Certain characters cannot be recruited unless the player's party is a specific size, or the player has made specific story decisions. Though only 8 characters can be recruited in a playthrough, ten characters are available to be recruited, and as a result not all characters can be recruited in one playthrough of the game. In progressing through the game, the player is able to recruit up to eight additional characters to travel alongside the protagonist some recruitments happen automatically, while others only happen depending on the previous actions and options taken by the player. Unlike the original game, the PlayStation Portable remake includes a world map for the player to navigate. The player navigates a character throughout the game world, exploring towns and dungeons and interacting with non-player characters. Star Ocean is a role-playing video game that is played from a top-down perspective. The game was the start of the entire Star Ocean series, featuring five main games, 3 spin-offs, a remake, a remaster, and a manga. A remastered version titled Star Ocean: First Departure R was released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 worldwide in December 2019. However, the game was later remade by Tose for the PlayStation Portable under the title Star Ocean: First Departure, and released in English-speaking regions in North America, Europe, and Australia in October 2008. The Super Famicom version was never released outside Japan due to Enix closing its American branch shortly before the game was finished, as well as Nintendo's focus on supporting the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 video game console.

Using advanced technologies and time travel, the group attempts to uncover the cause of the war and to find a cure for their planet. The story involves three friends who, while searching for the cure to a new disease, come into contact with a space-faring federation that is locked in a war with another galactic power. Additionally, the game had voice acting for the game's intro and voice clips that played during the game's battle gameplay, a rarity for games on the system.

The game used a special compression chip in its cartridge to compress and store all of the game's data due to possessing graphics that pushed the limits of the Super Famicom.

The first game in the Star Ocean series, it was released only in Japan in July 1996, and was the first game developed by tri-Ace, consisting of staff that had previously left Wolf Team due to being unhappy with the development process for Tales of Phantasia with Namco in 1995. Star Ocean is a 1996 action role-playing game developed by tri-Ace and published by Enix for the Super Famicom.

The crew ocean of games