Star Ocean is a Japanese RPG series whose first game wasn't released in the United States until now. And now that it's here, it stands as one of the better role-playing games on the PSP."Star Ocean: The Second Story" was the series' debut in America; "Star Ocean: First Departure" is a remake of the original Super Nintendo game, which is set 20 years before "The Second Story."
But that's getting ahead of things. The game begins on the planet Roak, a relatively primitive world whose inhabitants appear mostly human, except for the tails and pointy ears.
Roak seems peaceful -- one of the game's young heroes, Roddick, even laments the boredom to be had even as a member of the defense force for the town of Kratus.
Roddick and his friends Millie and Dorne find more excitement than they bargained for when they encounter two strange beings who appear in a flash of light. These beings turn out to be Ronyx Kenny and Ilia Silvestri, humans from Earth who belong to a "Star Trek" Federation-like alliance that has a policy of noninterference with undeveloped worlds.
But Ronyx and Ilia are bending the rules because a petrifying contagion sweeping through Roak was introduced by a rival faction of humans.Battles are played out in real time. The player can have up to four characters in the party and can switch control between them at will. When controlling a character, the player can hammer on the X button to keep up a series of combo attacks, use the shoulder buttons to execute pre-chosen special attacks or pause the action to select items and magic. The fighting is fast-paced and can be pretty tough.
They offer to help, and the group soon learns that the origins of this disease and its cure lie in Roak's past, and so they head to an ancient time gate to travel back and wrest the cure from the body of a legendary evil. But they have to leave behind their advanced equipment, and then something goes awry in the time trip.
Other "Star Ocean" games have had a similar mix of futuristic high technology with common fantasy tropes such as monsters and magic (called symbology here). It's a combination that has served the series well.
The overhaul "First Departure" has received is considerable. The graphics are the most obvious improvement: Where the original game had sprite artwork, here the characters and monsters are redrawn in high resolution, and pre-rendered backdrops take the place of the old tile-based locations.
Star Ocean: First Departure
Publisher: Square Enix
System: Sony PSP
Price: $39.99
Age rating: Teen
Source: Post Bulletin