Square Enix has gone above and beyond with its treatment of Tri-Ace’s PS1 all-timer.

Things have been rough for Star Ocean for a minute, but it seemed like things were turning around. A new iteration of First Departure came out, featuring new character art and voice acting. Then The Divine Force launched, which I certainly thought was a banger. It was weird that we didn’t see a Second Evolution counterpart before or after Divine Force. Turns out regardless if Star Ocean 6 was a hit or not, Square Enix had the red carpet ready to roll out for Star Ocean 2 with a brand new remake. 

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a full-blown remake of the 1998 PlayStation original. It reuses the character sprites, but everything else is redone, redrawn, or revamped. There is also some content from the PSP remake, such as the English dub and alternative character portraits and music. It’s a new remake, but Square Enix acknowledges previous efforts as a nice garnish for the folks who’d notice.

Regardless of how familiar you are with Star Ocean 2, if at all, this new version is visually arresting from the jump. It’s a mixture of 2D sprites with 3D environments, but this isn’t simply another game using the “HD-2D” engine like Live A Live. This is its own thing, and it’s gorgeous. The world is brightly colored, awash with light, and accented with dark shadows. There’s a slight angle to the camera as well, and the world moves with your character almost like you’re walking across a globe. It looks like an effect you’d see in a film , but something only possible with an artificial camera.

What’s really interesting about Star Ocean is it’s kind of a Japanese RPG response to Star Trek. Aside from the obvious shared genre, I mean. It’s called something different here, but the “Prime Directive” concept is a driving force behind the motivations and conflicts encountered in this series. It’s part of why, despite it being a fairly common complaint, Star Ocean typically starts you out in an overtly sci-fi setting but doesn’t take long to dump you into a more traditional, fantasy-styled place. 

The Prime Directive, as portrayed in Star Trek, is simple: advanced civilizations that agree to join the Federation (Space America) cannot interfere in civilizations that are less technologically advanced. And much like in Star Trek, Star Ocean games pit their heroes in situations that force them to reckon with the moral consequences of that rule. Each game is often a window into a specific kind of response. 

For example, the first Star Ocean plays it straight, justifying the Planet Preservation Pact (UP3) by showing bad guys going out of their way to mess with primitive planets for capital and military gain. Star Ocean 2 muddies the waters a bit, and asks you when, if at all,  the UP3 should be challenged. And more importantly, what are the costs of following it? Star Ocean 2 knows it’s a dilemma, and strongly believes you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. So what starts out as an ostensibly typical, 90s RPG plot goes to some places I’d more expect to see in an old Gundam series. It isn’t afraid to use hard sci-fi genre staples to infuse real-world issues into its fantastical story.

Going through the story means lots of combat, which is the second major piece of Star Ocean 2 and the series’ whole identity. Star Ocean shares DNA with the Tales series, marrying the stats and menu management genre staples with real-time, action combat that feels more like Final Fight than Dragon Quest. In Second Story R, combat is as rambunctious as ever, with so much speed and visual noise it can be hard to parse what’s happening at times. Frankly, it can be a detriment, as an encounter could quickly go south without a discernible warning if I wasn’t paying close attention at times. 

That said, there are a lot of modern additions to combat that simply weren’t present in the original game, such as a dodge and more modern targeting mechanics. Combat feels a lot smoother and more responsive as a result, which helps a ton in those “aw crap, I gotta pay attention” moments. You also have a parrying option with “Break,” rewarding you for risky plays but leaving yourself open if you make a mistakes. Another odd new addition is “Assault Action,” which lets you summon heroes from other Star Ocean games for little bursts of fan servicey dopamine. It’s cute, even if it doesn’t add much.

The most streamlining happens in Star Ocean 2’s vast, obtuse progression system. Like the first game, Star Ocean 2 has a massive list of skills each character can learn, fueled by points you earn for leveling up and performing other tasks. Some of these skills make no intuitive sense and lack a clear explanation, such as “Penmanship.” But as your options expand, you unlock synergistic skills that combine to let you craft equipment, materials and even things new skills for other characters, which they can learn without spending points. That’s how it all pans out under the hood, anyway.

Even in the more recent PSP versions, these skills, how they worked, and their real utility was vague and really hard to understand. This time, Star Ocean 2 R goes out of its way to make sure each of these microsystems makes sense. It’s achieved through help text, visual aids (animations, etc), functional record-keeping, and so on. This system has evolved from a weird, grindy mystery to an engaging set of small crafting systems that feed off each other to reward you with anti-grinding technology, powerful weapons, and bizarre abilities you wouldn’t see otherwise. Also there’s fishing and cooking, and RPG sickos love fishing and cooking.

Square Enix has really dipped into its pool of bench-warmers lately, both revisiting old classics and reviving long-lost history. Star Ocean 2 is one of the more obvious choices, as the original is considered one of the best games Tri-Ace ever made. And rather than simply porting the PSP version again like the first game, this new remake is a home run. From gorgeous visuals taking me entirely by surprise to the airtight streamlining making all the Old Game parts feel good to engage with, Star Ocean: The Second Story R hits all the beats I hoped it would and takes it several steps further. If you’re someone who likes the kind of notes a PS1-era RPG hits but somehow haven’t played Star Ocean 2, you need this game in your life. For longtime Star Ocean fans, it’s a no-brainer. I know you’ve been planning to replay this thing anyway; treat yourself to something a little spruced up.

• Score: 8

This review is based on a code provided by the publisher.