Back on the 1990s Enix published a role-playing game called Star Ocean for the Nintendo SNES. It was only ever available in Japan. Now, Square Enix has brought the game bang up-to-date with a specially enhanced version for the Sony PSP. Star Ocean: First Departure follows the basic premise of the original game, but while the original game was famous for stretching the SNES to its limits, the game engine and graphics have been completely re-worked to make the most of the power of the PSP. The ... more >>

Back on the 1990s Enix published a role-playing game called Star Ocean for the Nintendo SNES. It was only ever available in Japan. Now, Square Enix has brought the game bang up-to-date with a specially enhanced version for the Sony PSP. Star Ocean: First Departure follows the basic premise of the original game, but while the original game was famous for stretching the SNES to its limits, the game engine and graphics have been completely re-worked to make the most of the power of the PSP. The PSP version also has all-new animated cut-scenes presented in wide-screen with voice-overs, which were produced by Ghost in the Shell creators, Production I.G

In the game you play Roddick Farrence, a skilled swordsman from the town of Clatos on the planet Roak. People on your world begin to get a mysterious illness, and you must travel to try and find a way to save them. As you begin to explore, you encounter the Earth spaceship Calnus, and the gateway to exploring the stars is opened to you. But first you must join forces with the Terrans to solve the mystery of the plague and save the Roakians.

First Departure has all your standard RPG fayre - skills and points, battles and spells. But when Star Ocean was first released, it was innovative because it was one of the first games to feature an "Approval rating". Depending on your approval rating, the behaviour of members of your party towards you may change. This means how you behave in the game may make your progress or ability to complete a given task more or less difficult.

The game features a real-time combat system, which makes it more fast-paced than many turn-based RPGs. You control Roddick, and other members of your party are computer controlled, but you can assign roles to them on order to customise their combat tactics. You can pause the combat at any time to enable you to make strategic decisions.

Star Ocean: First Departure takes a tried and tested favourite that was never available to UK buyer before and turns it into a thoroughly modern pocket RPG experience. << less