Star Ocean: First Departure

The combat is in real-time. You and your party of three are put on the right side of the box. The enemy is put on the left side, but there are a few exceptions. The camera follows whoever you are controlling. Depending on where your target is, the camera will be closer or farther. I didn’t like this because you couldn’t see the rest of what your party was doing if they weren’t melee characters or spell caster. If the radar wasn’t at the top right of the screen, battles would have been exceedingly harder. The radar is great because it shows all the enemies and your party. The one you are controlling is shown with a circle around a blue dot. The blue dots are allies and the red dots are enemies. You can also see your allies, health and mana at the top of the screen, which can help you decide what action to take next.

There are two types of characters you can choose from – melee or spell caster. If you are controlling Roddick, you are a melee character. If you are controlling Millie, you are a spell caster. My favorite type is the melee characters because they don’t take time to cast spells like spell casters do, and they can easily interrupt the enemy faster than spell casters. I was disappointed in the spell casters because it was easy for them to get their spells interrupted, and the enemies tend to go after them. If you are casting a spell and get attacked by an enemy, the casting will stop and you will have to start over again. Spells tend to take a long time to cast, especially heals, but they can be shortened with skills.

What I love about games where you level up and gain spells is that every character is different. First Departure, however, doesn’t have that. Melee characters have all the same special arts depending on their weapon, like Roddick and Cyuss who both use swords. They share Firestorm Blade, Thunderclap Blade, Lightray Blade, Double Slash, etc. Roddick does have some arts that only he can have, but that is at the later levels. Spell casters are different, depending on what kind of magic they use. Ronyx is a spell caster that has spells that hurt opponents. Millie has spells that can cure status ailments or heal allies. Ioshua is also a spell caster that can use curing magic, but has spells that can also hurt the enemy. Ioshua’s and Millie’s healing spells are the same, but Millie has status ailment cures, where Ioshua has the attacking spells along with the healing.

Star Ocean has a humongous arsenal of skills that every character can learn and can help you in combat and more. There are four types of skills that you need to buy, each with three levels. They are knowledge, sense, technical, and combat. Knowledge contains skills that can increase your stats, the amount of healing done by items, or an increase in the amount of fol you gain from selling items. Sense contains a lowering of experience needed to level, raising all stats, or increasing special stats that will help in certain combat situations.

I haven’t played any of the Star Ocean series, and for being the first one I played, I loved it. I give Star Ocean: First Departure a 90.