There have been 10 titles in the “Star Ocean” franchise before this new release, spanning all the way back to 1996. I must confess that up until now I haven’t played a single one. Created and developed by the Japanese company tri-Ace, this IP is known for their dense storytelling in vibrant science fiction/fantasy worlds. Player’s choice is always very important and weight to those choices have always been there, with several of the games having dozens and dozens of potential outcomes for the game’s ending. All of this sounds great, but from doing my homework before this review, it seems some of these past experiences have left gamers lukewarm. So, with this new release of “Star Ocean: The Divine Force,” is the franchise back in its finest form? I can’t answer that, because I did have a fairly decent, albeit very long experience with this game.
Getting into the story elements of this game would require me to explain so many things just to describe the main story. But without getting into much detail, there is an evil federation that was once good and a force for peace but has now not been so peaceful. You can choose to play as one of two different protagonists; Raymond, who is a reckless captain of the Ydas (Yes, I spelt that right. No, I will not go into what that is), and Laeticia, princess of the Aucerius kingdom doing what she can to protect her home. What I do like about this dual protagonist approach is it makes the game feel like it’s two separate games, making for great replayability for fans that want to continue spending hours and hours in this world.
The gameplay is very fast and fluid. Playing very similarly to a lot of modern JRPG titles coming from Square-Enix, such as “Kingdom Hearts” or “Final Fantasy VII Remake.” There seems to be a strong effort on speed though, the combat always felt constant and kinetic. There is even a flight system that is very enjoyable and becomes rather crucial in getting around in your travels in this very large map. Fighting enemies with your party of four is certainly one of the highlights for me. There is a great combo system as well, where each character in your party can have up to three different combo chains and depending on the character their techniques become very valuable to specific enemies. I very much appreciated how much time the game took to flesh out these supporting characters and make you really like your party. With many side quests that can be completed by tasks given to you by townspeople, you will encounter many new faces, which are often performed very well by a stellar voice cast and even brief appearances can be quite notable.
The downside to meaty stories such as this one is it can often feel like a bit of a slog as far as seeing much real movement in the story. This is a somewhat common occurrence in JRPG titles, but I really felt it here. Fortunately, the story did pick up and developed some compelling stakes in the second half. But for a title that requests dozens of hours of your time I am frustrated it takes so long to make the gamer feel like it’s worth the journey. Since I am now starting to talk about the negatives, I have to point out another large issue I had, which is the overall technical aspect. The character animations and much of the settings have a real lack of a polished look to them. I also encountered a fair share of bugs and some framerate drops when things get pretty chaotic on the screen. It’s clear the budget for this title had to cut corners in this aspect and it’s an unfortunate and glaring one for me.
Overall, I didn’t have a bad time with “Star Ocean: The Divine Force” but it’s difficult for me to recommend this title to just any gamer. The only audience I see really enjoying this would be the hardcore JRPG fans that are well versed in spending countless hours in a game that take a really long time to fire on all cylinders.
7/10
STAR OCEAN THE DIVINE FORCE is available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC via Steam. The game is rated Teen (T) by the ESRB.
For more information, visit: https://starocean.square-enix-games.com/en-us/
Related: Reviews by Nick Navarro
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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