Star Ocean: First Departure R Part 11| Keep You're Dreams Alive
14Star Ocean: First Departure is an enhanced remake[28] of the original Star Ocean, developed by TOSE.[11] The first details of the game were revealed at the "Star Ocean Special Stage" during the Square Enix Party 2007, alongside those of Star Ocean: The Second Story. Yoshinori Yamagishi, producer of the series, stated that he wants the remakes to feel as though they're completely new games.[29]
The game was released in Japan on December 27, 2007, and was released in North America and Europe on October 21, 2008 and October 24, 2008 respectively; making it the first time that the original Star Ocean was officially released outside Japan.[2] The English localization was handled by Nanica, Inc., with voice-over production services provided by Epcar Entertainment, Inc.[30] First Departure uses a slightly altered version of the engine used for Star Ocean: The Second Story with similar features, including prerendered backgrounds, 3D battle fields and hand drawn facial animations.[11][31] Production I.G provided new artwork and animated cutscenes for the game.[11] New playable characters have been added as well.[21] New voice actors and extensive amounts of new, fully voiced dialogue were included, with even some non-player characters being voiced over as well.[10][29] A limited edition called the Star Ocean: First Departure Eternal Edition was released exclusively in Japan alongside the standard version.[32] It features alternate box art and was bundled with a Star Ocean-themed PSP-2000 handheld and carrying pouch.[32]
An HD remaster of the PlayStation Portable version titled Star Ocean: First Departure R for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 was announced on May 25, 2019 and was set for release later that year.[33] The new release features re-balanced game difficulty and increased world map movement speed[34] as well as the option to toggle between character portraits from the PSP version or re-drawn designs based on the Super Famicom version.[35] The English release allows the player to choose between English voices or Japanese audio from either the PSP version or re-recorded dialogue from the original Super Famicom voice actors.[36]
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