Star Ocean: The Second Story R comments on visual style and how it’s different from HD-2D

When Star Ocean: The Second Story R was revealed, some may have thought that the game is using an HD-2D art style like Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy. But while the two are similar in some ways, they’re actually different.

Producer and director Yuichiro Kitao clarified things in a recent interview with Famitsu. Kitao explained that the backgrounds “were made with real time 3D, and the characters were drawn with a special shader in a way that really sticks in the player’s memory.”

Here’s our full translation:

“The visual style in this game, as you said, is different to a normal HD-2D title. The backgrounds in the world were not pixelated, but instead were made with real time 3D, and the characters were drawn with a special shader in a way that really sticks in the player’s memory.

The game was developed in a way to introduce pixel art characters into the current environment of expansive 3D worlds, giving them a real sense of existing in the modern-age, while also feeling nostalgic, and with visuals that brought out the finer details of cherished memories of grand adventures.”

Star Ocean: The Second Story R launches for Switch on November 2, 2023.