Star Ocean: First Departure R Review – Can’t Polish the Grind

I absolutely adore developers that want to try something new, break the mold, and attempt ambitious takes on genres that are already well established. It’s hard to look at Star Ocean, a game originally released in 1996, and judge it by today’s standards. Because although there are some upscaling and new portraits, Star Ocean: First Departure R is very much that Super Famicom game from the 90s and in 2019, that’s not a good thing.

Star Ocean: First Departure R
Developer: Tri-Ace(original) & Square-Enix
Price: $20.99
Platform: Playstation 4(Reviewed) & Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review.

Star Ocean: First Departure R starts out as a by-the-numbers JRPG set on the planet Roak. The party you control are members of the defense corps that protects the town, soon it’s attacked, and you’re able to protect the town. Eventually, you find out the next town over is affected by a disease that turns people into stone with the cure being on top of a mountain, you get up there and meet space people. That’s where Star Ocean’s story really takes off, pardon the pun, as you’re whisked off into space.

I found Star Ocean’s story very engaging. There are some areas in which it drags but for the most part, it’s an interesting take on an old story. Especially against its contemporaries, I feel like Star Ocean sought out an unusual direction to take. Because you don’t just go into space, you go into space and then travel back in time. Boiling it down makes the story seem messy but it’s quite well thought out and kept me engaged the entire time. Another interesting aspect of Star Ocean is that by accepting some people into your party, you manage to lock out accepting other party members.

Along with an engaging story, the pixel artwork isn’t bad either. Everything’s been upscaled and looks pretty good on a modern screen. I attribute this to Star Ocean having a pretty solid foundation. While the original game wasn’t released until 1996, it rivals its 2D peers at that moment in time. Especially in animation, Star Ocean excels in having some quick battle animations that are truly excellent. Star Ocean also features a fairly incredible soundtrack. While I’m not sure I’d rank it among the best, it definitely shines on its own and manages to create some memorable experiences.

Unfortunately, Star Ocean is marred with unnecessarily high encounter rates, several unforeseeable difficulty spikes, and a superfluous element system that aggravated me to no end. Once that first difficulty spike hit, I knew Star Ocean was, at heart, a very flawed game. Because no matter how strong the story is, I need to feel like I’m progressing through the game. Once I feel stuck with my only option being to fight a long series of battles to make my character slightly stronger, I lose a lot of that will to continue.

Star Ocean had me grinding, and it had me grinding quite a bit. Even using a guide to tell me what level I should be for certain encounters, it was a constant struggle to finish certain boss fights, whereas others felt like they were easier random encounters. There was no consistency in the difficulty, it was all over the place. The difficulty combined with a high encounter rate was extremely off-putting. Finally, I was at my wit’s end when I realized the very powerful sword I had crafted had an element combination that healed the last boss. Star Ocean is a very ambitious game that actively works against itself.

Grinding and high encounter rates aren’t even that annoying if the battle system is fun or engaging but Star Ocean’s battle system is essentially mashing the X button until the fight is over. You control a single character instead of the entire party and use tactics to control how your party members contribute. Sadly, the options are so limited and too similar to be of any real use.  You mash, maybe run away to use an item but go right back to mashing because there’s an item cooldown.

There is also an absurdly deep, for the time, crafting system in Star Ocean. Once skills start falling into your lap and you begin leveling them up you have many different ways to craft items. Through music, machinery, smithing, alchemy, and writing you manage to create interesting and useful items that help you along the way. I managed to make a few cool items using the crafting system but it ultimately boils down to guesswork and using resources you have to travel from town-to-town to collect.

Star Ocean: First Departure R struggles to find its own identity and no amount of remastering could make this game any more palatable. Though the art, story, and strangely deep crafting system manage to keep Star Ocean interesting. Sadly, they’re not enough to take away from the awful encounter rate and absurd difficulty spikes.

The Final Word
Ultimately, Star Ocean: First Departure R is merely upscaling an already flawed game that fans of the series will enjoy, being able to play on modern hardware, but is otherwise a frustrating experience.

MonsterVine Review Score: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre