Star Ocean: First Departure

Star Ocean: First Departure, released in October 2008, is a remake of the 1996 SNES game "Star Ocean". This PSP exclusive uses Star Ocean: The Second Story's game engine, and thus looks and plays much like it's predecessor. The game features a unique real-time combat system, an original item creation system, beautiful graphics and almost fully-voiced dialogues.

First Departure's story begins when a group of bandits attack the town of Kratus. This is where the player meets Roddick Farrence, a member of the town's Defense Force, as well as his friends Millie and Dorn. The Defense Force takes it upon themselves to save the village and drive away the bandits. The heroes are thanked, and at the end of the day it seems everything has turned to normal. Unfortunately, a nearby town is plagued by a mysterious disease, and everyone who makes contact with the disease turns to stone.

Because of this disease, Roddick and Millie meet two people, Ronyx and Ilia, who claim to be from the planet "Earth", and have come to try to find information about how the mysterious disease was spread on the heroes' planet, Roak. Ronyx and Ilia explain to the Roakians that Earth is much more technologically advanced than Roak and the disease was place on Roak by an equally advanced civilization that Earth is at war with. Roddick and Millie decide they will do anything to help their planet get rid of the disease, and thus join Ronyx and Ilia in the investigation.

The group uses a mystic time gate to travel back in time to a much more uncivilized Roak in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease. However, an unfortunate turn of events separates Roddick and Ilia from Ronyx and Millie. Roddick and Ilia then decide the most important thing for them to do is to find Ronyx and Millie, and worry about the disease second. This is when your adventure starts!

If you've never played Star Ocean: The Second Story, the combat system should be a pleasant experience. Your team for battle can consist of four party members. Battles take place in real-time, and the AI controls three party members, while you manage one. There are three ways to take on enemies - up close, with killer moves, or with spells. The first option is usually for your strong warrior party members, and unfortunately, when controlling one of these characters you'll often find yourself mashing one button. These types of party members also have special attacks, called "killer moves", which allows the user to unleash a powerful attack to help overcome enemies. Each member can unlock a plethora of killer moves, which have various benefits, such as multiple attacks, elemental damage, or ranged techniques. Killer moves also get more powerful the more you use them.

The last form of combat is essential for those party members who are spell casters. Each spell caster usually falls into one of two categories, offensive or defensive. Offensive spell casters focus on area of effect spells to overwhelm enemies and support those close-combat fighters. These spell casters often deal more damage than the close-combat fighters, but they must watch their MP and make sure they don't run out, because they're next to useless without it. The other type of spell caster, defensive magicians, play the role of nurse on the battlefield. They're given spells to heal teammates and null status effects, along with giving them stat buffs to tear apart their enemies. Defensive mages are often a standard for battle teams because of their healing abilities.

Depending on your tastes in combat, you can choose which party members you would like to recruit for your team. Apart from the required four heroes, you're given four slots for optional members. There are seven optional characters in the game, each with their own story and recruitment process. Because of the 4 member limit, you have to pick and choose which party members you want to invite to your team. If you reject someone from your team, there's no chance of getting them again. There's also a catch; if you recruit someone to your team, you're almost guaranteed to lose the option for another member. This adds a great deal of replayability; you miss a large portion of the storyline for each character you don't have.

Each party member and a few of the NPC's have their own voice actor, and 90% of the game's dialogue is voiced. This always makes room for unintentional comedy, but First Departure actually does it well. There are very few "facepalm" lines, the voice acting fits the characters, and the actors, while not superb, are very believable. The top-notch 3D graphic cutscenes also help add to the voice acting, and often feels like watching an anime, in the best way possible. The background music in First Departure is well composed, often fitting the mood of the player's surroundings, and when combined with beautiful "2.5D" backgrounds, you might feel like you're in the game its self. The scenery is very good for a PSP game; sometimes I had to take a double-take.

Along with these other features, First Departure also has a few unique gameplay features that help add to the experience. One of the most important gameplay features in the skill and item creation system. As players level up in combat, they're given skill points, which they can dump into some 30+ skills. These skills are building blocks to unlocking Specialties, which open up various item creating techniques for the different characters. For instance, put your skill points into the "Mineralogy", "Eye For Detail", and "Aesthetics" skills, and you'll unlock the "Crafting" specialty. The higher this gets, the stronger jewelry you can make with your gems. The idea for this system is just amazing to me, and becomes very important to the player later in the game, where the best weapons and armors are only found through item creation.

The only problem I had with the game was the difficulty. For anybody who's played the original Star Ocean or Star Ocean 2, this game will be a walk in the park for you. Developer tri-Ace invented a new three-hit combat system, allowing the player to unleash a chain of three attacks, unlike the previous one-hit system. Someone once said "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." That somebody obviously was not on the tri-Ace system, because they changed the flawless old system into this simple "mash x" method. I actually played and completed my second run-through of the game by doing a common challenge - a solo run. This meant I'm only allowed to use 1 character through the entire game.

The truth is the game was just as easy; after hitting maybe level 30, I had no struggle with the enemies, and I didn't die the entire game. It's obvious how this could be a turn-off to some, but the game had so many other redeeming qualities that I didn't let the difficulty bother me.

To sum it up, Star Ocean: First Departure is a title PSP RPG'ers should not go without. It boasts some good looking cutscenes with fully voiced dialogue, the graphics are pleasant and the music is fitting, the character's backgrounds are interesting and the gameplay mechanics are solid. It provided me 23 hours of fun, and that was definitely worth the $40 I spent on it. If you own a PSP, like RPG's, and haven't picked up First Departure, you're doing it wrong.

Star Ocean: The Second Story

Star Ocean: The Second Story is an RPG developed by tri-Ace and released for the PSX in 1999. The game spans two discs, which means more content than the average PSX game and thus provides quite a bit of playing time. You take on the role of a hero of your choice; Claude, a blonde-haired man from Earth who is accidentally transported to an unknown planet during an exploration, or Rena, a blue-haired magician who lives on this mysterious planet 

called Expel. Depending on who you choose, different parts of the main story are revealed. The adventure begins after a few strange events and the two discover they must stop a group of evil geniuses who call themselves "The Ten Wisemen" from taking over the world with their mysterious weapon named "The Sorcery Globe".

As the two travel across the planet to discover any information they can on these "Ten Wisemen" and their Sorcery Globe, they encounter many discrepancies between the townspeople. Rena and Claude take it upon themselves to help out any way they can. The player is often given choices with how they go about their journey, and sometimes you can opt to forget about the town's woes and instead continue on to the next town. Every action you make affects how the team thinks of each other, which contributes to the various endings the player can receive. As you journey, you're given the opportunity of letting people you meet join your party. The choices you are given whenever you want to recruit a new character are very important, because usually when you recruit a new character, another character that could've joined your party becomes unavailable. Players must choose what party members they find truly helpful and allow them to remain in the team.Outside of battle, the party can explore various towns and talk to strangers to figure out what they need to do next. The storyline is pretty much linear, and usually the goal is to travel from point x to point y. Townspeople may have various side-quests that you can do, and in return you might get some money or equipment. Actions and conversations in different parts of the game are sometimes dependent on who you have recruited. Each town also offers "Private Actions" where the party splits up and you can learn various things about the rest of your party.

Of course, as it should be with RPG, the key solution to problems is to fight. Star Ocean 2's battles take place in real time and are triggered on the world map or in dungeons. Every party member is classified as either a fighter or a magician. Fighters usually stay close to the enemies, and can use "Killer Moves", or special abilities, to take over the enemies and turn the battle in their favor at the cost of MP. These attacks become stronger every time they are used. Fighters also have a standard attack, which causes damage and has a chance of "peeping" or dazing the enemy. Magicians usually have either offensive magic or defensive magic, and support the team from afar. Defensive magicians like Rena use Cure and various stat buffs to support the fighters, and have high MP to deal with the spell costs. Offensive magicians use area of effect spells to do high damage to multiple enemies, but they perform very poorly when close to enemies.

SO2 also introduces a very in-depth skill and item creation system. Whenever a character levels up, they're given skill points which can be used to increase skill levels of your choosing. These skills increase your battle stats and also provide other bonuses, such as higher selling prices for items. Multiple skills of similar nature are also needed to unlock various specialties, which allow you to create items. For example, if you put skill points into "Recipe", "Kitchen Knife", and "Good Eye", you will unlock the "Cooking" specialty. From that, you can mix various ingredients to create HP and MP restoring items. The more skill points you pump into skills, the better the character becomes at the specialty.

All-in-all, Star Ocean 2 is a truly unique experience. The real-time battle system is fun, the dialogue is entertaining, and the music is beautiful. The game has a few cut scenes that give current-gen graphics a run for it's money. The storyline is entertaining and original, and replayability is huge, allowing you to see parts of the story that weren't available on the first play-through. Ignore the voice acting and a few other minor annoyances and you'll find yourself a true gem of an RPG.

Shining Soul II

There's always been a special kind of magic entwined with video games for me. I look back ten years, remembering the day I arrived home from school to find my dad had picked up a Nintendo 64. Granted, I didn't know what it was, but he quickly showed me the control scheme for Diddy Kong Racing and I've been an addict ever since. It comes as no surprise through my extensive yet short gaming experience that I've come across quite a few titles since then that hold a special place in my heart.

For those who have not had the honor of being introduced yet, I present to you Shining Soul II. The game makes its home on the Game Boy Advance, and so it is by no means a new game, with a release date of 2004. If you haven't already, you may find through playing a game such as this that fun does not coincide with time. Shining Soul II is a solid action-RPG in which you play as a protagonist of your choice who is bestowed the task of defeating an evil knight hell-bent on conquering the world. While originality may not have been in the game's best interest, other features and charms may help you better understand the true beauty that is Shining Soul II.

Before the adventure starts, we get to choose who we want to be playing as through the entire game. There are eight different options, such as a Ninja, Sorceress, or Warrior, each with their own styles of play. While the idea is not new, it's nice to have control over pivotal gameplay features, and the different classes allow you to play the game in a totally different way. No class is better than another; each just offers a different method of combat and should be chosen to a player's liking.

Once the journey begins, we're given a quick rundown of the plot: "Hero" must defeat "Bad Guy" and save the world. There's really not a lot to take in here; the game offers one of the most simple and overdone set-ups to introduce the gameplay. Luckily, the opening scene is the longest amount of dialogue in the game - the story pretty much just backs off after the introduction, save for three or four lines from the king after you beat each level. It's a shame Shining Soul II couldn't bring a better story to the table, as this is one of the few lows the game has. If they would've simply given a better explanation to the special events and dropped the cliche's that this game is littered with, Shining Soul II could've been something great.

Beating up the baddies is our goal in Shining Soul II. Obviously, the character you choose is going to determine how you're going to take each battle. Each character has different weapons that serve various purposes. Some weapons attack faster, while some may be able to hit multiple enemies. Upon leveling up, you can also increase the damage and special attacks of the weapons however you want. This would be great, but upgrading these skills tends to make you focus on one weapon and subtracts from a gameplay feature that could've really been done well. Each character also has a few spells in their arsenal, which is a nice break from the sometimes monotonous "mash a" that may pop up after a few hours of gaming. I think the combat in Shining Soul II is what makes it more enjoyable than a lot of RPG's on the Game Boy Advance. Eight characters with various weapons, spells, and skills means huge replayability and gives a new experience for the times when you feel, "I just did this."

The graphics in Shining Soul II are pleasant. It doesn't do anything revolutionary for the system, but it does have a unique style, and if nothing else, that's something you can take away from the experience. I did have a little bit of a problem with the constant reuse of pixels, though. It's a bit discouraging to keep buying the new sword available at the end of every level, and then see that it has the exact same artwork as your last one. Monsters on the same stage usually have a duplicate design with a simple recolor tacked on that you'll find later in the dungeon. The music falls into the same category as the graphics - it's original, but nothing that special. While it's a shame that the music can't be exceptionally interesting, I wouldn't be able to tell you of any instance of someone buying a Game Boy Advance game because they were looking for a great musical experience.

All in all, Shining Soul II was one of the most pleasant memories that I can think of when I take a look back at my gaming history. In my eyes, however, would I say this love for the game is justified by its contents? Unfortunately, no. It's unfair to base my opinion on a game because of the good childhood memories that come with it. While the game has great combat and tons of replayability if you enjoy your first run through, it suffers from not only a horrible storyline, but also from the fact that it doesn't have a whole lot to really set it apart from the rest of the Game Boy Advance titles. It's a shame, too, because all this gaudy rock needs to become a gem is a little shine.

I apologize for that horrible pun.

An Untitled Story

Call it cliche, but as much as I really love the extremely high-quality graphics that are seen in most games today, I really think developers are spending too much time on them. Anyone who's seen my backlog of reviews knows I'm a huge fan of freeware gaming, mainly because generally low system requirements mean I don't have to pump out money for a new rig or console. The break from modern gaming has really helped me appreciate these independent developers, though. An Untitled Story, developed by Matt Thorson, is simple in design, but the idea behind the game is so much more original than the high resource-consuming games we see on the market today. The focus is not put on pumping out high-end 3D graphics, and is instead directed towards creating a game that's fun.

An Untitled Story is a 2D platforming adventure with a sort of free-roam feel to it. You begin as a lonely egg in a nest, with no other plot revealed to you. As you progress through the game, the story slowly begins to reveal itself, though the message and storyline don't really set in until the game's amazing conclusion, where everything ties in with one powerful message.

There really isn't a lot of story, though - it's up to you, the player, to create the journey. At the beginning of the game, your options are limited: you can jump, and you can move side-to-side. As the story progresses, you get power-ups that allow you to reach areas that were previously inaccessible, such as double-jumping and the ability to shoot fire. These power-ups are not concrete requirements, though. Often, you're given two or more locations to explore, so if you're stuck with one map, you can try another. Getting a power-up often opens up new areas with new challenges to try, so eventually you will have to get them, but An Untitled Story gives you some room to work with.

In addition to the ability power-ups, there are hearts, which serve the same purpose as in most games. They give you more health, and allow you to sustain more damage. Each heart gives you 10 extra health points, and there are dozens of hearts scattered in random locations across the world. Some are available right in the open, usually after completing a tough room or defeating a few enemies. However, most are obtained from exploration. Every map needs to be surveillanced for secret nooks and crannies - if a wall has a small indentation or a pattern that breaks from the rest of the map, there's a good chance it's a fake wall that is holding a heart. The necessity of exploration varies depending on which of the game's four difficulty levels you're playing. On the easiest difficulty, you won't need to explore as much for these hearts, as damage taken is much lower and you'll get more places to restore your hearts. On the highest difficulties, exploration is an absolute must if you want to be able to take more than one hit without getting a game-over.

Even with a plethora of power-ups and a stockpile of hearts, you must rely on your platforming abilities to get you safely from save point to save point. There are many different enemies in the game; some will leave you alone if you do the same, others act aggressively and home attacks towards you. These baddies, however, do not make up most of the game's traps. Most of the damage you will take will be from spikes, lava, or misplaced jumps that send you falling to your death. Your health is restored every time you reach a new save point, however, and you can teleport from save point to save point, so if half-way through a dungeon you get stuck, you can try someplace else.

Bosses wait for you at the end of every area. Usually, the path from a save point to the boss is littered with traps more difficult than the previous areas. This adds to the difficulty of boss battles, because you probably won't have all of your health when you reach one. Every boss in the game has different methods of attacking and different patterns they attack with. However, you can approach every boss in relatively similar manners. The boss will start with their regular attack, then eventually get tired and stop for a few seconds. You attack them, they take damage, and the fight continues. Every boss takes four hits to defeat, and after each hit they get faster and often add a new form of attack. It can become frustrating, especially on higher difficulties, trying to get that fourth and final hit in. You're going to have to restart, and you'll have to do it a lot. Suffering through the pain and landing the final hit becomes a rewarding experience that you feel all too often in An Untitled Story.

An Untitled Story does not pride itself with aesthetics - the game admittedly looks a little weak. The style is unique, but a bit unprofessional and, at times, boring. Some objects are indistinguishable, pixels run rampant from graphical glitches, and some places feel droopy and stale. But I can accept that. Because the developer is one guy, he didn't want to spend months crafting each and every sprite to it's very highest potential. He could've either spent years perfecting everything, or cut time spent on game development to instead work on visuals (which, while I'm at it, sounds familiar). Instead, he opted to release something unique, and unless I have to navigate a red square past blue circles, I don't mind. The sad realization is that others might, and this is where An Untitled Story will find its demographics. The game's just not for you if you've truly migrated to the high-definition 3D graphics of modern day.

An Untitled Story shows what game developers can do if they focus less on getting the best voice actors/graphic designers and more on game play innovation. The game is available to download for no cost, but gives an experience that seems worthy of a $60.00 price tag. The difference in difficulty levels is perfect, allowing for a fun playthrough for those new to platforming or an extreme challenge to those who've ran multiple playthroughs. To any game developers, learn from An Untitled Story: you don't need to spend millions of dollars to create a fantastic gaming experience.

An Untitled Story is free-to-download from Matt Thorson's website, located here.

Before I Begin

Hey guys! I'm excited to start reviewing games here, but before I begin, I just thought I'd inform you guys that I'm going to be moving some of the hard work I've done on the site The Escapist (www.escapistmagazine.com) over to here. A lot of these reviews will be on there - I go by Say Anything on that site. Don't worry, I'm not stealing!

Thanks for reading!