Star Ocean: First Departure is the result of the hard work of the guys at TOSE. The same developers that brought us a bunch of Nintendo games like Crash: Mind Over Mutant, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 and older franchises like Bases Loaded and Densetsu no Stafy.

Originally, the game was released in Japan in 2007 but after one year, it reached the European and American shelves, being the first title of the Star Ocean franchise to be released outside Japan.

SO: FD starts off with a weird but interesting story of a village being infected with a strange virus that turns people into statues. Therefore, Roddick (this is you) and his friends must find a cure which supposedly is a plant on the top of a mountain. Things get a little weird when on the mountain two people appear out of nowhere.

The story is a mix of fantasy and science fiction, something common between the SO franchises. In terms of gameplay, this is the most advanced title released so far. It utilizes a real time battle system, where every character has the freedom of choosing what skills to use and against which enemy. Enemy encounters are random along the map and in dungeons, every fight putting your skills to the test. There is the basic attack where you punch or slash the sword against enemies, these attacks can be performed unlimited times, and the second type of attack that requires mana points. Special attacks can be interrupted if you are hit and you'll also lose the mana points required for the action. When you want to cast magic on enemies, the game auto-pauses so you can select what tactics to use.

Speaking of tactics, you can only control one character of the party. This means that the other characters will be controlled by the computer in a battle. Commands like "attack with all you've got" or "stay away from enemies" and "save your special arts" will be necessary to minimize the loss. But sometimes, party members are either too enthusiastic about the fight that they forget to heal themselves or they use all the mana points with special attacks. This is where the feature to control each character at a time comes in handy but when the fight gets hot, the A.I. is destined to make more bad than good.

The puzzles were fairly ok but what irritated me, was the lack of save spots. You can only save when you're on the map, not even in the cities, which kinda sucks. In dungeons, you might find special places where you can save, and if you're low on hit points, just pray you don't get attacked until reaching the save spot.

Another cool feature of Star Ocean: First Departure is the character customization. As you level up, more skill points will be available, skill points that will give your character different abilities. These skills range from the ability to turn iron into gems and other precious metals, compound two herbs to create medicine, forage an area for useful items to creating items that aren't quite legit and pickpocket NPC's.

Each character has its own talents that will give them bonus to certain skills, and it might put newcomers in a blur but, as you grow, things will come very clearly. Skills aren't required to progress in the game but it certainly adds a spicy touch to the gameplay.

The first thing that will amaze players is the game intro, a beautifully rendered cut-scene, anime style, but unfortunately these cut-scenes are very rare and of course I was left wanting for more. Talking about graphics, the game is presented in a 2D view, with 3D combat mode and map travel. In the cities, the game enters into 2D view and it suits the game very well. The house can be explored very fast and as there aren't that many NPCs in towns, you can just get in and get out. But when entering the map mode, the horror begins. The game is moving so bad, the framerate is somewhere about 15fps.

On the other hand, the voice acting is really good. The characters express themselves either by voice or animated icons above their head. At first, I was irritated by those animated icons but eventually it got better, even more... it helps understanding how the character feel and what they think.

When you start the game, you have the option to enter a name to the character. The original name is Roddick but if you choose to change it, that's ok, just every other character in the game will still call you Roddick even though on the screen appears the name you typed. This might drive off certain players.