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....
This game provides examples of:
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.
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.
Bishōnen: 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.
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.
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.
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.
Hell, Jie Revorse himself might count. For well over three fourths of the game, Asmodeus is clearly built up to be the Big Bad, but once he's defeated, the plot basically goes "Oh yeah, by the way, there's this evil alien warlord whose never been mentioned until now in the present trying to conquer the galaxy. Go stop him."
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 Erys 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.
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.
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).
Optional Party Member: Everyone else other than Roddick, Dorne, Millie, Ronyx, and Ilia.
Petting Zoo People: Fellpools are humanlike in appearance, but have heightened senses and tails like cats.
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.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: As seen in the image, Roddick has blue hair, while Millie's is pink.
Really 700 Years Old: Mavelle is, though in this case, it is just the body since she is actually Erys 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 Jie Revorse has made himself immune to modern weaponry.
To be fair, you might be able to run into Welch by yourself as she is the easiest of the characters to recruit.*
T'Nique requires you to have six characters in your party by a certain point, then for no discernable reason, run back to an early town. Pericci requires you to do something very early in the game and then backtrack to find her. Erys meanwhile requires you to recruit a specific set of characters, one of which has no relation to her whatsoever.
Ashlay may also count; however to be fair you can discover him by poking around the town he's in, and he does give a very strong hint that he's playable.
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.
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.
Ilia too, 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.
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