The Star Ocean series has always featured unique ways to develop a character's skills and abilities. Star Ocean: The Second Story R has a system focused on specialties that the party must learn before getting specific skills like cooking, crafting, and even lowering the price of goods at weapons and items stores. It can be challenging to know what to invest in particular skills and what they do. However, once players grasp the systems and unlockable abilities, the benefits and the possibilities show off the game's flexibility and replayability, making each playthrough feel unique in Star Ocean: The Second Story R and allowing players to experiment.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R - How To Get The Sword Of Marvels Early
The Sword of Marvels is an overpowered weapon for Claude that can be found early in Star Ocean: The Second Story R; here's how to get it.
Specialties In Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Item Crafting and Skills is a staple of the series. In Star Ocean: The Second Story R, IC and skills transfer into specialties and super specialties. For example, investing skill points in Biology will unlock Compounding and Fishing, and Resilience will translate into Train and Survival while giving bonuses in defense. There is a long list of skills for players to invest in. Picking specific skills for certain characters so they have different things to offer the party is a good strategy. However, some specialist Item Creation (IC) skills in Item Appraisal require two party members to be at level 4.
IC/Specialist Skills To Unlock First In Star Ocean: The Second Story R
There are IC/Specialties that players should invest in as soon as they start earning Skill Points. Some will contribute to the party getting more formidable on the battlefield, having higher HP, and more. Here is a list of the best IC/Specialties that players should spend their Skill Points on:
- Determination - Lowers the SP required to unlock other skills and specialties. It also activates the Train ability. This will decrease the party's attributes to gain more EXP in battle.
- Purity - Rewards the party with FOL/money up to 100,000 per character.
- Effort - Lowers the EXP needed to level up.
- Biology - Unlocks the Fishing specialty. There are several rewards for fishing, like unlocking summon characters from past Star Ocean games. It also raises HP by 20 x LV + 10.
- Animal Training & Whistling - Unlocks the Super Specialty Bunny Call, which calls in mounts to climb mountains and more. It also allows the party to command pets to bring supplies to the party.
- Courage & Poker Face - Unlocks the Pickpocketing ability when used with the Thief's Glove in Star Ocean: The Second Story R.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R is available now for the PC, PS4, PS5, and the Switch.