Product Description

Space Date 346: A Terran Federation ship touches down on the planet Roak. Assisted by a stalwart band of local heroes, the crew must investigate a mysterious phenomenon and halt a galactic war.

With stunning graphics and audio, an action-packed combat system, movie sequences from world-famous animation studio Production I.G, and a galaxy-spanning storyline, Star Ocean: First Departure represents Europe's first opportunity to experience the original chapter of the hit Star Ocean series, in completely re-imagined form, exclusively for PSP.

• First Contact. For the first time in Europe, you can discover the origins of the hit Star Ocean series, re-imagined exclusively for PSP.
• Epic Adventure. Explore the stars with a cast of charismatic characters.
• Action-Packed Combat. Vanquish your enemies with real-time battle and magic commands.
• Peerless Production Values. High quality graphics and music coupled with awesome movie sequences created by Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell) immediately immerse you in the Star Ocean universe.
• Your Story. The unique Private Action system lets you influence how the story proceeds via your interactions with other characters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2626 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Released on: 2008-10-24
• Platform: Sony PSP
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Space Date 346: A Terran Federation ship touches down on the planet Roak. Assisted by a stalwart band of local heroes, the crew must investigate a mysterious phenomenon and halt a galactic war.
With stunning graphics and audio, an action-packed combat system, movie sequences from world-famous animation studio Production I.G, and a galaxy-spanning storyline, STAR OCEAN: FIRST DEPARTURE represents Europe's first opportunity to experience the original chapter of the hit STAR OCEAN series, in completely re-imagined form, exclusively for PSP (PlayStation Portable).

Customer Reviews

The legend begins.
For the longest time I have left the Star Ocean series for what it was. I don't know why, I suppose I was just really conservative at the time and was afraid of trying new games. It wasn't untill I played Valkyrie Profile for PSP that I got interested in other Tri-Ace titles. Needless to say that I got very excited when I heard of a remake for the first two Star Ocean games, I saw it as a chance to not only get into the series, but play them as a whole at that (minus blue sphere of course). After finally playing and finishing first departure I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.

The story begins with Roddick, a fellpool (a tailed race) living quitely in his vilage alongside his friends Millie and Dorne where they serve as a kind of defense brigade. When suddenly a disease starts to turn people to stone, they set out to find a cure on a nearby mountain. Their lives however get turned upside down after meeting Ilia and Ronyx, two earthlings who suddenly appear before them in a flash of light. This is where the adventure begins.

The thing I noticed about Tri-Ace games is that they like to make refferences to their other titles, a lot. This goes from familiar sounds and menu navigation to having characters from other games make cameo appearances and even joining in on your adventure. As such if you have played any other Tri-Ace title before and liked it, chances are high that you will enjoy the basic interface of this game as well.

The battle system was unique to me, during combat you move around with your party leader attacking and using special attacks/spells to obliterate your enemy while your allies move around and do the same on AI, you can switch leader mid-battle to suit your needs as well. This tends to give the game a more action oriented feeling in combat than the more traditional RPGs out there but it's worked out pretty nice and your allies are in fact smart compared to other games where they tend to run around mindlessly attacking and wasting MP. Only bad thing is that it tends to get boring after a while but then again, I think most battle systems are like that.

The story might seem a little short and primitive to some but remember, this is a remake of a game that was released in the SFC era, back in those days this was a great story and if you can keep that in mind then I'm sure you'll find this enjoyable too. Just don't expect a long and intruiging story with lots of plot twists.

The only thing I disliked about the game was the overworld map, wich you ALWAYS traverse on foot, this can take long and can be quite tedious at some points when also considdering the huge ancounter rate.

All in all this was a great game and it certainly made me crave for more. Now bring on second evolution!

Easily one of the best RPGs on PSP!
First departure is essentially a remake of an RPG released on snes which never managed to make it to the shores of the UK. Thankfully, little has been changed from the excellent game that it originally was and many will take solace in the brilliant story which will unravel throughout the game.

As with all RPGs, you take on the role of a young man who is trying to save his world. Unfortunately, Roddick doesn't realise that his world is simply one of millions which has been subjected to an interplanetary attack which is turning all its residents into stone! Cue earthlings turning up to help them and the dawning realisation that the only way to stop this is to go back in time to their world. With twists and turns a-plenty, the storyline will not dissapoint.

The worlds have been beautifully drawn and the varied lands will be a joy to explore. There is a lot of depth for an RPG on PSP. Characters are all created as sort of 2D blocks although exploration takes place in a 3D world. It is the beauty of each location which will capture your imagination, especially when you stand at the harbour and look out over the sea, or when you stand at the highest point in the city to survey your surroundings. Graphically, this will not let you down.

Gameplay consists of go here, get this and kill this along the way. It's really typical RPG stuff. The game uses real time combat and maps standard attacks to X, and the shoulder buttons to special. As you progress, you'll obtain experience which can be used to upgrade skills that you have purchased. This unlocks greater stamina, strength or the use of abilities such as cooking or writing which is a pleasent side thought. What this allows is for you to create the characters that you want with the focus that you desire.

What I really like about this game is the voice acting which never grows dull. This really breaks up the game and continues to steer you in the right direction. The music is also pretty memorable. The only thing that bothered me was backtracking to obtain certain skills. This really irritated me although regular ships make this less of a chore. I still think that this is easily one of the best RPGs on PSP alongside with Tales of Eternia and Final Fantasy Tactics. A great game.

Nothing wrong with this...
But nothing really right either. With games like Crisis Core and Chains of Olympus showing us what the PSP can do there is no excuse to continue re-releasing 10-year old products, even if they have been brushed up. The marketing blurb describes "exploring the stars" (there is certainly none of that) and "peerless production values", but the anime movies and voice acting cannot disguise the thin characterisation and average plot, nor can they enhance game-play mechanics that are rather old now.

* Plot and characterisation
The story is interesting, if contrived, to start with, but then reverts to a fairly routine plot (it might have been innovative back in the day) which lacks the twists needed to make it noteworthy among today's games. The main character is rather 2D with virtually no background provided. The mandatory supporting characters are slightly better, but the optional characters are (generally) not. This deprives the game of humour and emotion.

* Game play
In terms of mechanics the exploration elements are very tedious, consisting of walking slowly from town to town with frequent random monster encounters. However, most of the battles are very easy and the "AI" controlling the rest of the party will have demolished the enemy before the time the player controlled character has got close. On the positive side, this system is slightly more active and involving than contemporary games which are also being re-released.
There are a huge range of options for training the characters and manipulating items. This adds some interest, but it is not entirely clear whether the time spent on this is worth the difference it makes to the game play.
There is also some sort of inter-relationship system between the characters but, again, it does not seem to have much of an effect on the game play, nor, importantly, does it add much depth (which is presumably why it was included).

* Graphics and sound
There are six new animes, but the exploration and battle sequences are mostly (as far as I can tell) derived from the original release. The music is barely noticeable and there are no catchy tunes. However, all characters and major NPCs have voice actors, although the quality varies - some are quite a bit better than others.


I cannot help but contrast this with Final Fantasy VII, which was released a year after but was markedly better (then) than this re-release is (now) over ten years later. The game will soak up 20 or so hours if you need an RPG fix and have lots of spare time, but don't expect anything special.