Quick Review
After what people thought that the Star Ocean series had died out due to the somewhat poorly received Star Ocean 5, Star Ocean gets a new entry with The Divine Force. It's a good that feels solid as a complete package, but doesn't have anything else that really stands out.
The story was very safe for most of the game when you're on Aster IV. Politics play a key role in it, but like much of the story, it's fairly generic and predictable. The sci-fi segments were the parts that I looked forward to the most, but not only was it quite short in comparison to the non-sci fi ones (~25% vs. 75%), it never quite caught my interest.
The characters were a highlight in comparison. I enjoyed every one of them and they all have their quirks that made them more interesting. Shoutout to Midas who probably ended up as the best character in the game because of it. Raymond is a solid lead and I liked how he was a bit on the older side so that he has his own experience and wisdom already. His laidback personality was also nice to see. Even though he didn't get any real character growth, I thought it was fine. In regards to character growth, this was pretty much the case with everybody else. There are some changes and growth, but I wouldn't say any of it became a big deal. As for Laeticia, I didn't play through her story path, but I thought her character was also solid (I still think her armor design is terrible).
The music sounded good overall. There weren't any terrible tracks that I can recall and a few very good standouts here and there.
The graphics are surprisingly good at times, but mediocre other times. Environment textures don't look particularly good up close, but a wide scenic shot does look appealing. What the game does well is providing a lot of variety in the fields and dungeons you explore even though none of them stood out as overly amazing for me.
Exploration was fun due to the large size of some of the field areas. Being able to fly around with D.U.M.A. gave exploration some verticality as well. Note that you don't have full unlimited flight. It's basically launching yourself in a direction and then slowly descend afterwards.
The character models are okay for the most part. Character faces lack a lot of detail and have doll-like textures that's reminiscent of the PS2 and early PS3 era of RPGs.
Combat was fun. The transition from field to battles are great. Battles are high pace and having access to D.U.M.A. for short flight bursts make them intense at times. Even though you get a lot of different skills, you're going to end up spamming just a few unfortunately. The game isn't that challenging through the main story, but being able to freely switch difficulty is nice.
Performance-wise, it's great on the PS5 using Performance mode. It's 60fps for most of the game including the battle portions. There are noticeable drops around a few towns and dungeons though.
The Private Actions are great in showcasing the characters even though the lack of any notification or anything to indicate that they are available can be annoying. The PAs only occurs in towns, but you can still spend a lot of time returning to them just to find nothing there. Fortunately, fast travel is available for most of the game.
The sidequests are mostly fetch quests and of the monster hunting variety. Quite generic especially when the reward is just more money.
The biggest side activity is the chess-like game. Despite the strategic potential with it, the game is on the easy side where having more high attack pieces are enough to beat many opponents. Collecting the pieces was more interesting especially when the pieces are cameos from prior Star Ocean games.
Overall, the game's greatest aspect is that it feels like a complete package from sidequests, activities, many different towns/villages, good variety in fields and dungeons, combat depth, and standard cutscenes. Outside of that, the game doesn't have much else that stands out as amazing. Maybe the combat, but even then, I didn't walk out of it addicted to it or anything.
After what people thought that the Star Ocean series had died out due to the somewhat poorly received Star Ocean 5, Star Ocean gets a new entry with The Divine Force. It's a good that feels solid as a complete package, but doesn't have anything else that really stands out.
The story was very safe for most of the game when you're on Aster IV. Politics play a key role in it, but like much of the story, it's fairly generic and predictable. The sci-fi segments were the parts that I looked forward to the most, but not only was it quite short in comparison to the non-sci fi ones (~25% vs. 75%), it never quite caught my interest.
The characters were a highlight in comparison. I enjoyed every one of them and they all have their quirks that made them more interesting. Shoutout to Midas who probably ended up as the best character in the game because of it. Raymond is a solid lead and I liked how he was a bit on the older side so that he has his own experience and wisdom already. His laidback personality was also nice to see. Even though he didn't get any real character growth, I thought it was fine. In regards to character growth, this was pretty much the case with everybody else. There are some changes and growth, but I wouldn't say any of it became a big deal. As for Laeticia, I didn't play through her story path, but I thought her character was also solid (I still think her armor design is terrible).
The music sounded good overall. There weren't any terrible tracks that I can recall and a few very good standouts here and there.
The graphics are surprisingly good at times, but mediocre other times. Environment textures don't look particularly good up close, but a wide scenic shot does look appealing. What the game does well is providing a lot of variety in the fields and dungeons you explore even though none of them stood out as overly amazing for me.
Exploration was fun due to the large size of some of the field areas. Being able to fly around with D.U.M.A. gave exploration some verticality as well. Note that you don't have full unlimited flight. It's basically launching yourself in a direction and then slowly descend afterwards.
The character models are okay for the most part. Character faces lack a lot of detail and have doll-like textures that's reminiscent of the PS2 and early PS3 era of RPGs.
Combat was fun. The transition from field to battles are great. Battles are high pace and having access to D.U.M.A. for short flight bursts make them intense at times. Even though you get a lot of different skills, you're going to end up spamming just a few unfortunately. The game isn't that challenging through the main story, but being able to freely switch difficulty is nice.
Performance-wise, it's great on the PS5 using Performance mode. It's 60fps for most of the game including the battle portions. There are noticeable drops around a few towns and dungeons though.
The Private Actions are great in showcasing the characters even though the lack of any notification or anything to indicate that they are available can be annoying. The PAs only occurs in towns, but you can still spend a lot of time returning to them just to find nothing there. Fortunately, fast travel is available for most of the game.
The sidequests are mostly fetch quests and of the monster hunting variety. Quite generic especially when the reward is just more money.
The biggest side activity is the chess-like game. Despite the strategic potential with it, the game is on the easy side where having more high attack pieces are enough to beat many opponents. Collecting the pieces was more interesting especially when the pieces are cameos from prior Star Ocean games.
Overall, the game's greatest aspect is that it feels like a complete package from sidequests, activities, many different towns/villages, good variety in fields and dungeons, combat depth, and standard cutscenes. Outside of that, the game doesn't have much else that stands out as amazing. Maybe the combat, but even then, I didn't walk out of it addicted to it or anything.