90%Nintendo Switch

I don't typically enjoy old-school RPGs. This was awesome. I never experienced Star Ocean before, and it's sad to see that the series was dragged through the mud after the 3rd game.

70%PlayStation 4

A 5/7
H 1/1
S 1/2
Bonne surprise

80%Emulated

El juego no es dificil en si, el levelear es muy rápido y al menos en mi caso, como me perdía tanto en las dungeons me sobre leveleaba un poco, es entretenido, las animaciones estan excelentes aunque son pocas, la musica me encanto y los personajes, debo decir que aunque no me encantaron, si les agarre algo de cariño.
Un juego que quizá piense en volver a probar para sacarle mas el juego a los finales alternos y a las mecánicas de aprendizaje que se hacen algo confusas y tediosas por el hecho de tener que usar objetos que solo se venden en ciertas zonas.

80%PlayStation Portable

Pretty decent RPG, fun characters, good story. Not too much grind needed, not too hard.
Combat is not the most exciting but it is very fast, so no chore there.

65%Nintendo Switch

The crafting system was confusing when combined with the skill system. It wasn’t very intuitive and I needed a guide for the higher level forging to beat the game. Storyline was original but not the most engaging I’ve played. Worth the $6 I paid for it for sure but wouldn’t pay more than $10 to play this.

60%PlayStation 4

For my first Star Ocean game I wasn't very impressed. It was still a pretty decent JRPG, but even the story didn't really hold my attention that well. Interacting with different cities to get bonus lore of your companions was honestly better. Combat reminded me of playing Tales of Destiny but in 3D, just spam attacks and specials to stun lock enemies to the best of your ability. The game definitely requires grinding in certain areas, but is overall easy if you use all the crafting and ability mechanics correctly. Only fight I had trouble with was the final boss, but other than that it wasn't too bad, didn't really understand how certain boss battles were easier than some mobs in the same dungeon though.

95%PlayStation 4

This game was damn near perfect. The way they revamped the graphics while also keeping the atmosphere of the old one was extremely impressive. Having the option to pick which animations and voices are used in game was awesome. The game play was awesome. Leveling and learning what all the skills do was really fun. The story was a little cheesy, but I really loved it. The music was top notch. Your decisions affect the story and who you can recruit. Spectacular game.

80%Nintendo Switch

I think this game gets a bad reputation because of the combat system being janky because it is based on Star Ocean 2’s battle system, but I thought as a whole, First Departure R was a solid game. At first the game seems a bit confusing with systems such as the skill system, hidden talents, or how to recruit specific characters are not really explained and convoluted. I am not sure how people figured out which weapon customization combos work or which characters disallow for specific others to be locked out. Once you wrap your head around it, everything falls into place. During my second playthrough I understood exactly how to unlock end game gear and obtain unlimited wealth by the halfway point. Once you do that, you can race through the rest of the game and do whatever you need for private actions or for the main story in a matter of hours. My first file was 41 hours and I did everything possible while learning the systems. My last file was barely over 12 hours because I knew how to take advantage of the systems.

I enjoyed the story even though the last arc is very unnecessary. It could be just me, but I don’t think they ever said why they needed to turn the Roakians to stone (they just needed the blood to make stuff invisible?). The music was pretty good and the English voice acting was well done. Graphically, it holds up well despite being a PSP remaster. Overall, I had a lot of fun but this game had a lot of things that didn't fully get fleshed out due to its age and the fact it was based on an SNES game. I wish there was a Switch physical because this would be something I’d like to have in my collection. Digitally, if you can get it on sale, I would highly recommend it. The game isn't really that long and is a fun time for those who enjoy RPGs.

70%Nintendo Switch

It was a fun game, but definitely not as good as I remember the 2nd game being. Characters are fun and the story was good, but lack of fast travel hurt mid to late game. I might play again to have different party composition, but would also be happy calling it complete here.

50%PlayStation 4

Terrible PS4 port to the original game. I'd better play it on PSP instead.

80%PlayStation 4

Normal Ending
Party:
Roddick, Millie, Ronyx, Ilia, Cyuss, Ioshua, Mavelle, Pericci

60%PlayStation Portable

Good game but i'd prefer a remake more close to original source instead of So2

70%Nintendo Switch

Game is really rough with bad pacing. The 3d overworld is bland to run through with way too many random battles even when tuned down using abilities.

60%PlayStation Portable

The big elephant in the room for this game is the combat: it's far too easy, and generally unengaging. The unmodded game lacking difficulty settings does not help this, but the combat has problems that wouldn't be solved but adding more health and damage to enemies. Optimal combat involves stun-locking enemies with your basic 3-hit combo into one of your 2 (lol) equipped specials in battle. The inability to equip more specials, input block, or alter your 3-hit normal attack makes the combat extremely repetitive and auto-piloty. The battles being 3D instead of 2D doesn't add a great deal. I encountered many of Y-axis issues, with my character running around aimlessly trying to find a place to attack while next to an enemy. Even if you don't know how to unlock the most abusable specials, stunlocking enemies is trivial. You can try playing a spellcaster character if you want, but the damage doesn't scale well compared to martial characters, and the game COMPLETELY pasues for every single spell. Sure, there are bonus bosses for a "real challenge" but those just require preparation. Once you can meet the stat check you just apply the same optimal strategy as the rest of the game. Most characters don't really have many specials without a ton of endlag, and generally the higher level or steps it takes to unlock a special, the laggier it is. So combat boils down to using your 1 or 2 AoE specials on normal encounters, and the ones with the least endlag/most hits to stunlock bosses. Few of the combat skills alleviate this either, and really just add a bunch of proc effects. The ones that do alter gameplay are superfluous.
Some general things I liked:+All the shops have names and I think the NPC writing/world building is above-average
+Item creation and the non-combat skills have great depth+Aside from some weirdness with Ilia's voice, I'd say most of the party members' voice work is above average. +There's a big pool of recruitable characters and you can't have them all in one playthrough, so there's good replay value

And some more minuses:-The bosses in the first 3/4ths of the game are QUITE generic and have little narrative impact over being an obstacle-NPC voicing ranges from ok to not great
-Character recruitment is a crapshoot. Getting a party of what you want playing the first time 100% requires a guide
There are interesting non-combat systems, but they are some combination of: hidden, require multiple playthroughs, or will not be understood without reading a guide (all Tri-Ace classics). Case in point, the Private Action system. You enter towns and have your party separate and go to relax on their own, leaving you with just the MC. You then scour the town, looking for your party members. Each party member has their own "spot" that they can be found at, specific to each character in each town. When they can't be found at that spot, they can be found elsewhere in the town, usually interacting with an NPC, another party member, or the environment. These events are the "Private Actions" and they are opportunities to learn more about your party member's motivations, sense of humor, romantic inclinations, etc. These events are the standout element of the game, and definitely contain some of the game's funniest content. Though the payoff from the events is good, the execution of the system leaves much to be desired. When you enter town in "PA mode" there can only ever be one PA active, meaning you have to scour the town to find who isn't where they usually are, and then watch the ensuing scene. The game never tells you how many PAs you have stocked up, or where they take place. You could beat the entire game without knowing that you have to repeatedly enter the same town to witness multiple PAs you unknowingly have stocked.  There definitely should've been an indicator that gives you the number of PAs available in the current town. Once you get the full 8 party members there are a lot of cool PAs to see. The way the game is designed though, it's a pain to try and see them all, even just for your party for that playthrough, AND there's no PA theater so you can't even rewatch the ones you triggered. There are a lot of people who would enjoy the content in PAs but they require tedious backtracking, are finicky to trigger, easy to miss, and require you to repeatedly go into different continents and towns, praying you aren't wasting your time in the wrong place that has no PA active. It's needlessly tedious.
The story has some flashes in the pan, but nothing ever truly ignites. This is especially true in the very last arc of the game, which comes-off as a last minute add-on to a story someone didn't know how to finish. Overall my main gripe with this game is that the battle system is so lame I feel incentivized to speedrun it to get to the part of the game I like, which it turns out, is also needlessly tedious. For this game, I basically just kept thinking "It didn't need to be this way" while playing it, over and over.

60%PlayStation Portable

Good storyline but i really didnt like the high amount of backtracking. It shows that the world wasnt big enough. Overall it was an average game. Not enough explaination on the game mechanics though. And most of the time you wont be using the skills

40%PlayStation Portable

What the fuck is wrong with devs man
Why do you hate save points
anyways, the voice acting was shite, combat was boring, the story didn't do that much for me

50%Nintendo Switch

Characters were great. Combat was awfully boring. The rest was average or slightly bad.

80%Nintendo Switch

Great classic feeing JRPG. The battles are more fun than the normal menu driven type seen in most JRPGs, although often it feels like the main role is just button mashing or playing support.

Game was pretty easy. I think because I kept getting a bit lost my levels/skills were a little higher than needed. There were a few bosses and areas where the difficulty ramped way up, which get a little uneven and unfair.

Story is nothing super exciting but nice that it had a little uniqueness, though I would have loved for space to be involved more.

90%PlayStation 4

This is a great example of a 16-bit-era JRPG, just updated slightly. It's almost perfectly paced. The plot isn't the best thing ever, but it's interesting enough to keep you going. The skill system is basically identical to the one in Star Ocean 2/Second Evolution, which is excellent. The only real downside is that you can play through this game pretty quickly, although the alternate characters and postgame content are good enough reasons to replay it and/or put extra time into it. I'd recommend this game to pretty much anyone who likes classic JRPGs.

60%Nintendo Switch

Decent but easy to tell it’s age.

70%PlayStation Portable

good characters, nice history and massive gameplay

80%PlayStation Portable

Seriously great game, but I cannot help but dismay at the relatively short length. There were a lot of untapped possibilities they could have went through with this game.

100%PlayStation Portable

Excellent!

70%PlayStation Portable

First Departure was my first experience with the Star Ocean series, and after hearing the reviews for the game, I can't say I was all that surprised or disappointed. It's a solid 7/10 in my book, with characters that, while not offensively bad, aren't anything you're going to remember. The story is based around a neat idea, but ultimately isn't executed in a very interesting or engaging way. If this game were longer than it is (it took me less than 16 hours to complete), it could have had the opportunity to flesh out the world more, although I suppose that's what the sequels are for, right?

As far as combat goes, it's about as bare bones as you can get. Barring a dungeon a couple of hours into the game where the difficulty hits a ridiculous spike, 90% of the game can be completed by mashing the X button. Your character auto targets the nearest enemy and even runs over to them for you, so you literally don't need to do anything other than mash X unless you feel like using a special move or item which is almost always unnecessary to be victorious since the game is so easy.

Overall, the game didn't do much for me, but I can't bring myself to say that I disliked it. It was a short and fairly sweet experience, so I can't rag on it too much. I've heard the later entries are much better, so I'm looking forward to those!

Personal score: 7/10

60%PlayStation Portable

https://mybrainongames.com/2015/05/24/star-ocean-first-departure-playstation-portable-review/

90%PlayStation Portable

Recruited Roddick, Millie, Ronyx, Ilia, Ioshua, Erys, Pericci, and Ashlay.
Final party consisted of Roddick, Millie, Erys, and Ilia.
Most sub-missions and PA's completed.

80%PlayStation Portable

Story 7/10
Level Design 7/10
Characters 7/10
Gameplay 8/10
Graphics 8/10
Music/Sound 6/10
Voice Acting 7/10

Difficulty EASY

Overall 8/10

70%PlayStation Portable

A decent RPG!

70%PlayStation Portable

Cutscenes are very well animated, and the voice acting isn't horrible like SO:The last hope.

The combat is pretty fun but can get repetitive when trying to make it through dungeons or just traversing the world map. A good amount of side quests, characters to meet, and secrets.

Overall pretty pleased with it, glad it finally got ported for American release.

75%No Platform Specified

I finished First Departure in about 27 hours. For an
RPG, that's not a particularly long time, but
considering the style and substance of the game, I'd
say the length is appropriate. If you can look at
First Departure and understand that it's based on a
very old title, you'll likely be able to overlook the
problems and get a fair amount of satisfaction from
the simple but mildly rewarding gameplay and old-
school themes. Otherwise, a bland, awkwardly-told
narrative and weak characters prevent Star Ocean from
being anything more than an amusing tribute to an old
hit.