If you haven’t picked up Star Ocean: The Second Story R yet, the version just released on Nintendo Switch 2 is an excellent place to start.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a “new-to-me” game, but one that instantly piqued my interest because it’s a JRPG, my favorite video game genre. I had an opportunity to check out the game before it released on the console and was happy to check it out. The story is a 2.5D remaster of Star Ocean: The Second Story, which was originally released in 1998. While initially released for the Nintendo Switch in 2023, the game has now been ported to the Nintendo Switch 2 as well.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Developed by: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: July 16, 2026
In Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the player chooses between Claude C. Kenny, a Federation officer thrown across the galaxy, or Rena, a young girl from a relatively primitive world, and plays out the story from one of those points of view. Depending on the choices made, multiple different story endings can be unlocked.
For this review, I played from Claude’s perspective and used the easiest difficulty.
The Star Ocean games are completely new to me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. Let me say first of all that, while Star Ocean The Second Story R is the second game in the Star Ocean franchise, it’s a perfect jumping on point for anyone new to the series. Everything you need to know about gameplay is broken down into tutorials
The world building is also done in such a way that the player feels completely drawn into the story. Once the main plot kicks in, it takes almost no time at all to go from quest to quest, until suddenly you realize you’re three hours in and you have no desire to stop. I also appreciated how the Fast Travel system makes it possible to hop from town to town to work on side quests before returning to the main story.
Another game detail I quickly fell in love with is how the player can spend points to upgrade stats for the various characters in the party. This can provide a huge boost in combat, and if you concentrate on boosting a select number of stats, like attack and defense, then it’s entirely possible to make combat a relative breeze. The trick is to keep consistently boosting up stats, because the game has a habit of spiking in difficulty in unexpected places.
Then there’s how the game plays on Nintendo Switch 2. While I have no frame of reference for how the game played originally, it looks incredible on the Switch 2. The visuals are completely smooth, the UI is well organized and a lot of players will likely appreciate how well the game plays in both handheld and TV mode. I can’t get over how detailed the environment is, especially in the towns. There was a lot of care put into this game and it shows in nearly every frame.
As someone coming in blind to the world of Star Ocean in the year 2026, I was completely blown away by how Star Ocean: The Second Story R played out on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you, like me, are new to the Star Ocean games, this is the perfect place to start.
