Star Ocean: First Departure is an enhanced remake of the original Super Famicom game, Star Ocean, which was never released in North America. Developed as part of a plan to re-release the first two Star Ocean games for the Sony PSP.

Featuring more-detailed sprites, 3D landscapes, several anime cinematics, updated voice acting, new playable characters, and an official English translation. Even with all this new content, the game still manages to fit on a single UMD disc.

The story is essentially the same, and characters are able to train various skills and crafting professions, like in the original game. The new anime cut scenes can also be viewed from the title screen, once the player has seen them in-game.