How many gamers have heard about the Star Ocean series? Not too many, but Square Enix is hoping the Star Ocean series will become the next big franchise, along with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. With a new game in the series coming out next year will new comers be interested in the first game in the series, First Departure?

Originally released on the Super Nintendo, the first game in the Star Ocean series took Japanese fans by storm. Instead of following the norm at the time this series took a different approach with the story. It seemed to have worked and the series soon came out in America on the original Playstation. The third Star Ocean game released on the Playstation 2 was a little different, but it is still safe to say that the series still has a strong storyline, no matter which system this franchise is released on.

The story in Star Ocean: The First Departure is about three heroes looking for something bigger. Their town is soon attacked by monsters and it eventually leaves their town and other towns surrounding them lifeless. Townspeople are turning to stone and there is no real cure for the cause, that is until two individuals from the future come into their time with some answers.

First Departure is a unique game because it feels like the game gets started when you actually start the game. This may sound weird but when the people from the future come it feels like the game is really starting. I found this real neat and you have to account that this game was made some time ago. Having a role playing game trick gamers like this, having the game start twice, was new at the time. Star Ocean will have you at the edge of your seat with the story.

Since this is an older RPG you would figure that the game has a turn based battle system. That is not the case for Star Ocean. The battle system is action based where you control one character primarily, the leader of your group. You move around a set area and use different attacks to destroy your enemies. As you level up you’ll gain special abilities, which you can equip two abilities at a time.

You can control your other teammates as well, but only by using items and special attacks. Usually you will let your teammates be controlled by the computer; thankfully the game gives you a few choices to pick from on how you want your team to act. It seems real hard to get your team to act the way you want, either they use too much mana or they don’t use enough. Boss battles will be the biggest problem.

Battles in The First Departure can be a big problem if you run balls out, doing this will cause your character to die almost right away. If your level is not high enough it is pretty safe to say that you will die right away. Enemies ganging up on you will also cause you to loose large amounts of health points. This is a big problem early on in the game since there is no real character that can heal your team; you have to rely on health potions.

Graphically First Departure is comparable to the Playstation Star Ocean game. All of the characters are in 2-D while the map is 3-D based. Dungeons and such have a painted look to them but they are in 2-D yet at the same time they are painted to look more advance, tricking you to think it’s in 3-D.

Square Enix is well known for having fantastic music in all their games, but you have to give Tri-Ace most of the credit because they originally made this game. Never-less thie game has one of the best soundtracks on a PSP game. The voice acting is a nice touch to the game and it works real well. Some characters do have annoying voices later on in the game though.

There are no online features for this game. Square Enix as of late, at least on the PSP, has been adding online components to their games. It might have been memory problems. At least the loading times are small, even on the original PSP you barely have any loading times.

Final Verdict
Star Ocean: The First Departure is an excellent remake and it should be added to your PSP collection if you are an RPG fan. If you are looking to play all of the old games before the fourth game comes out next year then you better get started, the second game in the series will come out early next year as well.

Rating
8.50 out of 10

Star Ocean: First Departure Trailer

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