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Although DeJap Translations' English patch of "Star Ocean" is now 15 years old, it is still a nicely done translation of one of the greatest JRPGs of all time! Personally, I also prefer it over the official English PSP remake release, which had some lousy moments of dialogue accompanied by (at times) cringe-worthy English dubbed voices (there were a few other annoyances like the name of the main protagonist, Ratix, being changed to "Roddick"). The unofficial 1.0 translation here stays as faithful to its original Japanese source material as possible and is nearly perfect with the exception of the 'Yes' and 'No' balloon choices remaining untranslated. However, this is only a minor setback, considering that the game is still easily playable from beginning to end. While it would be nice to see future patch updates (such as seeing the 'Yes' and 'No' balloon choices in English), most players should mostly feel content with this current version. Regarding the game, itself, if you are a fan of classic Super Nintendo/Super Famicom JRPGs, you owe it to yourself to play it RIGHT AWAY! You will NOT be disappointed!!

The original Star Ocean is a cornerstone of the translation community, and everyone involved did an excellent job. As the final release of DeJap Translations the game still holds up over a decade after the translation's release, and the game itself is a must-play for fans of classic Action RPGs, even after almost 20 years.

The game's visual presentation is top-notch, even more so than Tales of Phantasia, some the developers of which would eventually form tri-Ace, and release Star Ocean, and the game's sequels, in addition to other games in the genre over the next two decades. These graphics were augmented by the S-DD1 chip, a graphics compression chip built into the SNES cartridge. This added another layer to the translation process, and makes the feat more impressive; it also makes the game one of the best looking of the console generation.

From a gameplay perspective Star Ocean looks like a typical (if pretty) top-down RPG for the era. Very much like Secret of Mana, or Secret of Evermore, however this all changes once you enter one of the game's random battles. At this point the game becomes an action RPG. You enter your commands, via button shortcuts to attack or use spells, or skills, and you move using a cursor. The gameplay is a bit unwieldy, and it takes some getting used to, because unlike the game's sequels, and other games in the genre you have to move your character using a cursor.

If you can get over the initial learning curve and the clunkiness of combat then you'll be in for a solid experience. The game offers a lot of content, and this game began the series' tradition of mutually exclusive characters, optional scenes in towns, upgrading non-combat skills, item crafting, and alternate routes through the story based on party composition. This is the area where the translation shines, there's simply so much there that it's impressive that DeJap found it all.

The translation's not without some flaws however. The Yes/No dialogue bubbles were never translated, leaving this game fully-playable, but incomplete. In addition workarounds were originally needed to get it to run on certain emulators, though this if the fault of the game, and the aforementioned graphics chip, rather than the patch. Since the game had an official remake on the PSP as Star Ocean: First Departure, some names may no longer match the official names used in that game.

Overall the effort that went into this translation is clear. It was one of the biggest releases ever when it originally came out, right before 2004, and to this day it's very impressive. The game does have a remake, which may suit some people better, as that version uses gameplay from the sequel to make for a much smoother experience, adding voice acting, animated cutscenes, a more developed story, and 3D models on prerendered backgrounds.

For the traditionalist though, this version offers some beautiful sprites, Motoi Sakuraba's first work with tri-Ace as well a distinct 16-bit charm that is very difficult to recreate. If you're a fan of the series, and want to know how it all began, someone who simply enjoys Action RPGs and want to see their evolution through the years, or just a fan of RPGs or fan translations in general this is worth a playthrough.