Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Guides

Should you pick Claude or Rena in Star Ocean: The Second Story R

By

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a remake of 1998’s second entry in the space-centric role-playing universe of Star Ocean, but despite its many improvements, the core design of the original game remains almost fully intact. This includes its offering of dual protagonists, one of which you’ll have to pick as your main character at the beginning of a playthrough. If you’re wondering which you should pick first, we’ll give you some information below without going too far into spoiler territory.

Should you pick Claude or Rena first?

Regardless of whether you pick Claude or Rena for your playthrough of Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the game’s mainline narrative will remain the same from beginning to end. However, the two characters will witness many major events from their own perspective, giving you a bit of additional insight into how they feel about what’s happening. Additionally, they’ll each have access to one exclusive recruitable character. This means that you’ll have to play through the game twice if you want to see the full story of the two recruitable characters and see what they bring to the table in combat.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Square-Enix

Here are three key things to keep in mind when choosing the character for your first playthrough:

  • Claude offers a fuller view of the narrative and will fill in more gaps in the main tale, while Rena provides a little bit more lore about the planet and local happenings.
  • Claude is considerably more powerful in battle, with a focus on aggressive melee combat, while Rena is largely focused on healing and other magic.
  • Rena’s exclusive recruitable character is arguably superior to the one in Claude’s playthrough and is largely considered the strongest character in the game.
Recommended Videos

With all of this in mind, our opinion is that Claude makes for the best character for an initial playthrough due to his clearer view of the story and overall combat abilities making the first half of the game a bit easier. However, if you’re partial to the idea of getting the strongest character in the game or have already witnessed Claude’s playthrough, Rena is a perfectly viable choice, too. Either way, the game features over 80 endings, so there is plenty of incentive to play through the game multiple times with both characters.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Billy Givens
Billy Givens
Gaming Writer
Billy Givens is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience writing gaming, film, and tech content. His work can be…
How to unlock fast travel in Another Crab’s Treasure
Kril with a coconut shell

Another Crab's Treasure is a fantastical soulslike set deep under the ocean where danger lurks around every corner. And like other games in the genre, it's often brutally difficult to overcome the various challenges you'll encounter. As such, you may find yourself wanting to backtrack for level grinding, to uncover new secrets, or to buy additional items in the game's main hub. However, you may notice early in the game that you haven't yet unlocked the ability to fast travel between the multitude of Moon Snail Shells (aka "bonfires") you've found. Here's how and when you'll unlock fast travel.
How to unlock fast travel
In the opening hours of the game, you may notice that you can access your skill tree, which will show a skill called Shelleportation. But you may be discouraged to see that you aren't able to apply any points to it yet. That's because the game doesn't open up this feature until you've advanced a few hours into the story.

To unlock fast travel, you'll need to work your way through the first few main areas of the game until you reach a boss called the Polluted Platoon Pathfinder. After beating this baddie, you'll soon find yourself teleporting to the Moon Snail's Domain. Here, you'll learn about the power of Umami, as well as unlock access to your skill tree.

Read more
The best skills to buy first in Another Crab’s Treasure
Another Crab's Treasure

If you're looking for a quirky underwater adventure, Another Crab's Treasure has you covered with its kelp forests, unusual sand-dwelling NPCs, and creative gameplay mechanics. However, it's worth noting that it's also a challenging soulslike experience that is certain to leave you facing off against some enemies multiple times before felling them. One way to help this along is to invest in the game's skills, which often grant you some entirely new attacks or passive abilities that drastically change up the way you approach combat.

There are three skill trees, but you can mix and match between them as you see fit. And luckily, thorough explorers shouldn't have a problem unlocking most of the skills by the end of the game. Here are our picks for the best ones to buy first to increase your chances of getting there.
Skewer
Way of the Predator

Read more
The best cozy games
Riding in a boat with Kapp'n in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In a world where so many games send you on missions with tense action and high stakes, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax a bit. That's where the cozy genre comes in with calming exploration, crafting, and decorating that give you a sense of purpose without all of the stress that comes from more action-oriented games. If that's what you're after, look no further, as we've compiled a list of what we consider to be the best cozy games you can play right now.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Read more