Star Ocean: The Second Story R Is On Switch 2 Now - And Square Enix Wants You To Buy It Again

Square Enix dropped a Switch 2 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story R today, no warning, straight onto the eShop. My first reaction was genuinely lovely, because that remake is one of the nicer things on the system and the series just turned 30. My second reaction, about four seconds later, was a long sigh.

There's no upgrade path. If you already own The Second Story R on your original Switch, you don't get a discount, you don't get a token gesture - you get a $49.99 price tag and a shrug. Your save file doesn't come with you either.

We literally just did this

This is the second time in one week. Octopath Traveler 1 and 2 got the same treatment days ago: Switch 2 versions, no upgrade pack for existing owners, no save transfer. Two announcements, same fine print, same feeling in my stomach.

What bugs me most is that Square Enix knows how to do this properly. It has done it properly. Some of its other Switch 2 releases have shipped with an upgrade route, free or cheap. So this isn't a technical wall, and it isn't some policy the company can't get around. It's a decision, made game by game, and on these ones it went the wrong way.

The save data thing is the part that actually stings, though. Price is price - you can wait for a sale, you can decide it's not worth it, you have options. But telling someone with sixty hours in a JRPG that their file simply doesn't travel? That's not a price, that's a wall. The Second Story R is a game people sink an entire summer into. "Start over, from zero, for fifty bucks" is a strange thing to say to your most loyal players in an anniversary year.

I want to be fair here: nobody's forcing anyone. If you've never played it, honestly, go for it. It's a lovingly made remake of a PlayStation-era classic and one of the nicer surprises of the last few years, and fifty dollars for a first-time buyer is a completely normal ask. The people getting the raw deal are the ones who already said yes once.

I'll probably double dip eventually anyway, because I have no spine and Star Ocean is Star Ocean. But I'd like to do it feeling good about it, and right now I don't.

Image: Crisco 1492 / CC BY-SA 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo_Switch_2_in_Docking_Console.jpg