Pretty much an upgraded experience to the first one, though I played the psp versions of both the first game and this one, so not much had changed mechanically. If you've played the first game, this is pretty much the same gameplay-wise, battles go pretty much by mashing X (outside of couple selected boss fights of course) and you can pretty much annihilate the game's challenge with the right skills, menu no jutsu and savescumming. Casually you probably won't even need those, but there are some late- and postgame content that seems to require some cheesing and guides to even find them.

Visually, this game is just as beautiful as the first one, maybe even more. The interiors seem to be 3D-renders and while it helps your pixelart-character to pop out in the scene, it makes actually navigating and interacting with the environment taxing. The pixelart itself is really well done and the little animations are cute, kinda reminiscent of jrpgs on SNES (gee, almost like they had the experience or something). There is also some FMVs and character art done by animation studio. These were a nice little touch, though the cutscenes were reserved for only major moments and showed only the main characters. I don't blame them, animation can get quite expensive.

I found the soundtrack to be tad underwhelming compared to the first game. I can still remember some of the songs from the first one, but hardly any of the songs here made an impact. I don't want to say that it was bad, the soundtrack definitely served it's purpose. There just isn't any songs that stood out or made me return to listen them again.

Then there is the story. This is probably the biggest upgrade to the first game I noticed. The main character in the first game was bland by design, someone the player could project themselves onto and relate with. The second game took a wildly different route and made two playable protagonists with their own stories and personalities. They are actual full-fledged characters with their own goals, dreams and weaknesses beyond just saving the world from evil. It's a bold choice and pays off somewhat, I really like Rena and her story whereas I find Claude rather irritating. I get it, he's supposed to be stupid teenager and have all this pressure and grow during the story, but he can get really insecure and insufferable. The side characters also shine well, some more than others. In the end I can't think of single boring side character who didn't have something interesting going on for them and I could enjoy myself with the story. Despite the name "Star Ocean", this game also continues the good tradition of the first game of introducing us to a scifi setting and then putting us in the middle of a medieval fantasy. I'm not saying you can't do medieval fantasy well, you just might feel rather fooled if you think you're going to play a scifi-rpg.

I can recommend this game if you like jrpgs. It got a bit more involved battle system than just turned-based and the story is great. It's not without it's shortcomings, but if you played and liked the first game, you're most likely going to love this one.

A damn fine PS1 era JRPG. A fantasy game with a bunch of cool sci fi stuff thrown in to give the story a galaxy size threat. Rich worlds to explore, likeable characters, and expands on everything that made the first game good. There's deep relationship and crafting systems for those interested, but you can get by without them. Loads of replay value due to the two-sided story, and the exponentially difficult Universe mode. My only issue with this game is that there were multiple instances where I had to find out that a boss was supposed to beat us AFTER I poured a lot of time and resources into it, which became very frustrating after a while. Overall though, I can see why this is some people's favorite.

Significantly better than First Departure without any doubt. Claude is way more likeable than Roddick because he's not completely fucking generic (although sometimes just lmao). The story was pretty good but I wish they dived more into his relationship with Ronyx because father-son issues are my weakness. Game itself was fun, and the item creation/specialties system was awesome as per usual. I love becoming stronger than the final boss like 10 hours before I actually fight him. Speaking of which...

The main antagonists kinda fucking suck and would've been way better if the information that is literally optional wasn't just, you know, optional, and was actually part of the story. The ending was also pretty anticlimactic and stuff which I'm pretty sad about.

My overall experience with the game was definitely one of enjoyment though. I liked this game a lot and am looking forward to playing Till the End of Time now.

Last thing WHY IS THAT VOICE CAST SO STACKED??? SHINICHIRO MIKI, AKIRA ISHIDA, SUGITA, NANA MIZUKI, KEIJI FUJIAWARA (rip), DAISUKE NAMIKAWA, AND RIE KUGIMIYA LIKE HELLO???? THAT VA BUDGET MUST'VE BEEN FUCKING CRAAAAAAAZY

I really wish I could like the Star Ocean games as much as the next person, but they keep doing this obnoxious thing where they tease a bunch of sci-fi stuff, and we just end up with generic JRPG land. It's a real shame too because getting a mix of characters you want in your party and having different types of adventures and character endings is super super cool!

Star Ocean always sets itself up to be a Sci-Fi type of RPG, from the original one to here, and while I understand that we eventually get there, the world itself is just so blatantly generic that it's honestly not worth the pay off. I truly mean this as some that as played the first game and the second, I don't think either of them are good, and largely it has to do with no planetary travel and lack of sci-fi elements. For the most part Sci-fi elements are introduced 2/3 the way through the games, and often in a way that can be liked to magic. It really is a mess with how generic literally everything feels about this game, and it makes me sad that we do have some honestly good ideas and basic combat here to work with, but as a story Star Ocean 2 still sucks.

Character wise, Star Ocean 2 does a better job with it's overall cast of characters, and with several characters being missable or only obtainable through certain means, Star Ocean 2 can be a pretty unique experience. While I think that some requirements for certain characters can be more than a chore to get, it certainly is interesting to see your cast grow the way you want it, and if you already have knowledge of how the original worked, you can plan ahead and get the members you want through guides, otherwise it will probably be a headache.

Second Evolution doesn't do much to switch up combat or skill based stuff, and while that means it's familiar, it's also got the same kind of flaws the original does. Some of these skills are just not explained to you very well, are next to useless, or effect your character in such a way that it could be a game changer. The problem mainly being you have to use a guide or experiment with it a lot to get exactly what you want, and while that's neat, once you spend the points, you can't unspend them.

Star Ocean just asks so much out of any given player with all the research and experience you need to play them, and what you get in return is mostly a generic JRPG setting with some sort of sci-fi twist in the end. I'm sure some people love these games very much, but for me they were just tiring, boring, and honestly not worth my time. Cute girls tho.