A remake of the PlayStation Portable game Star Ocean: First Departure has been announced. Square Enix will be bringing the game, which sports a new R in its title, westward on both the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Released originally in 2007, First Departure was a remake of the first Star Ocean title, which was a Super Nintendo JRPG created by tri-Ace, the former developers of Tales of Phantasia. Star Ocean: First Departure R is a notable reveal for the west, as a remake of Star Ocean 2 released in Japan in 2015, but was never localized.

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[the_randomizer]

Assuming it works you might be able to play the psp version already through ppsspp on Retroarch.

Um, the game has worked on PPSSPP for some time lol.

Star Ocean 2 is my top rated game of all time. They remade it but ruined the awesome character art with chibi and fully voiced it.

There were upgrades all across the board like more fluid combat and a battle minimap.

But, I'd say the vanilla version is better.

Even though the original translation kinda sucked and was far too formal/literal

 

[KyleHyde]

Star Ocean 2 is my top rated game of all time. They remade it but ruined the awesome character art with chibi and fully voiced it.

There were upgrades all across the board like more fluid combat and a battle minimap.

But, I'd say the vanilla version is better.

Are you talking about the redrawn character portraits in dialogue sections? (Seeing as that's what's mentioned in a comparison list I found). They don't look chibi (super deformed, small, and cutesy) at all though. It's just a simpler and slightly modern design, kind of like what happened with Radiant Historia's 3DS remake artwork being completely different and also redesigning a couple of characters along the process.

 

[Jak27]

Why are people pissy that it's not the SFC version? The PSP version is better in pretty much every way and has a proper world map, FMVs, more content, better sounding voice acting, etc, get a grip.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I prefer the original SFC version of Star Ocean over the remake. Adding a world map was a big mistake and absolutely ruined the remake for me, the original's logically interconnected world felt a lot more organic and made it stand out, especially when compared to other jrpgs of its time. The art style and graphics also felt much more charming and memorable to me, but that's subjective of course.

 

[the_randomizer]

Are you talking about the redrawn character portraits in dialogue sections? (Seeing as that's what's mentioned in a comparison list I found). They don't look chibi (super deformed, small, and cutesy) at all though. It's just a simpler and slightly modern design, kind of like what happened with Radiant Historia's 3DS remake artwork being completely different and also redesigning a couple of characters along the process.

The voice acting in the vanilla version is pretty awful too, sounds like they recorded it at 11 kHz with heavy Gaussian interpolation, not to mention, some of the characters speak Engrish
"Parabora beam!" Parabora? Really??

Maybe I'm in the minority but I prefer the original SFC version of Star Ocean over the remake. Adding a world map was a big mistake and absolutely ruined the remake for me, the original's logically interconnected world felt a lot more organic and made it stand out, especially when compared to other jrpgs of its time. The art style and graphics also felt much more charming and memorable to me, but that's subjective of course.

I guess, but at least you can understand the voices in the PSP version. Battles were much slower paced too. And besides, SE doesn't have the resources or time to translate it, so it is what it is.

 

[Fugelmir]

Are you talking about the redrawn character portraits in dialogue sections? (Seeing as that's what's mentioned in a comparison list I found). They don't look chibi (super deformed, small, and cutesy) at all though. It's just a simpler and slightly modern design, kind of like what happened with Radiant Historia's 3DS remake artwork being completely different and also redesigning a couple of characters along the process.

Yeah, I can't stand it. It's based on the anime.

 

[chartube12]

Didn't expect that, but a welcome addition nonetheless, since Square Enix screwed over PS3 owners in the US by making it a Japanese PSN exclusive.

Play the PSP version?

 

[EmulateLife]

Um, the game has worked on PPSSPP for some time lol.


Even though the original translation kinda sucked and was far too formal/literal

Are you laughing that someone doesn't know off the top of their head that one single game works or not out of over 1000 PSP games? You're a genius.

 

[Glitchk0ud1001]

Soo a Super Famicom remake.............Great, but i'm still prefer the original.

 

[the_randomizer]

Play the PSP version?

Nah, I'm good.

 

[NoNAND]

A remake of a remake of another port of a remake of a remake

That started it's jong and perilous journey on a Nintendo console, to move away on to Sony and in the end get back at a nintendo console.
an unexpected comeback.

 

[the_randomizer]

Just hope there's dual audio.

 

[kumikochan]

That started it's jong and perilous journey on a Nintendo console, to move away on to Sony and in the end get back at a nintendo console.
an unexpected comeback.

how so ? It's still releasing on the ps4

 

[NoNAND]

how so ? It's still releasing on the ps4

I was just trying to see that it's rather a surprise to me to see it make a comeback on a Nintendo console.

 

[EmulateLife]

Even took a detour to Xbox for one game (The Last Hope) but it ended up on Playstation anyway.

 

[Delerious]

Too bad tri-Ace has gone downhill. Switch ports will probably garner some much needed money on their end, but after Star Ocean 5, I've lost my faith in them. If there's any game of theirs I wanna see refined, it's SO3. And not just HD textures, either. I'd like to see improved character models and animations, along with smoother combat for SO3.

As for SO:FDR, I can only assume it's going to be an HD refinement more than anything. I liked Star Ocean 1/First Departure for what they were, but I just don't think its story holds up well enough to merit a Switch/PS4 port. Though I guess I can understand if they decided they wanted to bring the entire franchise to the PS4 and carry it over to the Switch as well to broaden exposure.

 

[gameboy]

Star Ocean 2 is my top rated game of all time. They remade it but ruined the awesome character art with chibi and fully voiced it.

There were upgrades all across the board like more fluid combat and a battle minimap.

But, I'd say the vanilla version is better.

that game was ghetto for the psp in comparison to the first

 

[bluedart]

Holy balls. I was not expecting this. I've played First Departure/Second Evolution a few times each, and I love how much time you can spend in menus to make your party stronger. This is great, but why? Seriously why? Welcome to my list of niche titles I'm super-hyped for. Rune Factory 4S needed a friend.

 

[Glyptofane]

I bought the other Star Ocean ports for PS4, so will probably get this too. Please just give us Star Ocean 2 as well though. That's the one I'd really like to replay.

 

[sarkwalvein]

In Japan, so it doesn't really count since it was never given a western re-release.

Meh, everybody that was on the scene already played it.
You know that, back in the day we all were playing DeJap versions of Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean.
And probably that is the core western fan following of Tales of anyways.
Western/Japan release... too old to even care about that.

 

[BORTZ]

I never got to play much of any of the SO games but... I would love to start.