is it just me or you too? game duration

[SoloTrolo]

I've played other SO games, but this one particularly feels way too short.
When I played New Game, you can beat the game relatively quickly.
New game plus, forget it. You can speedrun it under an hour.

I hope im not the only one

[Powersword]

Using fast travel and item exploits you can speed run it no problem. I enjoy the game and taking my time doing fishing, maxing out skills, finishing the item list, maximizing custom equips. My first play through was 35+ hours. It’s a beautiful game. Why rush. There’s loads of unnecessary things you can do to fully explore the game. And what about gaining all the characters ? You need at least 3 play throughs for that alone ?

[Village Idiot]

It's because of all the quality of life updates to the game.

-Being able to skip cutscenes
-Fast Travel
-No Random Battles
-Being able to see all Private Actions / Side Quests that are available
-Challenges that offers rewards
-Being able to craft 10x items at a time
-Bodyguard allows you to level up without doing anything
-Chain Battles significantly increases the amount of EXP you gained
-Characters not in your party also gained experience
-Battlefield is smaller and increased running speed skill made battles faster and Bunny Shoes not a requirement
-Added 3x portals in the Maze of Tribulations allowing you to warp to Floors 6, 9 and 12 (I think). In the original, you could only drop down to Floor 9 and the portals are one-way back to the first floor. Santa is also a guaranteed spawn.

Back in OG Star Ocean 2, you had to consult a guide to see what PAs are available and then have to manually walk back to whatever town(s) you needed. Some times you had to go to the other continent all the way back to Arlia.

When you finished a dungeon, you had to manually walk all the way out, all the while dealing with random encounters along the way, and SO2 had a high enemy encounter rate.

On top of money, Challenges allows you to get equipment / materials that isn't available until later on. This allows you to get the OP stuff without needing to do anything special or time consuming like the original.

In the original, you could only craft one item at a time. Want to get Precis or Opera's Machinery KMs? Enjoy hours of slowly crafting them one at a time and hopefully you get the ones you need.

All this adds up to significant time saves.

[SoloTrolo]

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Using fast travel and item exploits you can speed run it no problem. I enjoy the game and taking my time doing fishing, maxing out skills, finishing the item list, maximizing custom equips. My first play through was 35+ hours. It’s a beautiful game. Why rush. There’s loads of unnecessary things you can do to fully explore the game. And what about gaining all the characters ? You need at least 3 play throughs for that alone ?

it's not rushing, i like to optimize my gameplay. I've ran the game through about 10 times.
each one faster than the next.

Have you played other Star ocean games, it's nothing like this.
much longer, better story, longer gameplay,

[Village Idiot]

Originally posted by SoloTrolo:

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Using fast travel and item exploits you can speed run it no problem. I enjoy the game and taking my time doing fishing, maxing out skills, finishing the item list, maximizing custom equips. My first play through was 35+ hours. It’s a beautiful game. Why rush. There’s loads of unnecessary things you can do to fully explore the game. And what about gaining all the characters ? You need at least 3 play throughs for that alone ?

it's not rushing, i like to optimize my gameplay. I've ran the game through about 10 times.
each one faster than the next.

Have you played other Star ocean games, it's nothing like this.
much longer, better story, longer gameplay,

Well you really only had Star Ocean 1 to compare because this is the second game of the series.

The only thing Star Ocean 1 had over Star Ocean 2 is more character integration to the main story because SO1's main cast consisted of four characters compared to SO2's two. Otherwise, SO1 was much shorter.

[ValiantBlade]

This game is very replayable so I'm OK with it being a shorter RPG.

Even the original game was on the shorter side simply because it was a 90s RPG and 90s RPGs tended to be on the shorter end than colossal PS2 RPGs.

Certainly a nice change of pace compared to the absolutely insanely long Star Ocean 3 and 4. Plus the QoL makes this version of the game feel so much nicer than the other versions.

That being said, I may try the PSP version whenever I get around to playing Star Ocean 1 on PSP, and I'm interested in if potential overhaul mods could make future playthroughs of this version even more fun.

[Almighty Boof]

The game is about 30-40 hours the first play through (which is arguably the "sweet-spot" for game length) but offers over 100+ hours of side-content/re-play value. I agree that the story feels rushed, though. I wish they had done more with The 10 Wise Men; like, give each Wise Man fight a dungeon and some back-story on those characters.
Still, I think you complaints are actually positive selling points of the game. I get way too bored of a game that has an 80+ hour long story.

[Doom_Cookies]

Originally posted by Almighty Boof:

give each Wise Man fight a dungeon and some back-story on those characters.

There's actually a secret side quest that gives the backstory to the Ten Wise Men. Not as individuals, but as a group. Due to the nature of their origins, it wouldn't be possible to give them their own backstories.

I mean, it sure would have been nice if they each had their own dungeons, though. Or at least if each group of them that you fight after the first three did.

[Mill]

The original was pretty short too once you knew what you were doing. My last playthrough of the PS1 version was about 25 hours on Universe.

[Second Duke Revier]

It is somewhat shorter than most RPGs, yes, but to me that's a good thing. It lasts exactly long enough to not wear out its welcome. That's more than I can say for many games.

[Powersword]

Originally posted by SoloTrolo:

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Using fast travel and item exploits you can speed run it no problem. I enjoy the game and taking my time doing fishing, maxing out skills, finishing the item list, maximizing custom equips. My first play through was 35+ hours. It’s a beautiful game. Why rush. There’s loads of unnecessary things you can do to fully explore the game. And what about gaining all the characters ? You need at least 3 play throughs for that alone ?

it's not rushing, i like to optimize my gameplay. I've ran the game through about 10 times.
each one faster than the next.

Have you played other Star ocean games, it's nothing like this.
much longer, better story, longer gameplay,

gone through the game 10 times? Your complaint is a contradiction. If you've played it that much then you've plenty of experience in the easiest star ocean in the series.

[Wirewing]

You got to level 255 in less than an hour?

[SoloTrolo]

Originally posted by UnholyBlood:

Originally posted by SoloTrolo:

it's not rushing, i like to optimize my gameplay. I've ran the game through about 10 times.
each one faster than the next.

Have you played other Star ocean games, it's nothing like this.
much longer, better story, longer gameplay,

gone through the game 10 times? Your complaint is a contradiction. If you've played it that much then you've plenty of experience in the easiest star ocean in the series.

wow, you flat out calling me a liar?

[sorethroat]

The mass addition of QoL features. Nuff said.
FF7 with skip cutscenes / fast travel would be the same thing. Every turn based JRPGs with random encounters, even.

EDIT: In fact I felt the game lacking in content too actually.

[Chriziel]

Story is still basically the same, but the fact that you can skip and fast forward through dialogues and having no random battles already does saves you a huge amount of time.

[Saibot]

Originally posted by Village Idiot:

It's because of all the quality of life updates to the game.

-Being able to skip cutscenes
-Fast Travel
-No Random Battles
-Being able to see all Private Actions / Side Quests that are available
-Challenges that offers rewards
-Being able to craft 10x items at a time
-Bodyguard allows you to level up without doing anything
-Chain Battles significantly increases the amount of EXP you gained
-Characters not in your party also gained experience
-Battlefield is smaller and increased running speed skill made battles faster and Bunny Shoes not a requirement
-Added 3x portals in the Maze of Tribulations allowing you to warp to Floors 6, 9 and 12 (I think). In the original, you could only drop down to Floor 9 and the portals are one-way back to the first floor. Santa is also a guaranteed spawn.

Back in OG Star Ocean 2, you had to consult a guide to see what PAs are available and then have to manually walk back to whatever town(s) you needed. Some times you had to go to the other continent all the way back to Arlia.

When you finished a dungeon, you had to manually walk all the way out, all the while dealing with random encounters along the way, and SO2 had a high enemy encounter rate.

On top of money, Challenges allows you to get equipment / materials that isn't available until later on. This allows you to get the OP stuff without needing to do anything special or time consuming like the original.

In the original, you could only craft one item at a time. Want to get Precis or Opera's Machinery KMs? Enjoy hours of slowly crafting them one at a time and hopefully you get the ones you need.

All this adds up to significant time saves.

which is beneficial! Just because these time savers (Quality of Life Features) are included doesn't mean I want to play for another twenty hours.
It artificially lengthens it without any purpose. The game is now the ideal length, allowing you to play it to your advantage or enjoy it casually. How about not crafting the most OP weapon in the game if you don't want to finish? Yes you're so knowledgeable and know how to break the game, but how about not abusing it then?

Your comment and the additional features are the reason I'm loving this game.