The Backlog: Star Ocean - The First Departure

Finally played this game on PS4 and I have to admit... it's kind of weird playing the first game in the series more then 20 years after playing it's sequel. Star Ocean: The Second Story being one of my favorite games of all time but obviously part of the reason I didn't play Star Ocean 1 long ago is because the original version of it for the SNES was never released outside of Japan. Partially because Enix (when they were separate from Squaresoft) actually skipped localizing games for the entire SNES generation, likely part of why it took Dragon Quest so long to really pop off.

The biggest thing that throws me off about this game is the difference in how combat is in this game compared to the 2nd game. In Star Ocean 2 you can directly choose what enemy you want to attack but in this there doesn't seem to be a way to control that and the attack button will always just make you run towards whatever enemy is closest. Which is a problem because you seem to move slower when you're moving manually instead of moving because you hit the button to attack.

I remember crafting being a big thing in Star Ocean The Second Story but in this game if you actually put effort into crafting as soon as you're able it basically breaks the game. You will get gear that you otherwise can't get until you're at the end of the game allowing you to curb stomp all the enemies you're currently facing. Which I guess is a good trade off for the combat system being so chaotic.

The story is interesting though much shorter than it's sequel. Similar theme though of someone from outer space unintentionally getting involved with what would otherwise be a world that's a fantasy setting.

The characters are cool though none of them really stack up to some of my favorites from the sequel. But overall I enjoyed the game well enough. I completed the end game bonus dungeon just to get any achievements related to that out of the way so that I can come back to it later and get the other achievements on additional playthroughs. Will probably 100% it at some point.

I do recommend it to anyone who likes Second Story, but the places you can get it are limited. PSP, PS4, and Nintendo Switch are the only platforms it's officially available on.