|
You also encounter these battles about every 5 seconds in dungeons and in the world map. It simply is too easy to be much fun.If it wasn't for that, the game would be quite good. I would have to say this game is, sadly, a bit disappointing. Your characters frequently level up, almost every other battle, and you always end up with enough money to purchase any item you find in the shops. The story is decent, the voice acting is done fairly well and the game offers enough interesting items and upgrades to keep things interesting, but it simply is too easy. Really, it's only because of one simple thing: it is simply not challenging.After logging in around 20 hours in to this game, I have yet to encounter more than 2 challenging fights. The battles you encounter are very frequent and rather annoying, rarely lasting more than 5 seconds in duration and requiring two or three hits per enemy (who rarely hit back, I'll add).
This is an outstanding RPG with a great story that keeps you hooked for the entire game. It pointed out things that were good to know but I usually use guides to help me in dungeons as my map skills are not all too great. This game is outstanding at easing you into gameplay and "tutoring" you in how to play. You won't be lost and it is not difficult to figure out where to go and what to do.
I found the Second Evolution game a bit more difficult starting out--so I would class this one as especially perfect for a new RPG person or someone who is more of a casual gamer. All told I logged a lot of hours into this game. Gameplay is great and I believe you will get a good amount of "bang" for your buck with Star Ocean: First Departure. I loved the story--I found it very well paced with some twists I didn't see coming as well as a bit of romance. I liked the battle system and the skill points and specialties you could develop. I spent hours doing the blacksmithing to get good armor and customizing my weapons.
The music was good--perhaps a bit understated but it did work with the game. I sincerely enjoyed it. I think the level of difficulty was light to moderate. The only tedious thing is backtracking and random battles. It added quite a bit to the game. Unlike in some other RPG making the effort to learn these and do things like customization or cooking can actually make a HUGE difference. Wonder what happened to all that orienteering skill I had in high school.
I always give my perspective which is a 42 year old Mom who just got into gaming about 2 years ago. That was a nice surprise for me and actually made my enjoyment a bit higher. I didn't get too many game over's (only due to my own stupidity LOL).I recommend the guide, if you are the type that goes for guides, as I found it very helpful. This is the first RPG I bought for my new PSP. However they are par for the course in most of the RPG's I play and I'm used to them now. It is not major (this is not an M rated title) but its presence, for me, was quite fun. I thougth the graphics were great and the characters well done. I play a lot of rated E RPG that don't have any form of romance or character relations so this was a nice change.
Like others have mentioned, the story could be slow at times (towards the last quarter things pick up and get pretty exciting) and there was a bit of level grinding, which is something I almost expect in an RPG. I've spent 40 hours playing so far and what I like most about this game are the battle system and the item creation ability (not to give anything away but, for example, you can create a secret item that reduces the amount of experience required to level up to one experience point so you can level your characters up at a faster rate, which was pretty cool).First Departure was reminiscent of the SNES Final Fantasy games; the story wasn't quite as rich as Final Fantasy 6 but the look was spot on. So, if you've played those games you have an idea of what to expect. I bought a PSP mostly because I was looking forward to playing Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. Anyway, if you're looking for a great RPG on the PSP, you'll love this. it didn't really play like an RPG (I found it to be as much an RPG as God of War). I found that game to be a bit of a let down since it was way too linear, i.e. First Departure on the other hand may not have the spectacular graphics found in Crisis Core but this is a great game in every other way.
The story progresses at a nice pace until the end where it feels rushed.but it all works.My favorite part of the game was the skill system where you customize your characters abilities. I explored and did a lot of minigames/sidequests and finished it in 25 hours or so. Battles were still fun. There is a lot you can do to customize your party.All in all, it was the perfect into for me into the series as I know Star Ocean 2 is a longer game. I fought with the primary hero (Roddick) for the entire game except the final boss. I have not played any Star Ocean games before this.
The battles are real-time, but felt less tactical than Tales of Phantasia did. Personally 25-30 hours is nearly perfect for me. I began playing this game on the heals of completing Chrono Trigger (DS) and Tales of Phantasia (GBA). I had to take over Millie (the healer) because she didn't know how to keep the party alive and just let the AI beat down the boss.It's a shorter game compared to most rpg's out these days, which was a good thing for me. I will play through this one again. It plays much like Tales of Phantasia as one might expect.The cut scenes and voice acting are done well for a portable game and add to the game.
The AI for the other 3 characters in your party is pretty weak but workable.
They're virtually identical, except this time gaining proficiency when you have a Secret Fighting Technique (SFT) in the ability menu allows the character to unlock powerful new techniques (such as Ilia's Tortoise Smash from Explosive Kick). If you level up the customization ability and modify one of your older weapons with a decent mineral, you normally create an absurdly good weapon, which eliminates all the level grinding. The technique's you assign to the L and R buttons in my opinion are a lot better in this game than Star Ocean 2. It's great when the game tells you to go a certain town, but if you're like me, you'll probably forget which of the red dots on the mini map is the town you're looking for. I'm a huge fan of "Star Ocean: The Second Story", so when I heard its predecessor came out, I had to give it a try.
Anyone who would like some background into the Star Ocean universe would be very pleased. The extra dungeon at the end of the game has great weapons exclusive to the remake and the secret boss you get from playing the "Devil's Aria" is deadly. The shining point of the game for me is really the character recruitment and weapon customization. The battle system of star ocean makes random battles kind of enjoyable at times. Performing Private actions in towns are pretty hilarious most of the time and adds a lot more depth to the story (and changes the ending for different characters based on your actions). I'm currently playing through again just to try out some of the characters I never recruited before and get more backstory on them.Overall, it's an outstanding game if you were a big fan of the Playstation game, and an RPG fan in general. The story isn't incredibly deep, but it's not as shallow as some people claim. the character recruitment is surprisingly complex if you hope to recruit Erys (the original form of Mavelle).
The battle system is identical to the Second Story, except for the addition of a 3 attack combo you can perform by pressing the attack button in succession (which is great if you're doing level grinding and want to conserve MP). There are a ton of great weapons that can only be made this way and feels less constricted than in SO2. Most of these new techniques hit the enemy an insane number of times and cause daze, rendering opponents towards the latter half of the game pretty helpless if you have a lot of Melee fighters in your party.The voice acting in battle is a bit repetitive, but so was the voice acting in Star Ocean 2. My only major problem with the game is that it doesn't have a world map you can go to.
|
