels. Difference is that it's way, way faster and taken to a ridiculous extreme.

Not for everybody but I found it to be really satisfying when you get all the good multi-hit moves and combo the shit out of enemies.
 
These photorealistic particles and lighting really kill the visuals.

But the only way companies can manage to greenlight these types of projects is by cutting corners somewhere.

Unfortunately its the characters that pay the price.
Modeling all of the characters and enemies in 3D, texturing and rigging them all is a lot of work.
Since this is a niche product, there's really not much they can do about it. They're not gonna get a big budget to work on remakes.

On the other hand, they could have attempted something like Bravely Default or FF3 DS instead.
The scope is more realistic, and things become more manageable.

But I suppose you can't wow your superiors or investors that way.
Such a shame.


F5OUaJgXUAAHa9R
 
SlimeGooGoo said:
Unfortunately its the characters that pay the price.
Modeling all of the characters and enemies in 3D, texturing and rigging them all is a lot of work.
Since this is a niche product, there's really not much they can do about it. They're not gonna get a big budget to work on remakes.
Click to expand...
I was just checking out Trials of Mana, which is a remake of a SNES game. It uses 3D models and seems to be a full remake. I wonder what makes it so much more viable than Star Ocean?
 
docchicken said:
Hope they put magic rock back into the game.
Click to expand...
I hope so. I remember finding out just how strong that was without any guides as a little kid. It helped me beat the Ethereal Queen for sure.

EDIT: Lol should have checked who I was replying to. Of course you would know how good it was!
 
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Shake Your Rump said:
I was just checking out Trials of Mana, which is a remake of a SNES game. It uses 3D models and seems to be a full remake. I wonder what makes it so much more viable than Star Ocean?
Click to expand...
Well Star Ocean games were never that much popular, so I suppose it's based on market research.

But I also believe a game like Star Ocean would require a much bigger budget to do everything in 3D *and* make it look good. It's more of a traditional JRPG than Mana.

Trials of Mana could probably be done with a reasonably sized budget.
It also helps that they reused some 3D models and animations from their Secret of Mana remake.
So they might have seen that as an opportunity to make multiple Mana projects and reuse some stuff between them.
 
Many years after buying 3 on PSN I finally beat it last week. And I took out Gabriel too. SO3 does some things very bad, but the combat and crafting is absolutely addicting. Ultimately I enjoyed it and there is enough post game content.

I liked SO2 more in general, I am ready for this remake.
 
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
They should re release all Star Oceans on all systems
Click to expand...
Xbox guy here…… feeling like I'm missing out, with the best square stuff! Yet again! I wanna get a switch for stuff like this and the Nintendo 1st, 2nd and 3rd party exclusives but with switch 2 around the corner the potential of backwards compatible hardware from Nintendo this time round….. I'm tempted to hold off….. in the meantime. Would love it if square ported this, and octopath 2 right about now. Even a friggin announcement….. jeez!
 
Edit: Looks like the original cast is back to voicing all of the characters - including Spike Spencer.
 
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saintjules said:
I am so far impressed by the improvements in this game. It really looks like a whole new thing. Now we're cooking.
Click to expand...
Looks amazing, I love everything I've seen so far. My #1 wish for this game was to make offensive magic actually useful, and it looks like they did.

For those new to this game: in the original, offensive magic spells freeze the battle while the animation plays + they only do one hit. Whereas many physical attack moves do several hits and can be executed very quickly. Magic was a joke and was easily outclassed DPS-wise by physical attacks. It was pretty much only useful for interrupting enemy actions.

Looks like they totally revamped magic. Can't wait to try this out.
 
Shake Your Rump said:
What's up with the combat? It's just numbers filling the screen. People enjoy this?

I recently played through the first five hours of the PS1 game and didn't enjoy the combat there, either. The AI is brain dead, and the game was too easy despite that. The graphics and story were nice, though.
Click to expand...

Clearly not the game for you. And yeah, the numbers filling up the screen is nothing new. It's been a thing I think since the SNES days.
 
RickMasters said:
Xbox guy here…… feeling like I'm missing out, with the best square stuff! Yet again! I wanna get a switch for stuff like this and the Nintendo 1st, 2nd and 3rd party exclusives but with switch 2 around the corner the potential of backwards compatible hardware from Nintendo this time round….. I'm tempted to hold off….. in the meantime. Would love it if square ported this, and octopath 2 right about now. Even a friggin announcement….. jeez!
Click to expand...
I legitimately feel for Xbox owners here. It's no secret that some Japanese developers avoid developing on the Xbox, due to it being a non-Japanese product with a low attach rate (save for exclusive Shmups). Due to the audience and Japanese developers (cough...Square Enix) ; thus doing a great disservice to those who really wanna play games on it.
 
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Needlecrash said:
I legitimately feel for Xbox owners here. Due to the audience and Japanese developers (cough...Square Enix) not wanting to develop for Xbox, this does a great disservice to those who really wanna play it.
Click to expand...

I felt this way for the first time when my Dad told me for Christmas back in 1992 (9 years old), if I wanted to get a Genesis or an SNES. I could only pick one that year. It was a choice between playing Mario or playing Sonic. I went for Mario.

I wished that Sonic 2 was playable on the SNES. But the reality was if I wanted to play Sonic games I had to get the Genesis. So I got one 2 years later. It's funny how these two characters are on multiple platforms now game wise.

It's just the times now. Gotta have all the Consoles so you don't miss out on anything.
 
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saintjules said:
I felt this way for the first time when my Dad told me for Christmas back in 1992 (9 years old), if I wanted to get a Genesis or an SNES. I could only pick one that year. It was a choice between playing Mario or playing Sonic. I went for Mario.

I wished that Sonic 2 was playable on the SNES. But the reality was if I wanted to play Sonic games I had to get the Genesis. So I got one 2 years later. It's funny how these two characters are on multiple platforms now game wise.

It's just the times now. Gotta have all the Consoles so you don't miss out on anything.
Click to expand...
I was asked, when I was 6, what system I wanted. My choices was a Sega Genesis or a Turbo Grafx-16. I chose the former and boy did I chose wisely....

Nowadays, having a Switch and a PS5/Steam seems to be the way to go. This isn't so much about fanboyism. Rather, to ensure you get the best selection of games and not really missing out.
 
Chukhopops said:
Shame for the Switch version being 30 fps.

Seems like an obvious Day 1 buy on PC for the Steam Deck. Game was absolutely amazing back in the days.
Click to expand...
Tried both steamdeck and switch.

The 30fps isn't too bad for this game, very stable.
Although it is a bit jaggy, didn't notice any AA treatment in handheld mode anyway.
If it's your only way to play the game or want portable play it's not a bad option.


That said on steamdeck the extra fluidity at 60fps is nice and you can bump the Res up, I tried doubling it to 1600p for super sampling (no AA options it seems?) and in the open area it was running at 60 still.
I couldn't find any graphics options though so your getting a pretty similar looking game to the base Switch version, hopefully the full game has graphics options included 🤔

Edit: looks like it's just a steamdeck thing where there is no video options, playing on my windows machine they are there as normal.
 
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I have a LOT to write about the game later on, having spent about two 2 hours with it. The amount changes the game has is UN-FUCKING-REAL.

Side note, playing the game in 4K/120fps on PC is so smooth my God. Might not get it on PS5 anymore, but will get it on Switch for the portable factor.
 
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Okay....some thoughts from the demo. I will refer the SO2 Remake as 2R. I tried the demo on PC running on a RTX 3080, PS5 and Switch.
  • Game runs BEAUTIFULLY on PC at 4K/120. Battles, Dungeons and Towns are super smooth and sharp. No slowdowns or anything.
  • Switch graphics are.....kinda rough. Jaggies are noticeable and the lower resolution is apparent.
  • PS5 graphics are crisp and sharp.
  • Story cutscenes can be skipped, fast forwarded or automatically progress, with a text log if you missed anything.
  • All characters now have an idle animation. Rena shaking her legs, Claude scratching his head, etc.
  • There is a set of "missions" in the game. Completing them nets Fol, experience and BP/SP. Missions, for example, are "Finish 30 battles" etc.
  • Backgrounds are fucking BEAUTIFUL and Gemdrops did a marvelous job on the game.
  • Brightness is a little high, may need to customize it a bit.
  • Language choices can be switched on the fly via the camp menu.
  • No way to change the background colors of the menus/camp menu that I have noticed.
  • Switching the music between the OG and Arrangement version can be done on the fly via the camp menu.
  • You can switch the Character portraits at the camp menu (OG, 2nd Evolution, 2R). The older character pictures look REALLY good!
  • THERE IS NO WAY TO WALK. ONLY RUN.
  • Skill Points are used for leveling individual character skills (Cooking, Alchemy, Replication, etc) ONLY. You gain them by leveling up and now, winning battles.
  • NEW MECHANIC - Battle Points are a new mechanic in the game. You gain them by winning battles and leveling up. Battle Points are now used to level up your Special Attacks/Spells (Air Slash, Sword Dance, Foehn, Star Flare, etc).
    • This means that you can't level up the physical special attack by repeated use anymore. You have to use Battle Points to level them up. Spamming Air Slash won't get you far I'm afraid. I'm....kinda on the fence on this mechanic but whatever.
  • ALL COMBAT SKILLS ARE UNLOCKED FROM THE START. No more buying those skill manuals from the skill guild anymore. You have ALL OF THEM from the start. Below The Belt, Qigong, Flip....they're all here.
    • Leveling up combat skills now require BATTLE POINTS, instead of SKILL POINTS.
  • All treasure chests are now colored coded. From rare items to battle encounters, they are coded accordingly to what's in it.
  • There is now a mini-map within dungeons and towns. There are also indicators of where chests are, NPC's, places of interest, etc. This is a REALLY nice QOL change.
  • The physical hit sounds effect in battle sound kinda weak. I expected a lot of OOOMPH from the previous versions but it is what it is.
  • Characters now have inner dialogue that you can see; which is really cool now.
  • Since your current party is now visible and travels with you in the field, they can kinda get in the way of you trying to traverse to different areas but this is rare.
  • Engaging in certain events (Looking at artifacts, locations around the world/field) will net you experience.
  • Battles feels SO MUCH FASTER NOW.
  • Characters from other Star Ocean games are present here as assist/support characters. After finishing the demo, I was able to get Laeticia in the demo. I saw a silhouette for Roddick/Radix from the first Star Ocean.
  • When you get a Game Over, you have the option to go back to the camp menu and restart the battle or the title screen. This is SO useful.
  • ALL SPELLS HAVE BEEN REWORKED. THEY LOOK COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AND NOW HAVE BETTER DESCRIPTIONS FOR WHAT THEY DO.
  • Elements follow how they were in 2nd Evolution. Lightning, Star, Vacuum and Void are not official elements in the game.
    • Fire
    • Water (also includes Ice)
    • Wind (also includes Lightning)
    • Earth
    • Light
    • Darkness
  • There is a dedicated dodge button in battles now, so you can do counterattacks for more damage. CRAZY.
  • Enemies are now color-coded for battle encounters.
    • Green Clouds are weaker than you.
    • Blue Clouds are around your level.
    • Red Clouds are harder than you.
  • Physical Special attacks look so much better so far.
  • Camp menu has been completely overhauled in terms of design. I liked the older style but this one ain't too bad either.
I'll update this as I go along. But overall, I'm loving this. The quality of life changed here are INSANE. This isn't a mere port job. It's a straight up retooling of the game from the ground while using 2nd Evolution as a base.
 
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This was my favorite game of all time for a long part of my childhood until final fantasy xi took over. Still in my personal top 10.

Playing today I expected some nostalgia fun and then move on. What I got was almost man tears at all the sublime changes and amazing effort into this remake. Holy shit!

The new combat alone will make me play through again from scratch .

The only bad part is Claude's English voice actor which made me auto swap to Japanese. Rena's mom and and Rena sounded great in English but Claude completely derails it.

For those not familiar with this game it's up there with the greats like xenogears , Suikoden 2, Chrono trigger , etc. Takes about 30 minutes before you can start fighting monsters though. Paced quite well IMO.

Edit: is this native 4k 60fps on ps5? Pc I see is 4k 120fps. Switch 30fps.
 
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Shake Your Rump said:
What? No. I just played the PS1 version of this game a few weeks ago. It isn't some seizure inducing display like we see here.
Click to expand...
Nah
I played Final Fantasy and other jrpgs and this game in the same time range in the old days. This game's damage number was more "on your face" than like FF
 
Not sure if it's already posted but Star Ocean: First Departur R(the first game of the series) remaster is discounted on Nintendo e-shop by 60% until the 26th(not sure if it's discounted on psn)

It's not as good as the second game but it's a fun JRPG in its own right.

www.nintendo.com

STAR OCEAN First Departure R for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy STAR OCEAN First Departure R and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com
 
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Tried out the demo on ps5. Enjoyed my time with it, I'll definitely get it once it comes out or relatively soon afterwards.
 
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This demo is phenomenal. This exceeds all my expectations of this game. Its a bonafide remake to me, only the sprites resemble PS1 art. But the graphics and arranged OST are beautiful. The gameplay is much improved, the VA is good, the overall controls are very fluid. This is a day one and likely the best Star Ocean ever produced.
 
Needlecrash said:
Okay....some thoughts from the demo. I will refer the SO2 Remake as 2R. I tried the demo on PC running on a RTX 3080.
  • Game runs BEAUTIFULLY on PC at 4K/120. Battles, Dungeons and Towns are super smooth and sharp. No slowdowns or anything.
  • Story cutscenes can be skipped, fast forwarded or automatically progress, with a text log if you missed anything.
  • Backgrounds are fucking BEAUTIFUL and Gemdrops did a marvelous job on the game.
  • Brightness is a little high, may need to customize it a bit.
  • Language choices can be switched on the fly via the camp menu.
  • No way to change the background colors of the menus/camp menu that I have noticed.
  • Switching the music between the OG and Arrangement version can be done on the fly via the camp menu.
  • You can switch the Character portraits at the camp menu (OG, 2nd Evolution, 2R). The older character pictures look REALLY good!
  • THERE IS NO WAY TO WALK. ONLY RUN.
  • Skill Points are used for leveling individual character skills (Cooking, Alchemy, Replication, etc) ONLY. You gain them by leveling up and now, winning battles.
  • NEW MECHANIC - Battle Points are a new mechanic in the game. You gain them by winning battles and leveling up. Battle Points are now used to level up your Special Attacks/Spells (Air Slash, Sword Dance, Foehn, Star Flare, etc).
    • This means that you can't level up the physical special attack by repeated use anymore. You have to use Battle Points to level them up. Spamming Air Slash won't get you far I'm afraid. I'm....kinda on the fence on this mechanic but whatever.
  • ALL COMBAT SKILLS ARE UNLOCKED FROM THE START. No more buying those skill manuals from the skill guild anymore. You have ALL OF THEM from the start. Below The Belt, Qigong, Flip....they're all here.
    • Leveling up combat skills now require BATTLE POINTS, instead of SKILL POINTS.
  • All treasure chests are now colored coded. From rare items to battle encounters, they are coded accordingly to what's in it.
  • There is now a mini-map within dungeons and towns. There are also indicators of where chests are, NPC's, places of interest, etc.
  • The physical hit sounds effects in battle sound kinda weak. I expected a lot of OOOMPH from the previous versions but it is what it is.
  • Characters now have inner dialogue that you can see; which is really cool now.
  • Since your current party is now visible and travels with you in the field, they can kinda get in the way of you trying to traverse to different areas but this is rare.
  • Engaging in certain events (Looking at artifacts, locations around the world/field) will net you experience.
  • Battles feels SO MUCH FASTER NOW.
  • There is a dedicated dodge button in battles now, so you can do counterattacks for more damage. CRAZY.
  • Enemies are now color-coded for battle encounters.
    • Green Clouds are weaker than you.
    • Blue Clouds are around your level.
    • Red Clouds are harder than you.
  • Physical Special attacks look so much better so far.
  • Camp menu has been completely overhauled in terms of design. I liked the older style but this one ain't too bad either.
I'll update this as I go along. But overall, I'm loving this.
Click to expand...
It's stuff like this that makes me want to pull the trigger on it.

If it was just a straight port I would have zero interest. The changes to the battle system alone seems amazing. Nice modern update to a classic game.

Edit
The inner dialogue thing is so nice when games add it. It's why I prefer the 3D ver of Final Fantady 4, those little thought bubbles add so much character to everyone. In the case of Rosa it actually made her a real character! More jrpgs need to do this. Little touch that adds a whole lot.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr said:
Heads up, SO First Departure R is 60% off on the eShop. Great game to play as a warm up for this one.
www.nintendo.com

STAR OCEAN First Departure R for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy STAR OCEAN First Departure R and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.
www.nintendo.com www.nintendo.com
Click to expand...
also on sale for the same price on PSN, a bunch of games in the series are on sale actually (3-5 are also 60% off and 6 is 50% off)

STAR OCEAN First Departure R

Space Date 346. From a power yet undiscovered, a new generation will be born. Our tale begins on the primitive planet of Roak where Roddick lives in the peaceful and uneventful town of Kratus. As a member of the village’s local “Defence Force” tasked with the protection of Kratus, Roddick...
store.playstation.com

Star Ocean® Till The End Of Time™

The defining title in the Star Ocean series, that reveals the greatest secret in the Star Ocean universe, is finally available for PlayStation®4brThanks to the latest in HD emulator technology, the content of the original game remains untouched in this HD conversion available exclusively via...
store.playstation.com

Star Ocean®: The Last Hope - 4K and Full HD Remaster

Earth has been decimated by World War III, and now, humanity must turn to the stars in search of a new home. Explore the galaxy on your quest, make allies and enemies among the alien races you encounter, and uncover a danger so great that it threatens all of creation.brbr■ Spectacular New 4k and...
store.playstation.com

STAR OCEAN : INTEGRITY AND FAITHLESSNESS

STAR OCEAN, the epic sci-fi RPG saga makes its triumphant return with its forthcoming fifth installment in the series. brDigital edition includesbr5 x in-game DLC itemsbr1. Ring of the Valkyries br2. Golden Bunny statue br3. Bushybrume Cincture br4. Wristlet of the Stars br5. Secret Sthalian...
store.playstation.com

STAR OCEAN THE DIVINE FORCE

A Star Ocean 25th Anniversary commemorative product.
store.playstation.com
 
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