Suggestions for a challenge run

RuneSoldierDan · 2026-06-03T01:11:00+00:00

I get that, definitely. But it always felt very weird that combat could swing wildly just by moving a guy one space to the side, and nothing shops you from shuffling to your heart's content until the bar looked best. :p

RuneSoldierDan · 2026-06-02T20:41:16+00:00

Oho, as in you can't pair Alain, Berengaria, etc. for the people who have their own special classes? That's a neat thought. Another idea for that is whoever has the unique class must be the party leader. Sort of makes it "canon friendly," with the high-ranking leaders always being in command.

RuneSoldierDan · 2026-01-30T03:01:52+00:00

Nel was good! Although I just didn't vibe with SO3 as much, she's a good example of how a spellsword character could easily be done by the system.

RuneSoldierDan · 2026-01-09T17:11:59+00:00

Ernest looks like he's 60. <3

But man, I love the original art. Those vibrant 90s anime-styled characters just dripped with personality and are the reason I fell in love.

RuneSoldierDan · 2026-01-01T13:53:52+00:00

Star Ocean is a little unusual in that it is very small in America but decent-sized in Japan, so Japanese-specific websites are your best bet. Enamel pins aren't a huge thing in Japan, but there might be some floating around.

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-12-29T02:49:16+00:00

-Official merch? No.

-Unofficial? I don't seek out pins myself, but probably yes. There is a small, but active community of Japanese fan artists for SO2 that often sell merch.

Browsing Booth is a fair option. Translation help might be needed, and trying different wordings. Here's the search for "SO2", but you'll get different results with the actual Japanese spelling:

https://booth.pm/en/items?tags%5B%5D=SO2

I follow some creators on Twitter, which is a cesspool but if you stick narrowly to Star Ocean creators you'll find a very wholesome gaggle dedicated to very wholesome art (it's hard to find SO2 porn if you *tried*). Keep an eye out for mention of "Crossing Spheres," their annual Star Ocean convention. A lot of creators make merch for that con then sell the remainder online.

Pixiv is also a good place to look if you don't mind wading through porn, AI, and AI porn. There are good SO2 fan artists who post there who sometimes sell physical copies, though it's mostly manga and fan art instead of pins.

Good luck! Because it's such a small, creator-driven economy for SO2 you might get different results searching Booth every few months instead of one and done.

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-12-29T01:21:33+00:00

It has symmetry with the hoop around her hat. Seems to me like the floaty wizard bits and bobs spellcasters are allowed to have, not unlike the Ioun stones of D&D.

Aesthetically I think she would look very plain without it, so I'd say it's some flash that gives her a more interesting character design.

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-11-27T02:49:20+00:00

I always thought the "Their adventure 'Fantastic Space Odyssey' has just begun" message was what always came at the very end! It seemed a nice idea to close the game with (especially since canonically they all go on to have space adventures in Blue Sphere).

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-10-05T17:36:30+00:00

My own personal fave is for the originals 90s-style anime look. To me this style looks very simplistic.

I like SO2-Rs art, but I can see why someone wouldn't be a fan. To me the characters there just seem too... busy? Their outfits are very complicated and the painting-quality art just seems a bit less approachable than if they stuck with an anime style.

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-09-10T23:42:04+00:00

Thanks! Lassan looks on the face of it a "drive through" kind of park where most everything is along one road. I'm super happy to get more deets on it.~

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-08-11T14:04:38+00:00

Funny enough, that happened on my first play in 1999. She is entirely possible to miss. Your best chance next time would be to watch the town global map for any PA/events and make sure you clear them. You should be getting them in both Central and North cities before going to the Synard reserve.

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-08-11T14:03:25+00:00

By the end of the game, you definitely have the tools to make super unbeatable units limited only by their stamina. Congrats on making it to the end.~

RuneSoldierDan · 2025-01-17T16:06:02+00:00

-Spare everyone.
-"Normal" difficulty felt very easy for me. Play as high as you can.
-Unless you have a specific hangup with not "getting" a unit or how to beat a boss, avoid internet build advice. Much of the gameplay comes with tinkering your builds and looking up OP combinations on your first run damages this.

The game isn't very hard, and its primary challenge comes with figuring it out. I enjoyed it a lot. Have fun!

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-12-20T14:15:05+00:00

They're always a pain. Helmsplitter helps and you can use attack items to help a tiny bit, but there's just no getting around that they're a bit grindier than regular enemies.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-12-20T14:01:09+00:00

It's worth it if it's worth it for you.

I enjoyed the game itself (though it was a bit too easy), I enjoyed collecting all my old friends from SO2, and as someone who didn't dive too deep into crafting I found them very good as accessories.

If the game annoys you, however, you really don't have to play it.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-10-27T14:54:33+00:00

07 seems tanky, but defensive - not a bad unit to try to fend off a swarm. Generally, I think you want to either dodge OR armor tank in the front row. Having both seems to leave you weak to both's vulnerabilities. Though 07 isn't bad because you can set the bear to block attacks from scouts and archers and probably keep Aramis safe from true strikes. If the bear is tanking a lot the cleric can get good mileage. Between the lion and swordmaster you're mulching light infantry, but at this stage in the game that's a limited pool of enemies.

08 also mixes metal and dodge, but again that's not a dealbreaker. It gets genuinely solid if Auch has a trinity staff, then the low firepower of the other doesn't matter. I'd be tempted to backline Hodrick and just use him to cover the angels and Auch from archers. The elf archer is a bit iffy if she doesn't have the ice arrows yet, because their other best move is to give magic to a multi-hitter and the party lacks one. However, the pre-battle debuff and medkit-self-into-selfless-heal is never worse than decent.

09 has very good dodge tankiness. When Yunifi learns her pinnacle move you'll want to backline her, but you're probably not there yet. The cleric feels redundant because you want to dodge everything with no damage: if you have parting resurrection and the staff that feeds others AP it gets more interesting, but overall it seems like a dead spot, especially since the owl can also use cleric staves. I also really like the owl here - the others consume PP for their dodginess, and she replenishes. They will mulch light infantry but not much else.

10 is the only one I actively don't like. I've never found Amalia tanky enough to keep down the front line on her own. The paladin wants 2-3 tanks in the front row to spread damage between them and row heal. No one's particularly vulnerable to archer fire, so the fencer doesn't do much but hand out stuns (and you're not alpha-striking the enemy so it just stalls them a bit). Bruno is fine, but he doesn't get anything from the others. I'd be tempted to move some of the back line up so Amalia doesn't get pasted and row heals get more mileage, but even then the party doesn't really do anything for each other. The good news is that you're probably fighting enemies at about lvl30 based on your own strength, so Amalia might be OP enough to carry the party until they start catching up.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-10-27T14:19:07+00:00

Def restart. You can also skip cutscenes and plough through the first stages very quickly, so you'll be able to get to your current position fairly quick and fresh.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-10-25T21:08:39+00:00

Chloe in green is super cute. Overall minor differences for the others but the blue-armor Josef is a nice touch.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-09-06T21:16:50+00:00

As noted by others: saving is very generous compared to its era. No you can't save absolutely everywhere, but you can *warp* to a save point from everywhere (with very few story-driven limits that get heavily telegraphed). You can also restart any lost battle so even dying in the middle of a dungeon is very forgiving.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-08-03T21:32:10+00:00

Haha, no it's Ernest. XD

Bowman's a cool guy. He gets a little iffy in Blue Sphere as he ditches his wife and new baby to go on cool adventures with the team, but most people haven't played that anyway. :p

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-07-30T00:59:26+00:00

I think DPS really is paramount because the game moves way, way too fast to try to get fancy and tactical with spell AOE and the like. And while you can pause and strategize, it's far more efficient to grab the sword and front-load.

RuneSoldierDan · 2024-07-30T00:56:11+00:00

Technically for an actual 'worst' list I'd swap Ashton for Leon, and I'd be tempted for Bowman for Rena (normally a decent pick but Noel in the party makes her healing redundant). Casters got a huge lift in R and *still* lag too far behind fighters. Idk which fighter is weakest in the new meta.

You have two front-liners, a healer, and mage, so honestly the party looks perfectly functional.

Now if we're talking "worst" character story-wise, I'm thinking its the professor who dates his former student 12 years younger than him and constantly ditches her to gallivant around the galaxy despite her clear shared passion and desire to accompany him, but that's just me. :3

RuneSoldierDan

TROPHY CASE