Star Ocean: The Second Story R devs talk difficulty and battle adjustments, new features and more

This week has brought us a deluge of information for Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Right out of the game with the game’s announcement, we’ve gotten trailers, gameplay footage, artwork, screens, and a humongous breakdown from Square Enix themselves. While that’s been plenty to dig through, it turns out there’s even more info out there to share.

Famitsu magazine recently had the chance to chat with Yuichiro Kitao from Gemdrops Inc, the director and producer of Star Ocean: The Second Story R. In the interview, we get to learn about tweaks to the gameplay, difficulty adjustments, the decision to forego the modern logo, the new 3D environment and pixel art visuals, and more. You can see a complete roundup of the details below, courtesy of Siliconera.

• this remake came about due to the recent growth in interest for the series
• this entry is one of the most popular with fans, & Square Enix received many remake requests
• the logo for the game was designed to closely resemble that of the original PlayStation game
• the remake will include the same character voices from Star Ocean Second Evolution on PSP
• events in the remake will be fully voiced
• the difference between Star Ocean Second Story R and HD-2D titles is that the world of the remake is recreated in 3D graphics, rather than three-dimensional pixel art
• the game’s difficulty has been completely reworked from scratch, particularly battles
• this was done to adjust the tempo, hit feedback, skill effects, rage, and frame data for moves
• the goal is to make this a stress-free and “easy” game for players to enjoy
• time freezing during techniques has been lowered in favor of a speedier gameplay rhythm
• characters outside the active party can now join in combat as “assist” type characters
• some mid-game bosses have been strengthened
• new side-quests that offer better equipment and items have been included
• the three difficulty levels included in Second Story R are the same as in the original game
• players can freely switch between all three difficulties during the game