[Game Review] Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)

Star Ocean: First Departure is a remake of the SNES game Star Ocean, released in 1996 Japan only, for the PSP. And while the new game has added more items, new features and an extra dungeon, the heart of the game is still there.

Storyline

The story of Star Ocean: First Departure is one which takes place primarily on a planet named Roak. Without getting into details or spoilers, I'd like to say a few things. The first of which being that for an RPG originally made in 1996, Star Ocean makes a valiant attempt at originality. And while the story is cliche at times, it almost feels appropriate. The framework of the story and the objective of the protagonist, Ronyx, slips your mind as you venture into this game. And while this framework itself is unique, the vast majority of the game takes place in the typical, medieval-like setting most RPG fans are sick and tired of by now. I only wish that more time would have been spent in the more unique settings used in the game.

The second thing there is to say about the storyline of Star Ocean is that it does a very good job at making you forget it is just a story. Perhaps this can be explained by the layered storylines within the game, though. It's just a shame I can't further explain what I mean without giving away key plot points of the game.

What I can talk about though are the characters. The interesting thing about Star Ocean: First Departure is that it features 14 different playable characters, although you can only have 8 over the course of the game. As a result of this, some proper character development is sacrificed in place of the possibility of alternate cutscenes and endings as well as a case for replayability. Though, I can't really comment too much on that because I've only beaten the game once.

Score: Above Average 8/10

Gameplay

Star Ocean: First Departure plays in a limited but three-dimensional world with towns and dungeons laid out on the world map of Roak. The extent of the exploration and problem solving is fairly typical compared to other RPGs. Not too much to say here as I find it one of the weakest points of the game.

The combat system used in Star Ocean uses is action based in real-time. Most battles are random and occur on the world map or in a dungeon-like area, and when triggered you enter the battle screen. The exception to this obviously are bosses. While this combat system may have been innovative when it was originally released in 1996, now it just doesn't cut it for me. The beginning of the game is fairly enjoyable, but at around the middle of the game combat already feels tired and uninteresting. Although, this can mostly be attributed to two things: The first is that when a spell is cast in combat the entire fight stops and you have to wait 3-10 seconds for the spells animation to finish itself. At first it seems cool and cinematic and what not, but not after long you feel the urge to remove the casters from your party. If only they weren't so much more overpowered than your non spellcasters. The second problem is that halfway through the game you have access to ways of making infinite money, obtaining every useful item, obtaining (almost)all the best equipment, and it becomes very easy to accidentally over level your party. By the time I got to the end of the game my main character was level 101, and the guide I was using said it could easily be done with a party below level 70, just to give you an idea incredibly easy and unbalanced this game can become.

Score: Average 6/10

Sound & Graphics

The sound department of Star Ocean is fairly impressive considering it is a PSP game. A lot of the songs fit their respective areas very nicely and not too many songs are reused throughout the game. More importantly, however, is the fact that most important characters in the game has voice acted lines. But what is most impressive about this is that the dialogues can change completely depending on which combinations of characters are in your party. Meaning lots and lots of voice acting was put into this game. I was impressed.

Graphics on the other hand... Well, let's just say I wasn't impressed. But that's not to say they weren't good. They were pretty average, but I don't feel they completely utilized the PSP in terms of what it's graphically capable of. The one good thing I do have to say about this games visuals is that of the few cutscenes that are in the game(including the intro), none of them were bad. Some of them were long and they were made in the anime style of art, so I can understand why some people wouldn't be too fond of them. But I thought they were nicely done.

Score: Slightly Above Average 7/10

Final Thoughts

This review ended up being a little shorter than I'd expected, but when there is so much cliche about a game there isn't a whole lot to say. Some parts did end up being unique enough to stretch the imagination, but for the most part the events of the game were unexciting and the gameplay felt repetitive at times. I would only recommend this to someone who really likes RPGs or real-time action based combat systems. If that's you, then you might enjoy this game enough for it to be worth it. Otherwise, don't even bother.

My overall score is: 7.3/10.0