I grew up on meaty PS1 RPGs like Star Ocean: The Second Story. In fact, I think I played that one in particular at least twice. So, it was a foregone conclusion that, when Nintendo dropped the trailer for the game’s remake in a Nintendo Direct earlier this year, someone knew they had me in the crosshairs of a homing missile.
We get a lot of remakes these days, but they’re often modernized as-if to say “here you go, we’ve brought this game up to the present.” Second Story R, too, is more of a remake than a simple remaster, but its reverence to the past strikes as pretty singular – it’s more pixel remaster than port, unwilling to leave any nostalgia dollars on the table in the exchange for convincing younger players that it isn’t old.
I admire the detail that has been taken in recreating the classic Star Ocean entry to make it look and feel – if not function – like the 1998 from our best memories. But, along the way, I’ve also found the retooled version of the game to be uncanny.
I’m about 20 hours into the game, and I am tearing through it with the quickness and efficiency of an NFL quarterback dissecting an underachieving defense. Is this because I beat the game twice – probably – over 10 years ago? Maybe, but the more likely thing is that the game has been subtly redeveloped and designed in ways to polish off all of those rough edges that might have once made it a more deliberate commitment.
Private actions (the game’s primary relationship and side quest vehicle) are now displayed in menu of things you might want to do. Fast travel gets you to them in moments. There are more subtle tweaks that speak to rebalancing, also: I’m overlevelled despite not grinding at all, and have more Skill Points and Battle Points (for leveling up my various abilities) than I know what to do with. Star Ocean: The Second Story was never a difficult game to break, and the remake makes it even easier.
“Was it always this easy?” and “was I always this good?” are some of the thoughts that have run through my head as I careen over the section of the game that once required exchanging the games physical discs. Star Ocean: The Second Story will always have a cherished place in my memory – a place, for better or worse, feels more jeopardized the longer I commit to this beautiful recreation. As Bob Dylan once wisely sang, “You can come back, but you can’t come back all the way.”
The Tingle Review 