Quick correction: the English dub is taken from Second Evolution (the 2008 PSP release). The lines have not been rerecorded in English for this remake. One of my sources (mobygames) had the wrong name listed for Celine in Second Evolution, so I figured that role must have been recast for this version. Turns out mobygames just had an error there.
Thanks so much for the no dialog volume tip. I bounced off the demo but wasn't able to but my finger on why. Going back for another try and reading instead worked so much better for me!
@@acidwizard6528 the only other game I've seen doing that was Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 where you could change individual voices for Capcom characters to japanese and mix up with the english voices.
I honestly hope Square-Enix uses this engine for more games. 2D games still look amazing and i guarantee this is cheaper to make then some of the AAA UE5 games.
@@SethJV Are the really 2D characters though? They seem almost like 3D models that are faking a 2D-ish aesthetic. When I think of 2D characters in a 3D world, I think Paper Mario.
Yes! I'm so glad you are talking about this game! The demo was so much fun and I can't wait to play the full game when it is released later this week. You guys should consider covering this and the other Star Ocean games on your podcast.
Right, right?? So much love and care has been poured into giving it a fresh but familiar experience. One thing I noticed too is how the camera work is done so well it just adds to the overall presentation. This is a no brainer purchase for any fan of the original Star Ocean 2.
So glad you showed CRT filters on the earlier titles, and went into great detail on the pre-rendered backgrounds. SO2 is extraordinarily affected by the change from CRT screens. The dynamic sprites changing size as you move farther or closer to the camera -- it looks absolutely insane on a CRT and nobody talks about it.
Months later, but I was buying this game and saw this video. You finally identified a problem I didn’t know I had with voice acting! The anime voice! That’s probably why I like the VAs for FFVIIR (especially Britt Baron) since they sound like normal people. Great video!
The degree of customisation for the voice acting has to be a new standard. I very much doubt something like this which must’ve cost a lot will be done again. I agree about the beauty of pre-rendered graphics but they really did such a good job here that I think they went the right way. It’s a remarkable remake and a rare one. I think they obviously realise that this game is highly regarded and wanted to respect the fans. They did it
The camera gliding is what really surprised me as to how fluent and wide it is. It still allows the viewer/player get a sense of depth. Very impressive, they truly tapped into something we'll be seeing in future JRPGs
I was really hoping you’d talk about it and give it the exposure it deserves. I haven’t been this blown away by a demo in ages. Quickly became my most anticipated game of the year. They even got the original composer back to redo the OST (similar to what the upcoming SMRPG remake is doing with Yoko Shimomura) Cannot wait
Great video. Really looking forward to the game and I hope this graphics style, gameplay improvements, and quality of life features will become the standard for classic JRPG remakes going forward.
I actually went back and played First Departure after having played the original on super Nintendo it was such an amazing game I will always remember fondly. I would buy a 3d/pixel remake of Star Ocean especially how amazing The Second Story R looks cannot wait to experience it. Id love to hear you guys talk about it someday.
You know it's actually super hilarious. I remember years ago I had a dream about a Star Ocean game that had this 2D-3D engine where there could be dynamic lighting but still mostly 2D. It still blows my mind that years later Square-Enix actually made the engine I dreamed about, but even more crazy that we now have a Star Ocean game in this engine.
7:54 : "after finishing the demo, i went back and replayed 5 hours of the original ps1 release". Yup, thats why people like me watch you instead of other "reviewers" who put an hour in a game and call it a full review. It's 2023 and we want a serious and honest review before putting some big money in a game. Thank you Arc!
I remember playing the Second Story in PS1 and it surprised me on how it was so very different from the typical JRPGs of the time. Then I played the first game years later, after emulation made it easily accessible; both are great games and pretty much a novelty at the time, as I believe they were also some of the few games with crafting too. Hope you make a dedicated analysis video or a playthrough even.
Happy to see you cover this. I haven't played ANY of the Star Ocean games, but have always wanted to dive in at some point until now. Already pre-ordered my copy and waiting anxiously for 2 days until it arrives. I heard this remake is pretty jam-packed full of content and extra QOL stuff. Cannot wait!
Trust me, Star Ocean 2, even the original game for the PS1, is the best one in the series. It was the only game to actually get a direct sequel in the form of Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, for the Gameboy color (and later a remake for mobile phones), which is just testament of how rich this game's world is.
Great video! Downloaded the demo and just played it. Go ahead and take my money now because I have been wanting to replay this gem from my childhood for about 10 years now.
hey, that crt filter you put clips of old games in looks pretty nice, any chance you could tell me where to find it? Thanks!! great vid btw. I played First Departure on the PSP ages ago and hoped this one would see a release since FD's switch version came out so I'm pretty hyped. Personally I'm not a fan of HD2D but I gotta admit this one is the best version of it I've seen even if I still don't feel all that positive about it.
there were no changes to the story. personally? I have an emotional attachment to the main characters and the story contains lots of exciting and emotional moments. it isn't as deep or well written as some other rpg greats, but what it has going for it is the interpersonal drama and the emotions. also plenty of romance.
Thanks for this! I remember trying SO1 on PSP several years ago and just not being able to get into it, largely due to the old-school design and lack of QOL. I passed on the 2019 remake when I learned it was a remaster of the PSP version. Your review of the Second Story demo (and others' reviews of the full game) has absolutely put this on my radar.
I've never played Second Evolution, but because it's Tri-Ace and ex Phantasia devs, on top of Motoi Sakuraba doing the OST, it's basically still got that old Tales of DNA in there. The snippet of music in the Outro even sounds like Baten Kaitos music. Oh well, time to order a physical copy I guess.
Your commentary is precise, passionate and perfectly encapsulates why I love this game. I cannot wait to play this game as it's one of my most favorite RPG's of all time. I hope more RPG's of yesteryear become remade in this style.
4:37 - great insight on pre-rendered backgrounds from PS1 era vs full 3D high-poly geometry environments of today's. I also loved pre-rendered backgrounds for games like Valkyrie Profile, etc.
I've only played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and enjoyed that quite thoroughly. I always hear people say that SO2 is the best so I'm definitely looking forward to trying this one.
This is such a strong indepth review on how the game stands on its own, and how it stands as a remake! I’m sold! This will be my first Star Ocean game, so I’m stoked!!
I can’t wait to play this! I only played this on a ps1 demo disc as a little kiddo, and it was a mystery to me but it was *so* beautiful and fascinating to me.
Never played a SO game except like an hour of the phone game but i was hooked on this one frame 1 after seeing how it looks. And the demo made me even more interested tho i didnt finish it
Yeah I’m ready to play it too can’t wait idk why I’m doing this because I haven’t even finished Spider-Man 2 yet gosh there’s way too many amazing games coming out this year lol 😂
Man. Finally a like mind. No one seems to respect the prerendered backdrops... AND you understand how weird jrpg dialogue sounds spoken out loud? It's 100xs better in your head... Always.
I played this game last year, enjoyed it, and played 3 recently and enjoyed it even more. I still need to get around to divine force. I really hope the franchise isn’t dead. I’d like to see a 3 remake at some point.
@@kevinstreetgamingI heard it was the best star ocean in a while. It’s a shame it barely sold. It’s a strange thing, how gaming is so popular now yet jrpgs are less popular than ever it feels.
@@jairekambui7738 It was my favorite game that released last year. Yeah, it's really a shame. Nowadays there are so many jrpgs that fly under the radar.
@@kevinstreetgaming I'm playing 6 right now and it's not doing so well for me. everything just dies in 1 hit and bosses have dialogue and they can't even finish it before combat ends.
It’s all that more awesome in knowing that we likely wouldn’t have seen this remaster if there wasn’t so much support garnered for SO2. Really glad they listened to the fans, including the western ones.
I wish First Departure R had a physical release, I had it on PSP and rode on my bike in the rain to get it on release day lol. I never got to play Second Story so I'm hyped!!!
My mom used to let me hang out in the electronics section of Fred Meyer (Back when Utah still had Fred Meyer). I stared at this game on the shelf for almost two years before I took my birthday money and bought it. I had no idea what the game was or if it was any good. Turns out it was awesome, I am ready for the remake!
You know I wondered for a while about pre-rendered backgrounds. And why unlike pixel art, it seems to have just gone away with these types of games. But if you really think about it pre-rendered's strengths was not it's pre-rendered nature, but rather it's fixed camera angle which added a sense of tone and artistry to every screen. I think what we see here is indeed a great interpretation of that artstyle. You don't control the camera and likewise the environments are rendered, just not pre-rendered.
No, the strength of pre-rendered backgrounds is not the fixed camera angles. You can do that that with completely 3D environment too, and even do more cinematic things with the camera that’d be harder (but not impossible) with pre-rendered. The strength of doing pre-rendered backgrounds is it allows the developers to do something that looks better without using as much space and without it being as taxing on the hardware. That’s really it. If old PSX and Sega Saturn Resident Evil used fully 3D backgrounds instead of the pre-render backgrounds it would’ve probably have run terribly, it would lacked the amount of detail they got in, and on the PSX at least the environmental textures would’ve looked all wavy like PSX 3D environments do. It’s just a less taxing way of doing things while being able to make everything look good. The camera aspect is completely unconnected. There are still games using pre-rendered backgrounds. That recent Diablo 2 remake has pre-rendered backgrounds. That Fantasian game Mistwalker made a couple years ago for Apple Arcade has pre-rendered backgrounds made from scanned diorama miniatures. There’s a Resident Evil throwback called Alisa with pre-rendered backgrounds. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we start seeing it more games with pre-rendered backgrounds over the next few years
@@DIOBrando-ij2bp My point was about the strength of pre-rendered backgrounds at their core was the fixed angle and the artistry direction that it gave the developers. I wasn't talking about the benefits of it back in the day. And I really doubt that with 4090 RTX's any screen that's pre-rendered wouldn't be possible equally rendered lol. I really doubt that you will ever see the return of pre-rendered backgrounds for that reason. They will just use what pre-rendered backgrounds did (fixed camera angle, tonality of a scene etc) and do that but rendered. This Remake honestly kind of does that with the way the camera is programmed. It's kind of dogmatic and overly obsessive just wanting pre-rendered backgrounds for the sake of adhering to the past. And if a game does exactly what a pre-rendered background game did in terms of gameplay, scene design, story etc but it's rendered then it doesn't get a pass. Looking at it that way is kind of simplistic I'd say.
@@mikev8746 First of all, yes, I agree that the benefit of fixed camera angles artistically is that devs can then frame images in ways that supplement storytelling and create far more dynamic visual storytelling than an average player will be able to replicate with a free camera. However, as you said, that's not really a pre-rendered background benefit. It's a fixed camera benefit. There's another, more compelling reason why pre-rendered backgrounds can be a better avenue for devs, depending on the project. Given the benefits of what pre-rendered backgrounds provide (far less taxing on hardware), they will *always* (regardless of hardware specs) allow devs to pack more detail into environments and make them look even more impressive and realistic than a fully 3D environment rendered in real-time. There will always be a ceiling on how much detail and at what level of fidelity a modern machine--even maxed out--can handle with stable performance (30 or 60fps target, etc.). That problem goes away with pre-rendered backgrounds, which provides devs with the freedom to put far more detail into their character models (which are rendered in real-time). You then have the benefit of maxing out your detail, realism, etc., on the environments without taxing the hardware while giving yourself more room to improve your character models to make them look even better.
@@michaelcoraybrown I mean yes I can't argue when you put it that way. Obviously maybe there's some level of visual fidelity we haven't even seen yet in a games presentation that pre-rendering would facilitate. And if a developer has that ambition I would love to see it. I'm a huge fan of what games like FF8 and FF9 did with that tool set. Especially FF8. It makes it kind of sad that they can't seem to remaster those games properly and make those pre-rendered backgrounds sharp without using AI (which just doesn't give me the desired results personally). Another game that is very impressive is the Blade Runner game, again pre-render. But the remasters always end up being kind of blurry. It's still enjoyable because you get to play a game that uses a special technique that's rarely used these days. But that's the extent of it. But what I meant was that I really haven't seen a developer pursue such ambitions and that the level of presentation they do go for (still very detailed) can be easily done with ingame rendering these days. And that in a way those games that still have the fixed camera angles and emphasize the tone through that and the placement of the scene/set and what not. They kind of give you that thing which pre-rendered background games used to give you. So in the absence of that for the time being. I think we can view remakes like this one as a sort of inbetween. If you get what I'm trying to say here. Obviously I haven't played it yet but from the trailers and demo I did get that feel. Now even though I view it this way. I would obviously voice my interest in something like what you proposed, being done aswell in future games. Maybe that's even better.
@@mikev8746 The major issue is that even with real-time 3D graphics being as advanced as they are today, there are still limits to the level of realism you can achieve in rendering a large environment with billions of polygons, lighting and shadows, ambient occlusion, etc. at 60 frames per second. When you only have to render one frame, instead of thousands upon thousands, you can crank up the effects that achieve that level of realism to the absolute max. If you are rendering in real-time, there are certain things you have to sacrifice to achieve acceptable performance at higher frame rates. We already see this as an option given to players to play in "performance mode" for higher frame rates but lower detail/fidelity or in "graphics mode" for higher detail/fidelity but lower frame rates. You can go "even further beyond" when you take that environment to a single frame rather than 30 frames per second.
I slightly disagree with the difficulty setting recommendation for veterans of the original game. Galaxy mode is fine, but on Universe, Cross Cavern will tear you new holes you did not have before, and although the battle mechanics are there to assist you in overcoming it, first time players will struggle immensely, even veterans of the original game. This is can eventually be overcome with enough grinding, which is disallowed in the demo. Choose carefully and most of all, have fun!
Yeah, you are probably right about this. I was playing on Galaxy, and it was piss easy until I got to Krosse Cave. I actually had to think a little bit about what I was doing at that point. I haven't actually tried Universe difficulty myself.
I STILL LOST to the Cross Cave enemies WITHOUT 1000 Str weapons Claude/Rena on EARTH MODE in 1 hit so don't go their WITHOUT those weapons on Galaxy/Universe mode in fact due to that you start the full game with access to the Item creation skills its possible to be at lvs over 50 Marvel Sword Claude Bloody armor HIM and nothing will damage Claude ever on Galaxy/Universe mode. But the HP drain effect of the Bloody armors can still kill you BUT if you can actually Bloody armor a lv 50+ Claude on Universe mode and GIVE the Marvel Sword itself a HP drain effect (damage by at least 20%) then that armor can't really kill you once Claude does 9999 damage PER hit.
@@veghesther3204 Well yes that's why I ONLY enter Cross Cave IF I get the Marvel Sword from the mystery chest, else I retry. Then I level Claude and Rena to lvl 50 ASAP BEFORE entering Cross Cave. Else even on EARTH MODE I die in 1 hit in Cross Cave. But later I will stack Bloody Armor on everyone ASAP else I just die even on EARTH MODE.
I remember being so hopeful Second Evolution would get a port like First Departure R (which it did, but only in Japan), but them actually remaking The Second Story made me flabbergasted. It gives me so much joy to finally see one of my favorite games ever getting some well deserved love, and Gemdrops did show they have a lot of love and respect for the original game. And it makes me even happier that more people will be able to experience this amazing title. This is really what the Star Ocean series needed. I'm hoping this game will sell exceptionally well like Octopath Traveler and we get more remakes like this. I would love a Star Ocean Blue Sphere remake in this vein.
So happy this finally happened, and they appear to have knocked it outta the park. Hopefully this will inspire such work with xenogears and cure the curse known simply as the second disc lol.
Just finished the 3 hour demo today and it’s fantastic, there are so many JRPGs from this era I would love to see redone in this way, the Lunar series especially 😭 Can’t wait to play the full version!! 💙
Where did you find private actions were inspired by dating sims? I’ve always understood them to be Star oceans supplementing Skits given it’s Tales origin.
@@michaelcoraybrown I see the correlation I don’t mean to imply it’s wrong just that I’ve never heard that before and I am a big nerd for jrpg history so I wanted to know where he found that information being explicitly stated by the developers so I can read it myself. Again cuz I’m a nerd and find it fun not cuz I don’t believe it lol
Still my all time favorite game...I had a binder of all 86 different endings and would check them off as I got them in playthroughs. I have a psx mem card completely dedicated to just star ocean 2 that I still own in storage atm(along with the original PSX disc and case). I believe I have actually beaten the game enough to see about 60 or so of the endings way back in the day.
Yeah, I’m thoroughly pleased with this remake. The QoL updates and changes to combat is awesome, and it’s faithful to the original in just the right way. Music is great as well.
Do we know if the game is fully on the switch cartridge or not? I heard it was but needs a download if you want languages outside of English and Japanese
Love the history lesson man, so cool. Unbelievably excited for this game, nothing else in my collection will get touched for months lol Edit: I think they did make Galaxy difficulty a little easier, but Universe is actually noticeable harder.
the devs said in early interviews, that they completely rebalanced the game compared to the original and made the game quite alot harder at the second half of the game, than the original difficulties, which was also a reason for it, why they added into the game new equipment and treasure chests ect. to help players to compensate for this change... however, just alone the massive changes to the combat system alone will make the combats in the game more diffcult (or easy in regard of how well you can make usage of it to your advantage), compared to the original, when you consider the implementation of the Break System, Dodge System and Assault Action System as also the fact, that Magic Spells dont stop time for you and your enemies anymore, the animations happen in real time now, which makes the whole combat flow more fast paced and without any annoying interruptions. The original had already with Unlimiter active one of the hardest boss battles in PS1 rpg history and Im exited to see, how the bosses will be in the remake, if everythign, especially from the second half of the game onwards on, will be significatly more diffult, than in the original. Plus theres also now this time a much better craftign system in the game, which allows to make much more powerful characters , so we will sink into the game again hundreds over hundreds of hours to min max our characters for the ultimate team that has even a chance to beat the strongest enemies at max Level 255 on highest difficulty :D
But levelign this time surely will be also alot faster, when you can this time have Exp Boni for fightning many battles faster after another in a strong of fights, to increase the Exp/Fol Boni, which is also a very nice addition from previous SO games, to make it easier to gain larger amounts of Exp n Fol against the special enemies in the colusseum to level up faster, which give the most exp in the game, or postgame in the bonus dungeon as usual in SO games, the Metal Scumbags :D which are the best to farm (if you can even kill them first, which requires first to be fast enough to hit them even lol)
I STILL LOST to Allen the boss that kidnaps Rena on EARTH mode on this version and yes on Rena game Allen in 1 HIT on Earth mode can hit Claude for 150+ HP a hit and a lv 1 Claude ONLY has like 150 HP in the first place. So yes without 1000+ Str weapons Claude/Rena even the Cross Cave enemies on Earth mode can kill a lv 8 Claude/Rena/Celine party in 1 HIT. As for the Scumbag Slayer needed to HIT those Metal ones its at first a MISSABLE weapon meaning if you don't do a optional quest for it then the only Scumbag Slayer weapon you can first get requires to KILL the Cave of Trials 6th floor boss first and those Metal ones only take 1 HP in damage without it. But yes the Raddle NPC quest to get the Scumbag Slayer BEFORE Bowman can first join the party can be permanently missable the one in the Cave of Trials floor 6 after its boss is killed isn't.
I’ve seen two videos in a week that use the same sentense about “permutations equal 200-something endings which sets a new precedent…” Is that lifted straight from Wikipedia or something? Because it’s going around.
I also was impressed by the demo. It took the game from a wish list and wait for sale purchase to a day one pickup. The only minor complaint I have is that when playing on 1440 resolution the character sprites look like zoomed in pixel model so are incredibly blocky which only bothers me a bit because it clashes with the gorgeous backgrounds. Tried the demo on Switch and in portable mode they looked great.
It didn't NEED this, but it's certainly welcome regardless. It's (I think) the most loved of the series, though I'm biased on that. Definitely looking forward to it.
Quick correction: the English dub is taken from Second Evolution (the 2008 PSP release). The lines have not been rerecorded in English for this remake.
One of my sources (mobygames) had the wrong name listed for Celine in Second Evolution, so I figured that role must have been recast for this version. Turns out mobygames just had an error there.
Thanks so much for the no dialog volume tip. I bounced off the demo but wasn't able to but my finger on why. Going back for another try and reading instead worked so much better for me!
This game deserve more attention!!
Xenogears deserves this same treatment
It does, but is unlikely to happen given the whole rights issue
Agreed
Xenogears deserves even better
@@Keyhwhat whole rights issue? square enix owns rights to Xenogears, Takahashi’s team doesn’t own the rights to it.
Xenogears arc the lad all ps1 rpg 👍
The fact that they let you choose voice actors for individual characters is amazing
I have never seen anything like that before. Super impressed by the effort and resources put into this remake project.
@@acidwizard6528 the only other game I've seen doing that was Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 where you could change individual voices for Capcom characters to japanese and mix up with the english voices.
Honestly makes me feel like they learned from the Crisis Core remake to me. Lmao.
This is amazing! Going to totally use different voices for Nedians, Expelians and Ten Wise Men
Wish they did the same with music themes for example I want old battle music with the arranged world map music.
I honestly hope Square-Enix uses this engine for more games. 2D games still look amazing and i guarantee this is cheaper to make then some of the AAA UE5 games.
It's not at all a 2D game though. Only the characters are 2D, everything else is 3D.
it's not made by sq. but by original tri-ace devs and their company
@@SethJV Are the really 2D characters though? They seem almost like 3D models that are faking a 2D-ish aesthetic. When I think of 2D characters in a 3D world, I think Paper Mario.
Man, I’m only halfway through the game and EVERYTHING has been so damn good. This is definitely setting a new bar for remakes.
Yes! I'm so glad you are talking about this game! The demo was so much fun and I can't wait to play the full game when it is released later this week. You guys should consider covering this and the other Star Ocean games on your podcast.
Right, right?? So much love and care has been poured into giving it a fresh but familiar experience. One thing I noticed too is how the camera work is done so well it just adds to the overall presentation. This is a no brainer purchase for any fan of the original Star Ocean 2.
So glad you showed CRT filters on the earlier titles, and went into great detail on the pre-rendered backgrounds. SO2 is extraordinarily affected by the change from CRT screens. The dynamic sprites changing size as you move farther or closer to the camera -- it looks absolutely insane on a CRT and nobody talks about it.
I loved the video and your discussion on pre-rendered backgrounds. Looking forward to the release!
Months later, but I was buying this game and saw this video. You finally identified a problem I didn’t know I had with voice acting! The anime voice!
That’s probably why I like the VAs for FFVIIR (especially Britt Baron) since they sound like normal people. Great video!
The degree of customisation for the voice acting has to be a new standard. I very much doubt something like this which must’ve cost a lot will be done again. I agree about the beauty of pre-rendered graphics but they really did such a good job here that I think they went the right way. It’s a remarkable remake and a rare one. I think they obviously realise that this game is highly regarded and wanted to respect the fans. They did it
The camera gliding is what really surprised me as to how fluent and wide it is. It still allows the viewer/player get a sense of depth. Very impressive, they truly tapped into something we'll be seeing in future JRPGs
I'm just glad that Rena's character portrait doesn't make her look like she's 7 years old this time.
This seems like such a fantastic remake. Thank you for the good review.
The second game is my absolute favorite in the series so i can't wait for the remake.
I was really hoping you’d talk about it and give it the exposure it deserves. I haven’t been this blown away by a demo in ages. Quickly became my most anticipated game of the year.
They even got the original composer back to redo the OST (similar to what the upcoming SMRPG remake is doing with Yoko Shimomura)
Cannot wait
Great video. Really looking forward to the game and I hope this graphics style, gameplay improvements, and quality of life features will become the standard for classic JRPG remakes going forward.
I actually went back and played First Departure after having played the original on super Nintendo it was such an amazing game I will always remember fondly.
I would buy a 3d/pixel remake of Star Ocean especially how amazing The Second Story R looks cannot wait to experience it.
Id love to hear you guys talk about it someday.
You know it's actually super hilarious. I remember years ago I had a dream about a Star Ocean game that had this 2D-3D engine where there could be dynamic lighting but still mostly 2D. It still blows my mind that years later Square-Enix actually made the engine I dreamed about, but even more crazy that we now have a Star Ocean game in this engine.
This remake looks amazing!!
7:54 : "after finishing the demo, i went back and replayed 5 hours of the original ps1 release". Yup, thats why people like me watch you instead of other "reviewers" who put an hour in a game and call it a full review.
It's 2023 and we want a serious and honest review before putting some big money in a game.
Thank you Arc!
You say that but he actually has played the original before but he deleted the video because he couldn’t get past the first 30 minutes
I play first departure r all the time.
I can't wait for this beauty.
I remember playing the Second Story in PS1 and it surprised me on how it was so very different from the typical JRPGs of the time. Then I played the first game years later, after emulation made it easily accessible; both are great games and pretty much a novelty at the time, as I believe they were also some of the few games with crafting too. Hope you make a dedicated analysis video or a playthrough even.
Yeah I think they came out before the atelier series
Happy to see you cover this.
I haven't played ANY of the Star Ocean games, but have always wanted to dive in at some point until now. Already pre-ordered my copy and waiting anxiously for 2 days until it arrives. I heard this remake is pretty jam-packed full of content and extra QOL stuff.
Cannot wait!
Trust me, Star Ocean 2, even the original game for the PS1, is the best one in the series. It was the only game to actually get a direct sequel in the form of Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, for the Gameboy color (and later a remake for mobile phones), which is just testament of how rich this game's world is.
Great video! Downloaded the demo and just played it. Go ahead and take my money now because I have been wanting to replay this gem from my childhood for about 10 years now.
This is an extremely well done video covering all these details.
I bought First Departure R thanks to your video on it and absolutely loved it. Looking forward to this one as well.
hey, that crt filter you put clips of old games in looks pretty nice, any chance you could tell me where to find it? Thanks!!
great vid btw. I played First Departure on the PSP ages ago and hoped this one would see a release since FD's switch version came out so I'm pretty hyped. Personally I'm not a fan of HD2D but I gotta admit this one is the best version of it I've seen even if I still don't feel all that positive about it.
I wanted to ask the same thing!
That CRT should be in every old school package as an option
this is actually 2.5D it’s different than HD2D
The only Star Ocean I haven't played yet, I'm not counting Blue Sphere. Can't wait for the release to play it.
We waited for years. Its finally here.
The visuals look great, and it looks like an awesome overhaul
Now I'm just interested if the story is good
It’s the same story as the original so
there were no changes to the story. personally? I have an emotional attachment to the main characters and the story contains lots of exciting and emotional moments. it isn't as deep or well written as some other rpg greats, but what it has going for it is the interpersonal drama and the emotions. also plenty of romance.
Great Job on the details. Can't wait until Friday!!
This is the most anticipated release for me!
Thanks for this! I remember trying SO1 on PSP several years ago and just not being able to get into it, largely due to the old-school design and lack of QOL. I passed on the 2019 remake when I learned it was a remaster of the PSP version. Your review of the Second Story demo (and others' reviews of the full game) has absolutely put this on my radar.
I've never played Second Evolution, but because it's Tri-Ace and ex Phantasia devs, on top of Motoi Sakuraba doing the OST, it's basically still got that old Tales of DNA in there. The snippet of music in the Outro even sounds like Baten Kaitos music. Oh well, time to order a physical copy I guess.
10:09
These special features are worth the game alone in my opinion.
Holy cow, I had no idea it was going to be like this. Definitely interested in getting back into this game after I couldn't beat it back in the day.
Never played a Star Ocean game so Im super excited for this one!
But nothing for those who liked the English PS1 voiceactors? I want my "CRAUDE HAS ADVANCED FORWARD, Heh!" and "TEAR INTO PIECES!" back
Your commentary is precise, passionate and perfectly encapsulates why I love this game. I cannot wait to play this game as it's one of my most favorite RPG's of all time. I hope more RPG's of yesteryear become remade in this style.
4:37 - great insight on pre-rendered backgrounds from PS1 era vs full 3D high-poly geometry environments of today's. I also loved pre-rendered backgrounds for games like Valkyrie Profile, etc.
Great video! Will you be doing a follow up after playing the final release?
I've only played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and enjoyed that quite thoroughly. I always hear people say that SO2 is the best so I'm definitely looking forward to trying this one.
SO2 is the best in the series.
This is such a strong indepth review on how the game stands on its own, and how it stands as a remake! I’m sold! This will be my first Star Ocean game, so I’m stoked!!
Brave Fencer Musashi and Legendary Fencer Musashi needs a remake. Also Dew Prism
Seeing how it is now and the crt from way back when blows my mind. It looked like current in my memories. Damn what a change.
HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS BEAUTIFUL THING I SEE BEFORE ME
I can’t wait to play this! I only played this on a ps1 demo disc as a little kiddo, and it was a mystery to me but it was *so* beautiful and fascinating to me.
4:06 That contraband & Blacksmith was my favorite. lol
You have the amazing gift of making me want to buy every jrpg you speak good of.
Ima say something unpopular...i wish they updated the sprites a bit. They stand out to me too much and it's distracting.
How'd you get it so damn early? It's not out til like tomorrow
Never played a SO game except like an hour of the phone game but i was hooked on this one frame 1 after seeing how it looks.
And the demo made me even more interested tho i didnt finish it
Yeah I’m ready to play it too can’t wait idk why I’m doing this because I haven’t even finished Spider-Man 2 yet gosh there’s way too many amazing games coming out this year lol 😂
Soooooo...is Chrono Trigger going to get this treatment? I sure hope so!
Man. Finally a like mind. No one seems to respect the prerendered backdrops... AND you understand how weird jrpg dialogue sounds spoken out loud? It's 100xs better in your head... Always.
I never finished Second Story on the PS1 and now this comes out in a few days. Good timing on my part, this looks phenomenal.
I am loving every aspect of the remake. They did an amazing job. Hands down one of the best remakes I have ever played.
I played this game last year, enjoyed it, and played 3 recently and enjoyed it even more. I still need to get around to divine force. I really hope the franchise isn’t dead. I’d like to see a 3 remake at some point.
Divine Force was great. I hope you enjoy it when you eventually get to it.
@@kevinstreetgamingI heard it was the best star ocean in a while. It’s a shame it barely sold. It’s a strange thing, how gaming is so popular now yet jrpgs are less popular than ever it feels.
@@jairekambui7738 It was my favorite game that released last year. Yeah, it's really a shame. Nowadays there are so many jrpgs that fly under the radar.
@@jairekambui7738 5 was awful, and that leaves psp remakes and 4 having to keep hype alive for it. 6 was okay but you can really feel the low budget.
@@kevinstreetgaming I'm playing 6 right now and it's not doing so well for me. everything just dies in 1 hit and bosses have dialogue and they can't even finish it before combat ends.
It’s all that more awesome in knowing that we likely wouldn’t have seen this remaster if there wasn’t so much support garnered for SO2. Really glad they listened to the fans, including the western ones.
I wish First Departure R had a physical release, I had it on PSP and rode on my bike in the rain to get it on release day lol. I never got to play Second Story so I'm hyped!!!
My mom used to let me hang out in the electronics section of Fred Meyer (Back when Utah still had Fred Meyer). I stared at this game on the shelf for almost two years before I took my birthday money and bought it. I had no idea what the game was or if it was any good. Turns out it was awesome, I am ready for the remake!
Tried playing without voice acting and lowkey enjoyed the pacing a lot more! Thanks for the tip
You know I wondered for a while about pre-rendered backgrounds. And why unlike pixel art, it seems to have just gone away with these types of games. But if you really think about it pre-rendered's strengths was not it's pre-rendered nature, but rather it's fixed camera angle which added a sense of tone and artistry to every screen. I think what we see here is indeed a great interpretation of that artstyle. You don't control the camera and likewise the environments are rendered, just not pre-rendered.
No, the strength of pre-rendered backgrounds is not the fixed camera angles. You can do that that with completely 3D environment too, and even do more cinematic things with the camera that’d be harder (but not impossible) with pre-rendered.
The strength of doing pre-rendered backgrounds is it allows the developers to do something that looks better without using as much space and without it being as taxing on the hardware. That’s really it. If old PSX and Sega Saturn Resident Evil used fully 3D backgrounds instead of the pre-render backgrounds it would’ve probably have run terribly, it would lacked the amount of detail they got in, and on the PSX at least the environmental textures would’ve looked all wavy like PSX 3D environments do. It’s just a less taxing way of doing things while being able to make everything look good. The camera aspect is completely unconnected.
There are still games using pre-rendered backgrounds. That recent Diablo 2 remake has pre-rendered backgrounds. That Fantasian game Mistwalker made a couple years ago for Apple Arcade has pre-rendered backgrounds made from scanned diorama miniatures. There’s a Resident Evil throwback called Alisa with pre-rendered backgrounds. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we start seeing it more games with pre-rendered backgrounds over the next few years
@@DIOBrando-ij2bp My point was about the strength of pre-rendered backgrounds at their core was the fixed angle and the artistry direction that it gave the developers. I wasn't talking about the benefits of it back in the day. And I really doubt that with 4090 RTX's any screen that's pre-rendered wouldn't be possible equally rendered lol. I really doubt that you will ever see the return of pre-rendered backgrounds for that reason. They will just use what pre-rendered backgrounds did (fixed camera angle, tonality of a scene etc) and do that but rendered. This Remake honestly kind of does that with the way the camera is programmed.
It's kind of dogmatic and overly obsessive just wanting pre-rendered backgrounds for the sake of adhering to the past. And if a game does exactly what a pre-rendered background game did in terms of gameplay, scene design, story etc but it's rendered then it doesn't get a pass. Looking at it that way is kind of simplistic I'd say.
@@mikev8746 First of all, yes, I agree that the benefit of fixed camera angles artistically is that devs can then frame images in ways that supplement storytelling and create far more dynamic visual storytelling than an average player will be able to replicate with a free camera. However, as you said, that's not really a pre-rendered background benefit. It's a fixed camera benefit. There's another, more compelling reason why pre-rendered backgrounds can be a better avenue for devs, depending on the project.
Given the benefits of what pre-rendered backgrounds provide (far less taxing on hardware), they will *always* (regardless of hardware specs) allow devs to pack more detail into environments and make them look even more impressive and realistic than a fully 3D environment rendered in real-time. There will always be a ceiling on how much detail and at what level of fidelity a modern machine--even maxed out--can handle with stable performance (30 or 60fps target, etc.). That problem goes away with pre-rendered backgrounds, which provides devs with the freedom to put far more detail into their character models (which are rendered in real-time). You then have the benefit of maxing out your detail, realism, etc., on the environments without taxing the hardware while giving yourself more room to improve your character models to make them look even better.
@@michaelcoraybrown I mean yes I can't argue when you put it that way. Obviously maybe there's some level of visual fidelity we haven't even seen yet in a games presentation that pre-rendering would facilitate. And if a developer has that ambition I would love to see it. I'm a huge fan of what games like FF8 and FF9 did with that tool set. Especially FF8.
It makes it kind of sad that they can't seem to remaster those games properly and make those pre-rendered backgrounds sharp without using AI (which just doesn't give me the desired results personally). Another game that is very impressive is the Blade Runner game, again pre-render. But the remasters always end up being kind of blurry. It's still enjoyable because you get to play a game that uses a special technique that's rarely used these days. But that's the extent of it.
But what I meant was that I really haven't seen a developer pursue such ambitions and that the level of presentation they do go for (still very detailed) can be easily done with ingame rendering these days. And that in a way those games that still have the fixed camera angles and emphasize the tone through that and the placement of the scene/set and what not. They kind of give you that thing which pre-rendered background games used to give you. So in the absence of that for the time being. I think we can view remakes like this one as a sort of inbetween. If you get what I'm trying to say here. Obviously I haven't played it yet but from the trailers and demo I did get that feel. Now even though I view it this way. I would obviously voice my interest in something like what you proposed, being done aswell in future games. Maybe that's even better.
@@mikev8746 The major issue is that even with real-time 3D graphics being as advanced as they are today, there are still limits to the level of realism you can achieve in rendering a large environment with billions of polygons, lighting and shadows, ambient occlusion, etc. at 60 frames per second. When you only have to render one frame, instead of thousands upon thousands, you can crank up the effects that achieve that level of realism to the absolute max. If you are rendering in real-time, there are certain things you have to sacrifice to achieve acceptable performance at higher frame rates. We already see this as an option given to players to play in "performance mode" for higher frame rates but lower detail/fidelity or in "graphics mode" for higher detail/fidelity but lower frame rates. You can go "even further beyond" when you take that environment to a single frame rather than 30 frames per second.
I slightly disagree with the difficulty setting recommendation for veterans of the original game. Galaxy mode is fine, but on Universe, Cross Cavern will tear you new holes you did not have before, and although the battle mechanics are there to assist you in overcoming it, first time players will struggle immensely, even veterans of the original game.
This is can eventually be overcome with enough grinding, which is disallowed in the demo. Choose carefully and most of all, have fun!
Grinding is lame and ruins the fun of jrpgs
Yeah, you are probably right about this. I was playing on Galaxy, and it was piss easy until I got to Krosse Cave. I actually had to think a little bit about what I was doing at that point. I haven't actually tried Universe difficulty myself.
I STILL LOST to the Cross Cave enemies WITHOUT 1000 Str weapons Claude/Rena on EARTH MODE in 1 hit so don't go their WITHOUT those weapons on Galaxy/Universe mode in fact due to that you start the full game with access to the Item creation skills its possible to be at lvs over 50 Marvel Sword Claude Bloody armor HIM and nothing will damage Claude ever on Galaxy/Universe mode.
But the HP drain effect of the Bloody armors can still kill you BUT if you can actually Bloody armor a lv 50+ Claude on Universe mode and GIVE the Marvel Sword itself a HP drain effect (damage by at least 20%) then that armor can't really kill you once Claude does 9999 damage PER hit.
@@veghesther3204
Well yes that's why I ONLY enter Cross Cave IF I get the Marvel Sword from the mystery chest, else I retry. Then I level Claude and Rena to lvl 50 ASAP BEFORE entering Cross Cave.
Else even on EARTH MODE I die in 1 hit in Cross Cave.
But later I will stack Bloody Armor on everyone ASAP else I just die even on EARTH MODE.
I actually DO plan on Bloody armoring a lv 100 Claude Opera and Bowman for the Hoffman ruins part of the full game and plan on NEVER removing it
I remember being so hopeful Second Evolution would get a port like First Departure R (which it did, but only in Japan), but them actually remaking The Second Story made me flabbergasted. It gives me so much joy to finally see one of my favorite games ever getting some well deserved love, and Gemdrops did show they have a lot of love and respect for the original game. And it makes me even happier that more people will be able to experience this amazing title. This is really what the Star Ocean series needed. I'm hoping this game will sell exceptionally well like Octopath Traveler and we get more remakes like this. I would love a Star Ocean Blue Sphere remake in this vein.
GREAT AD, Im sold.
9:16 Well said . This is my exact thoughts . Glad someone else explains this
So happy this finally happened, and they appear to have knocked it outta the park. Hopefully this will inspire such work with xenogears and cure the curse known simply as the second disc lol.
Yet another top quality video from Resonant Arc. Just another Tuesday as usual, or any other day of the week this guy Mike will not disappoint.
I've got this on preorder and I'm super excited.
I've watched this video 3 times already because I am so excited for this release! It's been so long since I played this game!
I agree with your point about the prerendered backgrounds. I would like to see a remake use prerendered backgrounds.
I had no idea these remakes even existed until this video
It speaks for itself, this is an instant buy and play for me.
Just finished the 3 hour demo today and it’s fantastic, there are so many JRPGs from this era I would love to see redone in this way, the Lunar series especially 😭 Can’t wait to play the full version!! 💙
What is the music that starts at around 5:45? It's so familiar but I can't place it in my head.
I agree Resident Evil 1 Remake has aged like a fine wine.
Where did you find private actions were inspired by dating sims? I’ve always understood them to be Star oceans supplementing Skits given it’s Tales origin.
Star Ocean's private actions affect underlying affinity systems and change the way characters feel about each other over time.
@@michaelcoraybrown I see the correlation I don’t mean to imply it’s wrong just that I’ve never heard that before and I am a big nerd for jrpg history so I wanted to know where he found that information being explicitly stated by the developers so I can read it myself. Again cuz I’m a nerd and find it fun not cuz I don’t believe it lol
Agree. I want more pre rendered background RPGs again
I loved star ocean 2 so much this is awesome!!
I love this game. Bought it when it first came out on PS1, played it on psp and have patiently waiting for a modern release
@10:19 Did they actually re-record all the English lines? I thought they just pulled all the English dialogue straight from Second Evolution on PSP.
It’s the psp dub yup
This is my game of the year.
Still my all time favorite game...I had a binder of all 86 different endings and would check them off as I got them in playthroughs. I have a psx mem card completely dedicated to just star ocean 2 that I still own in storage atm(along with the original PSX disc and case). I believe I have actually beaten the game enough to see about 60 or so of the endings way back in the day.
The game looks beautiful, the sprites and new visuals blend so well together, the game is a real treat.
sounds great and I'm going to have to pick this up!
Yeah, I’m thoroughly pleased with this remake. The QoL updates and changes to combat is awesome, and it’s faithful to the original in just the right way. Music is great as well.
Im glad its doing well, hoping for a remade for the first one aswell
I just wish my favorite game Legend of Legaia got the same level of love as some of these other retro games. Y’all are sleeping on that game
Do we know if the game is fully on the switch cartridge or not? I heard it was but needs a download if you want languages outside of English and Japanese
I have 35 hrs so far and I am level 60 with 3 characters and one is level 56. Love it a lot, I've never played original.
Great video Mike!
Just got a call to pick up my copy!
Recently picked up the first game havent really started that one but is it autofight or is it really an ARPG?
Love the history lesson man, so cool. Unbelievably excited for this game, nothing else in my collection will get touched for months lol
Edit: I think they did make Galaxy difficulty a little easier, but Universe is actually noticeable harder.
the devs said in early interviews, that they completely rebalanced the game compared to the original and made the game quite alot harder at the second half of the game, than the original difficulties, which was also a reason for it, why they added into the game new equipment and treasure chests ect. to help players to compensate for this change... however, just alone the massive changes to the combat system alone will make the combats in the game more diffcult (or easy in regard of how well you can make usage of it to your advantage), compared to the original, when you consider the implementation of the Break System, Dodge System and Assault Action System as also the fact, that Magic Spells dont stop time for you and your enemies anymore, the animations happen in real time now, which makes the whole combat flow more fast paced and without any annoying interruptions.
The original had already with Unlimiter active one of the hardest boss battles in PS1 rpg history and Im exited to see, how the bosses will be in the remake, if everythign, especially from the second half of the game onwards on, will be significatly more diffult, than in the original. Plus theres also now this time a much better craftign system in the game, which allows to make much more powerful characters , so we will sink into the game again hundreds over hundreds of hours to min max our characters for the ultimate team that has even a chance to beat the strongest enemies at max Level 255 on highest difficulty :D
But levelign this time surely will be also alot faster, when you can this time have Exp Boni for fightning many battles faster after another in a strong of fights, to increase the Exp/Fol Boni, which is also a very nice addition from previous SO games, to make it easier to gain larger amounts of Exp n Fol against the special enemies in the colusseum to level up faster, which give the most exp in the game, or postgame in the bonus dungeon as usual in SO games, the Metal Scumbags :D which are the best to farm (if you can even kill them first, which requires first to be fast enough to hit them even lol)
I STILL LOST to Allen the boss that kidnaps Rena on EARTH mode on this version and yes on Rena game Allen in 1 HIT on Earth mode can hit Claude for 150+ HP a hit and a lv 1 Claude ONLY has like 150 HP in the first place.
So yes without 1000+ Str weapons Claude/Rena even the Cross Cave enemies on Earth mode can kill a lv 8 Claude/Rena/Celine party in 1 HIT.
As for the Scumbag Slayer needed to HIT those Metal ones its at first a MISSABLE weapon meaning if you don't do a optional quest for it then the only Scumbag Slayer weapon you can first get requires to KILL the Cave of Trials 6th floor boss first and those Metal ones only take 1 HP in damage without it.
But yes the Raddle NPC quest to get the Scumbag Slayer BEFORE Bowman can first join the party can be permanently missable the one in the Cave of Trials floor 6 after its boss is killed isn't.
This makes up for us not getting the Second Evolution PSP port to the PS4 not making it over here. Second Story R is such a major glow-up!
I’ve seen two videos in a week that use the same sentense about “permutations equal 200-something endings which sets a new precedent…”
Is that lifted straight from Wikipedia or something? Because it’s going around.
I also was impressed by the demo. It took the game from a wish list and wait for sale purchase to a day one pickup. The only minor complaint I have is that when playing on 1440 resolution the character sprites look like zoomed in pixel model so are incredibly blocky which only bothers me a bit because it clashes with the gorgeous backgrounds. Tried the demo on Switch and in portable mode they looked great.
It didn't NEED this, but it's certainly welcome regardless. It's (I think) the most loved of the series, though I'm biased on that. Definitely looking forward to it.
SOOOOOO hype for this! I still have my 100+ hour PS1 save of SO2.
Star Ocean never hit the same height that SO2 reached.