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Star Ocean: The Second Story R |OT| Todos los Dias

What average score do you think Star Ocean: The Second Story R will get on Metacritic?

  • 96 - 100

    Votes: 5 11.6%
  • 91 - 95

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • 86 - 90

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • 81 - 85

    Votes: 21 48.8%
  • 76 - 80

    Votes: 4 9.3%
  • 71 - 76

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • 66 - 70

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 65 or below

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    43
  • Poll closed .

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Having a blast with this, just over 10 hours I believe, so still a ways to go. I got some obscene sword from a goodie bag so that's cool, and I've been working on smithing and such for upgraded equipment.

One question I do have, though: even if you feel powerful and kill mobs in a hit or two, some spellcasters can one-shot me. What's the best way to up magic resistance to help out with this?
 
My long awaited PS5 copy has finally arrived. 😭 Imma start it this weekend.

20231108_193115.jpg
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I didn't understand anything of that ramble.
VeghEsther was infamous on the GameFAQs message boards back in the day. His answer to every single question about strategy or “how do I beat X” on the SO2 board was exactly like above, going on and on about the Bloody Armor trick.

People thought he was a bot or troll or something, but here he is 25 years later.

I know he was on other boards as well always doing the same shit, I know on the FF7 board he would tell everyone they needed a Knights of the Round + mimic setup.
 

NeoLed

Member
Having a blast with this, just over 10 hours I believe, so still a ways to go. I got some obscene sword from a goodie bag so that's cool, and I've been working on smithing and such for upgraded equipment.

One question I do have, though: even if you feel powerful and kill mobs in a hit or two, some spellcasters can one-shot me. What's the best way to up magic resistance to help out with this?
Craft some accessories maybe? A lot of them provide elemental resistance/immunity
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
The guy has some issues for sure. Like there is no other way to beat the hardest content. I beat FFVII including the Weapons in many ways. I hated KOTR+mimic because it was so slow and boring. Its much more fun to bait Emerald Weapon to activate 7777 on you, or mime limit breaks like Omnislash and Catastrophe. Or counter materia. There are many ways.

Anyway, I beat SO2 just now. 28 hours and level 116. This game feels far shorter than on PSX, which makes sense as it plays faster and random encounters are gone. I could beat it within 20 probably, if I didn't craft all the powerful endgame stuff and didn't level up so high. But its better for it, the pacing is far superior now. And its just great how you can fight when you feel to, without any penalty to level ups. With bodyguard you will level up anyway, and when I wanted to fight I would chain 5 enemies, and chuck some EXP booster or something. Until 100 you can also create those fake medals. You have many options.

I am happy I enjoyed this so much still. Its true, the PSX era WAS the golden age of JRPG. These were better. SO2 is much, much better than FFXVI for example.

I will probably put in on hold now, and start Like a Dragon. But I do plan to beat the MoT at least, I did so in SO3 too last summer.
 
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German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
VeghEsther was infamous on the GameFAQs message boards back in the day. His answer to every single question about strategy or “how do I beat X” on the SO2 board was exactly like above, going on and on about the Bloody Armor trick.

People thought he was a bot or troll or something, but here he is 25 years later.

I know he was on other boards as well always doing the same shit, I know on the FF7 board he would tell everyone they needed a Knights of the Round + mimic setup.
The gamefaqs lineage runs deep.
 
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NeoLed

Member
Just had 3 crashes (PS5) back to back when fighting mobs outside Centropolis. Anyone else experience that? I think I open the item menu too fast?
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
I managed to get to Gabriel with my team of Chisato, Opera, Celine and Rena on Universe but I got fed up with his constant spell spam so...

Meet Claude. Claude has Ring of Might, Bloody Armor and an Aeterna+ that heals 20% HP per hit. He even beat the shit out of Dias in their final fight. Dude straight up can't die. That's why I stopped using him when I saw the fuck awesome sword I crafted.

I immediately reloaded, removed Gabriel's limiter and bullied him for light 20 mins of just Claude just normal attacks lol.

I wonder if I'll do the post game legit, or will use Unlimited Claude to massacre my way to Chisato's ultimate weapon that saps HP too. I could have two immortal murder machines lol.
 
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F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Thanks but Chisato is not in my party
Oh no you got Welch. Damn that's rough lol. I hope you didn't make an Aeterna yet, but still just craft a good sword for Claude with the crazy 20% HP restore per hit.
Or anyone that can equip Bloody Armor.

I saw a Youtuber brag on YT brag that he made Aeterna+ cause it got +10% Attack and I'm like ouuuuuuuuuuuffff
 
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Oh no you got Welch. Damn that's rough lol. I hope you didn't make an Aeterna yet, but still just craft a good sword for Claude with the crazy 20% HP restore per hit.

I saw a Youtuber brag on YT brag that he made Aeterna+ cause it got +10% Attack and I'm like ouuuuuuuuuuuffff

I already made Aeterna+

That boss makes me so mad

I'm taking a break from the game lol

Yes I got Welch
 
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F0rneus

Tears in the rain
I already made Aeterna+

That boss makes me so mad

I'm taking a break from the game lol

Yes I got Welch
I know the feeling. I had never defeated Unlimited Gabriel before, so I had to use a character that's literally unkillable. Only way I beat Iseria queen was on PSP with a similar set-up.

Basically you can do the the grind to level 255 or break the game. Hey iif it wants to be an asshole, be one too!
 
I know the feeling. I had never defeated Unlimited Gabriel before, so I had to use a character that's literally unkillable. Only way I beat Iseria queen was on PSP with a similar set-up.

Basically you can do the the grind to level 255 or break the game. Hey iif it wants to be an asshole, be one too!

Well my characters are all around LV 200 to LV 220
 
I know the feeling. I had never defeated Unlimited Gabriel before, so I had to use a character that's literally unkillable. Only way I beat Iseria queen was on PSP with a similar set-up.

Basically you can do the the grind to level 255 or break the game. Hey iif it wants to be an asshole, be one too!

Which character did you use to kill Unlimited Gabriel? That's literally unkillable?
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I just got HP drain on 2 of my weapons. I found the easiest way is to use 2x any piece of armor (even holey armor) + rune metal (the cheapest metal that can boost into 90+ %, you can use others as well).
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
lol over on Reddit there are a bunch of hipsters saying “well I always thought Ernest was top tier” now that he’s been massively buffed in the remake.

I’ve literally never heard anyone say that in 25 years of being a SO2 super fan, now we got people trying to claim that they always appreciated his true greatness before the mainstream caught on. Bunch of cunts.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
If you do a new game plus but then chose the other character, all of your progress and stuff still carries over right?
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
lol over on Reddit there are a bunch of hipsters saying “well I always thought Ernest was top tier” now that he’s been massively buffed in the remake.

I’ve literally never heard anyone say that in 25 years of being a SO2 super fan, now we got people trying to claim that they always appreciated his true greatness before the mainstream caught on. Bunch of cunts.
Ernest sucked all the dicks before the remake. Now he's a total killer.

And shockingly, I used Celine for the whole game on Universe and finally kicks ass. Her spells do monster damage. 44k DMG and multiple hits? She's insane.

But poor Dias got nerfed as fuck lol
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Ernest sucked all the dicks before the remake. Now he's a total killer.

And shockingly, I used Celine for the whole game on Universe and finally kicks ass. Her spells do monster damage. 44k DMG and multiple hits? She's insane.

But poor Dias got nerfed as fuck lol
Ernest is badass now, best out of the 8 I recruited in this play through (Universe difficulty, just about to start Maze of Tribulations). I use Thousand tails -> Sonic Whip to melt through shields then Bed of Roses to spam damage like crazy. Bed of Roses is practically broken since you can attack from anywhere, great for when you want to crank out a bunch of cheap hits from the other side of the battlefield.

Offensive magic thankfully got a massive buff but I find it more useful to use magic for assault actions and have 4 fighters in my active party.

I hear Precis is god tier now, and Welch got buffed as well.

What’s bad about Dias? I thought he got buffed as well, haven’t tried him yet myself. Claude, Rena, Bowman, and Chisato definitely feel weaker than before. Also hear Ashton got nerfed the most of all.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Ernest is badass now, best out of the 8 I recruited in this play through (Universe difficulty, just about to start Maze of Tribulations). I use Thousand tails -> Sonic Whip to melt through shields then Bed of Roses to spam damage like crazy. Bed of Roses is practically broken since you can attack from anywhere, great for when you want to crank out a bunch of cheap hits from the other side of the battlefield.

Offensive magic thankfully got a massive buff but I find it more useful to use magic for assault actions and have 4 fighters in my active party.

I hear Precis is god tier now, and Welch got buffed as well.

What’s bad about Dias? I thought he got buffed as well, haven’t tried him yet myself. Claude, Rena, Bowman, and Chisato definitely feel weaker than before. Also hear Ashton got nerfed the most of all.
Precis is not as good as she was, just like Chisato but instead of being Gods of combat, they are now just excellent. Opera is still the best character flat out.

Noel rocks now. Very efficient and hell just watched a 1 min Iseria Queen kill with him in the party.

Celine is best on the combat field. Instead of casting a spell every 60 seconds, she cast them every 5 seconds like she's Gabriel. She wrecks enemy shields and can hit for 99k dmg 4-5 times per cast. Over and over.

Haven't used Bowman, Welch or Ashton yet.

Dias is still good but he's not himself anymore. Air Slash game is weak and his Moonlight arts work shitty now. Like Chisato's Tear Gas is like fucky now.
 

KàIRóS

Member
Ernest sucked all the dicks before the remake. Now he's a total killer.

And shockingly, I used Celine for the whole game on Universe and finally kicks ass. Her spells do monster damage. 44k DMG and multiple hits? She's insane.

But poor Dias got nerfed as fuck lol

I don't think the characters were necessarily nerfed or buffed I think they were simply rebalanced to work under the new mechanics, Dias might feel weak but that's because he was reworked as a character to quickly inflict Break on enemies but if you build him as a damage dealer with normal attacks he's still a beast, he does require direct player control though.

Ashton is especially good as an Assault character (the ones you activate with the D-Pad) once he obtains Sword Dance, it has low cooldown and I think it does like 20 hits and since assault characters are limited to dealing 9999 dmg Sword Dance shines amongst all other attacks in the game.

Ernest is the one that does feel buffed but I think it's because he was simply poorly programmed in OG SO2 they finally made him work rather than buff him.
 
FINALLY! got my physical edition, but I had to go to the local store and there were two copies. Amazon let me down again, they've been doing that a lot lately, so I cancelled that pre-order. It's getting to where it's a pain in the ass to buy games from them...

Loving the game. Never played the old version, and early on the game is kicking my ass.
 

Ailike

Member
FINALLY! got my physical edition, but I had to go to the local store and there were two copies. Amazon let me down again, they've been doing that a lot lately, so I cancelled that pre-order. It's getting to where it's a pain in the ass to buy games from them...

Loving the game. Never played the old version, and early on the game is kicking my ass.
The same thing happened to me. I ordered from Amazon thinking all was good, but when the day came nothing was happening. So I cancelled and just got it at GS (ugh). I'd never had problems with Amazon preorders before. Is this something happening often now? Where the preorders are fake and nothing matters?
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Precis is not as good as she was, just like Chisato but instead of being Gods of combat, they are now just excellent. Opera is still the best character flat out.

Noel rocks now. Very efficient and hell just watched a 1 min Iseria Queen kill with him in the party.

Celine is best on the combat field. Instead of casting a spell every 60 seconds, she cast them every 5 seconds like she's Gabriel. She wrecks enemy shields and can hit for 99k dmg 4-5 times per cast. Over and over.

Haven't used Bowman, Welch or Ashton yet.

Dias is still good but he's not himself anymore. Air Slash game is weak and his Moonlight arts work shitty now. Like Chisato's Tear Gas is like fucky now.
Re. Assault cooldown times is there something that speeds it up? It seems way, way faster than 72s or whatever. Maybe getting orbs speeds it up.

My assault formation now is:
Celine: Southern Cross
Leon: Ravenous Fiend
Rena: Angel Feather
Edge: whatever it’s called (really good break-focused move)

I start with Angel Feather then rotate through the other 3, seems like I’m popping them off almost continuously
 
The same thing happened to me. I ordered from Amazon thinking all was good, but when the day came nothing was happening. So I cancelled and just got it at GS (ugh). I'd never had problems with Amazon preorders before. Is this something happening often now? Where the preorders are fake and nothing matters?
Some other game I pre-ordered there was super late to release by them, but I can't remember which one it was now. I've also had a lot of issues with delivery damaging stuff, then Amazon not taking responsibility for it while trying to make me pay for it.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Assault Actions recharge WAY faster than indicated, I think it’s sped up by bonus spheres. Celine’s Southern Cross says 90s but it’s literally around 10s for me. Feels broken as hell
 

NeoLed

Member
Assault Actions recharge WAY faster than indicated, I think it’s sped up by bonus spheres. Celine’s Southern Cross says 90s but it’s literally around 10s for me. Feels broken as hell
There are some factors that sped it up. Killing and breaking enemies reduce the cooldown too.
 

NeoLed

Member
PSA : There is a trophy that require you to back attack blue enemy hold by Bodyguard specialty. Try aiming for that ASAP because we gonna level up so fast in the midgame, every enemies become green. At least in my game.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Still trucking along. I just got to basically another map. Let's just say in order to keep it spoiler free. I've been doing a lot of lovely. I think I'm about at 23 hours and most characters are at level 100. I don't have Dias but I hope it's not the light together. I have eight people minus him. Settled on my starting lineup using the training ability which I love because it helps everybody level up for the bonus.

Went from going to be maybe a 40 hour game closer to maybe 50 or 60 based on my pace.
 

Needlecrash

Member
Ernest sucked all the dicks before the remake. Now he's a total killer.

And shockingly, I used Celine for the whole game on Universe and finally kicks ass. Her spells do monster damage. 44k DMG and multiple hits? She's insane.

But poor Dias got nerfed as fuck lol
Ernest wasn't good in the OG/2nd Evolution versions. Even the official strategy guide said he wasn't that good. I'm hearing now, he's really good!
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Ernest wasn't good in the OG/2nd Evolution versions. Even the official strategy guide said he wasn't that good. I'm hearing now, he's really good!
He's an S tier party member. They buffed him the most! He does monstrous damage with tons of extra hits in this.

Fuck even fucking Noel is a wrecking ball now.
 
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F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Still trucking along. I just got to basically another map. Let's just say in order to keep it spoiler free. I've been doing a lot of lovely. I think I'm about at 23 hours and most characters are at level 100. I don't have Dias but I hope it's not the light together. I have eight people minus him. Settled on my starting lineup using the training ability which I love because it helps everybody level up for the bonus.

Went from going to be maybe a 40 hour game closer to maybe 50 or 60 based on my pace.
Is Claude your protag? he can't recruit Dias.
 
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