As some may know, I have completed Star Ocean 6: The Divine Force within 87 hours and generally speaking, it feels like a return of form from the series' fan-favorite elements such as split routes and duel protagonists as seen from The Second Story/Second Evolution, the strong blend of sci-fi and fantasy and recruitable characters while improving from the instant blend of gameplay and story as seen from the previous game, Integrity and Faithlessness. Star Ocean 6 made a few changes that I don't like as much but overall, The Divine Force feels like the right direction in the series as the series celebrate its 25th anniversary.
First let's talk about the visuals since that is the very first thing that is notable, the game is gorgeous and lush from deep forests, massive kingdoms and high techno landscapes. The Divine Force's visuals pop extremely well especially on the PS5 version with higher textures and resolution. Tri-Ace was always cutting-edge with graphics so it's very pleasing to see them continue to excel.
This is more of a personal improvement for me but I think the series finally nail its artstyle down since the transition to full 3D. For a while, I always just felt so put off by how some of the characters (especially the younger girls) looked very "doll like", which added a lot of uncanny valley. The doll-like appearance get reduced with each entry but I feel like Star Ocean 6 finally managed to find a natural-looking balance with the series' artstyle.
The music...sadly it's a bit of a downgrade compared to past titles. While some of the tracks are fitting for the environments and the battle music isn't bad. composer Motoi Sakuraba just never reaches the progressive rock greatness he had achieved in Til the End of Time and The Last Hope. However, there are a few tracks I greatly enjoy such as the final boss theme which was very symphonic.
Of course, of the biggest defining points of Star Ocean is the combat. The areas are vast and combat is very fast, free form and fluid thanks to D.U.M.A and the new VA system. It allows characters to zip around and perform attacks. Mechanics from The Last Hope such as chain combos and blindsiding also make a return to give the player an advantage in combat.
Skill Points make a return as they are featured in the previous games. You can use SP to spend on each character's skill set, from new attacks to active and passive skills to other series outside of combat such as the series' well-renowned item creation (which I will get to later). However, despite the quicker approach to gameplay, I was not a fan of all of the combat changes.
There is an AP system that functions based on the more AP you have, the more attacks you can perform. This serves as a replacement for the series' MP system. However, I just found the AP system to be quite an annoyance and sometimes abruptly stop the flow of combat. You start off with 5AP and it can add or decrease between 5-15AP.
The issue is, for me at least, chain combos can eat up AP fast and the only way to recharge it is to wait for a few seconds instead of continuing to dish out attacks with no stopping. People may not have an issue with this and in the end, even I have gotten used to the AP system. However, it's a system I do not prefer at all.
Also, I found the cast to be very unbalanced gameplay-wise. The emphasis on Semiomancy (the Divine's Force version of the series Symbology) just felt unsatisfying. Midas is the only true caster and he's fine for the most part while Albaird and Malyka are hybrid fighters with a stronger focus on physical attacks.
However, the lack of healing options was a big complaint for me. Nina is the only capable character out of everyone that could heal and even then, she was more of a buffer than a pure healer. Therefore a lot of the series' healing spells were ultimately missing such as long-range simultaneous healing rather than the characters needing to be in range to get healed.
Also, performance issues during combat. I have experience frame drops on both PS4 and PS5 with the "favor resolution" mode. PS4 can drop as long as 15-20fps when you are battling multiple enemies. PS5 is much more consistent with staying around 60fps but I felt like the game has dropped around 45-50fps a few times. Thankfully the game runs at 60fps at all times on both consoles outside of combat.
Item Creation, another essential staple in the Star Ocean makes a return with the very charming Welch Vineyard teaching either Raymond or Laeticia the ways of the Vineyard family craftsmanship while trying to restore her family's name and wealth. I really enjoy this version of Welch since all of her past iterations of her just in general annoyed me. I really enjoy this more "himedere" version of Welch.
As for the Item Creation itself, it's a mechanic I enjoy a lot in past Star Ocean games. But I found it hard to really care for it save for a few times I needed it to complete side quests. Despite the number of items you could create with the 7 ways you can create an item. The lack of recipes that will guarantee the new item if you have every required material just made the process completely RNG and a time sucker if you want rare items. Even if you spend a lot of SP to increase the IC skills for a character, it's still quite the grind.
I'm sure Item Creation is a great tool in this game to obtain stronger weapons and armor beyond what you could buy in stores. But it just wasn't engaging to me, unfortunately. It had its usage early on but in the end, I just depended on stores to buy the equipment I needed.
Speaking of side quests, The Divine Force has quite a healthy amount of them and I am impressed every single NPC is fully voiced, a rarity for a JRPG! The quests themselves may be bland kill/fetch quests and they are never overly difficult as long you have a guide on hand. But the fact is there is a tiny bit of story attached to each side quest.
From the son that wanted to send a letter to his sick mother, to the umaibo-obsessed man who wanted to eat more of them, and of course, there is plenty of cat-finding mini adventures to discover. These side quests just make the in-game world much more livelier and vivid with personality. And personally, if there is even a bit of story to be experienced, it just gives me the motivation to complete these side quests.
While I have some quips about the combat and item creation, anyone that played a Star Ocean, or really any RPG, should know there's more to the games than combat and crafting and The Divine Force makes no exception.
Within the first hour of the game (so this shouldn't be considered spoilers), Raymond Lawrance, a transporter got his ship shot down by a Federation ship and ended up stranded on the plant Aster IV while getting separated by his crew. Then almost immediately he met Laeticia Aucerius, a princess on a mission to mend two countries on the verge of war.
As Raymond and Laeticia progress in thier journey for Raymond to leave Aster IV with his crew and Laeticia to find certain key members from her country, they met various people along the way. While I initially thought the sci-fi elements were fairly low and the plot points were seemingly unconnected with each other in the early parts.
Eventually, everything bonded together into an epic sci-fi-heavy story unraveling the cautions of forced evolution (a theme that was heavily explored in The Last Hope) and the potential dangers of share networking. The story goes through a lot of emotional moments as well as the thin line between hard sci-fi and medieval fantasy gets tipped toed multiple times.
Of course, what is a Star Ocean game without Private Actions, the series' defining character bonding element that will allow the protagonist to get closer to the cast. Private Actions was never bad in any Star Ocean game and it's always one of the strongest points of the games. From fun and silly ones like learning Albarid is a sugar addict, seeing how Marielle struggle with heat and Elena try her hardest to intimate other people's mannerism. From more serious ones that reflect on thier character development and changing viewpoints throughout the plot.
Private Actions add to the livelihood of each character with thier own personality, thoughts, and feelings. And the best part is each protagonist has thier own set of Private Actions. I haven't even seen nearly any of the Raymond PAs yet!
One thing that has been emphasized by Tri-Ace is how The Divine Force is the series' 25th anniversary. While I have caught on to some past nods from previous games, with the most explicit one is the game takes place 46 years after the previous game Integrity and Faithlessness and there are some direct references from that game. However, a very clear way the company is celebrating Star Ocean as a whole is the Es'owa strategy minigame.
Es'owa is somewhat of a mix between Othello and Chess when you use different types of pieces with various roles and each piece adds on damage to the player. Whoever gets rid of a player's HP wins. The cool part about this is the higher-level pieces are Star Ocean characters from past games and they are all fully modeled as if it's a digital figure. Plus you can use them as accessories to give characters stat boots during combat!
I wasn't a fan at first, I found it frustrating but by the end, I wanted more opponents to battle. I just found this to be a very neat minigame that plays tribute to the Star Ocean series over the last 25 years.
Star Ocean 6: The Divine Force may fumble a bit with some of its combat and item creation mechanics as well as performance issues but with an engaging sci-fi plot and likable, enjoyable, and well-thought-out characters in a vibrant and colorful world, and a very fun minigame that nodes into the Star Ocean franchise. The Divine Force is a great direction in the series and it did a lot of right ultimately. In the end, I can safely say this is one of the better games I have played in 2022, perhaps even top 5. All and all, whether you're a newcomer or a series veteran, The Divine Force captures the essence of Star Ocean well and it's a worthy game to play for any RPG fan, especally if you're a sci-fi and ARPG fan.
First let's talk about the visuals since that is the very first thing that is notable, the game is gorgeous and lush from deep forests, massive kingdoms and high techno landscapes. The Divine Force's visuals pop extremely well especially on the PS5 version with higher textures and resolution. Tri-Ace was always cutting-edge with graphics so it's very pleasing to see them continue to excel.
This is more of a personal improvement for me but I think the series finally nail its artstyle down since the transition to full 3D. For a while, I always just felt so put off by how some of the characters (especially the younger girls) looked very "doll like", which added a lot of uncanny valley. The doll-like appearance get reduced with each entry but I feel like Star Ocean 6 finally managed to find a natural-looking balance with the series' artstyle.
The music...sadly it's a bit of a downgrade compared to past titles. While some of the tracks are fitting for the environments and the battle music isn't bad. composer Motoi Sakuraba just never reaches the progressive rock greatness he had achieved in Til the End of Time and The Last Hope. However, there are a few tracks I greatly enjoy such as the final boss theme which was very symphonic.
Of course, of the biggest defining points of Star Ocean is the combat. The areas are vast and combat is very fast, free form and fluid thanks to D.U.M.A and the new VA system. It allows characters to zip around and perform attacks. Mechanics from The Last Hope such as chain combos and blindsiding also make a return to give the player an advantage in combat.
Skill Points make a return as they are featured in the previous games. You can use SP to spend on each character's skill set, from new attacks to active and passive skills to other series outside of combat such as the series' well-renowned item creation (which I will get to later). However, despite the quicker approach to gameplay, I was not a fan of all of the combat changes.
There is an AP system that functions based on the more AP you have, the more attacks you can perform. This serves as a replacement for the series' MP system. However, I just found the AP system to be quite an annoyance and sometimes abruptly stop the flow of combat. You start off with 5AP and it can add or decrease between 5-15AP.
The issue is, for me at least, chain combos can eat up AP fast and the only way to recharge it is to wait for a few seconds instead of continuing to dish out attacks with no stopping. People may not have an issue with this and in the end, even I have gotten used to the AP system. However, it's a system I do not prefer at all.
Also, I found the cast to be very unbalanced gameplay-wise. The emphasis on Semiomancy (the Divine's Force version of the series Symbology) just felt unsatisfying. Midas is the only true caster and he's fine for the most part while Albaird and Malyka are hybrid fighters with a stronger focus on physical attacks.
However, the lack of healing options was a big complaint for me. Nina is the only capable character out of everyone that could heal and even then, she was more of a buffer than a pure healer. Therefore a lot of the series' healing spells were ultimately missing such as long-range simultaneous healing rather than the characters needing to be in range to get healed.
Also, performance issues during combat. I have experience frame drops on both PS4 and PS5 with the "favor resolution" mode. PS4 can drop as long as 15-20fps when you are battling multiple enemies. PS5 is much more consistent with staying around 60fps but I felt like the game has dropped around 45-50fps a few times. Thankfully the game runs at 60fps at all times on both consoles outside of combat.
Item Creation, another essential staple in the Star Ocean makes a return with the very charming Welch Vineyard teaching either Raymond or Laeticia the ways of the Vineyard family craftsmanship while trying to restore her family's name and wealth. I really enjoy this version of Welch since all of her past iterations of her just in general annoyed me. I really enjoy this more "himedere" version of Welch.
As for the Item Creation itself, it's a mechanic I enjoy a lot in past Star Ocean games. But I found it hard to really care for it save for a few times I needed it to complete side quests. Despite the number of items you could create with the 7 ways you can create an item. The lack of recipes that will guarantee the new item if you have every required material just made the process completely RNG and a time sucker if you want rare items. Even if you spend a lot of SP to increase the IC skills for a character, it's still quite the grind.
I'm sure Item Creation is a great tool in this game to obtain stronger weapons and armor beyond what you could buy in stores. But it just wasn't engaging to me, unfortunately. It had its usage early on but in the end, I just depended on stores to buy the equipment I needed.
Speaking of side quests, The Divine Force has quite a healthy amount of them and I am impressed every single NPC is fully voiced, a rarity for a JRPG! The quests themselves may be bland kill/fetch quests and they are never overly difficult as long you have a guide on hand. But the fact is there is a tiny bit of story attached to each side quest.
From the son that wanted to send a letter to his sick mother, to the umaibo-obsessed man who wanted to eat more of them, and of course, there is plenty of cat-finding mini adventures to discover. These side quests just make the in-game world much more livelier and vivid with personality. And personally, if there is even a bit of story to be experienced, it just gives me the motivation to complete these side quests.
While I have some quips about the combat and item creation, anyone that played a Star Ocean, or really any RPG, should know there's more to the games than combat and crafting and The Divine Force makes no exception.
Within the first hour of the game (so this shouldn't be considered spoilers), Raymond Lawrance, a transporter got his ship shot down by a Federation ship and ended up stranded on the plant Aster IV while getting separated by his crew. Then almost immediately he met Laeticia Aucerius, a princess on a mission to mend two countries on the verge of war.
As Raymond and Laeticia progress in thier journey for Raymond to leave Aster IV with his crew and Laeticia to find certain key members from her country, they met various people along the way. While I initially thought the sci-fi elements were fairly low and the plot points were seemingly unconnected with each other in the early parts.
Eventually, everything bonded together into an epic sci-fi-heavy story unraveling the cautions of forced evolution (a theme that was heavily explored in The Last Hope) and the potential dangers of share networking. The story goes through a lot of emotional moments as well as the thin line between hard sci-fi and medieval fantasy gets tipped toed multiple times.
Of course, what is a Star Ocean game without Private Actions, the series' defining character bonding element that will allow the protagonist to get closer to the cast. Private Actions was never bad in any Star Ocean game and it's always one of the strongest points of the games. From fun and silly ones like learning Albarid is a sugar addict, seeing how Marielle struggle with heat and Elena try her hardest to intimate other people's mannerism. From more serious ones that reflect on thier character development and changing viewpoints throughout the plot.
Private Actions add to the livelihood of each character with thier own personality, thoughts, and feelings. And the best part is each protagonist has thier own set of Private Actions. I haven't even seen nearly any of the Raymond PAs yet!
One thing that has been emphasized by Tri-Ace is how The Divine Force is the series' 25th anniversary. While I have caught on to some past nods from previous games, with the most explicit one is the game takes place 46 years after the previous game Integrity and Faithlessness and there are some direct references from that game. However, a very clear way the company is celebrating Star Ocean as a whole is the Es'owa strategy minigame.
Es'owa is somewhat of a mix between Othello and Chess when you use different types of pieces with various roles and each piece adds on damage to the player. Whoever gets rid of a player's HP wins. The cool part about this is the higher-level pieces are Star Ocean characters from past games and they are all fully modeled as if it's a digital figure. Plus you can use them as accessories to give characters stat boots during combat!
I wasn't a fan at first, I found it frustrating but by the end, I wanted more opponents to battle. I just found this to be a very neat minigame that plays tribute to the Star Ocean series over the last 25 years.
Star Ocean 6: The Divine Force may fumble a bit with some of its combat and item creation mechanics as well as performance issues but with an engaging sci-fi plot and likable, enjoyable, and well-thought-out characters in a vibrant and colorful world, and a very fun minigame that nodes into the Star Ocean franchise. The Divine Force is a great direction in the series and it did a lot of right ultimately. In the end, I can safely say this is one of the better games I have played in 2022, perhaps even top 5. All and all, whether you're a newcomer or a series veteran, The Divine Force captures the essence of Star Ocean well and it's a worthy game to play for any RPG fan, especally if you're a sci-fi and ARPG fan.
2 Comments
I say to always try out whatever games look interesting to you regardless of reviews
Nuage
1 year ago