Square Repeats Octopath Traveler Mistake With Star Ocean 2 R

Two days ago Square Enix announced they were releasing a consumer-unfriendly Switch 2 version of the Octopath Traveler games that did not allow an upgrade for owners of the Switch 1 version nor offer cross-compatible saves. This made the purchase completely pointless unless you really, really cared about the screen resolution — they were identical games otherwise, except the one for the newer console was full price and the old one was often discounted.

They repeated the same mistake today, and this time it’s personal — this time they came after a game I really enjoy. Star Ocean: The Second Story was released for the Playstation 1 in 1999 and I put many hours into it. They finally came out with a remake for PS4, Switch and PC called Second Story R, and did it perfectly: the environments were now all 3D, but the characters were the same pixel-art sprites, and you could use the original soundtrack.

A Switch 2 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story R was given a surprise release today with no prior announcement. This time, there’s no mention of framerate or resolution improvements at all As far as we know, this is the same game as what’s on the Switch 1, except it isn’t compatible with the Switch 1, has no physical version, does not take your Switch 1 save, and costs more. At the moment Second Story R for Switch is discounted to $24.99. This version is the full $50.

WHAT….IS….THE….POINT? What kind of moron would take this deal? What are you doing, Square?

I bought Star Ocean: The Second Story R thrice…both digitally and physically for Switch and more recently for PC on Steam Deck. I love the game that much. But not so much that I’d give Square $50 for absolutely no reason at all.

This summer marks the 30th anniversary of the Star Ocean series, and thought Square has no new games in development right now, they plan to honor the occasion with a live stream going behind the scenes and exploring the history of the series. That stream is set for July 19.