Star Ocean First Departure R Reviews
Star Ocean First Departure R is the best Star Ocean game in a long time.
Fans of Star Ocean will know what to expect here. This is a game that's pretty fun to blast through for nostalgia's sake or from the point of view of simply experiencing the game that kickstarted the long-running series. For anyone else this is simply a pretty old RPG that's showing its age in many ways.
Star Ocean: First Departure R on Nintendo Switch is a fine way to experience the origins of the Star Ocean franchise but a pretty barebones remaster.
Star Ocean First Departure R is an underwhelming port of an excellent but often forgotten Square Enix JRPG.
Star Ocean: First Departure R does its job of bringing First Departure to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, but fails to do much beyond that.
Star Ocean: First Departure R gives the players a chance to revive an old classic without ruining its originale core.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A classic JRPG in the good and the not so good: it has that charm that only this kind of games possess, but things like structure and narrative hasn't aged so well. In any case, if you haven't played the original (or the remake), Star Ocean: First Departure R is a great opportunity to do it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I love Star Ocean: First Departure R. It’s a must-play for JRPG fans, and gaming historians.
Calling First Departure R a full remaster is a bit of a disservice. Though the new character artwork and Japanese voice track are nice additions, this is still very much the same Star Ocean game that fans played a decade ago.
Star Ocean First Departure R offers an easy way to play a hard-to-find classic RPG, but very few enhancements makes this a purchase strictly for Star Ocean fans. Simplistic combat and minimal options make this a hard sell for devout JRPG fans.
Star Ocean: First Departure R is a beautiful retro game, but at the same time, it does almost nothing to get up to speed on the current gen, making it almost impossible to recommend to anyone unkown to the series.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Based on the PSP version of the game, Star Ocean First Departure R is first and foremost adressed to the new players. It has some nice improvements though such as the ability to double the game's speed, new illustrations for the characters and a fully new japanese voice acting by the original cast. However, the high price of the game, combined with the absence of the sequel, The Second Story, is questionable.
Review in French | Read full review
A fine port of a mediocre game. it's great Star Ocean: First Departure is on more platforms, but the game itself doesn't excel.
Star Ocean: First Departure R is an above average game that has the potential to be great. While the story, characters, and world are fun to experience, a dull battle system, uncooperative AI, and reliance on random chance bring it down too much.
Star Ocean First Departure R is a great RPG that needed a bit more love on the presentation side of things. It certainly deserved it.
Star Ocean: First Departure R is a classic game that reminds us of where the series started. While it is certainly fun and enjoyable, it retains a number of traits associated with the best JRPGs. These include a simple storyline, a fascinating combat system, and a relatively straightforward adventure. If you're from a newer generation of JRPG fans, you might find the excessive random encounters, backtracking and minimal depth annoying and might want to stick to more modern releases. Still, veteran fans will likely remember why this series became so popular in the first place.
Star Ocean probably deserved a better treatment than the one Square gave it, because this port is lazy at best, with no QOL improvements and no new content. The game itself is still quite enjoyable, though.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Star Ocean First Departure R is a valuable title that defies time and shows that with deep enough gameplay, dated visuals can not prevent a game from being entertaining
Review in Persian | Read full review
It is an unusual situation where a remake is influenced by its sequel.