Board 8 > Star Ocean: The Second Story R-view zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

eternal sphere my beloved

Feel like I'm losing my mind but I think I'm actually going to go for Opera. I've never done it!

I haven't played this game in a loooong time, so back jn the late teen day there was zero chance I wouldn't want a twin blade user with dual swords.

So who am I supposed to pick at the start

I'm in a stunlock right at the start

first time through claude is probably better. the story from his pov feels more complete i guess id say? theres story scenes where the two are separated and doing their own thing and his give more story. if youre planning on playing both routes its not too big a deal though and you can go with whoever

i'm playing rena first and at least not bothered by whatever i might be missing at the separated points so far

(not disagreeing, this is my first time with the game, just noting)

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Ah yes, a prime fishing spot. An 8" deep fountain in the middle of town.

You can fish in a random vase in a mansion that happens to have water in it. This game's fishing spots are extremely realistic

What's the best party combos if you want to experience all characters in just two playthroughs?

Radix posted...

first time through claude is probably better. the story from his pov feels more complete i guess id say? theres story scenes where the two are separated and doing their own thing and his give more story. if youre planning on playing both routes its not too big a deal though and you can go with whoever

Sounds G to Me

Ashethan posted...

What's the best party combos if you want to experience all characters in just two playthroughs?

claude and rena are both mandatory
leon only joins on claudes route, dias only on rena

ashton and opera are mutually exclusive
ernest can only join if you get opera

bowman and precis are mutually exclusive
of note, precis can only learn a move if you have ashton so if you care about that pair them up
and if you do care about that, welch has a move that can only be learned if you have precis

then pick 2 of celine, noel, and chisato

so what i do is
claude/rena/celine/opera/ernest/bowman/leon/noel
rena/claude/celine/ashton/precis/welch/dias/chisato

but if you dont care about those moves then feel free to mix and match however

small optimization notes
celine and leon have overlap in battle so you can drop celine on claudes route if youd like
ernest has some good armor you can steal (twice) so hes more advantageous on hard difficulty but not strictly necessary
celine is the first member you can recruit so getting her on hard is better as thats faster access to super specialty skills

Yeah, I already turned down Celine. Doing Claude's route first. I just want to be able to experience all the characters. So that looks pretty good to me.

I dont know whats going on but Im level 40 at Hoffman with 1100-1400 ATK on most people

and I would think Ive broken the game given that the stores sell total garbage

but I think if I let up, the enemies will wipe me

so I must be relentless in creating more items

Also where can I get a fourth instrument for Orchestra so that the menu doesnt say New any more

catesdb posted...

and I would think Ive broken the game given that the stores sell total garbage

but I think if I let up, the enemies will wipe me

You're in the zone.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You're in the zone.

it feels good

these are some fantastic menus theyve made

Everything about the presentation is A+.

The decision to change the iconic menu sound effects that the series has been surviving on as it's only redeeming feature for several console generations is an unfortunate one, but the new ones are fine.

did I bounce off of SO3 as a child because all of this was going on in the background and I missed it

i just made some lose 60 fol per minute items and summoned my hawk to sell them immediately

That crushing sense of depression when you realise you forgot to book it to the port town to buy grape juice before the price started skyrocketing. At least it hadn't reached 6 digits yet.

How would this game be for someone who only played SO3 (back when I was younger and had lower standards) and just thought it was okay?

Other than the base genre, as well as some aesthetic and musical similarities they're completely different games.

I fucking hate SO3.

catesdb posted...

Also where can I get a fourth instrument for Orchestra so that the menu doesnt say New any more

EDIT: not triple posting but god was I excited about Combo Link when it showed up

Which three do you have? If you didn't pick up the Lyre in Kurik, you're out of luck for a while. If you did, there's a mission that'll get you the fourth instrument.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Which three do you have? If you didn't pick up the Lyre in Kurik, you're out of luck for a while. If you did, there's a mission that'll get you the fourth instrument.

damn, I missed the Lyre

watch out people

we have broken 2000 ATK on ashton (who cares about this guy? his voice is terrible) and clod

He has

TWO SWORDS OK

two swords AND two dragons!

And wants two barrels

Oh I totally forgot you can't win that fight.

I was psyching myself up.

Ashton is my favorite SO2 character

well there's our answer then

the story is starting to escalate quickly

i am definitely playing SO3 after this

catesdb posted...

the story is starting to escalate quickly

Yesssss

catesdb posted...

i am definitely playing SO3 after this

Noooooo

i would not recommend playing so3 after this

or at all really

okay i've got the fourth instrument for orchestra (and a fifth and a sixth)

this might have crossed over into being too micromanage-y

you really couldn't do IC in batches of 10 in the original?

man disc 2 has been destroying me. my previous strat of get eternal sphere and mash through everything doesnt cut it with all the nerfs :( . things are killing me in a few hits and i dont have enough ores to make better armor. should probably look into better weapons for not claude while im at it. been doing some level grinding which i can manage at least. almost 200k exp a chain!

catesdb posted...

you really couldn't do IC in batches of 10 in the original?

nope lol. and you couldnt skip the animation either

Radix posted...

i dont have enough ores to make better armor

me at alchemy 8: usually it'll at least show the level 9 item but i guess not? oh well

me at alchemy 9: ok i guess there is no level 9 item

me at alchemy 10: alright so it must be gated behind the special item i don't have

me at what i assume is disk 2: it's all happening

ah alchemy theres a skill ive never used. i guess i should look at it more than not at all!

ah yeah, having one character with alchemy seems required if you wanna do anything with gems in bulk

finally got my copy, amazon was out of stock and my local gamestop didn't have it so i drove 35 miles to another city which had multiple copies for switch. just met the king of krosse and explored krosse cave. gonna try and go grind up the mountain like i did around this time in the og version with those tough enemies to get tons of exp when i get home from work

yo alchemy kinda nice. either that or the levelling >>

got chisato and turned in all those challenges id built up. lot of fol there and hey some more battle skills. also another assist which ive only used once on accident because i never remember they are a thing

i have claude level 25 with a walloon sword going to clik(sp?). fishing is a lot of fun and a great way to make a ton of money easily

i am getting opera this first playthrough because i almost always get ashton since he is such a massive physical attacking monster. i have played the ps1/psp version probably 7 or 8 times total but it has been years since my last playthrough and the additions they made are so great

star ocean 3 is fine

until it isn't

Well got infinite money. Cinderella Glass stacks with Secret Account (explicitly stacks, the menu popup even states it is 35%). Combined with 30% discount from group appraisal and the corresponding buff to sell value...

Buying grape juice for less than it sells for. Went back and forth until I went from 100k to 10million fol.

kek

really hoping things pop off when I find this Magical Rasp, Im not outscaling stuff nearly as much nowadays

got opera and welch. opera is severely underleveled but i am currently grinding in the sanctuary of linga or sacred grounds now to get her at least to 30. she has an x clip and is hitting hard already at least

catesdb posted...

really hoping things pop off when I find this Magical Rasp, Im not outscaling stuff nearly as much nowadays

this turned out to be because

i increased the difficulty to universe

then thought i had turned it back down

but i actually had not

i just realized there were higher level missions i could report on so now i have like 900k fol and plan on buying a couple seltzer/fancy grape juice to sell in nede

made it to the last dungeon aw yeah

and also those kurik fish are indeed elsewhere with the possible exception of one but it seems like secondary areas dont show up until you actually go there so i probably just havent been to the area yet

My Amazon preorder finally shipped

Square Enix severally underproduced physical copies

I would like to be able to mark an item as a favorite

star ocean 3 is good these dweebs don't know good from bad

also lots of great qol stuff in this remake