is a 1996 action role-playing game developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix for the Super Famicom. The first game in the Star Ocean series, it was released only in Japan in July 1996, and was the first game developed by tri-Ace, consisting of staff that had previously left Wolf Team due to being unhappy with the development process for Tales of Phantasia with Namco in 1995. The game used a special compression chip in its cartridge to compress and store all of the game's data due to possessing graphics that pushed the limits of the Super Famicom. Additionally, the game had voice acting for the game's intro and voice clips that played during the game's battle gameplay, a rarity for games on the system.
The story involves three friends who, while searching for the cure to a new disease, come into contact with a space-faring federation that is locked in a war with another galactic power. Using advanced technologies and time travel, the group attempts to uncover the cause of the war and to find a cure for their planet. The Super Famicom version was never released outside Japan due to Enix closing its American branch shortly before the game was finished, as well as Nintendo's focus on supporting the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 video game console. The game was later remade by Tose for the PlayStation Portable under the title and released in English-speaking regions in North America, Europe, and Australia in October 2008. A remastered version titled was released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 worldwide in December 2019. Unlike the original game, the PlayStation Portable remake includes a world map for the player to navigate. Though only 8 characters can be recruited in a playthrough, ten characters are available to be recruited, and as a result not all characters can be recruited in one playthrough of the game. Added to First Departure was a combo attack system where special attacks stack to become more powerful. Up to four characters can participate in battles, but the player is only able to control one character at a time, leaving the others to be controlled by the computer's artificial intelligence. The player retains control of just Roddick (Ratix in the original Super Famicom game), and is able to look for the other characters.
Synopsis
Plot
The game takes place in S.D 346 (A.D 2432), and starts off in a small town of Kratus on the under-developed planet of Roak. They inform them that the disease was sent to the planet by a foreign race called the Lezonians, whom the Earth Federation has been at war with. Roddick and Millie go with them on their spacecraft to help them find a cure. They learn that Fellpool blood could be used to process a special, invisible material which could give them a massive advantage in the war. Upon coming in contact with Lezonians, they reveal that they were being forced into war by a shadowy, powerful third party with a disgust for the Federation.
Before Dorne fully succumbs to the disease, they do tests on him to figure out a cure. They determined that the only possible way to fight it would be to make a vaccine that uses the original source of the disease. While the origin of the virus is tracked back to being on Roak itself, it is from Asmodeus, the King of the Demon World, who had been killed 300 years prior to the spread of the disease. Ronyx talks the group into using a Time Gate on the Planet Styx to go back 300 years into the past to track down Asmodeus back when he was still alive. and Hiro Yuki in Super Famicom original and remastered.
- Millie Chliette is an 18-year-old Fellpool practitioner of Symbology healing magic who wields a staff, and a longtime friend and romantic interest for Roddick. She is voiced by Katie Leigh in the English version, Hitomi Nabatame in the Japanese remake and remastered, She is voiced by Melissa Fahn in the English version, and Tomoe Hanba in the Japanese version. The development cycle for this game, however, was plagued with creative disputes between the developers and publisher, leading to much of the development team leaving to form a new company, which would become tri-Ace, which explains some of the common themes between the games, such as the similar battle systems. To deepen the story, the "private action" system was created to reveal more of the characters history, personality and relationships, but the score the game generated from various choices was hidden from players since there was no "right" or "wrong" story path. Additionally, Star Ocean was also one of two games that used a special S-DD1 chip to aid in compression of almost all graphics and map data, meaning that it effectively stored even more data than Tales of Phantasia, though the compression led to a lower audio quality. Feedback about weak boss monsters later led to more challenging battles in Star Ocean: The Second Story. Despite appearing in North American video game magazine Nintendo Power in 1996, the Super Famicom version was never officially released anywhere outside Japan. due to poor sales, and Nintendo had already passed on publishing Tales of Phantasia a year prior, instead choosing to focus on the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 video game console. The game was later unofficially translated into English by DeJap Translations, who created a patch that made the game fully playable in English via emulation.
First Departure
Star Ocean: First Departure is an enhanced remake of the original Star Ocean for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Tose. The first details of the game were revealed at the "Star Ocean Special Stage" during the Square Enix Party 2007, alongside those of Star Ocean: The Second Story. Yoshinori Yamagishi, producer of the series, stated that he wanted the remakes to feel as though they're completely new games.
The game was first released in Japan on December 27, 2007, then in North America and Europe in October 2008, marking the first time that the original Star Ocean was officially released outside Japan. First Departure uses a slightly altered version of the engine used for Star Ocean: The Second Story with similar features, including prerendered backgrounds, 3D battle fields and hand drawn facial animations. Production I.G provided new artwork and animated cutscenes for the game.
An HD remaster of the PlayStation Portable version titled Star Ocean: First Departure R for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 was released in December 2019. The new release features re-balanced game difficulty and increased world map movement speed as well as the option to toggle between character portraits from the PSP version or re-drawn designs based on the Super Famicom version. The English release allows the player to choose between English voices or Japanese audio from either the PSP version or re-recorded dialogue from the original Super Famicom voice actors.
Music
The scores for Star Ocean and First Departure were composed and arranged by Motoi Sakuraba. Music from the game was included on the album Star Ocean Perfect Sound Collection, released on November 1, 1996, by Sony Records, which included arranged medleys of themes from the Super Famicom version by Sakuraba, Yoshiharu Gotanda, and Kazushi Satoh as well as voice tracks. An album containing music from the PSP version was released on January 30, 2008, by Sony Music and Square Enix which contained 68 tracks across two discs. Critics praised Sakuraba's progressive rock style, and highlighted his musical experimentation throughout the original Star Ocean score and First Departure. Tracks added from Star Ocean: The Second Story received mixed reviews on the First Departure album, adding some familiar Star Ocean themes but also some lesser known songs to the mix. Several musical pieces were missing from the original album and were added to the remake's release. This theme was replaced for the First Departure R release with the song by Yauchi Keiko of Shadow of Laffandor.