You get a video game remake and you get a video game remake! Well technically, it’s a remake of a remake and Square Enix is working on another Star Ocean game.
Star Ocean: First Departure R to be exact. A remake is releasing for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch sometime in the near future. Whether it’s this year or 2020 is currently unknown.
This time the game will be a remake of Star Ocean: First Departure, released on the PlayStation Portable back in 2008. The original version of the game released on the Super Nintendo in 1996. Square Enix posted a rather short message to social media with very little details about the upcoming edition.
STAR OCEAN First Departure R, the very first entry in the #StarOcean series – setting course for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Keep communication channels open for further updates. pic.twitter.com/pOyJUVfA16
— STAR OCEAN (@StarOcean) May 25, 2019
Now, 23 years later, Star Ocean is getting yet another overhaul. First Departure spawned a series of five main games, three spin-off titles, and a manga. The most recent release in 2016 for the PlayStation 3 and PS4 was Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness.
The roleplaying series has seen other titles remade as well including Star Ocean: The Last Hope in 2009.
The first Star Ocean game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix before the company merged with Square to form the company behind Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix in 2001.
The team is also working on a PC version for Octopath Traveler in June, so it would be odd to release the remake of First Departure within the same time frame.
While the remake will include updated graphics and mechanics, it will be interesting to see if they update character voices as well.
Square Enix didn’t give out any details of the PS4 and Nintendo Switch version of First Departure R. The developers only stated that fans should follow their social media pages for future updates. Whether or not more information will come at E3 remains to be seen.
