Update 11/09: Square Enix has now confirmed the game will also launch digitally in North America and Europe on 5th December for $20.99 / £16.99 / €20.99 (thanks, Gematsu).
Original Story: Back in May, Square Enix revealed Star Ocean: First Departure R would be released worldwide on the Switch and PlayStation 4 in the near future. The publisher has now confirmed the game will be released in Japan on 5th December for the price of 3,200 yen, but there's no word if the game will also be released locally before the end of this year.
This upcoming title is based on the 2007 PSP iteration, which was an enhanced version of the Super Famicom Star Ocean game – published by Enix, developed by tri-Ace and first released in 1996. The newest release for Switch and PS4 will include high-definition visuals – improving the quality of the game's graphics and movies – and a feature allowing players to swap between the First Departure and First Departure R illustrations.
The game also includes a speed boost feature (allowing for faster movement in the field) and full voice-overs from the First Departure voice cast as well as a voice switch feature:
Since the Super Famicom version had no voice-overs outside of battle, the voice-overs have been newly recorded by both the Super Famicom version cast and the First Departure cast. You can switch between the First Departure and First Departure R voice cast.
Are you looking forward to this JRPG? Tell us below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 48
Let the begging begin. Please bring it to the West.
@Juma009 It's already confirmed for the west, we're just waiting on a release date.
Quite looking forward to this, I'm a pretty big fan of the 2nd game in the series SO: Second Story, hopefully that games' PSP remake also gets ported.
Hopefully we don’t have to wait long for a Western release date because i would love to play this game.
I really like the artstyle. Never thought RPGs, of all things, would have a retro artstyle renaissance. Octopath and this makes me wish Square dedicates one of their smaller teams to make a modern action RPG in this kind of style.
It will be only digital? Why?
Crossing my finger for a physical release, I don't care if I had to import it. It just need a physical release in English text, that's all I want. Don't ruin this like the Grandia HD Collection Square Enix, make a physical edition please. My dead PSP beg of you.
@Varkster you mean like ..Octopath Traveller? Square announced last year that they were concentrating on developing a new game for switch.
@Xelha cut the dub? With the original apparently sporting TWO voicework packs now, it's their survival odds in the western release I have more doubts and worries about.
After the success of Octopath, they would be stupid not to bring this to the West.
Wish they’d bring tomb raider trilogy to switch
Batman: "R". What's that stand for?
Robin: - looks at Alfred - Remake.
I loved Star Ocean which I actually first discovered on the PSP so I really hope this comes to Europe.
There's an insane number of good JRPGs on the Switch at this point. This one is gonna struggle to compete for me.
Never played Star Ocean and it doesn't look appealing to me. But I am happy for everyone who can't wait to play it. All these re-released make me happy!
the switch has really become the place for RPG's ive never played this but I like the look of it
Looks amazing, and having read the article I know I’m just waiting for a western release date, not an announcement.
Getting this one for sure. I had it on my PSP but never finished it. I hope Second Evolution will be released on Switch later.
Not a big fan of the voice changes, but I will probably just wait for an English version anyway. Not sure what the point is in cha gong the character designs when the sprites look pretty much the same.
@Juma009 I shall join you with this begging. Please bring this to the west.
Hot fluffing dang. The first one is the best one. Boosh
Wait, are they talking about voice acting from the SNES?! I can't think of games that had any voice acting on the SNES other than a little sound bite during the title screen or anything.
@Alencia agreed, so long as 2 gets more of a makeover. On PSP it was largely just the ps1 game which left it deeling quite dated
@NEStalgia Tales Of Phantasia had voice acting
PushSquare has the English trailer up and its the same date in the west https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/09/star_ocean_first_departure_r_arrives_on_ps4_this_december
I'm willing to jump in this series.
December 5th here too, looking forward to it. Quite the gauntlet of RPGs on the Switch coming up. My only experience with Star Ocean is the terrible SO5 on PS4 so I'll just pretend this will be my first dip into the series.
@YANDMAN Octopath Traveler isn't an action RPG.
THEY SAY THE UNIVERSE IS A STAR OCEAN.
...and they said other things in the Super Famicom intro but most of them were blurred out by the music.
Is that feature going to be retained here?
Oh, neat. I had no idea this was getting localized... I've been bummed about the lack of PSN copies of those two PSP remakes for years. Can you imagine? There are gamers today who have only ever seen the Star Ocean games after SO3, who have no idea the series used to be fantastic.
Confirmed for the west already.
https://nintendoeverything.com/star-ocean-first-departure-r-coming-west-on-december-5-english-trailer/
@Lupin I am one of those people, and I can’t wait to experience a good game in this series. I don’t even remember what one I played, but... eh. Stoked for this tho.
@Liam_Doolan come on guys, you have a lot of European readers who don't use the British eShop... Please also add a €-value to the overview. NL for No-Brexit!
Hellz yes. Can't wait for more classic gaming goodness.
@mazzel Oops, that was a typo - sorted now!
@NEStalgia Star Ocean on Super Famicom does had voice acting in certain cutscenes. Interestingly the voice dubbed are spoken in English despite the game being fully translated in Japanese.
A physically would have been nice but I kind of half expected it to be all digital seeing as it is a much older title.
Why don't they just pack this and Star Ocean 2 onto one cart?
Early December and twenty-one buck? Even if it's likely to translate to 25 after our dear neighbour's "Google Tax", talk about significant raising my odds of a launch purchase.
(Edited for the numbers to make sense. Changing 25 to 15 is a new height of autocorrect logic)
@Varkster ahh isee, i didn't realise you were splitting that fine a hair.
@AlienX Hehehe... In this case the "R" stands for Remastered, not Remake. This is a direct HD port of the PSP game, not a remake of the Super Famicom original. The PSP version was the remake.
£16.99? day one purchase then!
Please physical version whould pay 50€ for it
@Liam_Doolan Thanks
What happened to this series? The first few games were gems. Since the original three, everything has been subpar.
OH MAN... Another SNES RPG I've always wanted to play! OH NO... Another RPG for my ailing backlog!
Same day as Japan's release, good
finally, a descent looking star ocean game.
@Geobros Switch.gr for life 😉
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