Star Ocean The Second Story R has dozens of endings that all revolve around the relationships between the main character and their companions. Through various actions, players are able to raise and possibly lower the Friendship Rating between characters, which directly affects which ending will be seen.
One of the more straightforward ways of altering the Friendship Rating between characters is by participating in Private Events. Private Events are time-sensitive and potentially missable content, making it important to complete them as soon as they appear.
What Are Private Events
Private Events are side bits of content that only the main character can participate in when visiting a town. These can range from simple meet-ups with party members to small combat encounters to help residents of the town. Private Events appear after completing specific story missions, after getting new party members, or when visiting a town for the first time, and all of them have various invisible time limits on them before they disappear completely.
The most common type of Private Event is one between the main character and various party members. During these meet-ups, players will be given dialogue options that can greatly impact the Friendship Rating between the protagonist and that companion. It’s also important to note that some Private Events can have serious negative effects on Friendship Ratings, having players pick between two bad options and losing either a full heart or just a bit of one, such as Claude & Celine’s interaction at the Hilton Inn.
Finding & Completing Private Action
Private Actions have all sorts of triggers to make them spawn and will often become available in far-off towns players haven’t even visited recently. To see where there are available Private Actions, open up the world map and look for the green rectangle with a “PA” in the middle next to the town’s name, indicating a Private Event to be completed in that town.
Once in a town with a Private Event, switch to the Private Event screen and look for the green logo on the map to begin the event. Whenever entering a new town, it’s also best to complete any available Private Events right away, as story missions may make that town unvisitable or take players elsewhere fairly quickly, sometimes even locking off that Private Event shortly after it first appeared. With Friendship Ratings being so important to the ending of the game, completing Private Events is a must.