As product names go, Star Ocean: The Second Story R buries the lede. That ‘R’ stands for ‘Remake’ – and if I have been behind the advertising of this title, I’d actually wish to emphasize that this can be a full-blown, ground-up do-over. Like, R might stand for ‘remaster’ – this ain’t that. It is a full-fat Remake, with a capital R.
A rather-bad identify is type of par for the course for Sq. Enix RPGs, in fact – and Star Ocean 2’s do-over may be considered a quintessential Sq. expertise in a number of different methods, too. It’s the corporate doing what it does greatest: making a staunchly conventional role-playing sport, with an unimaginable visible aptitude, with ambitions that assist to outstrip and decrease design flaws.
Mainly, it has the vitality of a golden-age Sq. title. Which is sensible, as the unique sport’s 1998 launch places it slap bang in the course of the corporate’s explosive PS1 heyday. Enjoying Second Story, you’ll be able to sense an intense reverence for the unique variations of the sport (variations, plural; it was remastered for PSP in 2008)m and it’s that worshipful perspective in direction of the previous that makes this a very special-feeling remake.
Right here’s a particular instance. Within the menus of The Second Story R, every character is represented with a portrait, as is RPG custom. However with the press of a button, you’ll be able to change between three totally different portrait kinds, permitting you to see the assorted creative interpretations of Star Ocean 2’s characters from 1998, 2008, and right now. It’s a small nod, however the place most remakes current the brand new supplies and take away the outdated, this sport is eager to protect all eras. It’s demonstrative of the event philosophy.
“It’s not simply restricted to the illustrations, but it surely’s actually our method to the sport as an entire,” says Kei Komaki, Sq. Enix’s producer on the sport, when requested in regards to the portraits. “We wished to worth the gamers of the unique PlayStation 1 sport from 1998 and in addition the PSP model from the 2000s by together with these supplies and these components from each of the opposite variations in addition to alongside the up to date variations for the remake.”
“We’re attempting to indicate that we’ve that respect for the gamers of these earlier video games, and the way they keep in mind the sport.”
Respect hammers the nail on the pinnacle; this remake virtually oozes it. And but, it’s additionally not afraid to take possibilities. The largest change comes within the visuals, that are without delay devoted to the unique and fairly totally different.
Particularly, the previous variations of Star Ocean 2 featured pre-rendered CG backdrops, as most Sq. video games of its period did. Hand-drawn 2D sprites have been laid atop these CG backgrounds, whereas battles featured rudimentary 3D backdrops. For the remake, the workforce elected to maintain the sprites – however ditch the CG for a completely real-time world presentation.
“What I actually wished to do was recreate and recapture the identical sort of emotions and feelings that folks would have had after they performed the unique PS1 model or the PSP model,” Remake director Yuichiro Kitao explains.
“The way in which that I approached that was to assume – effectively, think about that I’m a bit 2D sprite, a bit character within the sport myself. What would these locations appear to be to me? How would it not really feel to discover the dungeons, the sphere areas, the castles? In order that was actually the method we took when creating artwork. I went away and I requested the artwork workforce to seize that sense of being a bit pixel character on this sport and experiencing it for your self.”
The logic, then, was to supply up a better sense of scale. With real-time backgrounds, extra may be completed. There may be extra motion within the background itself, and even the odd dynamic digital camera motion. The backgrounds additionally tackle a extra usually reasonable bent – which creates challenges when integrating them with the wonderful nature of unvarnished, hard-edged pixel artwork characters.
The thought of blending attractive real-time 3D backgrounds with 90s-era 2D sprites was intentionally meant to supply one thing “new and recent,” says artwork director Yukinori Masuda. Whereas Sq. Enix has experimented with this earlier than in its ‘HD-2D’ titles like Octopath Traveler, The Second Story R differs fairly considerably because of the character of the backgrounds and Star Ocean’s action-focused fight. However in creating that recent look, which is reasonably fetching, the builders created a problem for themselves.
“As a result of we wished to have this type of nostalgia to the sprites, the pixels did sort of stand out a bit bit an excessive amount of, simply placing them straight in. They did not essentially really feel like a part of that world,” Masuda admits.
“However as a substitute of blurring them we stored the pixels sharp, after which we added that depth with lighting and shaders, and shadows. This made them really feel like they have been in that world whereas nonetheless retaining the basic look. So, sure – that was the best way we approached the mixing, the fusion, of the 2 totally different artwork kinds.”
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug – and for cult, area of interest sport franchises like Star Ocean, it makes for an extremely tight needle for builders to string. There are a number of elements at play. Outdated-time followers must be glad – with the added complication right here that relying on after they performed, their recollections might be of two totally different variations. But additionally, as ever, there’s a need to discover a new viewers – for the Star Ocean collection to develop.
Speaking to the builders, there’s a transparent realization that Star Ocean just isn’t, say, Remaining Fantasy. This space-faring sci-fi RPG has all the time set itself other than lots of Sq.’s different titles. When this sport was new, it was one of many solely action-focused video games within the writer’s secure. In some ways, Star Ocean was all the time a bit forward of its time – which is what provides this Remake potential. With fresh-but-familiar artwork and barely streamlined and improved RPG motion, every little thing about that sport has been designed for a broader attraction.
“I believe that nowadays in Europe specifically there may be an urge for food for RPGs from the 90s, what they could name ‘retro RPGs’. I am not essentially certain that Second Story R fairly falls into that class, however there may be that type of pattern and willingness to play these sorts of video games,” Komaki muses.
“So whereas we do need folks to method this and have these nostalgic emotions and benefit from the sport from that perspective, additionally it is a brand new sport that we’re releasing. And so we’re hoping that we are able to attain a number of new gamers and new folks as effectively. And if we’ve followers who method it from a type of nostalgic perspective after which discover they actually benefit from the sport, hopefully they’re going to inform their associates, inform different folks and perhaps it will get some traction from there.”
Star Ocean: The Second Story R releases for Nintendo Change, PS4, PS5, and PC this week.