Star Ocean has become, over time, Square Enix's black sheep, the game to throw from time to time without much conviction, with a low budget and just to say: we're still here. The recent Star Ocean: The Divine Force had rekindled our hopes for the series tri-as, but in the end it didn't even live up to the expectations of fans who fondly remember the 16-bit beginnings of this strange fusion of Final Fantasy, Tales of and Star Trek, before it became too ambitious. There was only one solution: rebuild the relationship with the public by reviving Star Ocean: The Second Story for PlayStation. aka Star Ocean: Second Evolution in its PSP incarnation.
But what we feared would be another half-baked remaster turned out to be something profoundly different, an almost complete remake that we happily played on Nintendo Switch. Our hope is that this Star Ocean Review: The Second R Story you help bring back to the stage a much maligned brand that perhaps has finally found the right developer to start over.
Old history, new aesthetic.
In the end, it is very true that we need to go back to the past when we lose our way and don't know how to continue. The developer gem drop He simply looked around and grabbed the ball of nostalgia at a time when the so-called pixel art is very strong, old school role-playing games arouse more curiosity than triple-A multi-million dollar productions and new generations are hungry for old and little known things. glories. At this point it would have been enough to apply some filters, rearrange some music and add a little extra content to sell a ready-made and finished title at full price, but the truth is that Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a Excellent remake Precisely because it was in an almost perfect balance between old and new.
In some ways, Gemdrops seems to have done little in terms of narrative, as The Second Story R works exactly as it does. the original in 1998, which introduced the dual protagonist system: Basically, at the beginning of the game you choose a main protagonist between Claude C. Kenny, a space ensign son of a renowned war hero, and Rena Lanford, a young inhabitant of the planet Expel with mysterious healing powers.
The choice significantly affects the script: depending on the selected character we will see different scenes, exclusive characters will join the gang and, in general, some narrative mechanisms will change, so it might be worth replaying the story later by making different decisions. The game proposes almost a hundred different endings, which for the 90s was undoubtedly a very remarkable feat although the differences are minuscule.
The player's decisions are always important. in total there are twelve playable characters, but in each game a maximum of eight can be recruited and only under specific conditions, often linked to the Private Actions system: in fact, in the cities we can divide the group and unlock optional conversations that open secondary missions and improve the links between individual characters and subplots continue.
The writing is not Shakespearean, let's be clear, but Star Ocean 2 holds its own well with a wide variety of ad hoc interactions that also characterize the optional characters. The new edition of the game offers even more Private shares and additional conversations, even during explorations, that help chisel an overall narrative modest by the genre's standards.
In essence, the poor Claude He is catapulted to the planet of Rena due to unknown technology and there he is mistaken for an elusive Hero of Light due to his laser gun. The planet Expel has not been doing well since a mysterious artifact, nicknamed the Enchanted Orb, appeared out of nowhere and began spawning monsters and confusion: hypothesizing that it is alien technology and could therefore help him to return home, Claude offers. To accompany Rena looking for a way to save Expel from catastrophe. Needless to say, this fantasy world, in which magic even exists, hides secrets closely related to the fate of the entire galaxy that will force Claude and Rena to join forces with colorful traveling companions such as the little scientist Leon, the intrepid swordsman Ashton or the charming symbolologist Celine.
It is a fairly simple plot that takes us around the world from city to city, from dungeon to dungeon, while we follow the next trail and meet new allies or enemies. Star Ocean 2, however, manages to engage thanks to a careful characterization of the various secondary characters who, however, take a while to enter the scene: the adventure is not even too long and the game is completed in about 30-40 hours, even if you need a lot more to see every single piece of content, practically double if you decide to try every potential combination in the narrative.
Gemdrops has not altered the script but has enriched it in all aspects, even retouching the deployment of the dialogues with a comic and original style, redesigning the Artwork of each individual character even with different expressions, and in any case offering the player the possibility of choosing portraits between the splendid ones of the reissue, those of the original title for PlayStation and the cartoonish versions proposed in the PSP version. Not only. Star Ocean: The Second Story R has been dubbed into English and Japanese and now practically all the dialogue is spoken, but also subtitled in Spanish discreet that lends itself to some grammatical errors, perhaps caused above all by the atypical scrolling of the texts, which can also be accelerated together with the playback of the animations during the intermediate scenes.
There are moments when you get the feeling that Gemdrops really thought of everything, considering that the tri-Ace work behind it is still twenty-five years old and at least one reissue, and that in any case they really wanted to embellish the presentation narrative and audiovisual without distorting it, but seeking a respectful commitment to the original. That's why the developer chose one. aesthetic solution It is convenient that this is not the famous HD-2D inaugurated by Octopath Traveler and seen several times in recent years, but rather a scenario dubbed 2Dx3D that incorporates the 2D sprites of the past into scenarios completely reconstructed in three dimensions.
The look is effective, especially if you've already played the PlayStation or PSP versions, and the old fashioned elf that Gemdrops has only retouched with shaders to better integrate them into the 3D scenarios and general lighting, but that maintain the original proportions and animations. In some ways it may seem like a contradiction, but it's a specific artistic choice that we don't feel like criticizing, although a little more could have been done about the historically "incorrect" sprites of characters like Bowman, Opera, and Noel. which resemble his illustrations even less than they did twenty years ago.
However, the Japanese developer has worked all round, improving the fluidity of combat and movement on the old-school 3D map, the only scenario in which we can rotate the camera three hundred and sixty degrees considering that the rest adjustments are made from dynamic shots that follow the movements of the characters and play with reflections and lighting. To accompany our adventures he always follows us punctually. banda sonora de Motoi Sakuraba, naturally reorganized for the occasion and adorned with new orchestral themes. It goes without saying that it is even possible to set the original music at any time and even choose the (Japanese) voices of the characters from the different possible versions.
What's new in the combat system?
Writing a review of a remake like Star Ocean: The Second Story R after having completed the original over twenty years ago an embarrassing number of times is quite difficult, because going around and around you end up making a sterile list of the differences between the versions. , and in particular of many, many additions and changes who have improved and modernized this proposal. We could, therefore, approach the analysis as if we were talking about a completely new game; However, some considerations must be made precisely about the '98 title that help contextualize the aforementioned improvements. Let's be clear: Star Ocean 2 was already a good RPG twenty-five years ago, but it anticipated the problems that Tri-Ace would encounter in the various sequels and, in particular, the desire to go overboard with content and ancillary features.
In this sense, The Second Story R practically puts the load on one hundred and tends to overwhelm the player with one. excessive amount of possibilities which, after all, also seem insignificant. It is clear that the developer intended to modernize the main rough edges of the game, and we will tell you right away that he succeeded even after some uncertainties that, fortunately, do not weigh too much.
That said, it is worth remembering that Star Ocean 2 is an RPG focused on fighting in real time which take place in special arenas after coming into contact with the symbol representing the enemy. Therefore, there are no random confrontations, but rather the possibility to take advantage against enemies from behind or combine them in challenging but also profitable sequential confrontations. On the battlefield, the player deploys up to four characters but controls only one of them, entrusting the others to a moderately customizable artificial intelligence: it is actually possible to order party members to cast spells or use consumables, and at any time. They can take direct control of all characters in the party.
Characters move freely around the 2D arena and can attack with a simple combo of normal attacks that can be chained to special attacks or spells set in the columns: although each character is unlocked Numerous skills as levels progress, which also acquire different dynamics depending on the distance from the target, you can set only two as a shortcut, combining them according to your preferences in consecutive chains.
It is important to understand the changes made to the combat system to take full advantage of the properties of spells and abilities now that Gemdrops has introduced the Romper. Some enemies, especially the so-called leaders, who strengthen their allies while on the field, are characterized by a series of shields above the vital gauges that discharge with each attack inflicted: once the shields are depleted, the enemy is stunned. and suffers greater damage for a few moments. If he is a leader, his stun interrupts the actions of all enemies on the field, granting the player an even wider window of opportunity.
This new mechanic compared to the original is combined with two other additions to the remake: the Dodge and the assault. The first is a variant of the Blindside, a maneuver that tri-Ace had introduced in Star Ocean: The Last Hope and that in The Second Story R allows you to dodge an enemy attack with a step back. If the player performs this action at the right time, when the enemy flashes red, the sprite will automatically move behind him, causing increased damage to the shields. However, if you time it wrong, you will take full damage and risk being stunned and at the mercy of your enemies.
We were not entirely convinced by this feature because it tends to break the fast pace of the battles: it is not possible to interrupt a combo to dodge, so you have to wait for the enemy to launch an attack in red to dodge it correctly and mount. a decisive counterattack. Not to mention that in the confusion of the most chaotic confrontations It becomes almost impossible to anticipate or distinguish enemy animations to dodge in time, so sometimes you tend to wait for the right moment as in a turn-based combat system.
More interesting, however, is the introduction of Assault actions, which are configured on the same screen where it is possible to choose the group formation among those learned: each formation guarantees specific bonuses that are activated by completing a specific indicator on the battlefield, even if an error in the evaluation is enough to lose all stored points. There assault formation, however, is somewhat different: it allows you to associate characters that are not assigned to the actual combat formation to the face buttons to call them to the battlefield. The player can set the ability they prefer, which can be a healing spell or a simple special attack to prolong combos or control enemies.
It's an ingenious solution that serves two purposes. Firstly, it also involves sideboard characters in combat and ensures good flexibility when customizing your play style. Additionally, it has a fanservice component because you can collect crystals that allow you to add not only the characters in the bank, but also the protagonists of the other Star Oceans, which have only one attack each to set up but function as true evocations of old-school RPGs.
The combat system of Star Ocean: The Second Story R entertained us a lot, also because Gemdrops has exponentially improved its smoothness We are reprogramming most of the skills and spells that slowed down or paralyzed the scene in the original. Unfortunately, it's still very chaotic and a bit cumbersome, especially in the later stages of the game when the effects on the screen multiply and each character fires nuclear blasts at enemies. In this sense, the difficulty tends to increase too randomly in occasional confrontations, but it is always possible to retry the battle after a Game Over, first going through the game menu to configure skills, accessories, etc., or even Change settings. Difficulty level among the three available. which affects the aggression and power of enemies.
We have described the most important new features of the combat system, but in reality the Japanese developer has contributed an impressive amount of improvements in quality of life which, together, almost completely reconfigure the experience from the '98 game. Simply put, if you've completed Star Ocean 2 in the past, you may know the story, but in terms of gameplay, The Second Story R is an almost completely new title.
Much or too much?
We were positively impressed by the work that Gemdrops has done with this remake, more than anything because it has deeply retouched several aspects of the tri-Ace title and not only on an aesthetic level but also in the gameplay itself. The base, however, has remained the same and it can be said that it has been enriched too much, to the point of even seeming overloaded: absurdly, at certain moments it would have been better to remove something rather than add. Star Ocean 2 is an RPG that brings with it a a large number of additional functions that are sometimes excessive, with a robust and very interesting crafting system, but linked to a multiplicity of resources, skills and parameters that tends to weigh down the role-playing component and unnecessarily complicate the player's life.
Each character gains at least two different types of resources to spend on upgrading special attacks, spells, and passive combat abilities, which can be typical or actual HP and stat multipliers. auxiliary functions like the aforementioned auto-dodge or the ability to speed up spell casting times.
Another resource, however, is dedicated to CO/Specialty, basically craft, the craft that includes cooking, fishing, forging, alchemy, etc. Each character can adapt more or less to a discipline, so more or less points may be needed to improve their skills and, with them, the results in the creation of consumables, weapons, armor and other objects. Some disciplines intervene directly in the gameplay; There are some, for example, that allow you to change the ratios between experience points and money earned, others that help control enemies before fighting or that simply serve to infuse weapons and armor with additional bonuses called Effects and factors, with which you can customize the game even more.
The so-called CO/Specialties are added to the individual CO/Specialties. super specialty that involve two or more party members who have achieved certain abilities and offer even more features, options and alternatives. In short, there really are many irons in the fire, perhaps even too many, that tend to confuse ideas and force us to stay in the menus longer than necessary while we navigate through pages full of parameters and descriptions. Fortunately, the game doesn't force you to use any of these features and, in any case, offers quite educational tutorials and clever shortcuts.
However, from this point of view, Star Ocean: The Second Story R is situated in a very particular space. The scope of improvements and additions makes it a fresh and modern title, held back only by retro style choices and a certain angularity in content that harkens back to its experimental origins. They are contemporary and sophisticated solutions that perhaps clash a little with the naive narrative of times past, composed of sometimes approximate dialogues and random characterizations.
The Gemdrops and Square Enix proposal, however, is a lovely experiment which relaunches not only Star Ocean as a series but an entire generation of classics that could be revived thanks to this meticulous and passionate treatment. We are talking about games of the caliber of the never-too-mentioned Chrono Trigger, through the first 2D Tales or Lunar by Game Arts. For now we can be satisfied with Star Ocean 2: Blue Sphere, a never-localized sequel that could follow this excellent revival. Also because in the end we didn't need who knows what enormous budget to resurrect the series, but just a pinch of foresight.
Conclusions
Tested version Nintendo Switch digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 49,99 € Holygamerz.com 8.5 Readers (17) 8.4 your voteStar Ocean: The Second Story R is exactly what the much-maligned ex-tri-Ace series needed, and our hope is that fans of Japanese RPGs won't be put off by the latest disappointing releases or the deliberately retro look of a title that really has everything you can look for in this genre. The developer Gemdrops performed a small miracle and perhaps at certain moments even went overboard with the additions, but the result is an excellent JRPG that combines nostalgia and modernity in an exemplary way: a real comet to follow to put the old guys back at the center of attention. Forgotten glories waiting to shine again.
PRO
- It is one of the best remakes we have played.
- Many improvements in every way.
- Aesthetics that successfully combines nostalgia and novelty
AGAINST
- It tends to be too loaded with features and options.
- Not all the new features in the combat system are 100% convincing.
- Some sprites deserved more color and animation adjustments.
