Overall I love this game as a classic, and it’s stood the test of time. Are Star Ocean 1 and 2 connected So2 is somewhat a direct sequel to 1, as it follows the story of the kid of one of the main characters in 1. You must choose between Mavelle, Phia, and T.50 posts About two hours in so far and quite enjoying it. As you level these skills up you unlock specialties such as appraisal (to identify objects), alchemy (turn iron into gold, silver, etc), blacksmithing, customizing, music, art, writing! All sorts of things! Very fun to play with. To summarize, assuming you recruit everyone up to Ioshua: You must choose between Ashlay and Cyuss. As you level up you get points to allocate in one of (what feels like) 100 different skills. The “skill” system is something that makes Star Ocean games stand out. Music is generic, nothing really stands out. There are lots of places you can go if you explore that aren’t at all required to beat the game. Map Navigation STAR OCEAN: First Departure features three modes of. Final boss took a few tries to figure out a good equipment/team composition. This option allows the player to listen to the voice tracks of recruited characters. This can lead to special events between the main character and the others you bring along the way.īattle system is simple and fun. Which is cool, because, in each town you visit you can start “private actions.” The PCs all split up and hang out in town. So each time you play you’ll have different characters to meet. I am not even sure you can get them all in two play throughs. You can’t get all PCs in a single play through since some are mutually exclusive.
There are multiple ways to play through the game because of the many characters you come across. This is the perfect length because of the way the game is set up. It’s a short run at ~20 hours for a leisurely play through. Battle sequences are supplemented by cutscenes, including one animated sequence where a character falls to the ground and bleeds green blood.
With that out of the way, what a blast of a game to play. As far as I could tell there were no QOL updates to this, which is fine, but I would have liked to see fast travel and utilization of R2/L2 added for more skill options in battle. This game is a remaster, of a remake, of a Japan only SFC game, Star Ocean. However I barely remember much outside some characters.
Disclosure: I have beat this game on the PSP like a decade ago.