Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a fantastic remaster of a game from the golden era of JRPGs. The newly arranged music is great and the voice acting is good as well, and the improvements to the battle system from the original to this one is leaps and bounds better. The graphical choices made in this remaster is spot on with a nod to the original sprite graphics mixed in with more modern environments. Anyone looking for a classic-style JRPG to play should pick this one up.

Star Ocean The Second Story R is not a time capsule. While many of the key elements of the original are preserved, including the character-driven story and diverse action, the sheer beauty of the harmony of its 2D characters and 3D environments is unquestionably a winning formula. Not only is The Second Story R the best way to experience a classic, it is a fantastic entry point into the Star Ocean series. But if we are lucky, this is the blueprint Square Enix will use to remake the most-wanted list of the many RPGs players haven’t seen in decades.

This remake is clearly a labor of love made by developers who were influenced by the classic game. Gemdrops managed to enhance everything great about Star Ocean 2 while still retaining the aesthetic and feel that was so essential to the original experience. The main narrative still feels a bit slow and underdeveloped at times, but so much has been improved that it hardly matters. Star Ocean The Second Story R truly sets a high new benchmark for how to remake classic RPGs.

With Star Ocean: The Second Story R, a JRPG classic is celebrating a glorious comeback. Thanks to its likeable characters and complex gameplay, this is a game that no fan of old-school JRPGs should miss out on.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is the best example of how a game can become a jewel after being forgotten for years. A remake full of changes and improvements that surprises by adapting a niche JRPG and transforming it into a modern classic.

It was wonderful revisiting Rena and Claude yet again in STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R and it's undoubtedly the best edition of their grand journey so far. I wasn't expecting to be reminded of as much retro baggage as I was, though, but it's still a great RPG.

Star Ocean The Second Story R is exactly what it needs to be: a faithful remake of a classic PS1 RPG that greatly enhances the experience for both new and returning players. A wonderful visual overhaul combined with numerous quality of life improvements and expanded battle mechanics make this a borderline must-play for anyone who's looking for an old-school adventure. Although the underlying PS1-era design does still have some rough edges — particularly in the storytelling and combat balance — it's hard to knock such a well crafted revival.

I actually haven't played it. I just came to check out the scores and accidentally clicked to give it a score. There doesn't seem to be option to delete my score.

I loved Star Ocean First Departure, but couldn't enjoy this game. It feels total generic, simple, and souless. I must admit they did a great remake as to artstyle and overall design. But the story is extremely boring.

Bloated, cramped and overloaded. It will be suitable for those who appreciate the sandbox component with the ability to create music, writing, and derive their own chemical/physical laws instead of actually, you know, saving the world, but that’s all - absolutely not what I play jRPG for. The amount of saves scumming the game encourages somehow surpasses even the third Baldurs Gate.

I honestly can't believe how many positive revies this game has. The art style/graphics are cool and combat is ok, but man did I dislike this game. Overall this game was a major SLOG. I wanted to like the story but it got insanely boring found myself starting to skip the dialogue near the endgame because the characters talk way too much saying very little substance. I did not find many of the characters very likable except for Bowman who I thought was the only standout character. Despite all this, I did enjoy the soundtrack though. Hot take apparently, but save yourself some valuable time and skip this one IMO

Graphics are stunning. OST is first class but why make an action game with the battle format of a turn based RPG? Just ruined it and made it stop start. It should have been done like Ys Origin, or SAO Hollow Realisation, where you scoot from enemy to enemy. Not animations in and out. It's not as bad as Ni No Kuni but it's bad enough to slow the pace a lot. The dialogue felt repetitive too. Just been playing Nayuta and when something is being repeated, it says "they brought ........character **** to date on the events that had taken place". No need to repeat the same dialogue like SO2 does. If repeated dialogue doesn't bother you and you don't mind the action being pointlessly stop start, then fire away. For me it just felt awfully dated, including the battle mechanics. It felt poor in comparison to the games I mentioned earlier and one of those is getting on for 20 years old. OST is extremely important for me in games and I usually over look the game's flaws if the OST is this good and here there is even the gorgeous graphics in its favour too but it's not enough to make up for the boring gameplay. As I have no interest in carrying on, it's a very low score from me, very glad I demo'd it. It's just too dated. I'm from the NES era too, so I grew up on things that are well and truly dated now but I didn't play the original, so for SO 2S R to feel this old and clunky, then God knows how bad the original was. It is quite simply very poor by today's standards. Shame the game doesn't match the AV.