Star Ocean 1



The first game in the Star Ocean series, Star Ocean was originally released for the Super Famicom: that version was never ported to the West, though Fan Translations exist. Square Enix has recently remade this game for the PSP: this remake, subtitled First Departure, was released in the US and UK in October 2008. It tells the tale of a young boy named Roddick Farrence from the planet Roak (most of whose inhabitants have tails and pointed ears, though there are other races) whose world is under threat from a horrible disease that makes those who catch it turn to stone. Seems like standard fantasy fare, until Captain Ronyx J. Kenny and his Number One Ilia Silvestri from the Terran Alliance beam down to the planet to investigate. The stone disease is much more than what it seems, not just for Roak but other planets as well....


 * Action Girl: Ilia, Phia.
 * Alien Blood: A major plot point in Star Ocean is that Fellpool blood is copper-based. You'd think this would make them have blueish skin, but all they show for it are their tails. How copper-based blood is supposed to make things invisible is anyone's guess.
 * Though Fellpool blood, like Vulcan copper-based blood, is actually green anyway.
 * The Atoner: Erys.
 * Attractive Bent Gender: Millie and Pericci try to invoke this on Ioshua, but he runs away before they can give him a makeover. They mention their disappointment, as they believe he would look gorgeous in women's clothing.
 * Bishonen: Some of the male cast, but especially Ioshua, even ingame characters said he is pretty.
 * Black Magician Girl: Mavelle is an odd case in that while her attacks work like spells, they're treated like the fighters' special skills. Erys plays it a bit more straight.
 * Blind Without'Em: T'nique.
 * Blood Knight: Cyuss.
 * Bottle Fairy: Ilia is surprisingly knowledgeable about the local beverages given that she's 300 years in the past on an undeveloped planet.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Not just attacks, heals and special abilities are called too.
 * Catgirl: Fellpool and Lesser Fellpool.
 * Crutch Character: Ashlay is a textbook Crutch Character. However, the updated remake gives you one utility over recruiting him instead of the much potential-filled Cyuss: he lets you recruit Erys and also lets Roddick gain some better abilities. In the remake, he is still quite viable endgame save for his inability to use shields.
 * Cute and Psycho: Erys, due to her past as a Brainwashed and Crazy child assassin making her a bit of a Nightmare Fetishist with excitement on making things burn or blow up. However, she doesn't like being one.
 * Dark-Skinned Blond: Dorne.
 * Disc One Final Boss:.
 * Dual-Wielding: Phia only looks like she does this, as her battle sprite dual-wields daggers, but she can equip only one dagger at a time. In fact, she's the only character other than Roddick that can equip shields.
 * Dummied Out: A bit less than half the game had to be left on the cutting room floor because there was literally no space left on the cartridge. This is why everything related to Fargett feels so tacked on and why Jie Revorse in particular feels like such a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.
 * Evil Overlord: Jie Revorse.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Dorne.
 * Fiery Redhead: Phia.
 * Firing One-Handed: Ashlay, not that he has any other choice since he lost an arm.
 * First Contact: Inverted.
 * Freaky Friday Flip: is really.
 * Genius Bruiser: Ilia Silvestri managed to become a maritial arts master while simultaneously getting her PHD by the age of 23.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Revorse seems to come out of nowhere and have little to do with the previous plot in the original version. The remake did a better job of tying him in to the main plot.
 * Gonk: Madam Karner. The way she looks, her pose on the chaise, and how she buys and sells information makes her seem like a female Hutt.
 * Guide Dang It: The average player may waltz right through the game and miss many characters simply because they choose to accept others. The real title goes to, however: an addition to the PSP remake, who requires three other characters recruited. While two of them make sense (if you know what their stories are), the third is easily missable and has no connection to these two.
 * Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted when it comes to Ronyx and Ilia. Ilia is the martial artist, while Ronyx is both the archer and offensive mage.
 * Handicapped Badass: Crutch character he may be: Ashley is 50-60 years old and has lost his left arm, but can still keep up with the rest of the party and go head to head with some of the nastiest monsters Roak has to offer.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Welch, who fights with handy sticks.
 * Interface Spoiler: Of the three characters you start with, two of them gain new spells/abilities as they level up, while the third doesn't. Guess which one of them spends the game Taken for Granite.
 * Laser Blade: The Force Swords, a double Shout-Out to Star Wars.
 * Mordor: The planet Fargett, which is run by the previously mentioned Jie Revorse.
 * Ninja: Phia.
 * Obvious Beta: The original SNES game is a good game...... when it not crashing from all the bugs that are so numerous it's ridiculous. What's even more insane is that the Fan Translation didn't even address this. To say nothing about the fact that a bit less than half the game was and still is missing. It was released very late in the Super Famicom's lifespan, after all. The Playstation and Nintendo 64 were just around the corner! And to make things worse, this was the only game besides Tales of Phantasia to use the absolute maximum memory available on the Super Famicom carts. A lot of the bugs attributed to this game are not found in the cartridge (or accurate emulation), they are a result of abominably bad emulation on most mainstream emulators. When played on a console the game rarely if ever crashes (not to mention the combat is normal paced instead of 2x speed as on emulators).
 * One-Winged Angel:.
 * Optional Party Member: Everyone else other than Roddick, Dorne, Millie, Ronyx and Ilia.
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling: The abandoned mine in Mt. Metorx, but only for a short while. The first time you can access it any enemy will kill you in one hit. When you are able to handle the enemies there, though, it's only a short time until you move on to more lucrative ones in terms of experience.
 * Petting Zoo People: Fellpools are humanlike in appearance, but have heightened senses and tails like cats.
 * Pink Girl, Blue Boy: As seen in the image, Roddick has blue hair, while Millie's is pink.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: is, though in this case, it is just the body since she is actually  inside. Welch show up in several Star Ocean games, which are all years apart in the timeline, yet looks all the same anywhere.
 * Rock Beats Laser: The reason that Ronyx and Ilia recruited the Roakians for the final mission is because has made himself immune to modern weaponry.
 * Secret Character: You probably need a guide in order to get Welch, T'nique, Pericci and Erys. You might be able to run into Welch by yourself as she is the easiest of the characters to recruit.
 * Shipper on Deck: Everyone for Ronyx/Ilia. Even Millie, who makes a This and That joke regarding her training of Ronyx in Symbology seemingly to irritate Ilia. She tries to persuade Ilia to reveal her feelings for Ronyx, but Ilia doesn't go through with it. Finally, though, when Ronyx does make his move, everyone's peeping in the jewelry shop until they scatter in a Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone moment. Talking to each of your party members shows how long they waited for the two of them to finally end up together.
 * Shout-Out:
 * The Cave of The Seven Stars' background music is exactly the same as that in the Seraphic Gate of Valkyrie Profile.
 * A character named Marvel Frozen.
 * Tinek is more or less a meta-reference to Ranma ½.
 * Toward the end of the game, you get what is clearly a lightsaber, called the Force Sword.
 * Tsundere:
 * Millie from First Departure is a type-B example: usually sweet and bubbly, but has a short temper when it comes to Roddick and Dorne.
 * Ilia sometimes. Check out her reaction when you meet up with Millie again, and she explains that the captain is "escorting" Marvel. And then blithely starts to explain how beautiful Marvel is.
 * Phia is one towards Cyuss.
 * Video Game Remake: First Departure.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Phia calls out Cyuss for.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Joshua.
 * Winged Humanoid: The Featherfolk race.
 * Wolf Man: T'nique.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: And T'nique even has blue fur in werewolf form.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Millie, at least in the remake.