Star Ocean: First Departure R Switch Review - A CLASSIC JRPG RETURNS? 

I like the fact games that never made it out of Japan during the Super Nintendo/Famicom era are now making their way to the West. I would LOVE for Super Back to the Future to do the same (although it never will), that was one Super Famicom game I always wanted to play! Happy gaming. Glen

Im honestly getting a Switch just for all the JRPG'S

Just to let everyone know, the random encounters are frequent but there is a skill in game that allows you to increase/decrease the encounter rate at will.

I hope this release might mean we'll get Star Ocean II from the Playstation ported over. It's one of my all time faves.

Shout out to everyone coming here to see what the first is like now the sequel has just been announced.

I think one thing you could have mentioned is that the decisions you can make in this game are crucial so I will explain it for those who are unaware. In this game you can recruit party members and it's impossible to have all of them on your save file. You can permanent miss party members or lock yourself out of options for making decisions but don't let this scare you. Your adventure will be very unique and when you dismiss a party member you will encounter another interesting character instead. I strongly suggest to play this game without a guide for the very first playtrough because like I said, it's impossible to get everything in one run. Enjoy YOUR story and if you want to experience more, the second playtrough can feel very different. Don't be afraid of FOMO.

Damn. This made me tear up a bit. They have certainly captured the charm of the JRPG genre that loved. The battle system made me immediately think of the old classic Tales of Phantasia when it was still on SNES. This is a definite buy for me. This, and Trials of Mana.

Great review as always! I remember being excited about first departure coming to the PSP after playing second story on the PS1. (God I'm so old)

I would love to see Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma make it to Switch

Woke up early to find Switchup dropping a review for a JRPG? Today's gonna be a good day. Awesome review Glen!

Thanks for the review. I think I'm def picking this up tomorrow.

Thanks for the review. Love this era of RPGs, and this one looks like a winner. Will definitely be picking this up when I clear out some of my current backlog!

I remember wanting this because of the Nintendo Power magazine coverage. It only took me 25 years to get it.

I played the original Star Ocean 2 (PlayStation, 1999) to death - that was the first RPG that I sank an insane amount of time into. It appears that they’ve taken most of the good and some of the bad from SO2 to remake SO1. I had a PSP, but I gave it up for the DS Lite a year before this game was released.

Here we go! Love your reviews!

This is definitely right up my alley. It’s like Secret of Mana and like you said Chrono Trigger. I’m very partial to these types of games. They remind me of the early 90’s SNES RPGs I was addicted to.

Dear Glen, thank you so much for this great review! I hope you feel well!! My youth was "famicomless", so I am vaguely familiar with this kind of games.. That`s why it is interesting to give it a try now with my beautiful NS!!!

I glad you touched on the lack of tutorial and the lack of save points. I bought this game when it first came out on switch and deleted it because I didn’t know what to do. I just recently redownloaded (which is what brought me here again) and now I’m finally starting to understand it

Definitely on my list. Star Ocean: The 2nd Story was actually my first multi-disc RPG back in the day (graduating out of Chrono Trigger). I have a lot of fond memories of it as such. This looks similar aesthetically and even sounds like it. To the point I got a jolt when I heard the music near the end.

Damn.. Watching you play this game travels me back to the 90s on my good old SNES nights... I usually dont play rpgs anymore, but with that price, I might give this one a chance.

bring back star ocean 2... best of all....

this is two years ago but you guys have been a great factor in deciding if I'll buy the game or not, keep at it

Yes, Yes, YEEEESSS Great review! Will be grabbing this!

god i hope we get all the star ocean's ported over. i love them

Just got the game. I can't believe there is not one on screen instruction thus far. No in game manual. I appreciate this review. It explains what the game should have.

Saw this randomly on the eshop, totally excited for star ocean 2 now. Gonna get 2 as soon as it drops. I'll wait for a sale for first departure. I have 1 and 2 on psp

Thanks for this nice review Glen. Looks different battle wise from JRPGS I'm used to and the 3d use of moving around has Octopath Traveller feel to it. Might need previous knowledge of StarOcean for certain things in the story I guess.

Really hope this does well enough for Square to port Star Ocean 2 & 3 as well! Those games are fantastic.

Great review! Maybe I'll pick it up when if it ever goes on sale! I really enjoyed the ps1 Star Ocean, i like the series and it's action oriented combat system.

Just seen it before on sale in the eShop for £6.79 and thought I’ll have a look at a review, glad I did, definitely feels worth it. I never played a star ocean game before so it’s good to finally get around to playing one, thanks! 😁

Great review, definetly gonna buy it! Thanks for the review btw ;)

Now I wanna see some classic Tales games on the switch. I would love an enhanced port of the japan only psp Tales of Phantasia fully voiced version! Or heck I’d love a port of Tales of Rebirth from the ps2 another Japan only title

Right now this game is on sale at 50% so it’s under $10 bucks so I’m gonna get it before it ends. Thanks for the review

Gameplay looks really fun, story looks interesting. Another game I'll definitely get when I get a Switch.

God.. I remember playing this game when I was 9 on the PSP..

I just picked it up and it's just what I was looking for that 90's feeling. The only other Star Ocean game I played was for the PS1 and if I remember correctly it had a bunch of disc

Cheers for the review mate

More RPG goodness for the Switch! Definitely have to get my hands on this. Speaking of RPG's do you think we'll get a Paper Mario game 2020?

Awesome review Glen.i hope u get better soon but to me u sound fine. I know u not a fan of the visuals but I Love the visuals of this game . It looks so awesome . Reminds me of an old Tales game with its battle system will totally pick this up when on sale.

Great review. Probably might pick this up. Especially since it's on sale right now on the eshop

I love your reviews! Thanks.

Thanks for the review. I will pick this one up. 👍

Classic rpgs really bring back so many nostalgic memories :) I'll check this one out

I just purchased this game on the eshop..it was on sale and I've had it on my wish list for a while so I thought why not..I've never played any of the Star Ocean games,so this will be my first one..I like the art style of this game,it reminds me of some of the SNES games I liked to play back in the day..I like this channel,you always have great game reviews and I know you will give an honest review and I appreciate that 😊

Great review, thanks mate

Tasty! I Like the action oriented battle systemGood to have you back Glen x

Great review I love Star Ocean First Departure I bought it on ps vita as download it’s very fun game been couple of years since I played it love ❤️ the story of the game I’m so excited coming to the switch on December 5th.

Any RPG with 16 bit pixel graphics is an immediate attention grabber for me. And you gotta have the "march or walk in place" animation

Great review. So many RPG's, so little time...!

I have decided I am going to start this series but I have numerous games to finish prior, so will pick this up in a sale.

Thanks! Great Review! “The intricacies aren’t really explained to you.” HA!! The Famicom and PSP versions would have come with a manual. Shame we don’t get those anymore.

Oh my stars! I'm a complete sucker for JRPG's in general and these visuals are absolutely gorgeous. To some degree they remimd me of Octopath Traveler and in a different way the lesser known Saturday Morning RPG. I think I might wait for a sale as I have plenty to play right now or possibly put this on my holiday wishlist to snag up with all the eshop cards I usually get from friends and family.

I actually played this on the PSP and completely forgot about it until now

Woah, this is just the kind of game I've been looking for. From the way the controls were talked about, it'll feel somewhat like Tales of Symphonia? And the characters look amazing too.

Really love the way this world looks fun what I'm seeing. It's 10 on Switch

Another classics I never tried I would love to get in my Switch library.

If we get a physical version, perhaps when they do Second Departure, as a collection they have my money.

Great review and finally a retro action RPG that may be worth the jump. Could you imagine Octopath Traveler as action based though? Oh my heart.

I heard the p5 royal song and wondered what this was 😂 looks cool!

Great review. I think I’ll wait for a sale though, when it’s under $10 seems better for my gaming tastes. That being said, I don’t think it’s overpriced at all!

Just started playing Star Ocean A New Hope on my XB1 since it’s backward compatible. Gonna pick this up on my Switch soon too.

If I remember correctly the sequel remake on the psp, had random encounters cut in half. While also giving an option to turn the encounters to 200% (the original amount), cut them down another half or off altogether. They explained it was added to improve pacing. They explained it wasn’t added to first departure because they thought hurt pacing.

I beat the SNES version and the PSP version of this game. Would love to get to this version at some point.

I’d love to pick this up physical, I’m sorta just hoping for a physical announcement at this point

Wow... It's literally like a "Tale of" serie game. I'm looking forward to play this. Great review tho!

Glad to see you are feeling better, Glen. Or maybe this was recorded before and a get well soon is still in order. This definitely looks like a mashup of Chrono Trigger / Secret of Mana, and Grandia. It looks fun. It will definitely be a tough decision between this or Grandia, but the price may sway me to consider this over Grandia. One game I would love to be ported to Switch, but it was not a Japanese exclusive, is Legend of Dragoon. I would love to revisit that game and actually finish it.

This was one of my favorite games from my psp!! Holy hell I forgot about it completely

Looks interesting. Reminds me a bit of Tales of Vesperia. Might pick it up at some point, but not an instant pick up for me. Cheers lads!

The Star Ocean games have got to be some of my favorite RPGs of all time.👑

Just purchased this tonight on sale in the eshop. It was only like 8 bucks. It will be my next game after Ys VIII.

I’ve never played this Star Ocean, but I do enjoy the series, I think I’ll pick this up.

Great work 👍

No more RPGs I'm loaded lol. Great job Glen

Love the new art style for the character portraits. Same artist as SO4 and the Trails series

I grew up on the Era of 90s jrpg, and the archaic stuff is great for me. Keeps it how I love it.

Proud to be part of the Star Ocean fanbase.

I love the later 3D Star Ocean games, so i'll give this remaster of the original a try once i finish Pokemon Shield.

Just playing this again is reminding me of all the Tales of games (Star Ocean's sorta cousin series by Namco) released on the PSP as well. Would love to see those classics ported/remastered on Switch as well. What's next? Ys? Kingdom Hearts? Switch is a beast of a platform. RPGs left and right.

I have never played a star ocean game so I am glad at least 1 is on the switch. I do hope more come out.

It would be really cool to see a port of Star Ocean II from PS1.

Thaks for the video. Good job

I couldn't tell you was under the weather actually. But will pick this one up. I am a fan of the series. Thank you for the review. Is it out on eshop yet in North America?

If this does well, I hope it leads to Second Evolution getting ported, and the other classic RPGs like Final Fantasy IV collection, 1&2 Dawn of Souls and of course 5&6

Nintendo Switch just leveled up in the RPG category!!

Low difficulty actually makes me MORE likely to play it. I play RPGs for the story, not for a slog. So for me that's honestly a selling point.

really nice game with a big number of random encounters in the first 5 h (later in the game you can decrease that number thanks to a special skill), a classic J-rpg with a nice set of characters and different motives to join your ranks,

Great review thanks. I wanna get this but prefer a physical copy

Wow! This game looks good!

This game sounds really interesting and is on sale for less than $7 until 1/3. I think I may have to get it now.

Sweet.I never managed to finish the PSP version.And I've been dying for a new series after Star Ocean 5 Integrity and Faithlessness on PS4.but this will have to do and I can finally finish the game with better graphics.

I finally got my Nintendo Switch! I know I am late to the party and to see not only Zelda BOTW which I played on Wii U here but so many JRPGs as well! I am so happy! Gonna make 2020 a bit more bearable!

I've been waiting patiently for someone to review this. Not that it matters because i was already set to buy it. It'd basically have to be a "unplayable" review

Totally making me nostalgic for Tales of Legendia and Golden Sun (minus the puzzle elements) Definitely going to pick this up. Adding to my list... My long long list... 😫😂

It looks great. However, I was hoping the battles weren’t going to be random. It can get frustrating. It would have been great if they’ve gave us the option to control the frequency with which ‘random’ battles occur... like the devs of Bravely Default did.

Cheers for the review boys in 2022 🤣👍 reliable as always

Thanks Glen. I'm liking that battle system since I generally can't stand turn based battles.

I remeber my mom got me this game for the psp for no reason and I have to say it good a rpg I played through when I was in portugal for that summer and I might get it for the switch

Played this for the first time on psp loved Star Ocean after Til The End of Time

I have this game. The story is slightly Chrono Trigger esque while the gameplay and combats play like a "tales of" game only without the between events character skits. Excellent game.

Looks fun :)