Star Ocean The Second Story R Team Discuss the Remake’s Unique Presentation

Famitsu recently interviewed the Star Ocean team regarding the newly announced Star Ocean The Second Story R. One question asked about this title’s standout presentation, comprising a mixture of now popular HD-2D style with 3D exploration.

The Star Ocean The Second Story R producer and director, Yuichiro Kitao, replied that newly crafted efforts were pursued with this title specifically, with new shaders.

You can view the full question and answer below, translated via our team’s Ryuji:

Interviewer: The game has a beautiful appearance, but the pixel characters also give a sense of nostalgia. This art style reminds me of HD-2D in Octopath Traveler, but is it different from that?

Kitao: As you can see, the visuals in this title are a little different from HD-2D titles. The backgrounds are composed as a 3D world in real-time rather than pixels, and the characters in the game are depicted with special shaders prepared for this title specifically.

By injecting pixel characters into the expansive 3D world, we have developed the game with the aim of creating visuals that make the memories of your cherished adventures stand out in greater detail as if those nostalgic characters were firmly present in the current world.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R will feature fully voiced event scenes with the original voice cast, a newly arranged soundtrack by original composer Motoi Sakuraba with new songs, including some with a live band, as well as the new Break and Assault Action combat mechanics.

Players can anticipate two selectable protagonists, Claude and Rena, akin to the recently released Star Ocean The Divine Force. The Earth, Galaxy, and Universe difficulties will also be implemented. Further, the developer is Gemdrops, known for porting Star Ocean: The Second Evolution to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan.

• Check out our announcement coverage for more information.
• View the collector’s edition.

Further, subtitle support for the following languages will be added:

• French
• Italian
• German
• Spanish

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is releasing for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on November 2, 2023.