A look to the past to imagine the future.
Star Ocean tells the story of Roddick Farrence, a young Fellpool living in the town of Kratus on the underdeveloped planet of Roak. A strange disease spreads throughout the nearby town with no way to stop it, no way on Roak anyway. Two strangers appear in a beam of light from space claiming they are there to help, with no other options Roddick goes with them for a journey he couldn't have thought possible.
For such an old game plot wise, Star Ocean is surprisingly good but it's weakness lies in the balance. With a strong start it fails to keep the momentum come mid game with quite a lack of any real character development, especially of those characters not essential to the main plot. There are however personal actions available when outside a town allowing your party to split up so that Roddick can talk to them and get some insight into their personalities which is a nice touch.
The games true strength is not in how Roddick and co get from A to B however, but what they do when they are there. Star Ocean is an action RPG where the player controls one of up to four party members in battle either attacking with x or using a variety of skills they possess. Each character has fairly unique skills they gain as they level up that can be mapped to the shoulder buttons for combat. Any of the characters can be swapped between at any time mid battle should the player require it.
Certain characters also have spells also known as symbology that can be selected from the menu for a variety of status effects or healing abilities, essential for making dungeons that much easier and saving on supplies.
When characters level up they gain a certain amount of skill points to use either to increase their stats, or learn skills useful outside of combat such as cooking, appraising mystery equipment, forging new equipment etc. None of these are essential to finishing the game but they do open up a variety of extra options to help complete that goal.
Visually Star Ocean is a great looking game though it doesn't push the PSP that hard, seeming on a similar level to many PS1 titles. The cutscenes were developed by studio IG famous for many animes including Ghost in the Shell and radiate the same kind of quality, though there aren't many they are a pleasure to watch when they appear. All the backgrounds are pre rendered and the characters are all 2D though they are quite colourful and crisp with excellent anime designs. The world map however is surprisingly detailed with waves crashing on the shore and fully detailed towns and is also in 3D.
In terms of the audio First Departure also impress's but SE have long been known for great presentation values in their titles. All the characters have great voice acting matching their personalities perfectly, and the music is also a fitting compliment to the atmosphere of any given situation, though the opening theme to the anime sequence is completely awful.
Content wise, First Departure lasts for a good 30 hours (Took me 50 but i level grinded up to about level 95) with plenty of side quests and different characters that can only be obtained in multiple play throughs.
Star Ocean is an old school remake, with modern presentation and improved mechanics that make it an incredibly enjoyable title that any RPG fan should be able to pick up. If you are not a hardcore RPG fan though and have no knowledge of other Star Ocean titles, this may not be for you.