After falling in love with the recently released Star Ocean Second Story R, I knew that I needed to continue seeing what this series had to offer. Figured I'd backtrack before I move forward- and thus here I am with Star Ocean First Departure R. I am happy to report that it, like its successor, is a fantastic time.
A lot of my praise for this game is pretty similar to the praise I gave to Second Story- the blending of sci-fi and fantasy, the mechanical depth, fun combat, wonderful characters and recruiting processes, worldbuilding, so on and so forth. However, this game still feels very distinct with its own flavors and spins on all of those aspects, and I found that to be really exciting. This game is such a blast from start to finish, and just emanates charm right from the golden snes/ps1 era of JRPGs beautifully.
The way this story is setup is so wonderfully told and compelling, and the early twist that truly kicks the game off had me engaged right from the start. From that point onward I was on board for everything the game threw at me. Time travel? Awesome. Four main protagonists? Wonderful. Keep it coming because I am having a ton of fun. Traveling around the world felt so diverse with its races, towns, and general atmospheres of the major areas, and every chance I had to meet someone I gladly took the opportunity. It manages to feel expansive and tight knit at the same time, and I think that is a commendable feat. I noticed a lot of little moments that really made the world shine. For example, I found a kid building a snowman and I joined in with Millie to help build more and more until we had a long line of snowmen. I figured it was just a little visual gag, but it didn’t reset when I left the town- and even showed up in a monumental cutscene later on. Everything about that encounter was completely optional, but it added so much texture and authenticity to the world that I was honestly pretty shocked by it. Little bits and pieces like that dotted around every corner are captivating, and that attention to detail and worldbuilding is always in effect.
In the combat encounters I had a ton of fun slashing away at the monsters, too. It is very simple, flashy, and depending on your outlook maybe a little dull and repetitive or (in my outlook) very satisfying and visceral. The true fun is seeing how you can build your characters beforehand and watching your progress pay off, and it is just as addicting as my previous encounter with the series. Crafting new weapons that would bump my stats up by 400+, blacksmithing new armor that could absorb elements, appraising amazing items, and nerfing my stats in exchange for higher xp rewards never got old. I probably spent just as much time looking at the skill screen as I did the combat itself, and watching my numbers grow always made me hyped. There is an endless amount of variety, customization, and stuff to unlock and play with that I feel like everyone could approach this game in unique ways and see great results. Heck, I have plenty of skills that I didn’t try out at all, and that's before all the attack techniques, spells, and character combinations I have yet to see too. Good stuff all around.
I think the true highlight for me here was, like Second Story, the characters. Not all of them are heavy hitters for me, for example T’nique felt very one note and boring to me, but everyone else I picked up was just a joy. Roddick is a great protagonist, and Ronyx and Ilia both gave such a unique perspective to everything and just were a ton of fun to be around. Watching the history of Cyuss and Phia was one of my favorite side stories in the game easily, and that serious tone is contrasted so heavily by how funny, naive, and energetic Pericci was and I caught myself always chuckling at her screen presence. Millie was my very favorite, though, since she was very emotionally fleshed out while still being so goofy and personable- something I always love- had great dynamics with everyone, and was also the party healer (my favorite JRPG class). Every time I saw the icon for the private actions I jumped at the chance to see what little flavor texts I could find just to spend more time with the cast. Some were really funny like Ronyx begging Millie not to tell how he learned Symbology, the girls only meeting in the inn, or all the times Cyuss got wasted at a bar- and like I mentioned before added such a great layer of texture to the world and cast that I always enjoyed. And the best part is I still have a huge stack of characters I haven’t met yet! I already want to replay just to see who else is out there, but I will save that for the future since I know I'll be back someday.
I don’t think this game is perfect by any means- as much as I wish I could say otherwise given how much fun I had, but there are some pretty apparent faults here and there. The beginning of the game and the setup it provides is so strong, and the ending kind of feels like it was thrown together at the last second and didn’t feel particularly satisfying to me. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more. There are also some weird difficulty spikes sprinkled in that I felt were kind of absurd, especially at the end with the final boss who’s first phase I really don’t know how to beat without spending hours grinding or just cheesing him like I did. I also think there’s a little too much backtracking here that even I, a Metroid and Castlevania enthusiast, found to be a bit obnoxious. Those were the major flaws, but I also think that the soundtrack is just “good”. I liked it but it's not something that has really stuck with me like Second Story’s. The audio mixing felt all over the place, with the battle theme especially feeling like it was turned way down- made worse by everyone yelling their current actions nonstop. There’s a few more little things but I think I’ve made my point and they’re trivial enough for me not to really care when the game as a whole is so great.
Star Ocean First Departure R is a very short (only 22ish hours), mechanically dense, incredibly charming, addictive, and generally just fantastic little game. Second Story got me curious about what this series as a whole could offer, and now First Departure has cemented me as a newfound Star Ocean (series) fan. I had such a great time and I hope more people like me who are just getting into the series come and play and enjoy it like I did. Great time.
A lot of my praise for this game is pretty similar to the praise I gave to Second Story- the blending of sci-fi and fantasy, the mechanical depth, fun combat, wonderful characters and recruiting processes, worldbuilding, so on and so forth. However, this game still feels very distinct with its own flavors and spins on all of those aspects, and I found that to be really exciting. This game is such a blast from start to finish, and just emanates charm right from the golden snes/ps1 era of JRPGs beautifully.
The way this story is setup is so wonderfully told and compelling, and the early twist that truly kicks the game off had me engaged right from the start. From that point onward I was on board for everything the game threw at me. Time travel? Awesome. Four main protagonists? Wonderful. Keep it coming because I am having a ton of fun. Traveling around the world felt so diverse with its races, towns, and general atmospheres of the major areas, and every chance I had to meet someone I gladly took the opportunity. It manages to feel expansive and tight knit at the same time, and I think that is a commendable feat. I noticed a lot of little moments that really made the world shine. For example, I found a kid building a snowman and I joined in with Millie to help build more and more until we had a long line of snowmen. I figured it was just a little visual gag, but it didn’t reset when I left the town- and even showed up in a monumental cutscene later on. Everything about that encounter was completely optional, but it added so much texture and authenticity to the world that I was honestly pretty shocked by it. Little bits and pieces like that dotted around every corner are captivating, and that attention to detail and worldbuilding is always in effect.
In the combat encounters I had a ton of fun slashing away at the monsters, too. It is very simple, flashy, and depending on your outlook maybe a little dull and repetitive or (in my outlook) very satisfying and visceral. The true fun is seeing how you can build your characters beforehand and watching your progress pay off, and it is just as addicting as my previous encounter with the series. Crafting new weapons that would bump my stats up by 400+, blacksmithing new armor that could absorb elements, appraising amazing items, and nerfing my stats in exchange for higher xp rewards never got old. I probably spent just as much time looking at the skill screen as I did the combat itself, and watching my numbers grow always made me hyped. There is an endless amount of variety, customization, and stuff to unlock and play with that I feel like everyone could approach this game in unique ways and see great results. Heck, I have plenty of skills that I didn’t try out at all, and that's before all the attack techniques, spells, and character combinations I have yet to see too. Good stuff all around.
I think the true highlight for me here was, like Second Story, the characters. Not all of them are heavy hitters for me, for example T’nique felt very one note and boring to me, but everyone else I picked up was just a joy. Roddick is a great protagonist, and Ronyx and Ilia both gave such a unique perspective to everything and just were a ton of fun to be around. Watching the history of Cyuss and Phia was one of my favorite side stories in the game easily, and that serious tone is contrasted so heavily by how funny, naive, and energetic Pericci was and I caught myself always chuckling at her screen presence. Millie was my very favorite, though, since she was very emotionally fleshed out while still being so goofy and personable- something I always love- had great dynamics with everyone, and was also the party healer (my favorite JRPG class). Every time I saw the icon for the private actions I jumped at the chance to see what little flavor texts I could find just to spend more time with the cast. Some were really funny like Ronyx begging Millie not to tell how he learned Symbology, the girls only meeting in the inn, or all the times Cyuss got wasted at a bar- and like I mentioned before added such a great layer of texture to the world and cast that I always enjoyed. And the best part is I still have a huge stack of characters I haven’t met yet! I already want to replay just to see who else is out there, but I will save that for the future since I know I'll be back someday.
I don’t think this game is perfect by any means- as much as I wish I could say otherwise given how much fun I had, but there are some pretty apparent faults here and there. The beginning of the game and the setup it provides is so strong, and the ending kind of feels like it was thrown together at the last second and didn’t feel particularly satisfying to me. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more. There are also some weird difficulty spikes sprinkled in that I felt were kind of absurd, especially at the end with the final boss who’s first phase I really don’t know how to beat without spending hours grinding or just cheesing him like I did. I also think there’s a little too much backtracking here that even I, a Metroid and Castlevania enthusiast, found to be a bit obnoxious. Those were the major flaws, but I also think that the soundtrack is just “good”. I liked it but it's not something that has really stuck with me like Second Story’s. The audio mixing felt all over the place, with the battle theme especially feeling like it was turned way down- made worse by everyone yelling their current actions nonstop. There’s a few more little things but I think I’ve made my point and they’re trivial enough for me not to really care when the game as a whole is so great.
Star Ocean First Departure R is a very short (only 22ish hours), mechanically dense, incredibly charming, addictive, and generally just fantastic little game. Second Story got me curious about what this series as a whole could offer, and now First Departure has cemented me as a newfound Star Ocean (series) fan. I had such a great time and I hope more people like me who are just getting into the series come and play and enjoy it like I did. Great time.
Skill system is pretty fun. Combat is quite bland, especially for single target enemies. You can mostly just mash attacks or spam specials. The game gets pretty annoying at the end. Enemies get extremely overpowered, one shotting you. Which requires you to grind levels. For a 20-25 hour long game, a good 7+ hours is just grinding and backtracking.