

You’ll need instruments, and you’ll also need to have music written. You can influence the success rate further, however, by playing music. Attempting it uses up those items, but there’s a chance of failure even if the skill is at max level. Crafting requires materials and often special crafting items as well. But a significant number are related to the game’s numerous crafting skills. Some of the abilities are great, such as one that lets you change the encounter rate or one that lets you temporarily lower your stats in exchange for more exp. Unfortunately, this eventually resulted in First Departure R feeling tedious to me.

More interesting is the skill system, which lets you put points into a lot (and I mean a lot) of skills to increase stats, gain combat bonuses, and learn special abilities. It is an action JRPG, and the combat is… fine. The space opera setting is there, but they soon learn that the only way to find a cure is to go back in time to their own planet’s past.Īs a result, the majority of the game has a medieval fantasy setting despite the larger context. Now, you might expect this to turn into a spacefaring adventure. While searching for a cure, they run into two people from a starship and learn that, their planet is part of a universe with advanced technology and has been caught up in a war with an alien race. The story starts out with a group of friends in a small village who encounter a terrible disease that is turning people to stone. In the midst of all the romance games I played in February, I also played through Star Ocean: First Departure R, which is a remaster of the remake of the first Star Ocean game (whew). Back when Star Ocean: The Divine Force was announced, I said I intended to play Star Ocean: First Departure R before it came out.
