Star Ocean - The Second Story R Impression

This game is impressive. If you like JRPGs, it’s a must play. Even if you prefer turn-based, you should still give this action-RPG a few hours chance; you’ll know by then if it’ll be worth a play through. And if you like RPGs from the 90s, Star Ocean: The Second Story R is superb.

If you’re at all interested in JRPGs, I’m sure this game is already on your radar or you’ve played it. When it was accounced last Fall, I knew there was a great chance I’d like the game. It has an art-style similar to the HD-2D aesthetic that debuted in Octopath Traveler. It’s a remake of a successful late 90s title (from a series I’d never played). And it blends sci-fi with medieval fantasy. What’s not to like?

The gameplay preview trailer also showed off new or improved battle mechanics plus quality of life features. And in my experience, any time a game developer takes a pretty good classic JRPG, dusts it off, and polishes it up to a new shine, it becomes great if not excellent.

At 18 hours into the game: it’s excellent.

I break down JRPGs into three broad categories: presentation, gameplay, story and focus on a few main sub-parts for each. Here are my overall impressions for those so far:

• Presentation

  • Visuals: Beautiful spin on HD-2D with more immersive environments and fewer pixels.

  • Aurals: Some tunes are nostalgic and comforting. Some are bland. None are stand-out yet.

• Gameplay

  • Combat: It looks cool, it plays well, it’s frenetic yet very manageable. I hit a difficulty spike several hours in, retrenched, and managed to work through it with a bit of grinding and party set-up tweaking. Study the menus, try things, it works out.

  • Exploration: Not open-world yet non-linear, which I like. Overworld is great. Dungeons and towns are great.

  • Systems: The various systems for leveling up, upgrading, etc. are fairly deep, overlapping, and of the complexity typical in a JRPG, yet they’re presented simply and paced out well. I’m surprised how approachable they’ve been. Easier to grasp and practice than I expected.

• Story

  • Plot: Interesting story, doesn’t feel linear because of side-quests/private actions. Some tropes but also some surprises. Not convoluted or heavy like a Xenoblade of Final Fantasy.

  • Characters: Fun, delightful, interesting, and varied though somewhat tropey characters with melodrama and nice interaction that has brought me many smiles.

Overall

Glad I didn’t delay starting this game anymore. Fun and engaging! It’s going to contend for a spot in my top five JRPGs. I plan to rate and review it after finishing the game, so check Jason Journals in the future for that.