Episode 1: Star Ocean: First Departure – The Tail of Cinder-Roddick.

Star Ocean: First Departure
Platform: PSP
Japanese Release Date: December 27, 2007
U.S. Release Date: October 21, 2008
Difficulty: Moderate
Current Amazon Price: $14.99

Podcast: Download,  iTunes,  Listen on PodOmatic

Lightning's Review:

It might be a snowy, almost deserted town with sad background music, but at least it has a bar!

The Good

• Entertaining cast of characters…and you can pick who gets to accompany you on your adventure! (Some, anyway.)
• Hilarious dialogue and banter between your party members. The voice acting is for the most part a plus as well.
•  An interesting “private action” system where you can wander around various towns and get to know your party members. Depending on which ones you view and what choices you make, you might end up having a special ending involving that character. It’s L-O-V-E!
•  The Item Creation function allows you to customize your weapons, upgrade your armor, and even cook food to help restore your HP and MP.
•  Star Ocean fans will love this blast to the past – ever wonder what some of those dictionary entries for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope allude to? Well…you might find out. 

   
The Bad

•  Mind-numbingly long spell animations. If you’ve got some chores you were putting off, now is the time to do them.
•  A lot of backtracking and moving to and fro between places you’ve already visited. This is whether you’re working on the main story, obtaining materials for item creation, or doing sidequests.
•  …And speaking of sidequests, there are not many in this game. 

The Ugly

• Disturbing, disturbing private actions between party members, which can be activated in towns and increase or decrease affection levels. One of the party members is obsessed with touching the main character’s tail…and another likes to hit on everyone. If you see any of these, you may not sleep that night. 

Ronyx is sad because he didn't get to touch your tail.

The lowdown: A great remake RPG for the PSP, and in fact one of the better PSP RPG’s I’ve played. A must for anyone who has liked any of the other Star Ocean installments!

Podcast Credits:
J. Arthur Keenes Band – “Videogame Theme.”  Creative Commons.
Star Ocean: First Departure OST.