doskias

hope you played the first game

the scifi elephant in the room

at no point in Westa's recounting of the story of finding young Rena in the Sacred Forest did she mention, y'know, the mysterious technological, child-sized pod right there in the clearing.

At an independent video rental store in Hampstead, Maryland, in the late 90's, I happened upon Star Ocean: The Second Story for the original Playstation. I rented it, took it home, tried it out, and was forever changed in ways I still can't articulate decades later.

I adore Star Ocean 2. It's in my top 10 of all time, probably top 5. I bought the PSX game some time after renting it. I bought the PSP remaster, Second Evolution. I bought the new remake, Second Story R, on Steam and on Switch. Still fuming that the Switch 2 version doesn't have an upgrade path from Switch, but whatever.

When I play the remake, I'm having that thing I had when I played the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time. Even though so much about it is so different from the original, it feels so authentic to the original experience that my nostalgia-addled brain can barely point out the less-obvious differences.

Restaurants with QR codes. I hate the future.