This very first game in the Star Ocean series - a series which eventually grew to include eight titles of varying quality - has been through a handful of iterations over the years. Originally released exclusively in Japan on Super Famicom back in 1996 it was then extensively remade using the Star Ocean 2 engine for PSP in 2007, adding brand new prerendered backdrops, voice acting, 3D battlefields, a world map and beautiful CGI cutscenes courtesy of Production I.G. This updated and enhanced version of the game now finds its way onto PS4 and Nintendo Switch in the form of Star Ocean: First Departure R and what we've got here is essentially the same game released on PSP with high definition visuals, some newly drawn character avatars and a handful of combat tweaks to make things a little more challenging.
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.
Star Ocean's mixing of traditional fantasy with sci-fi elements was ahead of the curve back in the 1990s and it's still a fun and intriguing setup. Early scenes showing the young adventurers as fish out of water, being ushered around a space federation ship where they're bamboozled by automatically opening doors, wowed by elevators and confounded by computers are still entertaining and, in these early stages, there's hope for a satisfying and thrilling adventure that, unfortunately, never really comes to fruition. This is mainly because once the characters set out on their quest proper the game loses a lot of its rhythm, wasting time with simple quests which involve copious amounts of backtracking and those random battle encounters which see you face off time and again against the same handful of enemies - whether you're in modern day Roak or have travelled 300 years into its past, you'll come up against the very same foes wearing exactly the same armour - who all too quickly become very easy to beat, more of a hindrance that any kind of satisfying combat challenge.
Indeed, the combat here, though certainly something new and impressive back in the day, is a simplistic and often tedious affair compared to more modern RPGs, with real time battles more often than not devolving very quickly into button mashing. It's still fun to be able freely move your characters around the battlefield to line up attacks but things pretty much always degenerate into spamming your special moves - of which you've got two assigned to the L and R buttons - and hacking away, pausing to heal, until all your enemies are dead. During these skirmishes you control one of your party of three and can freely switch control to whomever you prefer whilst issuing various strategic commands such as spreading out to attack or getting stuck in as hard and fast as possible.
Much more successful than the combat are the crafting, item creation and skill systems here which still feel surprisingly deep and satisfying and afford you plenty of opportunity to tailor your character skills and weapons to suit your playstyle, giving you an edge in the heat of some of the more difficult button-mashing battles against the handful of bosses that pop up over the course of your travels. And we really do mean handful. There is a real dearth of side activities, quests and even dungeons over the course of your adventure here, towns and villages are compact and you're funnelled pretty quickly through proceedings with that running time beefed out for the most part by the backtracking and constant random encounters we've previously mentioned.
Star Ocean: First Departure R also features Private Actions - another commendably novel idea when the game first released - which are totally optional and allow you to stop to chat to your party members in order to affect relationships - there's a basic affinity system at work here that feeds in to the outcome of the narrative - and also learn some more of backstory to characters and events. As we said, it's totally optional, but it's also more than worth taking the time to indulge in so you get the most of what little story there is here and it certainly adds some much needed depth to the game that you can influence the narrative in little ways through these instances alongside some basic dialogue options that pop up over the course of proceedings.
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.
Conclusion
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. There's certainly still some fun to be had for sure, the mixing of fantasy and sci-fi on offer here is an endearing one, and it's noteworthy for the handful of novel features it introduced to the genre back in the day but - with a story and gameplay that were pretty average at the time of its release and haven't aged particularly well in the interim - it's definitely an experience recommended specifically for fans and those of us who wish to see the superlative second game in the series get the chance of a Switch re-release.
Comments 38
Can't wait to play this again tomorrow. Only thing disappointing to me is that there is no physical copy for Switch but I still got my PSP copy so that's great. Now hopefully they also port Star Ocean: Second Evolution for Switch soon too.
Am I the only one that gets disappointed when remakes/remasters of games come out without their original versions to accompany them? You could say it's just a pet peeve, but most movie studios would never release heavily edited special editions without the original being available (George Lucas excluded, of course). It just seems to be a given in the world of cinema that movies are worth preserving and distributing in their original forms, along with their director's cuts and whatnot. I just wish more games offered you a way to toggle original graphics/original sounds etc., or at least stick a ROM in the menu screen.
Play "TLOH: Trails of Cold Steel I&2 and get ready for #3 on Switch. 10X better use of time if an jRPG fan and want to play old classics.
@retro_player_22 I have a suspicion that we might see a (possibly limited) run of physical copies of both remastered games in the future, not unlike the FF7/8 twin pack.
@BoilerBroJoe That would be nice if all games does that but you also had to remember that with some games, the dev or publisher who does the remake had nothing to do with the original too so sometimes it doesn't work out. For example when Metroid: Zero Mission came out, it came with the original Metroid as an unlockable, that's cause both games are own by Nintendo but when the Crash N.Sane trilogy got released, it can't include the original PS1 Crash trilogy as source code for some of those are either lost or are own by Universal or Sony or Naughty Dog, all which are beyond Activision or Toys For Bob control to get. It would be nice if this remake of Star Ocean also include the original Super Famicom release since Tri-Ace developed both but I guess they already chosen what they believe to be the best version here for the remastered.
@Agramonte Took me about 170 hours to finish ToCS 1 and 2 and I almost feel like I rushed through them (my low chapter grades would agree with that.) Get on it ASAP everyone!
@blackice85 I would love to see that too. These are old-schools style RPGs that modern gamers may not get use to so I hope a physical pack of both games for future release is a possibility. I would triple dip if that happens as I'm not sure how long my PSP copy would last as it's only in disc form.
Forgot this was on the way. I'm drowning in JRPGs but I'll toss this in my wishlist.
Enjoyed it back on the PSP and will probably pick it up again on Switch.
I don't really mind that it's short.
Nothing worse than seeing an article like this and thinking it's Golden Sun-related for a moment before realising it's not. Ooph
Quite excited to give this a shot. No other entry in the series has managed to be as awesome as SO2, but in terms of looks at least this one seems to be the closest.
Might just be me but review reads higher than an 6, but either way I will be getting it at some point
Kinda bummed it got a 6 but I'm still gonna pick it up once I'm done with DQXI.
@Yorumi
It would of been a 8 if it was pixel graphics if on top that it was a n Nintendo exclusive it would be a 10
I'm sooooo gonna buy this! I love old school RPG'S (or as we used to call them back in the day, school rpg's). Also really want to buy Romancing Saga 3. Such a great time to be a nintendo console owner!
So basically it got docked points for being a.classic jrpg? That's crap. Would you rate Super Mario Bros. 4 stars because it's absurdly short? No, it's an excellent game for what it is meant to be.
Putting "repetitive combat" on the negatives list is like putting "game was too hard" on a Cuphead or Dark Souls review. It's the whole point of the game. If the game genre is not for you and you don't like the game because it fits in the bounds of it's genre (classic jrpg), then pass the review to someone who knows how to judge an old rpg. Don't dock it points for being what the players want it to be. I would never review a Madden game and say "this game is football simulator, and I find football boring, so it's a crap game". This game is meant to be a grind fest for fans of grind fests. It is a positive.
This game deserves at least an 8, and rating below a 7 is just wrong. A lot of opinion does go into reviews, but there is a point where you are objectively wrong, and going by the comments, this review hit that point.
Am curious about this one. Being around 20 hours long is good for me.
The original Star Ocean a was beautiful pixel art masterpiece. I wouldn't want it changed up. But I couldn't ever play it because I don't read Japanese. Id want to play a fan translated original over this. I played the modern Star Ocean the Last Hope expecting greatness but it had phallic imagery everywhere and the ultra girlboy wimpy characters were a big turn off for me.
@Yorumi Alwa's Awakening was an excellent game. I think you're probably right..
@Yorumi Riiiiight. And yet the 2009 release has a 74 on Metacritic, and the 2019 PS4 release has a 68. But no, it's definitely a heinous bias against this legendary game.
Geez, would you look at that "PlayStation Universe" gave it a 6/10. The Nintendo bias is spreading like a plague!
@Tim_Vreeland they have points though. High encounter rate and backtracking makes things tedious fast, like breath of fire 2. You'd think an update would have some means of warping, but it honestly sounds lazy. Second story is usually preferred.
@Tim_Vreeland The difference is that this game is a remake, therefore expectations are higher. In most remakes, QOL updates are made to ensure that the game remains fresh or to streamline the process for returning players. If this game doesn’t offer that, then it doesn’t exactly succeed as a remake and you’d be better off not paying the higher price and instead buying the original game.
@nimnio Dropping facts. I like it.
There were two Super Famicom games I had always wanted to play back in the 90s but weren't localized in the west-- Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean. The former I was able to play on GBA iirc, and now I'll get to play the latter finally. I didn't when know this was out...?
@blackice85 nep!
Sadly the game lost all my interested with the mention of grinding, and endless random encounters.
Shame really.
@nessisonett This is not a remake. It is an HD remaster of a 2007 handheld rpg, that was a remake of a Super Nintendo game.. The 2007 remake had better reviews. All this release is supposed to be is a visual update.
Low score here... It should've been at least a 7. Why? Because indie RPG game sucks even bigger and those gets most of the time an 8 all the time or higher. This game is quality. yes random encounters suck/but graphics is still way better than any 2D indie game. If you can't appreciate/see that, well too bad for you
Love the fact all the rpg’s I never got to play are slowly being released on my favourite console. Will pick this up at some point but busy with Pokemon and DQXIS atm
This game is good. I have a translated version of it, but I kind of want it for Switch. I am currently playing Revaluations for GBC. You cannot get more grinding than that. I think SO2 is way better, but this one is a get.
@Tim_Vreeland No, retro gamers do not play or enjoy old school JRPGs for archaic mechanics. They just didn't have any superior options back then. Players these days enjoy them mainly for the things they did right that have aged well while putting up with the bad things as a necessary evil in order to enjoy the rest of the game. If "Star Ocean" could've been made with better combat mechanics back when it was first made, players back then definitely would've preferred it that way. I bet not even 1% of JRPG fans are fans of "grind fests" or excessive backtracking. It's just not something that's fun to do in the genre!
It's the same reason something like "Sonic 3D Blast" was considered a decent game upon release, but then once gamers could play real 3D platformers, they realized that isometric platformers are terrible in comparison. Not that this game is terrible, but it's the same concept.
Also, the original "Super Mario Bros." is not that short and would still rate much higher than a 4 even if you did take a point or two off for that. Meanwhile, any reviews of "Cuphead" or "Dark Souls" definitely should be marked down for being too difficult, as the majority of gamers find that level of difficulty just extremely frustrating rather than a fun challenge. Besides, "Dark Souls" was designed first and foremost around its more unique combat mechanics, not on being a hardcore challenge, and that's the primary reason most players (who can put up with its high difficulty level) play it, not as a difficulty challenge like something like "Super Meat Boy."
@Yorumi "Alwa's Awakening" still got a 7 as a "light recommendation" by NL. They likewise correctly marked it off for archaic issues that don't belong in modern games, plus they went too far with the retro graphics. The point of modern retro games is to copy the good things while also bringing it up to modern standards, not to include the bad things as well. As such, retro-inspired games should have at least close to 16-bit style graphics and sound while including a fair (without excessive spikes) difficulty level and modern quality of life features. Games that do it well like "Shovel Knight" generally get the high scores they deserve both on Nintendo Life and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, from the sound of this review, this game is comparable to being an HD remaster of Kemco's various mediocre RPGs, which have likewise mostly scored 6/10 here
Why do you guys keep mentioning age in rpg refresh’s like it’s a bad thing. I feel like some of these reviews are biased in that aspect.
Love star ocean but not buying something that doesn’t add anything extra to what the psp version already did. Unfortunate because I love star ocean 2 and I wish they would expand on some of these adventures. But who am I ....just a lowly customer
@BulbasaurusRex You are definitely out of touch with the majority of retro gamers. The things you are talking about may be more in line with modern indie gaming, which may cross over from time to time with retro gamers. Have been a member of several retro gaming communities for years. "Should have at least close to 16bit"... No, no way. 16 bit style is great. But 8bit is too. The retro community loves 8bit style games, and new games are still being programmed for 8 bit consoles.
Also the point of Souls style games is to be hard. From Software have made several statements in the past, saying they won't put an easy mode in their games. Their games were designed to be hard, so you have to think to overcome. This isn't a design flaw that should be docked points. This is a great feature. And it's proven by how well the games sell and are beloved.
And you would be sadly mistaken to think retro jrpg fans don't like grinding. It's a way of relaxing for many. That's why so many of us go back and play retro rpgs that we missed when we were kids. It's something familiar but something new as well. There are plenty of modern rpgs, or indie rpgs, but many of us go back and play something like Destiny of an Emperor, just because we like those old grindy gems.
Look at the rerelease of Dragon Quest 1-3 on Switch. The majority of people complained because the rerelease used the updated versions with less grinding and 16 bit style graphics, rather than the 8bit grindy NES Dragon Warrior games. Go look at the comment sections of articles announcing the release. Nobody wanted the modern ports.
@PJOReilly Hey there's a minor typo in the cons section of the review. Just pointing that out.
@Tim_Vreeland i saw more complaints from people who wanted the 16 bit versions of the games than the "8 bit grindy" ones
take DQIII for example, the SFC release had animated enemy graphics, and a board game based minigame among other minor graphical updates, while the re releases lacked the animated enemy sprites, the minigame, had missing backgrounds in the tower dungeons among other things. along with new character/enemy art people felt clashed with the lower resolution tilesets.
in the case of star ocean, First departure was based on elements from the psone star ocean 2 released prior, and a lot of the issues mentioned in the review for this game were handled better in that game, star ocean 2 had more dungeons, more side content and the world map was much better laid out making backtracking less of an issue.
the lack of dungeons complaint can be explained by how in the original 16 bit star ocean there was no world map and areas were linked by highways and the like, which were pretty much outdoor dungeons, which in this version are replaced by an overworld map
Nice! Never finished on psp and cooler that it has the jp audio as well n.n
Is mixing fantasy tropes with sci-fi ahead of the curve here? Isn't that the entire basis of Phantasy Star?
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