1999 was an excellent year for JRPGs: Final Fantasy VIII, Pokémon Gold & Silver, Grandia, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Legend of Legaia, and more launched for English-speaking fans, with the likes of Chrono Cross and The Legend of Dragoon on the horizon. Now, another paragon from the genre’s golden age has returned in a fresh, modern form.
Star Ocean The Second Story R is a remaster of the series’ magnum opus—Star Ocean: Second Story, itself a sequel to the Super Famicom hidden gem that English audiences had never experienced in its time. Given how the series’ most recent instalment, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, took heavy inspiration from this sophomore outing, it’s fitting that Square Enix and developer Gemdrops have given it a beautiful new coat of paint.
Players choose between the deuteragonists at the outset: Claude C. Kenny, son of the original game’s hero and member of the spacefaring Pangalactic Federation, or Rena Lanford, a girl with unexplained healing powers from a simple village. This is more than just window-dressing, as both heroes have different perspectives on the game’s events and potentially recruit exclusive characters.
Claude’s route in Star Ocean The Second Story R shows the series’ heavy influence from Star Trek, right down to a re-appropriation of the Prime Directive—which Claude inadvertently breaks on a ground mission with his father, when he is teleported to Rena’s world, Expel. He immediately stumbles upon Rena in time to save her from a monster attack. In the process, his phase gun is confused for the “Sword of Light” in an Expellian prophecy—and so begins an epic quest across the world to solve the planet’s growing infestation of demons and monsters.
“Where Star Ocean The Second Story R excels is in the variety of its paths.”
Or at least, so it seems. Halfway through the story twists back toward the sci-fi influence of its opening for a shocking change of pace—not unlike the World of Ruin twist of Final Fantasy VI. Right as experienced JRPG players might think things are getting a touch stale, the stakes change in a major way, and the game is revitalized.
Where Star Ocean The Second Story R excels is in the variety of its paths. As in previous editions, up to a dozen potential party members are available, with only eight recruitable in a single playthrough—and choosing one may bar you from obtaining certain others. The conditions for recruiting them are varied and typically missable, to boot, so a series of bad decisions might leave you with only Claude and Rena in your party.
Thanks to this approach, Star Ocean The Second Story R is highly replayable—especially with remaster’s New Game+ option. The dual-protagonist approach was always more than a mere gimmick, and the option to roll your save file over easily and restart from the other perspective makes the whole premise that much sweeter.
Visually, Gemdrops truly brought the original game to life in a powerful new way. It’s not exactly HD-2D, like Octopath Traveller 2 or Live A Live, but rather a novel “2.5D” approach that blends the original 2D sprites with 3D stages and powerful effects. The whole game has been lovingly rebuilt, translating existing locales into something that’s equally nostalgic for veterans, and comparable to recent industry tastes.
Environments that were chopped up into easily-rendered bits on the PS1 have been sewn into seamless, sprawling zones. New camera angles present iconic locales and events—most of which I haven’t thought about in over 20 years—in stirring ways, as do certain expanded in-game cutscenes. Now that random encounters can be seen on the map and avoided, this does a lot to alleviate some of the grindiness that wore down the original for many players over the years.
Speaking of battles, Star Ocean The Second Story R‘s overhauled combat feels like a brand-new title in all the best ways. The original version suffered from a limited camera and blocky status boxes that choked up the already-constrained screen. Now, the real-time battle engine has unlocked its true potential.
“…Star Ocean The Second Story R fills out its already-robust Item Creation and Specialty menus with new skills…”
Players control one character at a time, with the others acting according to the tactics you set beforehand. General strategies can be set for each party member before battle according to their strengths—like Rena prioritizing healing and support, or battle-mage Celine conserving her MP. If the situation changes drastically in a fight, players can swap the general approach for the whole party to let the AI pick its own course of action or focus their efforts. Meanwhile, you can hack away as the lead character as you wish.
Star Ocean The Second Story R adds the welcome option to summon characters from outside your party, including protagonists from other games like The Divine Force‘s Raymond and Laeticia, to unleash potent attacks. Plus, the more enemies you slay without having your own leader slain or their guard broken, the stronger the bonus you get, determined by your set formation.
Then there’s the growth systems. Star Ocean The Second Story R fills out its already-robust Item Creation and Specialty menus with new skills, like new buffs known as Factors, or outright new abilities, like fishing or summoning a giant Bunny to ride without being harassed by random monsters. It was easy to fall into the rabbit hole of checking all my party members every time they levelled up to see if they could learn anything new. Any breakthrough in the crafting systems was particularly rewarding.
Almost 25 years after the English release, I’m still impressed by the sheer depth of the game, especially looking back through Star Ocean The Second Story R‘s nostalgia glasses. At its heart, it’s a traditional JRPG—and a specimen from the late 90s, at that—so modern audiences might bounce off. I would implore RPG fans, whether they’ve played a previous edition or not, to check out this remaster sooner rather than later, however.
For each aspect that still feels a smidge dated, there’s another that either feels ahead of its time, or set my expectations for the genre back in 1999. Plus, melding science fiction and high fantasy is a precarious tightrope to walk, but Star Ocean The Second Story R continues to handle it deftly in this new incarnation. What might seem cliché from the outside comes into its own splendidly, and any fan of Square Enix’s general repertoire should get their money’s worth here.
From the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters to Live A Live, the studio has certainly been on a roll with its remasters as of late—painting each legend with an appropriate brush—and I’m glad to see that this overlooked gem has been done justice. Star Ocean The Second Story R‘s visual overhaul gives it a much-needed infusion of vitality, unlike the PSP port’s bland touch-up, and the remastered soundtrack retains its unique charm while elevating some real bangers. Hopefully a new generation gets lost within its sea of stars.
