Traversing the ocean of stars has always been a fascinating, romantic notion to me. I was surprised at just how adeptly Star Ocean: First Departure R captured that sense of imaginative wonder early on in its narrative. An enhanced port of the PSP remake of the first Star Ocean game, Star Ocean: First Departure R has all the bells and whistles to make this the quintessential copy of the game for newcomers. Players can choose between two very different art styles from the get-go, as well as differing language options. Due to my personal preferences, I chose the new artwork by Katsumi Enami as well as the new Japanese language track for this port, but the original PSP art and language options are completely worthwhile if they’re more your cup of tea.
Right away, Star Ocean: First Departure R’s story sucked me in. Main character Roddick lives on the planet Roak, where he and his two friends Millie and Dorne serve as their hometown’s guardians. A terrible disease is spreading across Roak, turning everyone it infects into stone. The trio soon depart on a desperate mountain trek to search for a potential cure, however, instead of finding one, they encounter two humans named Ronyx and Ilia from the scientifically more advanced planet Earth. Soon after more story exposition, both Millie and Roddick join Ronyx and Ilia on a quest to save their home that will span both the stars and even time itself. The narrative is an interesting and rather creative blend of science fiction and fantasy, and I was oftentimes very impressed with its presentation and developments given the older nature of the game itself.
Also expanding upon Star Ocean: First Departure R’s story is the likable cast at its core. Though there are only eight party slots, and four of those will be occupied by your main four characters, there is a plethora of potential party members to be found, ensuring multiple playthroughs if gamers want to see all of their interconnected story scenes and endings. For example, during my first playthrough the other members of my party included a spirited inventor, a cat-girl, a werewolf martial artist, and a swordsman who may have a bit of a drinking problem. Though they don’t get to say or do much in the main plot scenes, these characters have vibrant and colorful personalities that are wonderfully fleshed out thanks to optional story scenes.
These optional story scenes are large factors in Star Ocean: First Departure R’s plot, referred to as Private Actions. Every time Roddick is about to enter a town, players can opt to have the party separate so that the individual members can do their own thing. Roddick will then enter the city by himself and potentially run into another character partaking in an event, often with either amusing or insightful outcomes, though they might result in gamers getting items or a skill from time to time too. Private Actions play a large role in the game’s hidden affection rating system as well, which keeps track of the bond between Roddick and his companions. Depending on how strong the bonds ultimately are, scenes at the ending of the game get altered to factor in player choice and character preferences. Given just how many character combinations are possible, Star Ocean: First Departure R boasts a range of endings.
Actions taken during battle also play a role in determining character affection levels too, while they can also be a frantic and action-filled experience. Generally speaking, players only control the designated leader character of the party, with the other three characters being controlled by the game’s A.I. You can tailor their actions to your preferred playstyle quite a bit, such as having healer Millie focus solely on keeping everyone healthy if you prefer. Gamers can also switch between controllable characters when needed during fights, adding a nice strategic element to combat. Characters learn multiple combat abilities as they level up, and players can select two of those abilities to equip for battle use. I found attacks such as Pericci’s Spread Missile and Roddick’s Dragon Roar vital to my battle strategy, since they kept a healthy distance between the characters and enemies but still did decent damage. Combat can be nicely tailored to individual player preferences.
Skills acquired through shops or story events can be learned by characters as well, and often grant bonuses and benefits to combat once gained. I found Millie to be a powerhouse healer who could sling those vital spells without much interruption thanks to my focus on skills pertaining to her spell casting, and I also found combat abilities such as Guardbreak and Godspeed essential for an in-your-face fighter like Ilia. Likewise, other skills when learned and leveled raise a specific character stat, which is always beneficial. Certain combinations of skills when learned together lead to a character learning a special talent to take advantage of outside of battles too, the best example of this being the Item Creation talents. In my playthrough, Roddick was quite the talented chef who could create some truly lifesaving meals with the proper ingredients. Appraising any unidentifiable items to make use of them was also another talent I would make quite a bit of use of in my playthrough.
Star Ocean: First Departure R does have some noticeable difficulty spikes that crop up when advancing the plot: I’d find that I’d suddenly go from easily traversing through a spot to facing multiple game overs in quick succession. I found it necessary to level grind whenever these spikes occurred until I was able to survive an area’s battles once again. Even with taking the time to gain experience, the game itself took roughly thirty hours or so to finish. Star Ocean: First Departure R ended up being a quicker playthrough than I initially expected, even with my constant backtracking in order to check out as many Private Actions as I could. Perhaps if Roddick didn’t walk so slowly on the World Map, I might have finished even sooner!
The new character artwork by Katsumi Enami is absolutely gorgeous and finely detailed, though I must admit there was a bit of a dissonance between it and the anime cutscenes that rely on the earlier PSP remake designs, as well as the character sprites also based on the PSP designs. The graphics did not always translate to HD well, causing there to be a bit of graininess to the visuals when it comes to town backgrounds in particular. However, I loved the detail in the character sprites and especially how the visuals looked during the heat of battle. Fittingly, there was a bit of old-school charm to the font and the animated cutscenes used in the game as well.
The soundtrack for Star Ocean: First Departure R is lovely and really got stuck in my head when I was playing. The music captured the feel of the story wonderfully. The new voice work for First Departure R was also nicely performed, with quite a lot of emotion put behind line deliveries.
Star Ocean: First Departure R is a phenomenally solid game for those looking for an old-school RPG to play that will also offer a wealth of content and replayability. I enjoyed my time playing this remaster immensely, and became enamored of the story and its characters rather early on. It might not be worth revisiting if you’ve already played the PSP version, but newcomers should definitely pick up this version of the game to add to their library. Star Ocean: First Departure R is one nostalgic trip to the stars that is well worth taking.
