Star Ocean 2 Second Story R is a Nintendo Switch remaster of a game that came out awhile back that I never got to play. After really enjoying the demo I decided to give it a try to see what it was like. The game features two protagonists Claude and Rena. Claude is someone who was separated from his father during a space expedition and found himself stranded on an unknown planet while Rena is a girl who was found in the middle of the woods with unknown origins on the very same planet. The two meet very quickly as they look for answers on how to get Claude home which in the process explores Rena’s unknown past.

The story is really good. You immediately have the option to play either Claude’s story or Rena’s and for the most part the two stories are largely the same so you’re not going to be horribly left out if you just play one. The thing is during several moments of the game both of the characters are off doing their own thing and what they do is only briefly explained in the other character’s route so you’re going to want to play this game twice to see the full picture. I actually went ahead and did that prior to writing this review.

The stuff unique to Claude’s route focuses on his history with his father who is a legend in the eyes of his peers and that has played a major role in the relationship between the two. As for Rena her individual story focuses on her relationship with someone like a brother to her, Dias, who shows up throughout the story regardless of who you pick but Rena’s route has more details about Dias and more details about Rena’s past. In both routes you’ll get a general idea of what happens so you honestly don’t miss anything but it’s a far better experience to see both stories for yourself. As far as they are concerned I liked Rena’s more than Claude’s as Rena’s had far more mystery to it and the revelations gained from understanding the truth made for some of the more pivotal moments of the story as a whole. Claude’s story is just fine it is a compelling tale of someone wanting to see his family again but where his story feels like something pushed to the side a lot as his family has nothing to do with the greater story surrounding the planet they are on.

As far as the majority of the story that overlaps between the two the characters venture to understand an item called the Sorcery Globe which crashed on the planet and has caused strange phenomena to happen. Throughout their journey they meet characters that you can choose to recruit in your party, but be warned you can only recruit six characters and you have to really pick them carefully. Not only are their more than six you can recruit but recruiting some characters will automatically lock you out of others. This is another aspect that I feel promotes replaying the game that I’ll go into more detail later. The characters themselves are all unique you have one who is possessed by a two headed dragon, another who is skilled with machinery and another who literally falls out of the sky to join your party. What I liked most about the story as a whole is it’s very character focused and the characters are all very interesting. There is a lot of emotional depth to all of them especially if you take the time to explore them a bit.

The game gives you a lot of options for story content. Not just the main story but in towns you can switch to a mode called private action where it’s just the character you picked at the start of the game and you can interact with party members individually for unique cut scenes. These scenes range from humorous skits to dialogues that really explore these characters as individuals and fleshes them out quite a bit. You really want to see these scenes as they build bonds between your characters which is important for how the game ends.

The game has a total of 99 endings. Now that doesn’t mean you have to beat the game 99 times as each character has their own respective ending so you can unlock up to eight endings in one playthrough. The characters also have paired endings based on who they are most bonded with. These are quick epilogues to show what happened to the characters after the end of the game and it’s really interesting to see how they differ depending on your bonds. I’m up to about 23 endings so far and I’m already planning on what others I want to see. They are quick but very charming because by the time you see them you’re pretty attached to the characters. This is also where the party choice comes into play that I mentioned earlier because by being locked out of certain characters you’re also locked out of certain endings which further compels you to want to replay the game.

As for the gameplay itself it’s akin to a Tales game. As far as the out of combat stuff is plays like any other role playing game. You have various destinations to travel to, people to talk to and the more you explore the more you’ll find story and character wise. In combat you and your enemies are on the screen and you fight in real time using melee and magic attacks to defeat your enemies. You have a lot of options for power and because of the different characters you have a lot of options for party composition. Further helping the gameplay is the level of customization as you have an array of skills to buff that can be used inside and outside of combat. The combat skills are straight forward but the out of combat skills are very interesting. You have various skills that can help make items you might be low on, customize weapons far stronger than what you can get in the shop or items that will automatically adjust your character bonds with each other which is super helpful for unlocking specific in game endings. The applications of these out of combat skills are vast and I loved exploring what I can do with them individually and how I can use them together.

The only real complaint I have about this game is right at the end as their is a significant difficulty spike in the last I would say three bosses. It’s not something I personally found problematic as the game gives you ways to very quickly level grind and also make items to help better prepare your party for those battles such as improving attack strength and speed. I just also wish it wasn’t such a massive difference in difficulty compared to what you become used to for the rest of the game.

Overall Star Ocean 2 Second Story R is a game with a very incredible story featuring two amazing characters. Because each character has their own unique aspects to the story it’s worth playing the game at least twice to see the story entirely from their perspective. On top of that the game features 99 endings based on the characters you recruit in the game and their bonds with each other and it’s fun to pick which characters I want in the party to see various endings. The gameplay is a lot of fun and gives so many options for customization that I found the act of improving my party very addicting. Overall I expected to like this game but it far surpassed my expectations.