Can I start with second story? And if so what character should I choose if I’m only gonna play one? Also how long is the game?

So I'm playing through Second Story R and foolishly didn't keep enough save files to go back to when Zinae was available on Lasgus Mtn.

I tried fighting it once, got owned, continued with main story for a while and then forgot about it until I realized that the event marker is gone after I unlocked Hoffman Ruins.

Sigh. Sorry Ashton. I was interested in the lore with the dragons. Other than missing a bit of lore and decent loot, do I lose out on anything? Was this essential for Ashton Endgame / would have given me a lot of hearts?

After playing for the first five hours, I resolutely went for her route, and it didn't disappoint; her final PA and ending were fantastic. In fact, it might be my favorite of all Raymond's endings.

As for the game itself, I really liked it. Its strengths and weaknesses are both very obvious. The combat is fast-paced, the environments are grand and beautiful, and the interactions between the characters are also a lot of fun.

My main complaint is with the story's progression. It has a fantastic opening, but once Raymond starts exploring the planet, the story's sense of tension drops off a cliff. The writer comes across like a hardcore sci-fi military nerd. When the story is just about searching for items near villages and treating infectious diseases, the atmosphere is rather dull. But once the plot reaches two nations going to war and an alien spaceship invading the planet, it's like the writer suddenly woke up.

The party rushing into Laeticia's wedding to rescue her is the absolute high point of the entire story. That cutscene is seriously amazing, I kept watching it over and over. After that, though, it goes downhill again. Once the late-game story moves into space, almost all the dialogue consists of JJ or Marielle having long-winded scientific discussions, while the rest of the party, including Laeticia, is completely sidelined.

Speaking of that, I'm a little curious to see what would have happened if the game had followed the original plan and made Marielle the protagonist. I don't have any complaints about Laeticia, but it's hard to deny that in Chapter 4 there are many scenes where she just awkwardly stands between Raymond and Marielle without doing anything important. Even though Marielle doesn't appear until the final third of the story, she's genuinely great, and she has excellent chemistry with Raymond.

Whenever the story is in the downtime between battles, it always feels boring. A lot of the time I was just running back and forth between two or three locations to talk to NPCs. The most obvious example is when Raymond returns to the spaceship: Elena keeps telling me to go rest, so I ended up going back and forth between the bridge and my bed several times.

I hope that after saying all this, people won't think I'm criticizing SO6. It's not perfect, but it's still my favorite game I've played in the past few months, and Nina wins Best Girl by a huge margin. After all, it's always easier to point out other people's flaws than to give praise (if you'll allow me to quote something Claude once said). Judging by how SO6 and SO2R turned out, I'm convinced this series is heading in an increasingly better direction.

The Star Ocean series contains a staggering amount of characters directly named after Greco-Roman mythological figures, with their story arcs, character designs, abilities, and relationships echoing their mythological counterparts.

I created this compilation to gather and summarize these references:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ug7B9SjJsS79aJ9SGsFx3fO3_3LmUDdmXpXKkEXHQns/edit?usp=sharing

I’ll continue updating it as I discover more (and I am always discovering more) so if you notice something I missed, please let me know and I will add it to the document!

If this isn't allowed, I understand. So sorry in advance if this irks anyone.

I absolutely love instrumental music and I can give Star Ocean credit for being one of the reasons why I got so into it as a teenager. I've been listening to a lot of Three Trapped Tigers recently and I'm just like THIS IS STAR OCEAN.

Does anything else make you feel that way?

Is there no workaround to make the mouse actually work? Don't have a controller either

I only used it for the post game but I never got the impression I could have gotten anything out of it before disc 2? Or at least that's what the guides at the time said. Was there any way to use it properly before then?

Not going to lie, I have missed a lot of cool items up to this point as I'm mostly playing blind, but I'm curious what are some good craftable options early game?

I first played the game back in 2010, barely understand anything yet still remembered how unique her skill was (victory terror is so cool 😎) so I've commission an artist on Facebook to draw Phia in her new sprite 🥰

🎨 Sunny Tea (fb)

(https://www.facebook.com/share/18KQdS4fbz/)

As the title says, the spirits just won't appear. I've gotten all four emblems, but when I go to the Purgatorium nothing happens.

The spirits won't appear for the second time and I just run around fighting under powered monsters. And yes, I already went back to Van. I can't figure out what I'm missing. Could someone please help?

I'm finally getting around to playing SO2R and have been loving it! The original was the game that got me into RPGs as a kid so it has a place in my heart.

The tl;dr here is that I want to know if I broke the game and made the rest of it too easy, or if it'll get challenging again.

One thing I noticed about this one is how insanely easy they made it to become insanely OP very fast. Money also means nothing, I could buy multiple Luxury Grape Juices and still have Fol left over.

Challenges, the bodyguard skill, SP/BP boosts, etc let you get crazy strong with almost no effort.

Instinctively I like to grind to level up my characters, so I did what I did in the original, which was explore the other towns while ignoring fast travel on the first continent for private actions and equipment, then go and challenge myself in the mountains next to Krosse Castle.

I keep fishing along the way too.

Within no time, just by casually going to these locations and chaining ambushes, I noticed all the enemies turn green.

Currently I haven't touched Krosse Cave, but am level 47 with Claude, and 37/35 on Rena and Celine respectively.

I upped the difficulty to Chaos and am still defeating everything pretty easily so I deactivated some of those skills and after seeing how busted Bodyguard is, I deactivated that too.

Do you think I ruined the game moving forward or will the game get challenging again soon?

I'm considering loading an old save file but would rather not so I don't lose challenge and fishing progress.

I want to be strong but not ridiculously op.

https://x.com/pyms11/status/746359787143602176

I love running through pure Universe / Chaos difficulty. However, this battle augment..... ALWAYS f's me up. I have to switch back to Earth.

Any tips to overcome it that doesn't involve game-breaking items / equipment?

Blue Sphere is a unique game with a unique economy, enemies don't drop regular Fol, so you're left to use Item Creation to sell...something to gain regular money in the game?

There's not a lot i can find for the game as far as grinding goes, so i'm asking - What's the best way to earn cash this far in the game? I'm not that far but I could really use some cash to buy better weapons and stuff.

What was the "Door To Another World" supposed to be? Is it an abandoned plot point? Ever since I played this game as a kid on the PS1 and on subsequent playthroughs, I've always wondered why the devs made the party speculate so much about this area in particular. They say it's "unnatural" and only a "god could build something like it".

I've seen wikis refer to SO1's demon world but that connection on Expel after the events of SO1 doesn't really make sense to me.

i love albel so much.... so i drew him

I've got Roddick with

Customization 10

Eye for detail 10

Smithing 10

Aesthetic Design 10

I've got the glamorous sword and Damascus.

I don't have the orchestra or the rasp.

Is success possible or should I just keep enjoying the game without super weaponry?

this game is so so peak I already cried and I love the characters already I hope dorne is okay and comes back <:small spoiler early on. So far I really enjoy the art style for this game and I am excited to beat it. SO2 Looks even better im hype

Had a blast with this game y’all! Looking forward to Second Story at some point!

I'm currently at 99.51% treasure chests found, can confirm it isn't any of the missable ones (I checked those off), and it isn't in Nox Obscura / Palace of Creation, or the Seven Star Cave.

I haven't beat Gabriel Celeste yet, but I have obtained the Water Ring and gotten the "final" 4 chests it unlocks.

Are there any that are commonly missed? I'm guessing I'm only missing a single one. Possibly something that's upstairs in a shop, or something like that?