Name: Star Ocean: First Departure
Genre: Action/RPG
Platform: PSP

It’s now been twelve years since the first Star Ocean was released in Japan for the Super Famicom, and in that time, role-playing games have come a long way. With several sequels, some of which have never been released in the U.S., and a new installment planned for the 360, the Star Ocean series is one of Square Enix’s longest-running franchises. Star Ocean: First Departure is actually a remake of the first Star Ocean game, which was never available in the U.S. The PSP version gave me a chance to get a fresh start with this series, since I have never played any of the Star Ocean games, and I willingly jumped on board. However, I haven’t grown quite as attached as I have to some of Squenix’s other properties.

In the earliest part of the game, Star Ocean: First Departure appears to be fairly generic and run-of-the-mill as far as RPGs go. However, the story gets more interesting pretty quickly. It’s not often that role-playing games have plotlines that involve space and time travel, but Star Ocean manages to do both naturally, and I found myself really digging the story and the characters. This was helped by the anime-style cut scenes, which looked really nice on the PSP, and voice-acting that could be hit or miss.

The story revolves around Roddick, a young fighter in a sleepy town whose biggest threat is the occasional bandit, as well as two of his friends, who share the same occupation. Their lives are turned upside-down when a mysterious disease affects a nearby town, and they meet some space travelers from the unheard-of planet of Earth who request their help in saving Roddick’s planet. As it turns out, the plague affecting the area is actually a biological attack from another galactic race. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the spread of the disease is to travel 300 years into the past. That probably sounds like it doesn’t much make sense, but even though it could be a bit campy at times, I found the story pretty enjoyable overall.

As I mentioned before, Star Ocean: First Departure uses anime-style cut scenes, which look great. Unfortunately, the in-game sprites and environments occasionally look dull by comparison. It’s not a bad-looking game, but I have definitely seen better on the system; it just didn’t look like First Departure was taking full advantage of the PSP’s graphical capabilities. The sprites are reminiscent of many old-school RPGs, and in particular reminded me of SaGa Frontier, one of my favorite games in the genre. I liked the use of sprites, and most towns were pretty detailed, I just wish it had looked a little more polished at times.

In addition to spending hard-earned cash on healing items, weapons, and armor, you can also choose to learn new abilities that will help you throughout the game. After choosing a category, characters can spend experience points, earned from leveling up, on specific skills. Characters can be taught to identify mysterious items, cook, or do an assortment of other things, as well as raising individual stats like agility or defense. It adds another layer of strategy to the game and makes things a bit more interesting, especially in the later hours.

By far my biggest complain about Star Ocean: First Departure is the battle system, which doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be traditional or action-based, and doesn’t really succeed at being either. Battles are random and take place on the world map or other enemy-infested spots, and engaging in a fight leads to a separate battle screen. However, fighting is essentially a button-mashing fest, and often I found myself just hitting the X button repeatedly until the battle was over. As the game goes on, characters can learn different skills that use MP and can be assigned to the left or right shoulder buttons, which adds a little more variety. For the most part, though, I just felt like I was going through the motions when it came to defeating foes.

Star Ocean: First Departure is a solid game that has made me want to check out the other installments in the series, but the battle system kept me from really falling in love with it. I just would have liked more of a strategic challenge than the shallow fights provided me. For longtime fans of the series, First Departure is probably exactly what you’re looking for. However, if, like me, this is your first time venturing into the ocean of stars, you may find this less appealing than some of the more traditional RPGs on the market today.

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