I didn't play the original, so probably i'm missing the nostalgia factor or something.

The game is not bad, but mediocre in general, with some of the best character designs I've ever seen in a JRPG tho, they have very good personalities and are not stupid like 90% of classic JRPGs.

Anyway the whole package is ruined by a horrible combat system and some design choices that I honestly don't agree with. There is nothing more frustrating to finish a hard boss and then don't get any exp for any dead character, since some of the characters (not controlled directly by you), didn't dodge a spell and died.
This makes sense in a turn based RPG, where you are directly responsible for the death of any of your characters.

There is no way to restart a battle if it's going bad from the start, it's a problem especially playing on a higher difficulty.

It has a real time battle system with slow controls and clunky movements, good luck learning the dodge frames of any spell, since there is NO indication on how many hit frames there are or when they are coming out.

Also the game could be misleading for some new people new to the saga like me: the game has nothing to do with space or space travelling "Get ready to join the sea of stars, my ass" , it's basically a classic Fantasy JRPG with "Space" as story context, that is not really the main part of the game. I could be wrong since I'm only at half game, but I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the game is just Fantasy.

This is only an example, there are many other factors that make me dislike the game.

I see how this game would be a total hit on PS1 era, but in 2023, for 50$, is not really worth.

I honestly won't finish it, I've had enough to understand the game is not for me.

Coming from someone who has never played a Star Ocean game, I can not in good faith give a positive review to a remake at a $50 price tag with writing (possibly just translating) this poor.

HOWEVER, if you find this game on a decent sale, I would recommend it as a single player turn brain off whack n smackem, with an interesting power scaling mechanic.

*Spoilers*
First of all I set off on a side quest to slay a dragon in a mining cave, I reach this so called dragon to find another character fighting it, like a parasite the dragon invades this dudes body and becomes one with him, and suddenly out of nowhere my characters go from wanting to slay this dragon, to feeling bad about it's situation and doing everything to convice this guy he should leave the dragon connected to him. And at the end of said sidequest the guy admits he never wanted to get rid of the dragon, he just wanted a reason to follow around the MC... At no point was there any buildup to why we went from "Lets kill the dragon" to "I feel bad for the dragon" and tries to convince the guy who has to deal with a dragon connected to him to keep it, instead of doing a ritual to slay the dragon and return him to normal.

SECONDLY *spoiler*
There is a fighting contest in one of the cities, the male protagonist decides he will test his metal in this tournament, and another edgy side character also decides to join. (the edgy character is excited to be able to fight the male protagonist, and vice versa) Well fast forward to the battle (you have no control over any part of the tournament) and male protagonist gets every single attack blocked and then proceeds to get one shot by the edgy chartacter. Sure, it turns out the edgy character is far stronger than male protagonist. BUT NO, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ writing wants you to believe it was an incredibly close battle where either one of them could have one... SO WHY COULDNT YOU HAVE MADE THE ACTUAL FIGHT SCENE REFLECT THAT??????

I understand when it comes to remakes most people are running off nostalgia and how well the remake portrays the original game, and it seems they have done that well, but my god this writing leaves me absolutely nothing, I'm watching something unfold, and then the writing tells me the exact opposite, and I just can't get behind that. So I'm leaving this as a negative because greedy SE wants to drop a remake at a nearly AAA price and I just can't stand that. Writing and story telling doesn't make or break a game for me, but bad story telling definitely hinders it from that upper echelon.

The game is good, but remastering "improvements" breaks it. I wish there was a way to disable them. Lol I got +1000 sword from a random achievement at the very start of the game. The original is better. Go play original!