7 Things You Should Know Before Playing Star Ocean The Second Story R

Star Ocean The Second Story R is quite a complex game that gives you unimaginable freedom in gameplay. It’s easy for you to feel lost with so many different systems and side quests, so here are a few things you should be aware of when exploring the galaxy.

7 Things You Should Know in Star Ocean Second Story R

1 – Max Out Your Determination!

The most important status from the IC/Specialty Skill tree is Determination as it reduces the amount of SP required for leveling all other abilities. It only costs you 120 SP to max it out, so invest in it early before touching any of the other skills. It’ll also help you unlock the Train Specialty later, which is great for leveling up.

2 – Plan Your Party Beforehand

Claude and Rena are the only mandatory characters, while the six remaining slots can be filled with any of the 11 other playable characters. All of them can be recruited at certain points, but missing certain events or picking specific characters might lock you out of some choices. Also, both Rena and Claude have one unique character when chosen as the protagonist.

3 – Don’t Neglect Your Private Actions

Private Actions might pop out at seemly random times during the story, so keep checking the map with the Fast Travel button every time you feel like you’ve done something important. Getting new characters is something important. Some of them are time-sensitive, which leads us to…

4 – Time is Everything

Certain PAs and side quests (also indicated in the Fast Travel menu) are temporary, so make sure to complete them as soon as possible. If you see an hourglass icon on them, it means it’s time to go for those. Sometimes it’ll allow you to get new characters in your party, so the sooner you do those, the better.

5 – Specialties Are Your Best Friends

Specialties are everything in this game. They let you craft food buffs, healing items, special equipment, play music, move faster around the map or even steal rare items. Make sure that everyone gets an important role early since pretty much everything is needed at some point.

6 – You Won’t See Everything at Once

This game is meant to be played multiple times, if the dual-protagonist thing at the start wasn’t enough to tell you that. There are over 80 possible endings with small variations, and adding new characters to your party unlocks new side story branches and interactions between the cast. You might find yourself replaying it if you really want to see all of the hidden secrets, but it’s totally fine if you don’t.

7 – No Need to Rush

Just take things at your own pace. The game is quite straightforward if you just follow the main story, but there’s so much more underneath that it’ll probably take a while to explore it all. Don’t worry if you’re clocking over 30 hours and still haven’t seen half of it, because that’s just how it is sometimes. Enjoy it as you want, because the game’s definitely worth your time.