How to use item creation in Star Ocean The Second Story R

Star Ocean as a series has a lot of staple mechanics, with specialties being one of them. In the early hours, you may be wondering how to use item creation in Star Ocean The Second Story R, and it can be confusing if you don’t know how it works. 

In the older Star Ocean games, like First Departure and Second Evolution, you would need to claim skills that all build up to you unlocking a variation of item creation that you can then create items with. These are things like art, customization, and so on. In Star Ocean The Second Story R, the system is relatively the same, but with some QoL improvements to make your life just a bit easier. Here’s our guide on how to use the item creation mechanic in-game.

Related: How to unlock a specialty in Star Ocean The Second Story R

How to do item creation in Star Ocean The Second Story R

To be able to use item creation in Star Ocean The Second Story R, you’re going to need to acquire the skills needed to be able to use the specific item creation method that you want. To do this, head into the Improve menu, then into the IC/Specialty skills menu, as IC stands for item creation. Here, you can go ahead and either pick the skills you need for the item creation method that you want, or you can press the button that corresponds with the ‘Switch Upgrade’ option at the bottom of the screen. Doing this will sort the skills by the specialty/IC that you need them for, meaning if you want to be able to do the item creation method ‘Art’, you can just select ‘Art’ and upgrade all the skills required immediately. 

To then use item creation in Star Ocean The Second Story R, you’re going to want to head out of the Improve menu and into the IC/Specialty menu — from here, you’ll be immediately put into the IC menu, which presents every option for item creation that you can do in the game. You’ll need to select which method you want to use, then use the materials required and level up as needed to have a higher chance of completing some item creation methods. Also, some characters have talents that increase the likelihood of being able to successfully create items, which you can see indicated by the little star next to their level on the IC screen, or on the Status screen.

Star Ocean The Second Story R is available for purchase on Steam, and you can check out our other articles here.