Sky Render's Review Kitchen - Star Ocean: First Departure

[Sky Render]

Star Ocean: First Departure
A Critical Review by Sky Render

System: PlayStation Portable
Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: 27 December 2007 (Japan), 21 October 2008 (US), 4 November 2008 (Europe)

After the (relatively) roaring success of my Wii Music review, I decided to apply the essentials of my new review style to something a bit more... well, traditional. This time, the episodic nature of this review will be much shorter in delay, with only 15 minutes between postings: long enough for early readers to get through it, while short enough to not make for large amounts of irritated anticipation.

All of these pieces were written at the same time, too (between about 23:00 PST 29 October 2008 and about 2:00 PST 30 October 2008). Since my Star Ocean experience (all 19 hours of it) spanned quite a bit more time than my Wii Music experience did, and because I didn't think to write this critical review of it until I was already 18 hours in, the review is thus a bit less "hands-on" and a bit more "careful retrospective". I consider this review to be highly experimental, for these and other reasons that will become clear shortly. So, that said, let's get cracking.

Part I: My Star Ocean Credentials

Here's where I admit just how biased I am towards the game. How biased am I, you ask? You'll just have to take a look-see.


Part II: The Game in a Nutshell

A summary of the main points of interest of the game. Here I look in detail at the battle engine, at the Item Creation system, and at the basic gameplay outside of those two.


Part III: Subtle Little Nuances

The meat of the review, naturally. This is where I get a bit more in-depth and take a look at what about the game works and what doesn't.


Part IV: Wrapping it Up

So, what's the short of it? Well, here's where to find that. As usual, if you just want the sound-bite breakdown, this is where to look. Just don't go looking for an "out of 10" score or anything, 'cause you won't find one.

NOTE: All images used in this review were originally found at RPGamer.

Let the review/experiment begin...