Star Ocean Franchise - Tri-Ace gets it right a second time

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Favorite game is Second Story and favorite character would be Rena.
I say Rena because the reveal that she was several million years old(separated from her time) really stuck with me since I'd never considered the concept up until then.
The game itself also left an immediate impression on me. I had just finished Lunar : Silver Star Story and thought "meh, that was okay I guess", changed discs to start Second Story and was blown away by the music intro and the serene music of the first village. Its one of those moments I haven't been able to reproduce with any game since maybe Zero Time Dilemma

Very much looking forward to Second Story R, played the shit out of the demo and pre-ordered it on steam counting down the days.
 
I really liked 3 when I played it back, Nell is still god tier waifu.
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Sadly nothing that came afterwards was as good. 4 was more scifi but dear god the characters were awful. 5 had the retarded "no cutscenes" that is now industry standard and absolutely retarded story. 6 was depressingly mediocre. I tried playing 1 but got sidetracked into playing something else.

Hopefully 2 will be good.
 
Gravityqueen4life said:
the only thing i know about star ocean is the cringe scenes from the fourth game.

for example

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0
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Oh god lymile
Matt Mercer put everything in his performance as edge ironically

I swear I get star ocean and Phantasy star mixed up. The first Phantasy star I saw was an ad for Phantasy Star Online
Imagine my surprise finding out about the genesis games.

I take it that Integrity and Faithlesness is one to avoid? Divine Force was okay but the backtracking was blah and it felt like something was missing
 
As a big fan of 3 that never got to play 2 I am excited for this release. I enjoyed 4 even with the insufferable cast and I have yet to finish 6, about halfway through and I kinda just stopped.

Waiting to see what steam deck performance is like before I purchase.
 
I have the JP physical of Second Story R preordered and am very much looking forward to it.

3 is my fav in the series because I really like the battle system but Second Story on PS1 is very, very good.

I also have a SuFami copy of SO1, a bootleg translated cart of SO1, the two PSP releases, SO4 on 360 and PS3, for some reason I have a copy of the weird PS4 game they made that I never played, the port of First Departure on Switch digital, and SO6 digital on xbox which I have not gotten around to playing yet.

Only thing I'm missing is Blue Sphere which I only recently found out has a fan translation. Planning to dig into that after playing SSR.
 
I'll be the negative Nancy, I never played a Star Ocean till I recently emulated Second Story on the PSX. Hated it, between it being a bloody bait and switch about being a sci fi story when it's just fantasy with a space ship here and there, the combat system being a clunky ballbusting mess unless you actively document yourself about it and proceed to break it in half, an honest to god shit translation (this is what should be presented as an example of a soulless localization though should not be an issue in the new version) and a story which is basically "shit just happens, you want to know what the big bads are? read this infodump in a goddamn library and do an obscure series of sidequests to find out!".

It left me wondering how this game gets the praise it gets and is placed in the same pedestal as Grandia, Xenogears, FFT or Lunar which I all consider superior and that the same company released Valkyrie Profile which I also recently played and loved (though it has it's own issues of needing a guide) like a year later. So if this one was the "best one" it killed any interest I ever had on any of the others. I will recognize it's ambition with all of the multiple characters you can recruit and the possible ending vignettes.
 
Psyduck said:
What would be the best entry point to this series?
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3 is how I got into it when it released on PS2 decades ago. Really enjoyed that game, been meaning to play it again. It is divisive in the fan base for some of its story beats but I found it to be really interesting. It got remastered for PS4 a few years back. And like all Star Ocean games, the soundtrack is a banger.


6 is the newest one and on all modern systems. I didnt beat it, but I enjoyed my time with it, characters arent awful like 4, and the story was good.
 
Playing SO2 R.

Anyone else just not feeling it?

It's just making me wish I were playing the PS1 version instead.
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
I really liked 3 when I played it back, Nell is still god tier waifu.
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Sadly nothing that came afterwards was as good. 4 was more scifi but dear god the characters were awful. 5 had the retarded "no cutscenes" that is now industry standard and absolutely retarded story. 6 was depressingly mediocre. I tried playing 1 but got sidetracked into playing something else.

Hopefully 2 will be good.
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So as someone who only played 3, are the other ones better stories? Cause 3 was like a couple of really long episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Made even longer because I had to grind for Orichalcum to make it so my weapons actually did damage by mid game.
 
Psyduck said:
What would be the best entry point to this series?
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The one that just came out - Second Story R. The added QoL and tutorials on how to use skills make it significantly less frustrating. You won't feel like you're missing things since all the quests are marked on the map. Don't try to autism it too hard though or you'll break the game. You cannot 100% in a single playthrough so just play it normally.

Drag-on Knight 91873 said:
So as someone who only played 3, are the other ones better stories? Cause 3 was like a couple of really long episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Made even longer because I had to grind for Orichalcum to make it so my weapons actually did damage by mid game.
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That's basically Star Ocean's entire schtick - "what if Star Trek except space magic is real and it's a JRPG." Your mileage may vary but SO2 is shorter and more tightly-focused so you might prefer it.
 
Drag-on Knight 91873 said:
So as someone who only played 3, are the other ones better stories? Cause 3 was like a couple of really long episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Made even longer because I had to grind for Orichalcum to make it so my weapons actually did damage by mid game.
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The most recent one (The Divine Force) was surprisingly good. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and it's worth a playthrough. It kind of apes SO2 in some ways (you can choose to play as a man or woman character at the beginning for example) but the story was decent and it wasn't just a rehash. Combat was quite fun as well.

It's weird seeing people gush over SO2 like it's a new game when it's been around for over 20 years, but at least the game isn't censored like some of the more recent Square remasters.
 
I tried the first one on PSP, it was cliche and combat felt like shit. I wanted to like the series but it was a pretty poor experience. I didn't get far at all, first fight in some forest and just noped out.
 
IDanceonTrannyGraves said:
It's weird seeing people gush over SO2 like it's a new game when it's been around for over 20 years, but at least the game isn't censored like some of the more recent Square remasters.
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You have to remember that most zoomers are completely unaware of tri-Ace games. They have never lived in a period when tri-Ace is churning out bangers. So I imagine the experience is kinda novel for them. That, and it being on the Switch means the Nintendies get to soypog about it for the first time in their lives ("omg it's just like xenoblade")

who knows, maybe Square-Enix will finally toss some money at tri-Ace and we'll start getting more than one Star Ocean game a decade (or maybe even a Valkyrie Profile game that's alright)
 
Fcret said:
You have to remember that most zoomers are completely unaware of tri-Ace games. They have never lived in a period when tri-Ace is churning out bangers. So I imagine the experience is kinda novel for them. That, and it being on the Switch means the Nintendies get to soypog about it for the first time in their lives ("omg it's just like xenoblade")

who knows, maybe Square-Enix will finally toss some money at tri-Ace and we'll start getting more than one Star Ocean game a decade (or maybe even a Valkyrie Profile game that's alright)
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I haven't played the last VP that recently came out but I keep meaning to.

I'm at least happy that the people who worked on SO2 seem to have done a good job and that people are enjoying it.

Maybe they'll do a VP remaster, since that was on PSP like SO2.


SSj_Ness said:
I tried the first one on PSP, it was cliche and combat felt like shit. I wanted to like the series but it was a pretty poor experience. I didn't get far at all, first fight in some forest and just noped out.
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Try the most recent one. The combat is pretty fun.
 
Fcret said:
who knows, maybe Square-Enix will finally toss some money at tri-Ace and we'll start getting more than one Star Ocean game a decade (or maybe even a Valkyrie Profile game that's alright)
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Let's be real, if Tri-Ace weren't in a such dire financial situation, we'd be playing yet another port of Second Evolution instead and not that amazing remake from Gemdrops.

Say hi this handsome fellow btw
Kitao.jpg
 
Went in blind and got star ocean on the ps2. Went in expecting sci-fi setting, space guns and space ships in a rpg.

Got yet another medieval sword and magic. Didn't play much beyond breaking my habit of fully exploring towns since so much was empty.

People seem to really like the series so it must be decent at the very least. Fully admit I went in completely blind.

Does it ever become a space faring rpg game?
 
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