I was inspired by Sullla and T-Hawk to start doing challenge runs of Star Ocean 2's remake. Star Ocean 2 is a PS1 era action RPG which is best known for three things - being a real-time take on the "standard" JRPG formula that heavily borrows tropes from both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, having extremely extensive crafting mechanics, especially for an action RPG, and being made by tri-Ace of Valkyrie Profile fame. The original game had a lot of weird jank, which the remake largely removes and smoothens out with some quality of life additions. That said, neither version is perfect - while I definitely prefer the remake overall, it tends to get too easy during normal play, while the original's jank mostly makes it feel mediocre and tedious.
To that end, I decided to do a bunch of solo runs, both for challenge and for academic curiosity. The game doesn't play particularly worse when dealt with a solo member - in fact, a lot of mechanics feel tailored to a solo fighter scenario, like perfectly dodging blows or evading frontal beam attacks, and regular play with all four party members often gets quite chaotic.
Sample Image
These runs do away with a lot of the clutter above by only featuring the actions of my controlled character and the enemies, thus letting me more accurately assess each character and their movesets.
My challenge follows these rules: Ruleset Link
I have written reports for six characters:
Claude's Solo Run
Rena's Solo Run
Celine's Solo Run
Ashton's Solo Run
Dias' Solo Run
Leon's Solo Run
But I'm not done yet, of course. I still have seven characters to go through. I will update this thread whenever I write reports on them. I don't know how regular I will be, but I will try to keep a steady pace.
Alright, hope you enjoy these!
To that end, I decided to do a bunch of solo runs, both for challenge and for academic curiosity. The game doesn't play particularly worse when dealt with a solo member - in fact, a lot of mechanics feel tailored to a solo fighter scenario, like perfectly dodging blows or evading frontal beam attacks, and regular play with all four party members often gets quite chaotic.
Sample Image
These runs do away with a lot of the clutter above by only featuring the actions of my controlled character and the enemies, thus letting me more accurately assess each character and their movesets.
My challenge follows these rules: Ruleset Link
I have written reports for six characters:
Claude's Solo Run
Rena's Solo Run
Celine's Solo Run
Ashton's Solo Run
Dias' Solo Run
Leon's Solo Run
But I'm not done yet, of course. I still have seven characters to go through. I will update this thread whenever I write reports on them. I don't know how regular I will be, but I will try to keep a steady pace.
Alright, hope you enjoy these!