In 1996, the SNES was given a game. That game was Star Ocean. To you now, that might ring some bells, but back then it wasn't so common. The first instance of the name was probably heard for you back in almost 2000 as Star Ocean: The second Story for the Playstaion. Star Ocean: The Secaond Story (read: Star Ocean 2) was one of the best RPGs back in the day, at least around my ring of friends as the game offered may new and very complex gaming elements. Let me take a moment to go over a few of them.

Probably the most interesting was they skill system. Each character had a very large list of "skills" that were related to battle and other activities. When I say battle, I'm talking about counter (which is pretty self-explanitory), flip (which gives you a chance to dodge to the backside of your enemy), motor-mouth (which makes you cast spells much faster), and a plethora of other abilites that you get to level up. But then there are out of battle skills for activities like item creation, smithing, writing, cooking, painting, music writing... and much more. With this skills you create some of the best items the game has to offer. It'll even give you access to some optional boss fights. One of the skills, Familiar, will give you the ability to summon a bird in the middle of a dungeon to go fetch items for you. Think of it like a shop mid-dungeon. It takes a while for the bird to fly back and get the items to you, but it's rather effective.


(Damnit open your eyes,Dorne... how can you look seriously at something with you eyes closed all the time!)

Now you may be asking yourself why I'm spending so much time talking about Star Ocean 2, when I'm suppose to be reviewing Star Ocean: First Departure. Well, if you have played the SNES installment like myself, then it's important to let those who hadn't know exactly why First Departure for PSP is such a gem. While the SNES version did have some of the previously mentioned features in 2 (including voice acting, IN A SNES GAME ZOMG), First Departure gets a complete over-haul. Star Ocean 2 had a 3D world map, 3D active battle system (with 2D sprites... which btw, I love to death) and basically did everything it's SNES counter-part did, but better. Star Ocean: First Departure now has all of this. Even the 2D towns were completely re-created to look more like it's PS1 counterpart. And the result is amazing.

If you have played the original Final fantasy III or IV and then have played the DS re-makes, you'll kind of know the difference I'm talking about here. Even some of the in-game scenes recieved anime-style cut scenes. I haven't yet completed the PSP verison yet, but I'm far enough into it to be able to tell you just how great of job Square Enix did with this. And after what happened with Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time, I'm very happy to be able to say that.

What I mean by that is Star Ocean 3 was the first Star Ocean developed by Square Enix. The first two were developed by Enix, well before the merge. Star Ocean 3 was a bastard child of the series. Think of it like how Devil May Cry 2 was to the Devil My Cry series. I'm not going to go into too far of detail, but let's just say that if you develop a RPG and have to rip off The Matrix for your story line... you have a problem. Stack that with enemies with invincible getting-up frames in battle, and characters who can because they run out of MP (no kidding, you can be at full health and get KO'd from not having MP), and at multiple times of the game, having to run around a town for over half an hour looking for a random NPC you need to talk with to be able to continue the storyline, and all you have is pretty graphics with no gameplay. This kind of scares me as Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope is due out March of next year (March 3rd, 2009). Hopefully, they will bring in the awesome elements from the first two and not drag in anything from 3. But anyway, back to excuse my rant... back on to the PSP.

The original Star Ocean remains unspoiled in the re-make for PSP. The dialog gets a slight alteration, but the story as a whole is completely and beautifully in tact. If you are a fan of the series, you have no reason not to buy this game (unless you don't have a PSP. But it's a pretty damn good excuse to get one). In fact, for RPG fans, this may very well be the best game the PSP has released. I actually was so pleased with the game, that instead of continuing to use the disc, I went and got a .CSO copy to run off my modded PSP. The world map kind of lags a bit, but what can I say, I'm a stickler for disc preservence. I highly recommend you buy this game and I give this a very enthusiastic thumbs up.