my first entry into the star ocean series, started this because 2nd story R looked really cool but this game was plenty cool too, it had like the usual jrpg jank and annoying random encounters but the very simple but still fun combat and the specialty system actually gave me quite a bit of gameplay elements to get invested in, ive leveled and used so many of them that my party was just OP as fuck by the end of the game but surprisingly the final boss still gave me some trouble (not much but still)
the story was good, not great, not awful but good and it as well as the characters had soul and thats what matters the most to me in the end, i do wish both were a bit more fleshed out but this game came out in 96 so i can forgive that
another thing that kinda disappointed me was that i expected this game to take place in space way more but like 80% of it was on the same planet , i guess thats my bad on expecting something that star ocean is clearly not

conclusion is, i liked this game and i can't wait to get on 2nd story now :)

Star Ocean: First Departure R is a game that shows its age but despite it conveys an incredibly fun adventure that is reminiscent of pure old-school RPG fun. I was most appreciative of how many hidden tasks there were in this game and just how varied your cast can get by the end depending on your choices. It helps that the game is relatively short, meaning, you can replay it and have a radically different experience each time. I thoroughly enjoyed the cast but felt a particular affinity for Ronyx and Ilia. I felt that the game was at its narrative excellence when it refocused to give us their interpretation of this world. I very distinctly recall the conversation both Ronyx and Ilia had regarding the differences between their belief in the religious, spiritual, and technological and how this clashed with what the people of this world believed. Star Ocean is unique in that each person has their path in life influenced by how and where they grew up as each world is so distinct.

In general, the OST was simple but effective. I felt that the combat was fun though my only two complaints are how fast some mages would fire spells at you and the difficulty in attacking some characters as the positioning system would take my playable character all over the place. I wasn't too bothered by the back-tracking in the second half of the game but did feel that the encounter rate can be a bit overwhelming at times. I enjoyed the specialty system a lot and felt that it added so much nuance to the world as well as the game systems. Symbology is a core part of the world you're exploring and so nurturing various techniques which reflect one's attunement with it felt so appropriate. The feeling of gaining a very useful "quality of life" through leveling different skills/specialties was great. I just wish the game did a better job of explaining it and guiding you through it. I think this particular aspect of the game served its purpose well when it was first released because players would likely share different techniques in person leading to moments such as, "Did you hear? If you level x and y, you get the z specialty which lets you open a shop anywhere on the map!" These moments were seminal for older RPGs and likely had a great impact on players back then. Finally, I would like to bring attention to the art. Enami is one of my favorite artists of all time. She brings each work to life in such a beautiful way and it's no different with Star Ocean. The amount of soul and passion in each character's art is astounding.

Otherwise, it's hard to criticize this game. It's a great pocket of adventure with so much soul. And I must end this review with: Phia and Mavelle are top 1.

Story and characters are good enough. Most of the lines are voice acted which I appreciate.

It's lacking a lot of quality of life features. There are frequent random encounters, a lot of backtracking, fixed save points, unconvenient crafting mechanics which waste your time with a short "animation"(it's too simple to call it an animation, it's more like a fade out effect), sudden difficulty spikes, skill system which is difficult to understand without a guide.
There is also no difficulty settings. I was forced to go out of my way at some point and follow a guide for easy levelling so I could progress, I was getting one shot by mobs otherwise.

This re-release could have been used to smooth out the issues, but it's just a port of the psp version. It's outdated and it shows.

Despite all that though, there is a good game here if you can overlook how many small problems it has. The skills allow you to break the game once you put enough into them which feels satisfying.

Cute if pretty simple science fantasy story. Character recruitment choices are permanent and can accidentally lock other characters and resolutions to side stories, which is annoying but the game is short enough that it makes for replayability. I think it's kinda fun how figuring out how the systems all work and interact with each other lets you immediately break the game when you have the skill levels. Biggest sticking point is combat, which isn't really that interesting and the auto-targeting frequently makes you run around in circles to attack an enemy that isn't the one right in front of you.