It shows its old school ways through this method and it’s a structure that I’m honestly comfortable with and enjoy. You still traverse a barren land and are snatched up by random encounters. It’s impressive to know that you got more than you bargained for, which means that you are more engrossed than expected.Īs for the actual adventure, it’s long and turn-based in a sense.
This structure helped lay the groundwork for future games of this type and set new options/standards for how RPGs were constructed.
What Star Ocean First Departure R did back in the 90s is honestly something to behold, even for 2019. There wasn’t a lot of variety in the RPG genre. There were only certain structures leading up to this point - either the Zelda route, where things were pick up and go, or a Final Fantasy/Phantasy Star router, where you can choose magic and weapons. In 1996, that’s an impressive structure in a time period where RPGs were in constant flux and trying to find their own way to do things. The game certainly gives you a bevy of ways to create and craft your character as the game’s adventure progresses. It has that standard RPG structure intact that was certainly well-known for its day and age but complicates it (in a good way) with skills and such. Star Ocean First Departure R has a complicated backend, where you get to do a lot of mixes and match with materials, magic, and equipment. It looked like a PlayStation 1 RPG, which belongs in the 90s.īeyond the visuals, though, the game itself is fast and furious fun. The shift from 2D isometric to 3D when traveling outside of towns and kingdoms certainly helped, but it still looked very blocky and not what I would assume a remake/remaster should be. I found myself incredibly fascinated with how the art was put together because you could see all the pieces that made up the locations and land, which isn’t where you want to be when you’re playing an RPG on a modern-day console. That doesn’t mean the game is bad, but the graphics are definitely a distraction. It’s just not fun to look at when you’re trying to focus on the game.
#Star ocean first departure r review psp#
When you blow a picture up from PSP to PS4, without working on the art to clean it up, the resolution absolutely just tanks. It actually looked good, kind of in the same vein as locations in Super Mario RPG. The PSP’s version of the game didn’t give you the finer details of that graininess, rather it just looked like more realistic art on a tiny screen. The game fits on the screen perfectly, it is brighter, but it does have some severe issues with graininess in the art (The art was originally grainy on the PlayStation Portable, which was a considerable improvement over the Super Famicom version - although I would have liked to play the SF version). With the HD Remake/Remaster term in mind, Star Ocean First Departure R totes that moniker and delivers in the above categories just like you would expect. What I’m getting at is that when you see the term ‘HD Remake/Remaster, take it with a grain of salt. Essentially, you get brighter textures and a 16:9 experience, which technically qualifies as an ‘HD Remake’, but you get the ‘years ago it looked this way’ presentation with it, as in none of it was improved. I’ve seen a few games in the past tote that line, such as Shenmue I/II, but still maintain the textures that came with it on an older system it was born on. Starting with the HD remake, I know it’s easy for companies to throw ‘HD Remake/Remaster’ onto an older game and get away with it. At least on the inside (yeah, that sounded weird - oh, well).
#Star ocean first departure r review series#
Having played some more recent versions of Star Ocean, and absolutely feeling like it was a weird Final Fantasy knock-off, I appreciated seeing the origin of the series in action in an HD remake fashion. Some old school turn-based/action RPG-ing hits the PlayStation 4 with Star Ocean First Departure R, which launched to the public this past week.
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