Update: Square Enix announced Star Ocean First Departure R in the west, with the same release date as in Japan, December 5.

Square Enix published a new trailer for Star Ocean First Departure R, revealing its release date. The game will launch digitally on PS4 and Switch on December 5 worldwide. The game's official site was opened as well.

Star Ocean First Departure R is an HD remake of Star Ocean First Departure on PSP, which was a remake of the original Star Ocean 1 on SNES.

The trailer reveals you can switch between the new character designs by Enami Katsumi or the character designs from First Departure on PSP. It seems like the anime cutscenes by Production I.G weren't redone though, and are from the PSP version.

Here's a comparison shot from the official site. I'm personally a huge fan of Enami Katsumi and her designs, but this is great for those more accustomed to the PSP designs.

The trailer also reveals Star Ocean First Departure R is fully voiced and lets you choose between the new voices, or the PSP voices. What's interesting about the "new" voices is that the seiyuu are all veterans and the original cast of the SNES game. Needless to say, the SNES game wasn't fully voiced, but it still had a few screams and onomatopoeias.

As such, for example on the PSP version, protagonist Ratix Farrence was voiced by Mamoru Miyano. But in this remake, he's voiced by Hiro Yūki, just like on SNES.

The trailer also reveals Star Ocean First Departure R has a turbo mode, doubling game speed in exploration and battles. The game's balance and difficulty were also reworked.

Those who preorder the digital version of the game will get a free PS4 theme, seen above. A Digital Deluxe Edition was also announced, containing the same PS4 theme plus the Star Ocean Live Collection 2019 OST featuring Motoi Sakuraba.

A new key visual by Enami Katsumi was also published, you can find it below. The English version of the trailer with the English dub is also included below. The game will have dual-audio.

Star Ocean First Departure R was revealed by Square Enix back in May. The game will be featured at Tokyo Game Show 2019 from September 12 to 15.