Reviews

Until recently I used to refer to RPGs as Really Poor Games. The idea of selecting actions and then watching them play out was really not an appeal. Then, they shoved Mario in one and it started to become Rather Playable Games. Having been enlightened, I felt it was only fair to try out the more traditional RPGs and strangely enough I became a little fond of the genre. Star Ocean: First Departure is a remake of the first outing on the SNES, though given that I wasn't a fan back then, you can expect no comparisons between the two from me.

Set on the planet called Roak, you control a tailed character called Roddick. Mysteriously a disease spreads across the land turning people into stone, so Roddick and pals take it upon themselves to seek a cure in the nearby mountains. Upon arrival they meet two humans and the adventure of time travel (and a lot of walking and talking) begins. At first the story will hold your interest, but it doesn't take long before it starts to drag out - before you know it you're falling asleep at the PSP controls! This is partly due to the over-long dialogue sequences, where no one has anything interesting to say and they don't know how to shut up (The Futureheads' song 'Skip to the End' comes to mind). The interesting aspect of plot comes in the form of anime cut-scenes, but these don't happen often enough. Instead the developers opted for in-game talking, talking and more talking.

A Dragon Slash is effective but takes a while to mop up afterwards

Apart from the cinematics, the visuals are unfortunately about as interesting to explore as the characters are to listen to and you'll see plenty of the same place as backtracking is frequent. As a Resident Evil fan, I'm used to the back tracking, but when you're made to travel back for no other reason than dragging out play time, that's just plain annoying and tiresome. Mix this with a boring world where there's not much to see or do and a serious lack of side quests, and you'll soon be longing to visit Raccoon City for some entertainment.

The battle system has jumped on the bandwagon and opted for real time, which is now common in contemporary RPGs, making me wonder if turn-based fighting is a thing of the past. It's not that I'm bothered about the demise of turn based battling, I was never a fan anyway, but if real time is the way forward then, in the very least, it has to be well executed. The selling point of battling in Star Ocean is the strategy and planning. You can position your comrades in certain positions with different commands, opting to have one using special powers while you slash away, and another observing aimlessly. This is merely optional, because you can usually dispose of the enemy yourself with two or three hits, or even put the PSP down and watch your pals do all the work.

Own up, who's stolen half the Starship Enterprise?

While fun at first, like everything else in the game, the battling soon becomes a bit tedious and sometimes confusing as there can be too much going on at once, resulting in a few unwelcome hits against you. Some battles can be over so quickly you feel like you've done nothing, even if you tried. Special abilities can be unlocked, but perhaps needlessly, as a bit of button bashing with your trusty sword will see the enemy down. The enemies on offer are fairly monotonous and boss battling is nothing to sing about either.

As a whole the adventure is fairly easy. Game-play seems to have been dumbed down for the current generation, as so often happens these days. It'll keep you occupied for around 20 hours if you let it, but that's partly due to the talking and backtracking. For a current hand-held RPG and compared to a game like Crisis Core for one example, there's nothing special or unique about First Departure.

Pfft, Omega Thunderclap Blade? Whatever happened to sensible stuff like Dragon Slashes? Oh wait...