Star Ocean First Departure
Square Enix celebrates the STAR OCEAN franchise by going right back to its origins and creating a HD remaster of the fan-favorite first title in the series. Featuring all new voice overs in both English and Japanese and brand new character art.
Space Date: 346
From a power yet undiscovered, a new generation will be born.
Our tale begins on the primitive planet of Roak where Roddick lives in the peaceful and uneventful town of Kratus.
As a member of the village’s local “Defence Force” tasked with the protection of Kratus, Roddick learns of a mysterious disease that has broken out in the neighbouring town. Those infected turn to stone, but continue to live on in a petrified state.
Roddick, along with his two friends Millie and Dorne, make their way to the neighbouring town. Informed of a cure for the sickness, they head to Mt. Metorx where a healing herb is rumoured to grow. When they reach the summit, the party encounter Ronyx and Ilia, who appear before them in a pillar of light.
Thus, the story of STAR OCEAN begins…
- Illustrations based on the designs from the original (Super Famicom) version have been newly drawn by Katsumi Enami, the artist behind the character illustrations for STAR OCEAN Last Hope. Players can now select their preferred illustrations by switching between the First Departure and First Departure R versions during gameplay.
- The original Japanese voice cast returns with newly recorded dialogue for a fully voiced experience. Players can freely switch between their preferred voicever options: English (PSP), Japanese (First Departure), and Japanese (First Departure R).
- Enjoy quality of life improvements like 2x speed mode and newly balanced battle mechanics.
Star Ocean First Departure Review
This is still a pretty fun little RPG to play. It runs about twenty hours so doesn’t outstay its welcome and many of its systems – real time battles on 3D battlefields and extremely deep crafting – are still quite impressive to this day. However, it’s also very much a product of its time, nowhere near as complex or gripping as the second game in the series, and it tends to waste a lot of time with endless backtracking and random enemy encounters that make the whole thing a little bit of a chore to grind your way through.
Star Ocean: First Departure R tells the story of Roddick, Millie and Dorne, self-appointed local village defence force and residents of the rather backwards planet of Roak which has found itself in the grip of a mysterious illness that’s been turning its inhabitants to stone. After a chance meeting with Ilia and Ronyx, futuristic space adventurers who have travelled from a much more technologically advanced version of Earth, the gang joins forces and travels through time, harnessing advanced technology in order to get to the bottom of Roak’s problems, learn the truth about their planet’s war-torn past and find a vaccine to help save the population, including Dorne who is struck down and turned to stone early in the game’s storyline.
In terms of this new version of the game, what’s here is well presented, the newly HD visuals giving the whole thing a fresh energy and those enhanced backdrops from the 2007 PSP update still look pretty good nowadays. You can choose between the old PSP character avatars or newly drawn ones by Katsumi Enami which are based on artwork from the original 1996 game. Controls are easy to get your head around, there are virtually zero loading times transitioning between locations and the whole thing is fully voice-acted in both Japanese and English.
Fans of Star Ocean will know what to expect here. This is a game that’s pretty fun to blast through for nostalgia’s sake or from the point of view of simply experiencing the game that kickstarted the long-running series. For anyone else this is simply a pretty old RPG that’s showing its age in many ways.
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