Star Ocean: The Second Story R - How to get all 99 Endings

Star Ocean 2 is known for its extensive number of endings, with over 80 possible endings in the original PlayStation version. The PSP-enhanced port added another character and an extra main story ending, expanding the number of potential conclusions even further. There is a total of 99 Endings in the game and this guide should provide a general outline of what possible combinations there are.

A lot of the endings are based on character friendship points, so doing Private Actions in the game is really important. These events can raise friendship points or decrease friendship points depending on how you respond. If you don't like a certain pairing and want to decrease friendship points to manipulate the possible ending you can get, you can also try pickpocketing your friends to affect your relationship with them.

Star Ocean 2 Ending Requirements

Being honest here, by far the easiest way to manipulate affinity between characters is with books created from the Publication Super Speciality item creation. Each character can have two books written about them, one that gives high affinity towards that character, and one that gives low affinity towards that character. By creating a library of these books, you can basically manipulate affinities any which way you want to. Almost.

• A side note about the books. If you sell the book to the merchant in Lacuer or Centropolis, you can buy it back in multiple quantities. This means you don't have to individually publish 20 books for one character. You can publish one, sell it to the merchant, and then buy 20 back.
• Some endings seem to require max hearts between characters on the Friendship Status screen. However, using books will never get you to max hearts. You'll need to use PAs to get affinity up as high as possible.
• Also, please note, the four characters who fight a boss together all get affinity up with each other. So if you want to raise affinity between characters, place them both in the battle party.
• It's worth noting that in the remake of Star Ocean 2, affinity between characters seems to be bi-directional. For earlier versions of Star Ocean 2, many existing guides on the internet specify a "direction" for an affinity gain (such as Opera → Ernest), but based on the new friendship meter in the remake, such a one-sided gain will never happen. If Opera gains affinity with Ernest, then Ernest will gain an equal amount of affinity with Opera.
• Similarly, existing guides for earlier versions of Star Ocean 2 delineate between Friendship Points and Romance Points. But in Star Ocean: The Second Story R, everything appears to be set with a meter of 5 hearts. If the meter is high enough (around 3.5 hearts full), then you will see smaller hearts appear around an icon on the status screen. This will actually indicate which ending you will see for that character, once you beat the final boss. Only one character can have these smaller hearts appear. Some special endings require a more full meter, however.

In Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the game will keep track of which endings you've obtained. These are actually saved separately from any of your individual playthrough save files. It works more like a 'system' save, where as long as you've gotten the ending once, it'll show up in the database. This means you can get a set of endings, reload your save file, mess with books to alter affinities, beat the boss again, and then get other endings to add to your database. Make sense?

If for some reason characters share the same amount of FP, the pairing priority goes to;

1. Claude
2. Rena
3. Celine
4. Bowman
5. Dias
6. Precis
7. Ashton
8. Leon
9. Opera
10. Ernest
11. Noel
12. Chisato
13. Welch

Star Ocean 2 Endings List

Now, we aren't going to list *every* single ending here, because many of the endings follow an obvious pattern.

• Each character has (at least) one solo ending when they are paired with nobody. That's 13 endings already. I don't need to list those out, do I?
• Of the 13 characters, there are endings for every possible permutation of available pairings. There are only 4 pairs of characters not possible: Dias/Leon, Precis/Bowman, Opera/Ashton, and Ernest/Ashton since they are mutually exclusive, check out our Star Ocean 2 Recruitment Guide for more information there. That's 74 more endings. Do I need to list all those out?
• I trust your intelligence, that's 87 total endings right there.

However, there are a handful of endings that don't follow the usual rules. Sometimes more than one ending is available for a certain pairing, and Ashton, Opera, and Celine all have special solo endings. These are obvious when looking through the Endings Database in-game, because you'll see a number after the pairing. For example, there's Claude/Precis 1 and Claude/Precis 2. What's the difference? We'll list these below.

I should note, while I obtained all these endings, I can't be perfectly certain of unlock conditions. I can only make a best estimate based on the testing I did with the party I had. If you have any clarifications, please comment on these below!

• Claude/Rena 1 == Pair the two up on Rena's Route
• Claude/Rena 2 == Pair the two up on Claude's Route, but not at max hearts in the Friendship Level status screen.
• Claude/Rena 3 == In our experience, this ending is obtained when the two have max hearts, but on Claude's Route only.

• Claude/Precis 1 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts.
• Claude/Precis 2 == Pair the two up at max hearts.

• Claude/Chisato 1 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts.
• Claude/Chisato 2 == Pair the two up at max hearts.

• Rena/Dias 1 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts.
• Rena/Dias 2 == Pair the two up at max hearts.

• Opera/Ernest 1 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts.
• Opera/Ernest 2 == Pair the two up at max hearts.

• Claude/Opera 1 == Pair the two up at max hearts.
• Claude/Opera 2 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts. [Editor's Note: Yes I am aware this seems opposite the trend up to this point]

• Celine/Ernest 1 == Pair the two up at max hearts.
• Celine/Ernest 2 == Pair the two up when not at max hearts [also opposite the trend]

• Celine 1 = Normal solo ending
• Celine 2 = Complete the PA sidequest chain with Clyde in Krosse (Rena's route only, check out our Star Ocean 2 Private Action Guide!)

• Ashton 1 = Normal solo ending
• Ashton 2 = Complete the PA sidequest chain with Eleanor in Harley (Rena's route only, check out our Star Ocean 2 Private Action Guide!)

• Opera 1 = Solo ending when Ernest is in the party
• Opera 2 = Solo ending when Ernest is NOT in the party

• Gather Up == Have an eight-person party all with the same affinity towards each other. You can use books to do this, and it doesn't matter who is in the party. This ending appears at a different point than the other 98 endings. While most endings appear before the credits, this one will appear after the credits.

Any other ending not listed here is straightforward. In order to get Chisato/Noel, just pair them up, etc. Happy ending hunting!