Star Ocean: First Departure
Game Info:
| Platform: | PSP |
| Developer: | tri-Ace/TOSE |
| Publisher: | Square-Enix |
| Players: | 1 |
| Format: | 1 UMD |
| Gallery: |
Editor review
The blueprint for a near perfect remake is right here
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I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of remakes. Maybe it's the fact that they intrude upon an already great piece of work by adding bonus content and then selling it back to us at full price that bothers me so much. The pendulum swing both ways, however, as there are ways to make a remake worth buying too. New content is but a beginning, the game has to feel like a new game, not just a clone of the original in new duds. With Square-Enix being in a remake-happy mood lately, I was a little worried when I first heard about their plans to remake the first two Star Ocean games for the PSP. My fears proved unfounded, as Star Ocean: First Departure qualifies as a great remake. For those not familiar with the franchise, a little history lesson is in order. The first Star Ocean game was developed for the Super Nintendo and never made its way Stateside. The West first got its taste of the game when the now-dissolved translation group DeJap took up and finished the massive undertaking of translating the game to English. Not an easy feat by any means, but realistically, it only interested hardcore JRPG fans. Even though I am ashamed to admit it, I've never played the DeJap version. You take the role of Roddick Farrence, a young Fellpool living in the village of Kratos on the planet Roak. Roddick, along with his friends Millie and Dorn make up the Kratos Brigade, essentially the town militia. Aside from pummeling the occasional thugs and bandits, life is pretty simple and easy going for the three. Their peace and relaxation is interrupted when news of a disease that turns people to stone is reported to have broken out in the nearby village of Coule. When the Brigade gets wind of the devastating news, they storm towards the summit of Mt. Metorx to search for a mythical herb that is purported to heal any sickness. Upon reaching the summit, they are greeted by a pair of odd-looking strangers emerging from beams of light emanating from the ground. They introduce themselves as Ronyx and Ilia, travelers from the planet Earth. They inform the bewildered Brigade about the origins of the spreading epidemic and that nothing on Roak can cure the disease. Ronyx and Ilia invite the group to join them on their starship Calnus and begin their long search for a cure. Though much of the game has been improved, the story remains relatively untouched. A few character back stories are fleshed out a little more, but nothing major added otherwise. Unfortunately, even for its time Star Ocean did not have a noteworthy tale to begin with and at times becomes painfully apparrent in this remake. It's still far from the worst story you'll ever come upon and there's certainly plenty more to like about this game. Star Ocean 2 veterans will find themselves in very familiar territory as the gameplay is almost completely identical. The skill system and Item Creation are closely tied just as they were in SO2 and can affect everything from basic stats to success rates when creating items. Battles unfold in real-time and in typical Star Ocean style, are fast paced and often chaotic. Private actions while in towns are responsible for most of the character development and reveal tidbits of interesting information about your party members as well as build up the Approval Rating between characters. They're usually short and require a bit of dilligence to trigger, but the humorous dialogue exchanges are well worth the effort. There are no multiple endings, but Approval Ratings can get you extra dialogue at the ending sequence. Two new additional characters have been added to the roster and while they are optional, they serve to answer a few questions with the side stories. I would have preferred a reworked or at least expanded secret dungeon though, I found the game to be terribly short and lacking any real challenge. With all of the things they added and improved in this game, a new secret dungeon wouldn't have been terribly difficult to add. Gameplay isn't the only similarity you'll find here, the game uses the graphics engine from Star Ocean: The Second Story and it shows; everything from the menus to the pre-rendered backgrounds are reminiscent of the PSX game. While the engine is hardly new, it is still an improvement from the original SNES graphics. The engine may be old, but all of the artwork is spankin' new courtesy of Production IG. The new character art is stunning and comes complete with unique expressions shown during dialogue and spice up otherwise boring chit-chat. The anime cutscenes are simply awesome to watch with the only downside being why couldn't they have included more?! As you may have already guessed, most of the sounds were lifted straight out of Star Ocean 2, too. Thankfully, they didn't retain any of the voice work from SO2 or the SNES version, instead they've been supplanted with all new talent voicing most of the major dialogue sequences. I had my cringing face and mute button at the ready, but apparently I was wasting my time! It may seem out of character, but after you play so many games with above average voice acting, you really start to appreciate its place in modern RPGs. This game only reinforces that notion as the voice overs are excellent and I found no itching desire to skip the spoken dialogue. The voice talent just seemed so well suited for every character they were playing and added a kind of depth that's hard to capture. Add the expressive artwork and you have some really dynamic dialogue that you actually won't mind sitting through! This game has provided a much needed positive experience with remakes. Though I'm not quite ready to change my opinion about them, there's definitely hope for it in the future. If you've never experienced the Star Ocean games or RPGs in general, this is a perfect place to start; it's beginner friendly and no back story is needed. For veterans, it's the official arrival of Star Ocean 1 in the US and it's a fantastic remake to boot, what more do you need? | |||||||||
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