I will never forget the first time I played Final Fantasy VII; my favourite game of all time.
It was 1997. I was eleven years old and my buddy Alex’s dad had just bought this weird Japanese game that we had never heard of.
First of all, this was cool as Hell. My dad wasn’t a gamer and to discover my friend’s was… Well, I just thought he was awesome.
Playing the game felt a bit cheeky, it being Alex’s old man’s and all. It was like we weren’t supposed to play it (we were totally allowed). Alex snuck the disk out of the case and popped it into the PlayStation 1 — The anticipation was unbearable.
I thought it was boring.
I didn’t get it.
The turn-based combat confused me.
READ MORE: Review | Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen (PlayStation 5)
Why can’t I just bash the bad guys?
What’s with all this reading??
Growing up on a steady diet of SEGA classics like Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage, I lived by the mantra: a quick game’s a good game.
EPIPHANY!
Eventually, to show that I was on board with this new, hip game, I asked Alex’s dad if I could borrow it. Distressed, I had it in my head that Alex would check my memory card and decipher that I was a fraud… Unless I actually played the game.
So, I did.
And, having the time to fully immerse myself, I was immediately drawn into the story, the characters and the world-building. I laughed, I cried, I got so angry at the injustice of it all. I learned that taking turns in a fight leaves plenty of time for strategy.
READ MORE: Review | Born of Bread (PlayStation 5)
I think that this was the moment that I became the gamer that I am today. Before, it was a fun pastime, but Final Fantasy VII set me on the path to becoming obsessed with the hobby. But most importantly, it opened me up to the world of Japanese Role-Playing Games.
The Future is JRPG
1998 was an incredible year for fans of JRPGs.
Not only were we all coming down from the high that Final Fantasy VII left us with the year before, but the mid-nineties yielded a plethora of other outstanding titles. The likes of the Breath of Fire games, Wild Arms, Grandia; there were plenty of huge journeys to embark on.
READ MORE: Review | Overwatch 2’s latest hero ‘Mauga’
But little did we know that Japan wasn’t done with us. Some of the best was still to come.
Nintendo really delivered in 1998, with the Australian release of two classics that shaped many gamers of my generation. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and Pokémon (Red and Blue).
Sadly, I didn’t really have access to Zelda, I was a PlayStation and SEGA kid (because SEGA does what Nintendon’t). I had many schoolyard arguments about how superior FFVII was to Ocarina (a stance I still stand by, albeit I concede they are two very different games – and do indeed love me some Zelda), but I did own a Game Boy. And I did play Pokémon. A lot.
After cutting my teeth on these juggernaut games, I found myself digging a little deeper. Scouring the Electronics Boutique shelves for any title with Anime style characters on the casing.
This is how I came to discover Star Ocean: The Second Story.
Star Ocean: The Second Obsession
This game felt like the perfect combination of the captivating storytelling I’d recently come upon, but also the fast-paced action of my SEGA favs.
Second Story was the first JRPG I’d played with real-time battles.
In 1998 this was the game I played to death; I was absolutely engrossed.
The 90s Are Back!
Right now for 90s JRPG fans, our love of that stunning pixel art is coming back with a vengeance.
Sea of Stars, a brand new, old-school-looking Role Player, was nominated for Best RPG at The Game Awards: up against the likes of the newest Final Fantasy and eventual Game-of-the-Year winner Baldur’s Gate 3.
READ MORE: Review | Sea of Stars ‘a solid entry into the pixel-art RPG pantheon’ (PS5)
A lot of other newer games are also using this retro style to tell fresh stories. Just this year I have reviewed two games that make beautiful use of this: Decarnation and Little Goody Two Shoes.
Then there are of course, the remakes.
From the Pokemon: Yellow re-do, Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee and the Ocarina of Time 3DS port a few years ago, to the blockbuster, full rebuild of Final Fantasy VII; all the best are coming back.
As much as I love the FFVII remake and can’t wait for Rebirth next year, the recent Star Ocean: The Second Story R really scratches that nostalgic itch.
Welcome Back
I’d forgotten just how much I’d played the original back in the day. Booting up R for the first time, I was instantly transported back to my pre-teen self, spending hour upon hour delving into this world.
The story sees a young space cadet from Earth, Claude, stranded on a somewhat primitive planet, where he meets local Rena. The two embark on a journey across the land to unravel the mystery behind the recent spike in dangerous monster appearances.
READ MORE: Review | Atari 2600+ ‘Relive the magic’
A simple RPG template, which of course is a lot deeper in the game. But it is this simplicity that really speaks to me. This is the original type of ‘cosy’ game for me. Sure, it’s a little more bloodthirsty than, say, harvesting vegetables, but these JRPGs kind of play out like a visual novel.
And in Star Ocean: The Second Story R’s case, a beautiful visual novel.
Walking into Rena’s village for the first time, it honestly took my breath away. The original game was pretty for the time, with its full 2D, pixel art graphics. But in the remake, they have opted for fully rendered 3D backgrounds, with the original flat character models populating the world. Not unlike the 2.5D look that recent nostalgia hit Octopath Traveller 1 and 2 went with. It is absolutely stunning.
Keeping that original style makes me feel like I’m playing a game from 1998, but with modernised graphics and features.
I don’t mind the grind of some older games. There’s a certain charm in playing games the way they were made back in the day. This was fine when I was a young fella with time to kill. Though, being a dad and working full time now: I ain’t got time for that!
Streamlined Role Playing
Thankfully, The Second Story R, like most modern remakes, is packed with quality-of-life features that make for a cruisier play through, in turn saving you a butt-load of time.
For one, you’ve got autosaves and the option to restart a battle that you just got toweled in. This is huge, for in most old-school RPGs, you have to rely on save points. These are usually stationed at the beginning of a dungeon where you must then bash your way through numerous enemies on your way to the big boss. If you die anywhere along the way, you’re going all the way back to the start.
This feature saves the frustration, allowing you to literally get straight back into the fight. You can make adjustments to your characters if you wish, using skill points to beef them up or change equipment accordingly.
It’s awesome.
Gotta Go Fast!
While still on the topic of saving time, you can fast forward through dialog scenes. Anyone who has played this type of RPG knows what I’m talking about when I say: they can move along at a snail’s pace. If I’m in my cosy zone, I don’t mind taking my time. But if I’m sneaking in a cheeky gaming session before my four-year-old gets out of the bath and it’s my turn for bedtime, fast-forwarding is a blessing. You can still take in all the dialog, just at lightning speed. There is also the option to skip these scenes entirely.
Then there’s a big one: Fast travel.
Too many times these huge ‘open world’ Role Playing Games try to pad out the playtime. They have you backtrack to a town you’ve already passed through for a side quest, or even to advance the main story. This would then entail you traversing back through the world map, ploughing through a constant flow of random encounters to reach this previously explored destination.
READ MORE: Review | Dredge: The Pale Reach DLC (PlayStation 5)
But now, you can just fast travel straight back there, do your deed, and get on with things.
It’s awesome!
Auto-Equip
This remake allows you to pick up and auto-equip new gear. As a kid, I didn’t know what half the things I was acquiring were. I didn’t know that a cutlass was a sword, and what the hell is a buckler? I will always be appreciative when the game tells me that whatever I just picked up is a stronger option to what I already have equipped.
It also saves me from having to dig through all the menus to try and find my new loot, only to determine that it’s a weak piece of trash.
All The Bells and Whistles
The obvious improvements that you would expect with a modern remake are all there: HD/4K resolution, updated character art, difficulty adjustments, next to no loading times and the immersion of voiceovers. But by far my favourite feature, and one that is thankfully becoming a staple of the latest RPGs, is the log.
I am an absolute sucker for tuning out, let the world around me just disappear. Especially when I’m vegging on the couch, mindlessly clicking X while making my way through a dialog scene; my mind will start to wander. When’s lunch? Should I go to the gym? What’s the main event on WWE Raw? Oh damn, what’s going on in this scene again?
READ MORE: Review | Final Fantasy XVI ‘This is why I play Video Games’ (PS5)
Luckily for numbskulls like me, with just a simple press of the R3 button, I can bring up an entire transcript of the scene. I use this way too much.
IT’S AWESOME!
It’s been a treat reliving my childhood memories, in glorious HD, through the wondrous world of Star Ocean has made me feel like a kid again. I’m loving it!
More, More, More!
For dinosaurs such as myself, it truly is a glorious time to be alive. Reliving the glory days of the late ‘90’s JRPGs with up-to-date qualities.
And it’s not slowing down anytime soon, with Konami announcing a remake of the first two Suikoden games on the horizon.
Suikoden is a bit of a hidden gem, another JRPG that I may have put even more time into then Star Ocean. I am beyond excited to revisit its magic. But I never got a chance to play the sequel, which is often touted as one of the best RPGs of all time…
Suikoden II’s year of release? 1998.
The past is the future. I can’t wait.
