This year has had many great Role Playing games released. From earlier this year with Fire Emblem to Balder’s Gate 3 this year has had many fun RPGs released. The newest one to be released into the closing year is STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY R. The highly acclaimed second installment of the Star Ocean series. This new installment has been brought to life with a charming 2.5D aesthetic that fuses 2D pixel characters and 3D environments, this remake includes everything that made the original release so great while adding new elements! Let’s find out together whether or not these newly added elements add to the experience or hinder it. 

The story of Star Ocean: THE SECOND STORY R is that  A Federation officer named Claude F. Kennedy finds himself transported to a mystical planet after unknowingly stumbling upon a device during an expedition with his father that teleports him to the unknown world. While searching for a way home he encounters and saves a young girl named Rena who has the mystical power to heal others which no one else possesses. She takes him back to her village and after meeting with the mayor he discovers that he might be a fabled Hero who is prophesied to help them save the world from a catechism called The Sorcery Globe.  After a fierce encounter with someone possessed by a mysterious crystal, Claude decides to help battle the evil of the sorcery globe and hopefully find a way home. Rena also decides to join him on his quest and the two proceed to set off to find a way to defeat the evil Sorcery Globe before it ravages the land. During this journey, Claude and Rena will encounter all sorts of enemies, visit many towns and kingdoms, discover secrets, find treasures discover many weapons and finally find and gather companions for the ultimate battle to save the world.

The gameplay of Star Ocean: The Second Story R can seem simple from the start however later on it gets very complicated after a while. The basic controls are pretty simple: you have the left stick to move, the X button which interacts with everything and everyone that’s interactable, the triangle button which accesses the equipment menu, and the pause button accesses the minimap. There are also combat controls: the circle button is the normal attack button, L1 and R1 are for special moves that cost MP, Holding the left stick and L2 allows the player to switch targets, pressing the X button right before an enemy attack activates a perfect counter which can have benefits if successfully executed from health recovery to enemies shields depleting faster. When an enemy’s shield breaks they are locked in a stunned state until their shield recovers this leaves them open to critical attacks, but don’t get too cocky because that can also happen to the player’s characters.

The meat and potatoes of Star Ocean’s gameplay come from the RPG mechanics. While that doesn’t seem surprising because that’s usually where most RPG mechanics go I want to make it as clear as possible that this game’s RPG mechanics are nothing like other triple-A RPG games. This game features three different skill trees, but unlike most triple-A game skill trees this game has stats that add on top of other stats. That may sound confusing, but that’s because trying to explain exactly how each mechanic and skill system works would require this to be turned into a longer review which I won’t be able to do.  So instead I am going to just explain what skills can be upgraded in the three skill trees. The three are IC/Specialty, Combat Skill, and Special Arts/ Spells. IC/Specialty skills are abilities that all characters have, but the player can choose which ones they can be an expert in. For example, if you want some of your fighters to be experts in combat you can upgrade the skills biology for health, Mental Science for MP, Aesthetic design for Attack, and knife also for attack.

These skills will not only upgrade those stats but also unlock skills for that character to use like how upgrading the knife ability also unlocks and upgrades the cooking skill or how upgrading the Faeriology skill raises INT but also unlocks and upgrades the Alchemy skill which can be used to craft items for customization and crafting. Basically, each upgradable stat in IC/Specialty can upgrade stats but also unlock and upgrade skills as well. The Combat skills upgrade all the stats that are used for combat; some examples include, Power Burst which randomly boosts attack power, Qigong which randomly boosts defense, Hasten Speech which cuts time for casting spells, Trance which randomly increases spell damage and many others. Finally, there are Special arts/Spells which upgrade all of the special abilities for each character. If the player enjoys very detailed RPG then this game is certainly for them after all I haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of stats and what they unlock to add to the overall experience. All I can say is think Skyrim but much more expensive. 

Another element that stands out about this game is that from pictures it looks like a turn-based game, but in actuality, it isn’t and instead, there is more freedom in terms of movement which helps give the gameplay a more tactical advantage when avoiding enemies. While from first glance it may not look fun I’ve often learned to never trust a book by its cover which is especially true when it comes to video games and their art styles over graphics approach because while this game may not look enticing to those who want their games to look like the real world this game among others is proof that art over realism is for the most part the best option. 

Overall I enjoyed playing this game and while its story isn’t as great as most games that were released this year it does hold up much better with its gameplay, art style, and RPG mechanics. All that is what makes Star Ocean: THE SECOND STORY R not only a great remake but a great game that shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Score: 9 out of 10

Reviewed On PlayStation 5