Things age, wear, and ultimately break. Even if you keep your old games and consoles, and they stay in working order, trying to get old tech to work on new TVs i💞s often so painful you give up trying or end up shelling out for some overpriced converter. Then what about digital games? When platforms close digital storefronts or newer generations phase out backwards compatibility, retaining some of our best-loved titles becomes nearly impossible. Game preservation is a constant battle.
There is another solution—remakes and ports. These give older titles a much-needed glow-up and make them more accessible, allowing new players to jump in and join the fandom while veteran fans can enjoy games all over again on modern platforms. When I recently played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Ocean: The Second Story R at Gamescom, I realised how important it is for companies to lo🍷ok to their past as much as their future. Getting shiny new entries in the series or fresh IP is great, but sometimes revisiting an old classic means a little more.
The Second Story has been lovingly rebuilt, with graphics that seamlessly blend 2D characters with 3D environments. This allows it to retain the charm and feel of the or🔥iginal while still embracing modern aesthetics. Though you’d think this contrast would be a bit jarring, it creates an interesting balance that works incredibly well. For a game that features a federation officer transported to an unknown, less advanced planet, it seems fitting to have this blend of modern and traditional styles.
Square Enix has packed this new version with additional quests and content, new battle mechanics, full English and Japanese voiceovers, and composer Motoi Sakuraba has returned to rearrange the soundtrack. The Second Story R is ✤the definitive way to play Star Ocean now. It can be daunting for new players to come into such an established series at this point, but The Second Story R is a great entry point.
When I think of classic PS era RPGs, turn-based, rigid battles spring to mind, but The Second Story R’s combat feels fast-paced and fluid, benefiting from a speed increase for this new version. Everyone attacks at once, and you can move around the battlefield freely, attacking backwards and forwards while choosing different characters to act as on the fly. If you’re super confident in your characters’ abilities or want to save time, you can also set auto battle on. While many older RPGs didn’t have difficulty settings, there are three to choose from, so 🙈even if you’re not the best at combat, you can just bump it down and still enjoy the story.
Another way that The Second Story R shakes it up from the usual RPG tropes is that players can choose between either Claude or Rena as their main protagonist at the start, and there’s a greater emphasis throughout on the characters. You'll get interesting conversations and affinity boosts based on who’s in your party when you stay at an inn.
This isn’t the first time Star Ocean: The Second Story has been given a little love. Though it originally launched for PlayStation in 1999, an enhanced remaster for PSP was later launched in 2009, and The Second Story R pays homage to both these versions. In the menu, you can toggle the art style of the character portraits between the PlayStation, PSP, and new versions. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take effect throughout the rest of the game, but it’s interesting to see the difference in art styles over the y൩ears. It also made me appreciate just how gorgeous the new portraits are.
I wish more companies would dive into their 🦹back catalogues, pluck out an old classic to polish, and then send it back into the world for us all to enjoy. Revisiting older titles is necessary to keep some of the best games alive, and it’s a great way to please long-term fans and encourage new players to jump into the series. However, we’ve also seen plenty of remakes or ports lose the magic of the originals, confining the best version of the game into unreachable history. Ports and remakes aren’t always the solution. But when they’re crafted with as much affection and quality as Star Ocean: The Second Story R, it’s easy to see the value they bring to gaming.
