So I went out in search of the other crashed ships. Lots of giant bugs to fight everywhere. I'm playing on 'Galaxy', which is the toughest accessible mode available from the start (at least in the 360 version). It didn't give me much trouble but EDGE MAVERICK died a couple of times.
I'd gotten used to Mass Effect 2 where you could save pretty much anywhere, anytime. Here, of course, as in any other Japanese RPG, you have to wait for save points. And the save points don't actually restore your HP/MP.
I finally found the crashed ship by the beach, with only one dying dude lying on the shore. EDGE MAVERICK leaned over and picked him up, and the dying dude told him something had gone terribly wrong after they'd picked up a meteor fragment and brought it onboard. The dying dude had to actually blow up the ship!
At this point Edge actually started vigorously shaking the dying guy asking him why he had to blow the ship up!?

The dude tells Edge and Reimi to be careful and croaks, and then some sort of flying ship shows up and an effete green-haired elf steps out. He starts asking questions when suddenly a monster pops out of the water and everyone has to scramble to defeat it.
After the monster is dead, the green-haired elf introduces himself, yada yada, new party member, he's an alien. I figure, cool, now I get to hitch a ride on his ship back to home base. But nooo, Edge wants to keep exploring some more, so we have to walk back to the crash site.
And of course, the game doesn't regenerate your HP/MP after a huge boss fight so I have to trudge back through a cavern to find a save point with my team half dead.