First things first:
Months ago, I voiced my concerns here about a certain mural in Lacuer City depicting a hot woman in sexy armor.
I can now confirm that the mural DOES still exist in in the game, armor unaltered...but for some reason, the woman was chibified. Not sure what to think here, but if anything, it fits the rest of the characters' art styles outside of their portraits. I find this acceptable.
Secondly, on another win, I showed a scene from the PSP version where Claude ogles some in-game fanart, and that it would be woke to remove this scene.
I can now confirm that this scene is UNALTERED!
It's likely because the English voice files are exactly the same as the PSP version--they're even the same audio recordings, not new ones with the same cast. But the fact remains! And if you hate dubs, there's not one, but TWO Japanese audio tracks--one from the PSP version, the other completely new, made just for this remake...though the voice of Bowman, Keiji Fujiwara, died of cancer in 2020 and obviously had to be replaced on the new track. His lines remain on the Second Evolution audio track, however.
I'm having an absolute blast with this remake so far. So many tiny little details left in, additions that truly add to the game, modern conveniences like fast travel, no more random encounters...this game comes across like an absolute labor of love, and I always respect those.
It's almost criminal that I'm not hearing more about this game aside from niche circles--and that goes all the way back to the remake's announcement on that Nintendo Direct. I felt like I was the only one excited for it...since the PS1 original, warts and all, is one of my favorite video games of all time.
Maybe it helps that it wasn't developed by Square Enix themselves, but by Gemdrops, who I've never heard of before. What do we know about them?
TL;DR: I wholeheartedly endorse this remake. It supersedes the original in every way. You all need to play it...though it would help if you played Star Ocean: First Departure R first, it's not completely necessary.
Yes, I'm gushing. What of it? There's enough negativity in the world.
I really enjoyed my time with it as well, though it certainly highlights the stark difference between what I thought was hard as a kid and what actually is, because I fucking rolled through it like it was nothing. And that's purely off messing with the systems on my own, not even reading up the optimal meta ways to break the game.
I was also genuinely shocked at how many elements weren't just not censored, but even left in at all. Which highlights how big of a cultural shift there has been because in reality they were all pretty milquetoast things like "the female party members discuss one of the guy's hotness" or "someone is open about their intentions to charm you."
Also, I think every "crafting" game needs to play it to see what an actual crafting system should look like. Because I genuinely felt like I was building a party of skilled people instead of a bunch of fighters with no other talents and could craft things that would obviously be doable with the crafting ability they were using for only combat items.