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Unless they changed it for the Remake, there's two things that you missed: Welch - Including Claude and Rena, you need to have recruited at least 4 characters or else she won't show when you initiate a PA in Lacour. Also, if you want her, you NEED to get her before you complete the Hoffman Ruins, otherwise she'll be missable for the entire playthrough Chisato - After the lengthy conversation with Mayor Nall, just outside of his office building, you need to take the *Left/West* path (Not sure which direction they'll use for the Remake due to the new camera angle). You'll know you took the correct path if you see a giant Pink Bunny blocking off some stairs. You'll also see Chisato a little down the path. Move towards her and she'll panic and run off. Next, in North City, you must find Chisato again. It shouldnt be too hard this time since you should trigger her scene by simply heading towards the Psynard breeding center. She'll run off again when you spot her. Only after all this is done can you trigger the scene of her dropping her ID Card in the Red Crystal Cave. You can accidently miss Chisato if you didn't view the scene of her in Centroplis. It happened to me in my first playthrough of Second Evolution which pissed me off to no end because I loved using her back during the original Playstation. Had to restart the entire game because of that!

This should be helpful! :0 Thank you for taking the time to create this guide

Dias Claude Rena and Celine are the top 4, magic casting and 2 epic attackers.

Man, do I love the OST for this game... always evokes some serious nostalgia with me. One of the first JRPGs I got for my PlayStation back in the day. Comforting to know I wasn't the only person overcome with emotions when that Direct hit us with SMRPG and SS:R back to back-to-back 😂

Can't wait for this to come out. I was always a Claude, Rena, Dias and Ashton Guy. With trophies in R I bet there will be a trophy for getting all the characters. So thanks for posting because I need a little bit of a refresher.

Thanks for this breakdown. I have played the original way waaaaaay back and I'm happy to see some quality of life changes are there for sure. I'm not set on who to put in my party. Started with Claude and alsways good to have Rena for her heals. I really like Opera and my 4th might be Leon or Dias, not sure yet. Subscribed to follow more of your content.

Awesome vid - bringing back old memories. Excited to play again

Its worth noting that you don't have to leave towns to enter private actions in the remake. One of my takeaways from the demo.

Great video! Will keep this advice in mind, when playing. Excited for it's release!!!!! So close

Just started star ocean. Im loving the story so far ! Very fun. Thabka for your videos !

I haven't played this since it first came out so it's SO good to have the updated version in my hands again. Thanks for all this information. I'd honestly forgotten how to get Opera and Ernest.

Good guide! I think ima try that character listing for Rena and eventually, Claude 😎

Ran across your vid while doing research for my own tier list. Loved the format. Subbed.

Great video! I can't wait to play this game! Loved the PSP and PS versions. Easy sub. Cheers!

Leon and Celine work great in the og. You just need to combo their spells for amazing damage and to play against elemental weaknesses. Leon has a goblin lizard spell that can be combined with a couple different spells. Position it correctly and you create a meat grinder. Especially when boosted with a spell combo.

Bro! I was skipping around to see the character recruits and didn't notice you had a wig on. I nearly died, looks fly ass hell ngl

Already got my recruits figured out: Claude Rena Rena Claude Celine Opera Ashton Welch Precis Bowman Leon Ernest Noel Dias Chisato Chisato For Claude's playthrough I'm gonna try a mage only run (Rena, Celine, Leon, Noel) and for Rena's a fighter only run (Opera, Bowman/Ernest, Chisato, Claude/Dias/Welch). All on Universe difficulty. I've played through both older versions of this game a lot back in the day so I think I'm ready (I hope D:)

Good stuff, here!!!! This more or less applies to the remake as well, 100%! Hopefully ppl like Ernest will be tooled to be more effective fighters, and seems spellcasters will be more effective late-game! (and yes it's Noel like Christmas, not 'Nowl' like I thought back in the day! Same with Pre-sis... not Press-e's!)

6:56 I wouldn't say Welch has "no stand-out traits". She has one of the best Basic Attacks in the game, tied with Ashton, and she has the highest LUCK by far, which makes her the best at Item Creation (which fits her whole recurring role as handling it in other games).

My playthrough as a kid went Claude/Rena/Celine/Ashton and I fully intend on running that the first playthrough of this, to squeeze every drop of nostalgia I can from this.

Before i play? Nah im going in RAW like how i was a kid when i first played this gods damned masterpiece.

Never got to play the OG but i just finished remake just now. Clyde rena dias celine was fun af. Bowman n noel "forced" their way in because i didn't realize privet party was a thing till fun city😂. But definitely going to slow down and look into more of the raid bosses on NG+. Hitting lvl 102 on 1st playthrough blew my mind. Thought 99 was going to be max😂. Huge FF fan so i had to give it a try. Best choice I've made in years! Ty for vid now i can scoop up a few different characters and nab a few more achievements

I've always wanted to get into star ocean and second R looks like a GREAT starting point but the way u get party members canda worried me, so a guide like this is amazing and I can't wait for the game to release.

My favourite four in the original was always Claude/Rena/Ashton/Precis. I'm tempted to recruit Opera & Earnest instead though since I never really used them but I might save that for the Rena playthrough since I think it'd be more nostalgic to pick the former. The other four for the Claude playthrough would be Celine, Leon, Chisato & Noel. That way I've an equal amount of fighters & casters. My one main gripe with the remake is that I would have liked the option to use the original script/place names, even if it meant no voice acting. I grew up with the PS1 version & I didn't like some of the changes in the PSP one. I'm not talking about the Wise men censorship, just the way some of the dialogue was reworded made the characters a bit less charming imo. Thanks for making the video!

the party i ran most on the ps1 and the party im going to start with on the remake is rena claude dias and ashton, i had multiple playthroughs though and recruited everyone at one point and used them all, to try and get my sound board filled. in the remake i will probably recruit everyone and with your video i will grab the parties you have listed to try everyone out. i hope they change some of the recruiting and let you do ashton/opera in one playthrough, but i doubt it seems like the game is going to be the same story wise

GREAT VIDEO!!

Omg. Your hat (wig?) is amazing 😂 I want one. Subbed

Great video ^^

I wonder if Vegh Esther knows they're a SO2 celebrity even after all these years.

I'm super excited for this game! So happy Square Enix is remaking it. Looks pretty awesome! Hmm. I'd always main Rena in my playthru as a kid. I think I'd try Rena, Celine, Dias, and Claude maybe. We'll see! In my Claude playthru Leon kept getting destroyed.

Great breakdown -- looking forward to how they may have made some of the recruiting less convoluted since a few characters had easily missable prerequisites, especially for new players. I've also always been curious if there's any measurable data regarding players' preferences with Opera/Ashton or Bowman/Precis.

My first playthrough of this game as a kid, I somehow picked all the worst characters and lemme tell you, Gabriel humbled me HARD for my choices. Ain't gonna stop me from doing it again just to relive the magic(pain)

a) i love that this channel is covering this game, its -the best- JRPG ever made as far as I'm concerned. b) I don't agree on the 'best party' advice though -- I've played this game like 6 times since I was a kid and I feel like Claude, Opera, Precis and Chisato outperform the variant with Dias

i platinumed few days ago first departure. cant wait to get this game!

This is the first time I will be playing any star ocean game, thanks I already have a team in mind. Didn't know there's a game mechanics like this that you can't get all characters.

I had a lot of fun back in the day with Claude, Chisato, Bowman, and Opera... all fighters with a healing Killer Move. Put on that and a good attack (dragon howl, @-1, 10k volts, explosive pills) and watch them go to work. It's arguably one of the stongest teams if you're going through the hidden dungeon to unlock the true final boss.

As a remake this game should have let you collect every character in one playthrough so you can just enjoy everything and play again for either Claudes or Rena's playthrough. That way you wouldn' have to waste time searching online how to get this or that character. As if us humans dont have enough on our plate.

Love me some Star Ocean 2nd Story and I can't wait to sink my teeth into the Remake. The demo has got me seriously jonesing! It probably won't be on my first playthrough, but I kinda do want to try an all-caster party of Rena, Celine, Leon, and Noel just to see if it can be done. It'll probably be hard as hell, but still it'd be fun to try once I figure out wgat changes the Renake will bring.

i just wanna hear my boy yell out ' SPLOSION PILLS '

Super helpful video

I am hyped!!

Amazing video! Can't wait to try the mages out.

I'm gonna save this for my send play through. I got to do it on my own the first time. Also had to change to to psp music.

My first time playing all i had was Claude, Rena, Celine, Bowman, and Noel. It was my first RPG and didnt know about character recruiting until second playthrough.

To Welch's PA and recruit her, you need at least four party members, and you can't do it after getting Bowman, so you need two of Celine, Ashton, Precis (who can actually be recruited even before the tournament), or Opera. To recruit Chisato, you need to see her stalking you in Central City (leave the Mayor's building and go left toward the inn), and North City (on the way to the Synard lab), for her to appear in the Cave of Red Crystal. I wouldn't be surprised if these scenes became compulsory in R like Ernest's. I agree with the party recruitment you suggest in this video per-playthrough for various story reasons, however regarding the "best party", I think you're overselling Dias a bit. Bowman can easily fill that slot in a Claude game. It's tough to say anything definitive since R has changed mechanics, but I do expect Claude Rena Ashton Dias / Claude Opera Bowman Chisato to remain extremely dominant parties.

i can attest to Rena, Claude , Dias and Ashton for Rena's playthrough, it's the team that got me through the final bosses. I had my AI fighters hammer the bosses while i SPAMMED healing magic playing as Rena.

You can use Noel on a playthrough that doesn't take Opera for healing in a Bloody Armor setup. Rena couldn't equip the armor, but Noel could. My first time beating Unlimited was with Claude, Ashton, Dias, and Noel in Bloody Armors actually. It IS a cheesy ass strat for sure, but if you really want to use it, and really want Ashton while doing so, Noel is your best bet.

Hey just getting into this series do you recommend the first game or someplace to jump into it?

My original 8 party members when i first played it in PS1 is Rena, Claude, Celine, Ashton, Diaz, Precis, Chisato, and Noel. My favorite party formation is Chisato, Precis, Rena, and Ashton. This formation can stunlock/corner enemies even bosses including Indalencio limiter off. Chisato with Tear Gas, Precis with Parabola Beam, and Ashton with Dragon's Breath while Rena applies Angel Blessing (?) buff to each character. But sometimes I sub out Ashton with someone else because Chisato+Precis combo is enough.

Ah, my team, nice to see them again. Love how this series operated...you know in games 2 and 3 with several slots that you can fill how you want, and with unique characters that actually learn different skills and play almost completely uniquely thanks to their weapons, so no one's an obvious duplicate...some share some things but not completely. Meanwhile 1 and 4 are mostly picking between ANOTHER attacker or mage, 5 you have all of them and 6...is uniquely interesting in how it does combat so it's less a case of picking for that, and mostly picking who you want to adventure with storywise. And since other than a few characters in 4(And ALL of 5) the SO franchise characters are well written and grounded in their world, it's a nice choice to have.

I'm sorry but I just almost died laughing when I saw the blonde wig when it first showed you. Sub gained just for that 💀 😂

I've played a couple of the newer star ocean games so this'll be my first time playing this one and I can't wait to try it! Out of curiousity, does it matter if I start Claude or Rena's story first?

My party comp when I first played this all the way back on the PS1 was Claude, Rena, Celine (I love my Black Mage Waifus, even back then), and Ashton (His design just spoke to me)

Claude’s pov will be Claude Rena Chisato/Bowman Opera Rena’s Pov Claude Rena Ashton Dias/Chisato Either way Claude, Rena, and Chisato will be in the group. It really looks like they may balance out some characters and I’m excited to see what they’ll do.

The younger me who only found out there were characters you could miss via GameFaq and all of it's word art glory appreciates this so much. Protect this man at all costs. Long Live Black Claude Kenny

Rena main, claude dias and opera, she becomes backup healer and set up properly makes up for time when you hafta heal status or give buffs. I dont have much love for casters in this my second fav game ever but i love renas playthrough and i love healing

I get it now, the blonde hair with a red bandana is a tribute to Claude... this makes this video pleasant to watch.

I remember on my first playthrough as a kid my party was: Core party: Claude Rena (Story) Ashton Precis Reserved party: Celine Noel Dias Chisato Noel for me at high level worked great!

been lookin for somethin like this. thanks 😁

Since one of my favorite ps2 games of all time was SO3 (i pretend the endgame twist never happened) i decided to play my first playthrough of SO2 blind with Rena. Watching this Im excited to try some other characters on my second playthrough as Claude. Got Dias, Celine, Ashton, Precis, Noel and Welch on my team. I really like controlling Dias but am actually having a lot of fun playing as Noel too - interesting to see how hated he is. Im around lvl 68 atm. I see why SO2 has been hailed my many as the best SO game.

16:19 Oh my God, I went with these 4 when I played this game as a kid and I remember finishing the Maze of Tribulations with this party, they are the best, tried and tested!

i played many times through each side. my 1st play I took claude, rena, ashton celine. after many different combinations i found the better groups was claude, ernest, rena, celine. fighting the final boss in the cave of trials and her sister afterwards this group did the best. the playstation version had an issue with your killers, if a boss would block it you are in slow time trying to complete it while they can move at hyperspeed. so to beat the boss you needed to have the eternal sphere weapon and spark whip/celestial bangle (cant remember if that is the actual name of it) (ashton attacked fast enough that you didnt need the celestial bangle from the final cave boss but you had to manually use him to only do his swing 1 attack but fast enough to pincer the boss between claude). the addition sparks that each of these added to the manual attacks made juggling the angels easier. celine was there to use her magic to stop the boss, you could also use items to hit the boss forcing them to stop. allowing you to reset the group to resume the clubbing again. The PSP version fixed the manual attacking and made it hard but you could more freely use the killers. this is where Ernest wins, his rose bloom killer spawned under multiple sections, partially tracks the enemy and can hit aerial targets. i took everyones advice that he sucked and never wanted to use him but opera was great. she was ok better than bowman on dps, worse on longevity, she doesnt regen enough MP per battle to make her worth it. noel to my experience did in fact suck and was a regret to have. get chisato before getting noel plz

From my experience in the OG: Ashton was my favorite. I always named him after myself but Opera from my understanding (never picked her in all my playthroughs) is BA with her laser gun. I was never able to defeat Unlimited Indalecio. Fought him so many times the battles would last for hours. After nearly 4 hours I almost killed him but he got me. Limited Indelico wasn't too difficult.

I have only played the original Star Ocean 2 PS1 version so, playing Welch is gonna be something else. I'm actually excited for this version.

Greetings from Brazil! This is my fav Star Ocean title, need to confess, the better game in the franchise for me. I've so many great memories and extreme good feelings during my journey with Claude and Rena, I've played this so many times and I really don't know the number of my playthrougs. You make me remeber some points of recruit that I just forget, but, I might be wrong since I don't remember the exactly situation... The quest involving Ashton and the sick little girl is possible only in Claude's route, isn't? And the PAs involving Celine and the Krosse prince is possible only in Rena's route. The two quest/PAs unlocks exclusive endings for both Ashton and Celine. Please tell me if I'm wrong, I really don't remember these details! Thanks for the vid, it's an amazing recruit guide!

Cool video :) I really liked the game back in the day, but I have to admit one reason why it would never be above Suikoden (especially 2) for me is that I absolutely loathe to have to decide which character to gets. It is an integral part of the game, but I simply could never not get Ashton because he is awesome and I am sure I will never get Opera and Ernest this time around either sadly.

Thanks!

Love the hair men lol😅

Great vid. Think im going with Rena/Claude/Dias/Opera for my first playthrough myself. Have actually never used that party and it seems broken and fun and I actually like all 4. (don't care for Noel or Ernest.)

Btw I just took a look at the gameplay trailer and I noticed during a certain segment they have Dias and Opera/Ernest in the same party, do you think they might allow us to recruit everyone in this version of the game? It occurs at 3:43 sec of the Sep 14th trailer. AT least it shows Dias as an assist action, so not entirely sure if that means he is recruited or just usable as an assist for a portion of the story? But honestly I wouldn't mind being able to recruit everyone but it does sort of take away the replay value for picking claude/rena if that is the case. Or maybe we can recruit anyone in this version but only up to 8 characters? Not quite sure what it could be mean but it is interesting.

I never found Leon annoying. I love playing Claude and keeping my teams even I would have Claude, Rena, Leon and Chisato and then I swapped Ashton, Noel, Celine, Precis. I had a weird thing of keeping everyone the same levels and ability usage around the same as well.

Man, this game got me to use guides back in the day. Seeing videos like this of the remake is scaring me like it's a jrpg version of Baldur's gate 3.

Enjoyed the video and didn’t know getting Ashton prevented you from getting Ernest and Opera. Dias is definitely the best character in my personal opinion and with the rebuilding on the game that they did it’ll be cool making him leader and physically running around with him. Looking forward to the release of this game 🔥

I have the OG PS1 version, If you invest in the correct skills you can make up for short comings. If you skilled right you could make Rena at least for the first half of the game on par or even stronger than Claude and Ashton. Celine has a wider elemental spell range she gets infintely better with Motormouth and spell speed items. I chose her over Leon who mostly deals in Dark and chance to insta-kill Magic which doesn't work on Bosses especially Serpahic Gate content. Despite the skill buffs though Ernest was still trash, I hope they balance him because yes he can be used but there are way better and easier options especially on Universe Difficulty.

i've actually fawned over Celine mostly for the english voice. i did not expect to see a jab at that in the video lol.

I’ve never played a star ocean before. Got this one pre ordered the demo was just so insane. This art style is just fantastic

Heh, I usually always chose Precis and Ashton in my party. I never really got to recruit Opera and Ernest, nor Bowman. This time around, I may try and get them to see what they're like.

And furthermore, Celine's English VA, Megan Hollingshead is one of my favorites. Outshined only by the magnificent Eden Riegel as Rena.

Besf team set up is 4 people with bloody armor Take control of Opera and just spam her healing spell over and over. At Proficiency 999 it will aoe heal for 9,999 The other 3 characters can be who ever you want snice this set up will let you kill any super boss on the hardest Difficulty while watching a different tv show. Just make sure you hit the heal button every 1 sec and you can just afk jt.

Hello im new to this game and i want to play just 2 playtrough, can i follow this recommendation for recruit? Is this all characters include? And story related?

My line up since ~2001 Claude for physical damage. Rena for healing. Ashton for back up physical damage. Precis for me just liking her vibe.

Nice video. Just be mindful that some steps might differ slightly in the remake. We already know that it's not necessary to do a PA in Krosse in order to witness Ernest passing us by. Similiar things might be the case for other characters. Edit: And oh god, why do you have to give Vegh any credit or attention. Lol

I've played this game so many times on PSP, and am definitely getting it again and I still am not sure what my first part is gonna be. I love Bowman and Precis, Opera is so good but also Ashton (I recall people saying Ernest was good in the PSP remake but my party was pretty set in games I recruited him). I may actually get Leon for once, because I never used magic in SO2 so I never recruited Leon in any playthrough haha

I can get Opera still if I am playing through Rena playthrough right? Just wanna make sure. She seems fun XD

Can you perhaps do a guide on talents? If the introduction to Ashton was anything to go by, they'll be important.

Celine English voice actor in second evolution is amazing

From what I could tell. They added a system to the combat where you can do combos with characters not in your party. Kind of like a tag team thing where they pop up for a few seconds. From the explanation of the gameplay, it seems to insinuate that you can actually get all of the characters if you want to and have them as backup characters. If that’s the case, that would make things quite interesting.

I haven’t played this game yet but when I do, I will have Rena, Claude, Ashton, and Dias as my party for Rena and Claude, Rena, Opera, and Ernest as my party for Claude.

Gotta give it to He Who Shall Not Be Named. Dudes trolling was so good we still remember his obsession with Bloody Armors lol.

Love chisato character design with electric baton😂

Black cloud kenny made me subscribe

never played the first two games (really only ever played 5 and i loved that one) after some research im gonna go with with rena as my main her "brother" welch (my favorite character in 5 and really the only character i really remember lol) and the dude protagonist as my main four the other 4 dont really care ill figure that out as i go next week lol all i know is rena is always gonna be my main ive had a huge crush on eden riegel for the longest time and always enjoy any character she voices lol

My party will be Claude - Rena - Leon and Ashton. Im really excited to see Leon's spells in the remake

My Og Team from Ps1! Rena, Claude, Celine, Ashton, Prescis, Dias, Noel, and Chisato!

Good video

My favorite characters were Claude, opera, bowman, chisato. Pictures of party healing, self healing ,long range, mid-range and close range attacks, and no spell casting!

I was on the fence to watch this video or not since it's my first time playing. I decided not to because I think it's more fun to play it blind and if my character choices are terrible or if I miss strong characters it might be a memorable tough first playtrough. But I appreciate your video idea and it's probably very helpful for completionists that don't want to have many playtroughs.

Thanks for this! Sad that I can't use Ashton for a mostly waifu playthrough but I will survive!

I don't remember Welch in the original SO2 on the PlayStation so she might be a new addition in the more modern games.