/vr/ - Retro Games

Star Ocean The Second Story. You don't have to play the first one to play it, but there are a few connections. GOAT as far as I'm concerned, I will shill this game long after Squeenix has released its final shitty entry in the modern form of the series.

>>7961295
>>7961398
Not sure how you couldn't get it into a different battle setting, I've been playing it for over 20 years now and I've never had it set so that attacks only attempt for a front hit. Playing Universe mode its almost necessary to bait attacks and maneuver for a back attack unless you're overleveled. Customizing is the most obtuse specialty in the game, but that's because its where you get all the broken equipment, plus if you were only getting the shit rolls I imagine you were trying to do it on someone without the appropriate talents learned.

Spell combining is pretty pointless but in a playthrough you might see it a handful of times, its not that big a deal. Not sure what you mean by air strike, are you referring to a renamed remake move from the PSP version or just air basic attacks?

Enemies that autoattack quickly are best dealt with by interrupting with a spell to allow a KM user to start their combo, lots of people say casters are useless in SO2 and then they say Universe is too bullshit because of attacks like this. Most KM users have moves that hit from a distance anyway, but for the monsters that can still interrupt those magic is the way to go, same for enemy mages that cast very quick. On Universe I often have Celine cast Ray against such enemies even late game because with motormouth 10 it'll cast nearly instantly for a mapwide interrupt.

IMO the skill system and extensive crafting is part of what separates it from other RPGs from the era. The back attack skill is pretty shit, but all the rest are great and you can toggle which ones you want active anyway. Limiter removed Indalecio isn't impossible at all, to begin with you would've been facing him on Earth difficulty so he'd have half the stats and HP of Universe. On Earth you don't need to do anything special but keep heals up, but if you use the crafting system there are tons of buffs and teamwide heals on item cooldown that you can make. Pretty much essential on Universe.

HEY, IT'S SPICULE!
AAAUGGGHHH ITS HOT, OOOOHOOHOOHOHOOOO

>Playing Star Ocean: The Second Story when I was 6
>Managed to run myself through the mountain pass close to Cross without dying and end up deep in the desert, save for the night
>Realize when I go back to it that everything would one-shot me and give up
>2 years later I remember how much I enjoyed what little I played of it
>Finally go back and get myself out of the desert by encountering the mana drainers I hadn't seen the first time around
>Way later on in the game get to the save outside the last boss
>Reset when I realize where I am, reload and head out of the tower to get publishing dosh and see what else there is to do
>Accidentally end up removing Indalecio's limiter without knowing it existed
>The fight ends up taking over 2 hours with my drastically underleveled party of randomly equipped characters, at some points spending 10+ minutes scrolling through my items for something to stall for time

No end boss encounter has felt even 1% as good to beat as that fight. I might start a new file just from talking about it

This may sound fucked to fans of the genre, but my recommendation would be to play Star Ocean: The Second Story on Galaxy difficulty.

Doing this requires a bit of setup, as you normally unlock the difficulty settings by filling up the sound test mode, but you can emulate and just grab the save file from GameFAQs to start in Galaxy. Its an easy game, but if acclimating to the genre is making it difficult, you can always restart on normal.

SO2 has real time combat, so its a little more involved than your average turn based game. 10/10 story and characters, a ton of items, large crafting system, and if you end up really enjoying it there's a few really fun optional bosses you can prepare yourself for. Overall I think its both the best game to enter the genre with, and the best RPG of its generation.

OOOOH ITS HOTTTT, OOOOHOHOHO

>>5036263
Somehow the voice acting is better than it's sequel on the PS1

>>4997176
>The artstyle alone should be enough to scare you off

I agree completley. I loved the stylized 90's anime look the characters had in the original over the 2010's generic moe makeovers they got in the remastered version.

They made Rena look like a little girl for fucks sake.

>>4997261
The goofy voice acting is part of the charm.

I love how they didn't even translate one of Rena's spells from Japanese.

>>4997918
I didn't even know you could do that or go to the end game bonus dungeon as a kid. I only beat the last boss by controlling Leon and spamming starlight to keep interrupting his casts.

I did beat that one optional boss when I played Second Evolution who you summon by playing a certain song. She's supposed to be the second hardest before Indiglacio with his limiter off.

>>4991753
>buying nintendo products

You have no one but yourself to blame.

Nintendo is an arrogant company that has been riding on nostalgia for the last 30 years, they believe they don't have to compete in their chosen industry and they demonstrate this by selling underpowered, overpriced and gimmicky game consoles with first party games that would have been considered mediocre shit if they were a new original IP in 2018 and not the tail end of a 35 year old franchise.
They literally sell a cardboard controller kit for Nintendo switch that lets you "build your own fun" for the low low price of $80 - and their fans ate that shit up on release.

Yeah PSN skimped you a bit, but Nintendo straight up dropped support for the platform altogether - and I bet you they will have the audacity to re-release it again because they know their fanboys will snatch that shit up.

Seriously, stop giving Nintendo money.

>>4707441
Translation, much better VA, loading times, bugfixes, retouched battle system, more content, it's better all around unless you're really that found of Michael's throat cancer gremlin voice yelling Spicule in the original.
Even the new animated cutscenes are bretty gud.

Star Ocean: The Second Story. Its not the most complex system, but its a ton of fun to battle in, and despite some people insisting there's no point in using anything but two moves on each character, there's many different killer move combinations that can help you on universe (basic difficulty is steamroll easy, never played second but universe feels just right once you get to Cross)

IT BUUUUURNS

>>3551312
Not OP, but SO2 is my favorite game, and if you'd like some tips:

Its a really easy game, but it has 2 other difficulty modes. If you're emulating or have some other means of using downloaded saves, you can download a save with all the voice clips found (40% unlocks the other two difficulties) and put it on the second difficulty if you're finding it too easy. Either way you can make the final boss a challenge through in game, but that can be something you look up if you want it

People will tell you mages are shit in this game, and they are in terms of endgame min-maxing, but if you've been given this advice, ignore it for most of the game. Mages are really helpful when well timed for interrupting enemy spellcasters and stunning them to open them for attack. You can beat the game with any combination of characters, so for your first run I'd recommend 2 fighter 1 mage + Rena to have fun while not steamrolling every encounter

You'll get a character at some point who's a hybrid mage/healer. He is utter dogshit, so unless you're looking to be weaker, don't waste the time training him. Again, you can beat it with any combination of characters, but he's just not worth using unless you want to shake up a run with different spells/more difficulty

Don't ignore the item creation. You can beat the game without it for sure, but there's so many items in this game, and you can end up with some really interesting items. One of the super specialties can even affect your ending, though it may be through use of the items and not the specialty, I can't remember off the top of my head

You may or may not have noticed moves can change when you get a high proficiency in them. This is almost universally a good thing, but Head Splitter on Claude actually gets worse when it changes, at least imo. I would save it for bosses rather than spamming it while leveling, the second form of it causes it to bounce off of enemies fairly commonly

Let me know if you have any questions

>>3529610
I like SO2 but it had too many flaws to be even remotely the best RPG on the system.

The battle system was garbage with its excessive focus on guard breaking and stunlocking and characters like Bowman made the game trivial on any difficulty setting, offensive spellcasters are useless for the majority of the game bar the beginning, the writing is pretty weak in some parts and the "multiple" endings are kinda lame honestly, though I like the fact that you can ship basically anyone with anyone, that was a nice touch, although it was mostly flavour stuff, and the PS translation and voice acting was beyond garbage.

Then there's the whole problem with Star Ocean being set in space and then you hardly see more than two planets, so much for the theme of space travel,

I'll give it a 7 out of HEEEEEEEEEEEEEY IT'S SPICULE!

>>3294949
HEY

IT'S

S P I C U L E
P
I
C
U
L
E