What’s up everyone? Alex here! As a fan of many turn-based JRPGs - many of
which I’ve talked about on this channel - I’m always on the lookout for ways to
help other turn-based fans acclimate themselves to action RPG gameplay. In this video, I want to help new Star Ocean
players, as well as fans of turn-based RPGs, acclimate to The Second Story R’s combat
system! My goal for this video is to provide you with
foundational knowledge that will give you the confidence to build upon it so that you
can fully enjoy its combat system just as much as I have! To help you on your journey, I’ve chapter
marked the entire video so you can jump around to whatever topic you’d like to see and
replay them however many times you like! Ready? Let’s begin! The very first thing we’ll need to decide
is who our chosen protagonist will be. While the game does allow you to change characters
you control during combat, the protagonist will determine which characters can be recruited
and what events will play out, as there are exclusive moments for each character. For beginners, I highly recommend starting
out with Claude C. Kenny. Claude is able to string combos easily just
by repeatedly pressing the Attack button, allowing you to pummel your opponents with
quick hits with very little delay. While this means that the first few hours
will be a bit button mashy, his close ranged fighting style will encourage you to take
advantage of the game’s perfect dodge functionality, which is crucial to master for later encounters. That said, if you’re the kind of person
that’s a bit reluctant in being in the front lines, then you might want to consider Rena
Lanford. Rena cannot string combos as fast as Claude,
so her most useful abilities have everything to do with her magic - and she’s a pretty
good healer and packs a pretty mean punch too. Her best ability starting out is called Crush,
which drops a metal ball on top of a group of enemies, which damages their HP and Break
meters. We’ll go over Break shortly. Many critics of action RPGs say that because
of the nature of its combat, strategies are practically impossible to implement. With The Second Story R’s new features,
I’d argue that you now have more control over battle situations than even in the original
game. Simply put, the goal of every battle - apart
from the obvious win condition - is to control the flow of combat to make it more manageable
to you. This is a very different approach when compared
to other action games where brute force and overwhelming tactics often win the day. And while you can certainly mow down enemies
early on using these techniques, utilizing these early moments to learn how each character
plays is important to help you understand what skills do and how you can utilize them
to manipulate your enemies. The simplest way to manipulate enemies in
The Second Story R - and one whose effects are important throughout the game - is through
the brand new Break system. Every single enemy in The Second Story R has
a Break meter - designated by shield icons - that sit atop their HP. Every character has abilities that can either
damage their opponent’s health, their Break meter, or both. By depleting an enemy’s Break meter, you’ll
be able to stun them momentarily, allowing you a moment’s respite from said enemy’s
barrage of attacks. This gets a tiny bit more complex when enemy
leaders are introduced. Because of their beefy Break meters, being
able to deplete these will not only Break said leader and stun them, but this will also
cause all of the other enemies on the field to Break as well! This is tricky, however, because while common
sense dictates to focus your damage on the leader, the amount of Break damage you’ll
need to inflict may take such a long time that it has a very high potential to expose
your party members to attacks from the other enemies on the field, which can compound really
quickly, and can make restoring their health very problematic. In both situations, one really good strategy
is to utilize your ranged attackers’ area of effect attacks to hit multiple enemies. Rena’s Crush ability, as mentioned earlier,
can damage enemies surrounding her target, which makes it easy to just spam this whenever
you see a clump of bad guys grouping together. This is just one example of how to deal with
this situation using the tools given, so make sure you learn how all of your characters
play! While The Second Story R is really good at
giving you all the information you need to survive, I do have to advise against trying
to learn the game’s perfect dodge timing without a second party member in tow. The reason for this is that trying to master
perfect dodging early on does mean that whenever you miss the timing window and get hit during
your recovery, the game will consider it a Break against you, leaving you stunned for
a good period of time. This also means that the enemy can retaliate
quickly while you’re unable to move, which then tosses you to a GAME OVER screen upon
your death, which can be a bit frustrating. Thankfully, The Second Story R allows you
to retry battles endlessly, so there’s no real negative to dying in combat. That said, by having a second party member
available, you can die as much as you want, but you’re still able to revive yourself
using Items thanks to the other party member present. That said, I want to stress that learning
how to perfect dodge is extremely beneficial, as it not only restores 25% of your character’s
max MP, but it also depletes one whole shield on the enemy’s Break meter. Imagine doing that on an enemy leader that’s
got 4-5 shields! You’d deplete their Break meter in no time! Apart from the Break and Perfect Dodge mechanics,
The Second Story R has two AI controls that you’ll want to play around with, which are
called Strategies and AI Targeting. Strategies are behaviors that you’ll need
to set on a per character basis, and the options available will differ depending on the character. For example, since Rena is a healer, the Strategy,
“Focus on healing allies!” will be available to her, which literally
will make her just focus on healing and not anything else. Conversely, Claude has the Strategy, “Protect
your allies!” that will ensure that he targets enemies that
are hunting down other party members. Strategies can be altered in the middle of
battle, so you can adapt your AI to whatever is happening. AI Targeting, which sits atop these Strategies,
allows further control with how the party’s AI targets enemies. There are four options available for this: “I’ll let you handle it!” which allows the AI to choose whichever enemy
they should target on their own. “Spread out your attacks!” which ensures
that the AI will damage different opponents and not focus too much on one specific enemy. “Focus your attacks!” which ensures that
the AI will only target the enemy that you’re currently attacking. And “Prevent enemy spells!” which is a useful command that has the AI
paying attention to casters on the field and targeting them should they attempt to cast
their devastating spells. Much like Strategies, AI Targeting can be
altered in the middle of combat. Though I should stress that this applies to
the entire party, while Strategies apply to each party member individually. Another useful new feature you’ll be introduced
to is the Bonus Gauge, which is tied to Formation. Whenever you break an enemy, deal critical
damage, or defeat enemies, spheres will appear and build up the Bonus Gauge on the lower
right corner. Depending on your selected Formation, hitting
certain percentages will activate powerful passives that can aid you during combat. For example, the default Linear Motion formation
will trigger a 25% ATK boost when the Bonus Gauge reaches 50, a 25% DEF boost when it
reaches 100, and a 50% HIT rate boost when it reaches 300. Linear Motion is a great go-to formation if
you have multiples to choose from, though make sure you check what buffs new Formations
will grant you, as some can even give you more exp and FOL! A few notes about the Bonus Gauge and Formation: Changing the Formation in-between battles
does not reset the Bonus Gauge, so you could foreseeably use one Formation while you’re
building it up, then changing it up when you’ve completely filled up the Gauge. Be forewarned that the Bonus Gauge will reset
if your currently controlled party member fails a Perfect Dodge, perishes during combat,
or if enemies sneak up on you prior to battle. Another feature new to The Second Story R
is the Assault Action, which is a powerful new feature that gives you more firepower
and options! Over time, you’ll either procure characters
from other Star Ocean games as well as reserve party members. Assault Actions allow you to call upon them
provided that their cooldown timer is up. And if you choose to assign reserved party
members, you can also indicate which abilities they’ll use once they’re summoned. The first Assault Action you’ll get - Laeticia
- is a powerful one to have early on, and can be utilized in similar situations as Rena’s
Crumble - i.e. when enemies are huddling around the target. All that said, just because it’s called
Assault Action doesn’t mean that you can’t use this to buff or heal allies! In fact, I highly recommend it, as Assault
Actions do NOT spend MP at all - time is your only currency! So having a party of high damage dealing characters
with two healers ready to cast heals for their Assault Actions is a viable party composition! Lastly, I want to talk about how melee attacks,
targeting, and items work. Whenever Items are used, a cooldown timer
appears, letting you know that you won’t be able to use Items until this expires. Simple enough. Melee attacks, on the other hand, function
similarly to Tales games in that pressing the Attack button will have your character
running towards their target to smack them with their offensive. Unlike the original game, this behavior cannot
be altered to Manual or Auto controls. That said, changing targets is as simple as
running towards them, and The Second Story R does have the ability to lock onto your
current target by clicking in the Right Stick. And that’s Star Ocean: The Second Story
R’s combat - at least enough to get you through and understand a lot of what’s happening! If you have any additional questions, please
don’t hesitate to post your question in the comments below! And if you’re a Star Ocean: The Second Story
veteran, post your tips and tricks in the comments as well! Your enjoyment of the game is important to
me, and if there’s anything I can help clear up, I’ll most certainly try to answer your
questions in the comments below! Thanks for watching! And I’ll see you in the next video!
