I loved Star Ocean 2 as well, it was my introduction to the series... but let's stop asking studios to remake games. I want fresh experiences with new characters. Most times they "remake" a game it's a bastardization of the original with censored, dialogue, character designs, and sometimes entire story arcs. Let's just get some new RPG's with new characters. Would love to see a new Star Ocean in a few years as I thoroughly enjoyed this latest one.
@elrodeus agreed, it's still top 5 for me. The soundtrack is AMAZING, and it was so deep, so many secrets. Truly a wonderful game.i loved 3 also, 4 was ok, 5 was obviously awful. Downloaded it last night, this makes me very hopeful
I've been absolutely in love with this game, it has some of my favorite movement and exploration in a game in general, the characters are charming and fun, the combat is a blast. The game is just the full package! I hope word spreads more and more so this game can be a hit
I already beat Raymond's route, just found out how to get the other endings after beating the game, have my team to level 100, which is a first for me.........and I still have to beat Laeticia's route, get all the endings for her and go about it all over again. I would be more mad at this but since I had so much fun with this game, I would absolutely go back and go through this a second time. This is the most fun I had with a modern Star Ocean game in a while and I am just glad to see the series back in some form.
I played on PS5 as well and had a great experience. Felt smooth and was incredibly interesting the whole time. The sense of adventure in the game and the good cast of characters made it one of my favorites of the year. Definitely hoping the game does well and we get to see Star Ocean continue at the hands of Tri-Ace. Seeing Jack and Ridley from Radiata Stories as pre-order Es'Owa pieces was fun too. Still hoping for a modern rerelease of that game.
Jst got this game for my Xbox Series S, and such a badass game, im completely hooked, the art is beautiful, and my tv is NOT a new oled tv, its a regular 1080p for videos games and 4k for videos. For anybody that loves action games, this is one of them, and also make sure you check out ALL the menus, bcus they wont tell you how to find quests, make sure you read all the MAP options, Thats where youll be able to keep up with your quest!
This was my favorite Star Ocean since Star Ocean 2. The Duma was a really cool gameplay mechanic like you mentioned with being able to fly through areas and explore different places. The combat and exploration was so much fun in this game. I agree with you at the point at 8:00 about the flexibility. Only thing I would say for people is just be careful of the text size in Star Ocean 6. I sit pretty close to my monitor when I play games, but for people who have a setup where they sit farther away from their tv they might have some trouble with the text size cause I saw some people mentioning that when the game released. Overall though, I had a ton of fun playing through this game and I want to replay it as the other main character.
The inventory UI text size is utterly atrocious on PS5, sitting 6-8 feet back from even a big screen TV I have to use the PS5's magnifying zoom feature to see the item/weapon/armor description text.
I hope a patch will fix some of the frame rate issues and improve QoL for the menus but overall it was a great game and a major improvement over StarOcean 5 :)
I was watching some gameplay and I think it's the eyes that gives the characters that uncanny vibe. They barely move when the characters are standing around talking to each other.
20 hours in and I've been really enjoying my time with Divine Force. The cast, story and gameplay is great so far. I've played every entry with the exception of SO5 (played but never finished it) and so far SO6 is sitting right up there alongside SO2 as my favorite entry! I know that this game may not appeal to everyone but as a Star Ocean fan I couldn't be happier!
It got mixed reviews but as soon as i could afford to buy myself a new game i knew i was going to buy it. I love star ocean, all of them. Even the ones people hate on, like 5, i love it. Same with 4. 4 5 and 6 are my favorites, and if that triggers anyone, well get over it, but i get why some dislike. Anyways, this game is a banger from start to finish. The story is great to me, the lore is great, the structure, it just hits all the things i want out of a jrpg. Yes its rough around the edges, but i got over it real quick. The real shiner is the combat, oh man this is the best jrpg combat in years, its up there for best in general in my opinion (for jrpg's). Peole like to compare to tales of arise since they are both new, and are obviously similar in many ways and i love arise, but due to this combat and being a star ocean game i have to give it the +1. I read the negative reviews, and to be honest i dont really get what goes through some peoples heads.
I just beat Star Ocean The Divine Force and it was amazing! Such a fun retro callback to the PS2 era. People are definitely sleeping on it! Happy you're enjoying it. Ray is such an awesome goofy goober haha.
I think the oceans 🌊 look bad because it is a graphical error: I notice some of the indoor areas are super dark too. It’s the lighting mechanic they use because the water actually looks good if you see it in towns. I hope they patch it
This is my second favorite game I’ve played this year just behind xenoblade 3. I absolutely loved it, I played in my ps5 so I didn’t have any frame rate issues, loved the simple but good story, absolutely adored the characters, and the combat is near perfect
The appeal of the star Ocean games is the mix medieval and sci fi mix while not having the best quality graphics the storylines are usually well written which is what makes a game really work
I watched all the reviews bfore byuing this games, and all the HATERS were WRONG😂 THIS game is complete BADASS! I had to stop playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for a bit, im having so much fun on Star Ocean🙌🏽🔥
Played the demo and was really vibing with DF. My main issue with the game is unfortunately the text size, which I just found to be far too small to comfortably read on a regular basis. If they included an option for scalable text (or really just text larger than the default size) then I'd pick the full game up in a heartbeat, but from now I'm just admiring it from afar.
Good to know! Ill definitely check it out! I've had it on my steam wishlist for a while. A lot of people are saying that it gives PS2 era JRPG vibes and that's music to my ears!!
Glad to see people appreciating this game. With 2nd story remade hope this is a Renaissance for the series to not go extinct like some other series. Also, the story is pretty good, they do question some existential philosophy which reminds me of old school jrpgs that go for a deeper plot.
I made a playthrough on Raymond. I'm planning a second playthrough on a harder difficulty to do the post game content (and get a different character ending) but I had a lot of fun with this one. The exploration was fun, the battles were fun. It just FELT like a Star Ocean game and for that I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
I got this when it came out, finished my playthrough at about 45 hours, great game. It feels constrained by its budget but wow this game was a lot of fun. Since finishing it, I beat the first game on PS4 and I’m playing through the second. Great entry point imo
Really enjoying my time with it, and so glad Star Ocean is back and feeling like itself again!!! Despite the stutters on PC, it really is beautiful in 4K. The skyboxes especially - quite the contrast from FF7R's.
@@kaylam2556 I ended up grabbing it, was too tempting as I just fear it's going to be one of those low print physical games that are harder to get later :P
Just started it and a couple of hours in. Its a step up from their previous tries. Really like the graphics and environments so far. They skybox is really nice. Also like the exploration. They seem to have done a great job considering their budget was cut because of the lack of sales from the previous two games.
I picked up divine force and crisis core a couple days ago and I’m having much more fun with divine force. Crisis Core has always interests me because i missed out on playing it on the psp and wanted to see how it played. The last star ocean game I played was the last hope on the 360 or ps3 can’t remember which version.
Bought it day one does it have issues yea a few but was it good oh yea i'd say great but thats just my opinion i never found one glitch never had to reload the game, It was finished and for that in this day and age in video gaming thats awesome. Had a great time with it beat both super bosses at end game they did seem ezy tho cause abuse crafting. Great vid as always Derek.
I watched someone stream the whole game and I gotta say it's nice to see they actually made a good game ! I was skeptical about it at first since they haven't made decent SO since 3 but yeah this is a must have ! Hopefully this will revive the franchise
I swear to god every time you upload a video it costs me money 😂 Just been holding off grabbing it until it’s slightly more optimised for steam deck otherwise it looks really great!! Good video as always dude :)
I'm about 10 hours into the game as well. It's the most fun I've had in a Star Ocean game in a LONG time. This feels like what we should have gotten after The Last Hope, being it's a very natural feeling evolution of the series. Definitely not the few steps back we got from the last main line title. The timing for release wasn't the best with God of War only being couple short weeks away. Still not as bad as Sonic Frontiers only releasing 1 day apart from it though lol
The game's english dub is really fantastic. I'm the type to not think twice about switching to japanese if the english dub shows a moment of weakness but I was happy to play through it from start to finish in english. It's my personal GOTY.
Right or not, I guess it's nice to hear some positivity come out of the "Star Ocean" IP. I know after the last entry, and the mobile game, the future of the series wasn't quite clear or promising. I'm not the biggest fan of "Star Ocean", though I have played a number of the entries: - The remake of "1" I finished but I was indifferent towards it. - The remake of "2" I have but never started since I lost interest in the franchise by that time. - "3" was my first entry and while I enjoyed it, I never finished it. - "4" I also enjoyed but never finished it. - "5" I outright skipped due to disinterest and the widespread negative reception. So needless to say, I don't have the best history with "Star Ocean" despite thinking they are decent ARPGs, probably why I ended up losing interest at some point. Maybe "SO6" might end up changing that and get me back in.
Currently playing thru it on Xbox Series X, I'm really enjoying it, I've only played the original on Super Famicom. I have 2 on PS1 and 'Til the End of Time on PS2 as well as The Last Hope on Xbox 360. I don't have a PS4 or PS5 unfortunatley. Really enjoy TriAce - Valkyrie Profile and Resonance of Fate.
@@RaifSeverence No, they announced severe losses which could indicate insolvency, but no bankruptcy filings that I can find. It's unusual and risky to openly admit something like that to try and boost sales, but Gust similarly stated after the success of Ryza that they were also doing very poorly financially, to the point that it may have been their last game.
Really underrated game tbf. Some of the frame rate drops during some boss fights and the last 25-30% of the game let it down a little though, but besides that its fairly fun if you like playing action JRPG games.
I enjoyed this game. Nothing is ever going to capture the magic of their older games but it was good and came close. I did feel the lack of excitement to do any post game stuff so I shelved it. Is it just me or do video games these days seem to have lost the "magic" they used to have? Maybe its just me getting older
i got this game for 10 bucks on sale at GameStop. I'm a fan of the series, started with the first departure R because it had the aesthetics of RPGS i enjoy a lot (golden sun) and i got hooked on them. each game ive played so far has its downsides but I can look past them. definitely having a blast with this title. ive been playing on the hard difficulty, and apart from a few spikes in challenge its been doable, im sure ill play another run through once ive played some of the other titles in the series 🎉
Lovin this game so far. I'm playing ps4 version so performance has lotsa issues and has weird visual bugs like the warbly after effect "motion blur" for EVERYTHING, which kinda bothers me and cities chug framerate a TON, but even with all that I still enjoy it!
Yooo I don't get why there's such a bad vibe around this game on steam ? It's pretty fantastic, and really reminiscent of the better titles in the series. It's far from perfect, but definitely a worthwhile entry. As far as I know, it also sold pretty good ? I really hope it leads to a SO7 with more budget, would be nice to see one after 3 in the timeline. :D
Currently playing through original Star Ocean. Divine Force isn't gonna be the next game I play through, though i bought it already. Hoping for it to be the next one after though. Hoping like crazy SO2 gets ported as well.
Yea D.U.M.A flying is great, his map scan ability however...is super annoying. It doesn´t even scan the whole map at max level. You get max level in the third area after getting D.U.M.A, which is like 2hrs into the story. So after a playtime of 30hrs... Go figure. Still, Star Ocean is great again! :)
LOVED the demo, got the deluxe edition so I could play it as SOON as it came out, and beat it within 10 days. Really dug it - just wanted it's final act to .. END ALREADY! haha
* PART 1 * I respect your opinion on this game Derek but I have to be clear here with some 100% honest facts about the game. You absolutely DO feel the boundaries of this game, it presents the illusion of an open world but in reality, your area of exploration is limited by invisible force fields. Some of which appear as an orange hexagonal wall, others just don’t appear at all, yet they stop you dead in your tracks all the same. Sadly these invisible walls are in towns, as well as open areas and their placement can be annoying and frustrating. You could be flying from one rooftop to another in a town only to be stopped in your tracks, as you suddenly slam into one of these invisible walls, which has no reason to be there. Frankly the placement of many of these invisible walls appears to be rather lazy, pointless and haphazard. For example, you try to go around the back of a building in town, only to have an orange hexagonal force field suddenly appear in front of your character. You could be less than 3 feet away from the wall of a building or from a sheer cliff face, yet an invisible wall will block your path. This makes exploring clifftops, rooftops, behind buildings etc an exercise in trial and error, as you have no idea where you can and can’t explore. What you see in the game is definitely not what you get when it comes to exploring, as the true world of SOTDF is far more limiting. The invisible walls coupled with the jetpack mechanic result in some very frustrating exploration, as there will literally be fully visible ledges and platforms that you can never ever reach. The English voice acting is OK in the game, but it is far from good. I played Laeticia’s quest line first and I swear if I hear her say one more thing is exquisite, I am going to go insane. Almost every single item I have collected as Laeticia has been and I quote “exquisite”, it doesn’t matter if it's a torn dirty rag or something made of gold, it’s always exquisite. This is annoying but I guess this isn’t the only game guilty of repetitiveness, as Lance wanted something a bit meatier throughout most of my play through of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 but at least in that game, there was some variation from time to time, SOTDF has none. Oh and don’t get me started on Raymond's here we go, here we go, here we go nonsense when you level up his skills. Beyond the repetitive and annoying conversations of your party members, who insist on telling you for the 4th time where to go next, whilst you are trying to explore, there is very little interaction between party members. Suffice to say, the voice acting in SOTDF is passable but far from exquisite ! Hell, they didn’t even bother to lip sync the cut scenes properly. With regards to graphics, there is a setting for you to choose between Performance or Quality mode on the PS5 but why are we having to choose ? I am sorry but honestly, the graphics in SOTDF are of low quality PS4 at best. The PS5 is more than capable of running a game with such poor textures and simplistic lighting in quality mode at 60 fps. Character models are creepy and stiff, as they look like china dolls with absolutely no skin texture whatsoever. Yes, there are vistas in some parts of the game that look lovely but beyond those, SOTDF has some pretty bland graphics for a PS5 title. Which brings me onto another problem, why is SOTDF not available on the Nintendo Switch ? Before anyone says it’s too big for the Switch, I’ll say this: “Breath of the Wild”, “Skyrim”, “The Witcher 3”, “Doom”, “Nier Automata” etc. With graphics as mediocre as this, there is no reason at all for SOTDF not being available on the Switch, beyond a laziness to port it. TriAce has already stated that this game needs to do well or they are in trouble, so why don’t they make it available for one of the best selling consoles ever made ? We already have Star Ocean First Departure R on the Switch (which came out over 3 years ago) and we have yet to see another Star Ocean series entry on the Switch. If a developer / publisher is serious about reviving the Star Ocean series, then how about you release previous games in the series on the Switch, Where is Star Ocean the Second Story R ?, Where is Star Ocean Till the End of Time R ? and why wasn’t this latest entry released for the Switch ? SOTDF has no reason at all to be tied to a Playstation / Xbox or PC / Steam only release. The irony is, the drab graphic quality of the game would be more acceptable on a portable device like the Switch but it is not good enough on the PS5. I even experienced several graphical glitches while playing in quality mode on the PS5, this is unacceptable for a title with such low graphical flare.
still waiting to get my PS5 so I can't play it yet lol... nearly picked one up this Black Friday IT'S FINALLY AVAILABLE (semi-easily if you know where to look)! But 600 bucks is still pretty steep for me... I mean when I'm buying presents for my family I can't really budget in a 600 dollar console. Hopefully I find one after New Years.
I'm not a fan of some of the changes I've noticed in the translation as I have the JP voices, but still loving the game, despite the choking up on base PS4 even while prioritizing framerate. Gotta love them leaving the opening song.
Its on sale on Xbox, original prize is like 70$ I think and rn its at 44$, make sure you get the Series S/X Verison though, bcus the basic edition doesnt have the upgraded graphics, or if you play the demo, you are not gonna get the full experience of the game when it comes to the graphics.
I've watched several videos and I'm really not sure about this entry.. Some of the effects used for their skills and spells almost look like ps 2 era lol.. Especially when they used abbysal gate that looks very similar to dimensional gate in star ocean 3... I've beat every star ocean except the very 1st one But this one looks very underwhelming.. I might pick it up when it gets cheaper... And that's a shame because I'm a huge tri ace fan. I'm kind of disappointed the new Valkyrie profile isn't like the 1st 2 games. This seems square is moving towards mainly action.... Which worries me for dragonquest 12
Does anyone know if Laeticia's route ever gets worthwhile? Raymond starts with quite long backstory on his ship, multiple additional characters are introduced, multiple space fractions are mentioned. Laeticia starts by standing next to a campfire, and then sees shooting stars. Nearly no backstory, you're as in the dark for what her goal is as Raymond, even though you're playing as Laeticia. Makes Raymond seem more main-character... I only checked the openings, as afterwards Denuvo DRM banned me from the game for 24h, and I really forgot about it and started playing something else...
Lae route actually give u more insight on the villian background and many characters development for the cast that u missing out in raymond route from private action . You will actually learn more about raymond family in her route as well . You will need to play both to get full picture of story .
@@thelegendaryjanitor2008 Nice. I was afraid it would end up like Maxwell story in Tales of Xillia. There if you started as Maxwell you would have no clue what was going on trough big part of the game, would miss out on a lot of important scenes and developments... And you didn't really get much in return!
I feel like most people were a bit harsh on the game. I absolutely loved it, and I hate tri-ace never gets the praise they deserve. I bought a digital and physical copy on Xbox series X just to help support the team as much as I can. Lol here's hoping for them to have a better financial future, and maybe even see some older games ported to the Xbox 🤷♂️
* PART 2 * Music is for the most part pleasant, except for two tracks; one very early track, which is very jarring and does not fit the game style at all. The track stands out as an oddity when compared to the rest of the sound track. All other tracks are OK, some even good except for the one song where I hated the track so much that I had to switch off the music in the menu. The track sounded like a bunch of school kids wailing, which I do not want to hear at any point, let alone when I am trying to enjoy playing a game. That said, graphics and even music are traditionally the least important factors in an RPG. I am completely happy with 8/16 bit graphics (as many 16 bit RPGS are my favourite games of all time). A JRPG works as long as the story and gameplay are good. Sadly, this is where SOTDF falls flat on its face and the following are some story and gameplay facts, not my opinions, facts, that totally let the game down ! :- Towns have no more than 1 - 3 people to talk to (marked in orange), whether it’s to gain sub quests or progress the main story line, everyone else is simply filler and not worth talking to. Gone are the days of learning something interesting or picking up some hidden sub quests by talking to all the towns folk. There is usually just one place to go to progress the story within a town and that's it. Towns are empty and devoid of any soul or life. This is especially noticeable when you reach the Royal capital as it looks nice but feels so empty. The towns make the world seem like a dead husk, not only are towns empty of any significant people to talk with but even the Inns where you choose to have a meal and decide to stay for the night just fade to black and skip ahead to the next morning. You never see your party sitting together eating or your party members sleeping, there are no animations for that. Almost every door in a town is locked and you can’t enter. The ONLY ones you can, are the town’s only shop, an Inn and one random NPC’s house. NPC’s say nothing when you enter their houses, smash up their pots, empty their one treasure chest and proceed to steal the only item of value they have in their entire home. Nearly all shops in the game stock the exact same items and there is no reason to travel to a particular area to get any specific armour or weapons. Money is practically pointless in the game, as I was always able to afford the next armour, weapon or accessory without ever selling my previous equipment. The main story is full of endless backtracking and fetch quests, with fast travelling being the only way to avoid it. That is if the game allows you to fast travel at that point, as frequently, you aren’t allowed to do so. There are very few puzzles in SOTDF, instead the game relies more on repetitive maze-like environments (particularly later in the game). Your party members are pretty much dumb as rocks and will die very often, as will you unless you keep an eye on them and keep spamming revival items. This becomes even more noticeable in the later parts of the game and some boss battles. Your party members are frequently changed without your approval, this is bad enough but when a party member is automatically removed from your party, their accessories are automatically unequipped. This means that you have to constantly re-equip them. This got so annoying and repetitive the 6th time it happened, that I simply gave up re-equipping accessory items to my party members and ignored accessories entirely. There is very little enemy variety in the game. You even battle some characters several times over the course of the story. You defeat them only for them to beam away again and again and again. It gets old very quickly. Enemies seem to repeat from region to region and even boss level characters do the same. The absolute worst game play issue is that despite being 94% through the entire story, I am unable to complete the game due to a bug related to the last dungeon for Laeticia’s quest line. This is a rare bug only experienced by a few players, at least when I have looked online. However, this should never happen at all, especially not after 32 hours of game play. This was the final straw as far as this game is concerned and the last chance I am ever prepared to give any new Star Ocean game. At present this bug has yet to be patched but as I paid $60 / £55, I expect the game to be finished and for it to be possible to experience the whole narrative and not have my progress brought to a grinding halt so close to the end due to quality control issues. Sadly, all of the above points contribute towards making SOTDF feel like an unpolished, repetitive and empty game devoid of any soul. It’s like Tri-Ace decided to build an RPG around a combat system rather than building it around a story. Don’t get me wrong there is a story in here somewhere, amongst the endless backtracking and constant fetch quests but this is certainly not a title worth $60 / £55. This should have been released as a $30 / £25 title and the game should certainly be available on the Switch. The portability of the Switch in conjunction with a lower price point would have made the bland, repetitive, monotonous world, poor graphics and game play a much easier pill to swallow.
Expectations vs reality, I think. This came out in the wake of Tales of Arise, a "rival" series. I think a lot of people expected another AAA experience along those lines, but instead we got a relatively budget experience. I'd recommend giving the demo a shot and see how it strikes you. :)
Sharp hair cut dude. I do really want this game. but things have been tight this last few months and with christmas and my SO's birthday also in December it wasn't possible to buy as many games as i usually would. that being said if it's back on sale after christmas for boxing day...
I'll be waiting until it's about 20 USD or so before I pick it up. I am not confident in Tri-Ace much these days, especially after Star 4 and 5. I hope I am wrong about this entry and I enjoy it but they have lost my trust in terms of quality Star Ocean titles.
Yeah, don't miss 5 either. The story in that game isn't the greatest, but everything else is either just as good if not better than 4. People hate it for the same reason FF fans say 7 is the best. They just want to fit in.
coming from a decently early/mid game perspective i agee but by the end of the game i was certainly done, there is just no difficulty and as in depth as the combat moves seem it boils down to just set 1 move per line and spam it leaving every other spot blank. it unequips your accessories every 30 seconds it feels like and outside of exploring it just never felt enjoyable. people comparing this to as great a game as SO2 are crazy and is why i dont/shouldnt listen to reviewers. the lack of any space travel and the smal amount of maps (abiet large maps at least) was really disapointing after playing something like last hope.
Its a pretty good game, but honestly, we have seen this game countless of times by now. The big studios are, as they say, pretty much creatively bankrupt at this point. Thank god for indie devs.
If you're only about 10 hours into it, the bad stuff in this game hasn't really hit you yet. The DUMA combat system is the 10/10 killer feature, and it's enough to carry the game for quite a few hours of play-time, but then you realize how flawed the game truly is. To wit: -the tiny font size everything is in. I couldn't read anything, so I skipped tutorials because the font size everything is in makes me have to squint to read anything, and there's no option to increase it. Fortunately, this isn't a deal breaker since the game's controls are intuitive enough to pick up without a lot of explanation. -The Menu system is terrible, it's byzantine and I could never get used to the layers upon layers of sub-menus. Your skill tree is not the only place you can spend those experience points, you can also spend it to power up your combos and to upgrade your crafting skill, all of which is explained terribly. -The story is good, in my opinion, during the first half of the game, where you're playing in Lettucia's mid-eval fantasy world, but then I feel like the sci-fi part of the game, in the second half, falls apart completely. Also, the NPC dialogue, as in there are maybe 4 or 5 NPCs per town that you can actually talk to. Most NPCs do nothing, aside from fall over when you bump into them. Having played so many trails games in the last two years, it's hard to ask a man to come back to this after experiencing that. Put the story this way: when DUMA is a fun part of the combat and exploration, the game's story is good, when DUMA becomes the central part of the plot, the game falls apart. I feel like the first half had more time and effort put into it than the second half did. -The esorwa (Spelling?) mini-game is fun, but getting started is pretty terribly implemented. To even be able to play it, you have to talk to a specific NPC in a specific town to get a starter set, and once you do, there is no one in that town that you are eligible to play until you've played a few games and you get your rank level up, so you have to back-track to the earlier towns and work your way up from there. If you want players to play and enjoy your mini-game, a good game design strategy is put as few barriers to entry to allow the player to just sit back and play as possible. You should be able to play as soon as you get the starter set, and that should be in the first town (or earlier) and how to do so should be clearly marked. Don't get me wrong, I had fun playing it, but putting the starter set in like the 4th town, and not having anyone in that town the player can play against right away, is a head-scratching game design move. Trails of Cold Steel didn't ask you to find a deck of blade cards, then back-track three towns to play the game, you're on the train heading to your field study and you play a game of cards because everyone in this universe has a deck. -the game's terrain is large and empty. Large, spacious world maps with plenty of space does not equal good game design unless you do something with that space. There was one section, early on, where there is a ridge in the middle of a map and you need to climb up and down the ridge to get to the other side, and you can't simply run across. If they had done more of that, use that large space to put obstacles in the player's path, the game would have been better. Instead, it's largely big for the sake of being big, and the game has pretty sparse enemy encounters on the world map. I hated the amount of back-tracking in the mid-portion of the first half, "go all the way over here, talk to this one person, and come all the way back" type of deals. Just padding, nothing more. This game isn't bad, as the DUMA combat system and DUMA exploration are really well done and elevate the game. Like I said, when DUMA is a game mechanic, the game is good, when DUMA is the game's plot, the game falls off significantly. I also didn't like the crafting system, note to star ocean games: stop trying to make luck based crafting systems happen, they aren't fun at all, they become boring crafting grinds until you luck out and get the thing you want. I'm playing Dragon Quest 11 right now, and that skill based crafting system is so much more fun; with Dragon Quest, I can actually get good and make the stuff I want and I can feel that I'm improving. This motivates me to keep trying to get better at it. Practice yields a tangible reward, SO is just luck, and that's terrible. Again, I don't want to be too hard on this game, there was a lot to like, but it also has problems and felt like an incomplete game. Here's the best remark on the game I can give: despite Letuccia, Nina, Chloe and Elena all being hot, and despite them all being main characters, I'm sorry, but Lola is best girl.
I passed on this on launch Last hope had great gameplay but the most unlikable cast I had ever encountered in a JRPG and then I got integrity and Faithlessness and I both hated the gameplay and felt the cast bar 1 or 2 party members had no personality But after seeing how well the reception for this one has been I bit the bullet and bought a copy at a Black Friday sale
I loved this game so much, it really gave me that SO2 vibe again. I hope they make more with an even bigger budget.
Let's hope this one sells well so we can see them make another! TriAce is in some financial trouble these days...
Really wishing for SO2 remake or at least remaster for their next game. I still have hopes with Star Ocean and because of Divine Force.
I loved Star Ocean 2 as well, it was my introduction to the series... but let's stop asking studios to remake games. I want fresh experiences with new characters. Most times they "remake" a game it's a bastardization of the original with censored, dialogue, character designs, and sometimes entire story arcs. Let's just get some new RPG's with new characters. Would love to see a new Star Ocean in a few years as I thoroughly enjoyed this latest one.
@elrodeus agreed, it's still top 5 for me. The soundtrack is AMAZING, and it was so deep, so many secrets. Truly a wonderful game.i loved 3 also, 4 was ok, 5 was obviously awful. Downloaded it last night, this makes me very hopeful
@@timigonubi have i got news for you
I've been absolutely in love with this game, it has some of my favorite movement and exploration in a game in general, the characters are charming and fun, the combat is a blast. The game is just the full package! I hope word spreads more and more so this game can be a hit
I already beat Raymond's route, just found out how to get the other endings after beating the game, have my team to level 100, which is a first for me.........and I still have to beat Laeticia's route, get all the endings for her and go about it all over again. I would be more mad at this but since I had so much fun with this game, I would absolutely go back and go through this a second time. This is the most fun I had with a modern Star Ocean game in a while and I am just glad to see the series back in some form.
I loved how they gave u an ability to fly and hover my only wish that u could do it longer I love flying
I love it as is.
I played on PS5 as well and had a great experience. Felt smooth and was incredibly interesting the whole time. The sense of adventure in the game and the good cast of characters made it one of my favorites of the year. Definitely hoping the game does well and we get to see Star Ocean continue at the hands of Tri-Ace. Seeing Jack and Ridley from Radiata Stories as pre-order Es'Owa pieces was fun too. Still hoping for a modern rerelease of that game.
Jst got this game for my Xbox Series S, and such a badass game, im completely hooked, the art is beautiful, and my tv is NOT a new oled tv, its a regular 1080p for videos games and 4k for videos. For anybody that loves action games, this is one of them, and also make sure you check out ALL the menus, bcus they wont tell you how to find quests, make sure you read all the MAP options, Thats where youll be able to keep up with your quest!
This was my favorite Star Ocean since Star Ocean 2. The Duma was a really cool gameplay mechanic like you mentioned with being able to fly through areas and explore different places. The combat and exploration was so much fun in this game. I agree with you at the point at 8:00 about the flexibility. Only thing I would say for people is just be careful of the text size in Star Ocean 6. I sit pretty close to my monitor when I play games, but for people who have a setup where they sit farther away from their tv they might have some trouble with the text size cause I saw some people mentioning that when the game released. Overall though, I had a ton of fun playing through this game and I want to replay it as the other main character.
I'm about 20 hours in, it's been a blast so far. Menu text is really my biggest complaint in the whole game.
For my time with it, I've been playing on a PC monitor, so I hadn't noticed any text issues, how have you been playing it? Are you playing it on a TV?
The inventory UI text size is utterly atrocious on PS5, sitting 6-8 feet back from even a big screen TV I have to use the PS5's magnifying zoom feature to see the item/weapon/armor description text.
I hope a patch will fix some of the frame rate issues and improve QoL for the menus but overall it was a great game and a major improvement over StarOcean 5 :)
So far there has been a lot of updates, especially the big 1.03 patch, has many QoL improvements
I was watching some gameplay and I think it's the eyes that gives the characters that uncanny vibe. They barely move when the characters are standing around talking to each other.
20 hours in and I've been really enjoying my time with Divine Force. The cast, story and gameplay is great so far. I've played every entry with the exception of SO5 (played but never finished it) and so far SO6 is sitting right up there alongside SO2 as my favorite entry! I know that this game may not appeal to everyone but as a Star Ocean fan I couldn't be happier!
It got mixed reviews but as soon as i could afford to buy myself a new game i knew i was going to buy it. I love star ocean, all of them. Even the ones people hate on, like 5, i love it. Same with 4. 4 5 and 6 are my favorites, and if that triggers anyone, well get over it, but i get why some dislike. Anyways, this game is a banger from start to finish. The story is great to me, the lore is great, the structure, it just hits all the things i want out of a jrpg. Yes its rough around the edges, but i got over it real quick. The real shiner is the combat, oh man this is the best jrpg combat in years, its up there for best in general in my opinion (for jrpg's). Peole like to compare to tales of arise since they are both new, and are obviously similar in many ways and i love arise, but due to this combat and being a star ocean game i have to give it the +1.
I read the negative reviews, and to be honest i dont really get what goes through some peoples heads.
I just beat Star Ocean The Divine Force and it was amazing! Such a fun retro callback to the PS2 era. People are definitely sleeping on it! Happy you're enjoying it. Ray is such an awesome goofy goober haha.
Hey, you're watching these other channels, too? XD
@@fumomofumosarum5893 I can’t get enough of jrpgs 🤣🤘
I think the oceans 🌊 look bad because it is a graphical error: I notice some of the indoor areas are super dark too. It’s the lighting mechanic they use because the water actually looks good if you see it in towns. I hope they patch it
This is my second favorite game I’ve played this year just behind xenoblade 3. I absolutely loved it, I played in my ps5 so I didn’t have any frame rate issues, loved the simple but good story, absolutely adored the characters, and the combat is near perfect
The appeal of the star Ocean games is the mix medieval and sci fi mix while not having the best quality graphics the storylines are usually well written which is what makes a game really work
A must play for sure but I have so many games that I'll probably play it in like a year from now
I watched all the reviews bfore byuing this games, and all the HATERS were WRONG😂 THIS game is complete BADASS! I had to stop playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for a bit, im having so much fun on Star Ocean🙌🏽🔥
Played the demo and was really vibing with DF. My main issue with the game is unfortunately the text size, which I just found to be far too small to comfortably read on a regular basis. If they included an option for scalable text (or really just text larger than the default size) then I'd pick the full game up in a heartbeat, but from now I'm just admiring it from afar.
Thank you for mentioning the localization, Derek! Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. 🙏
I just finished Star Ocean 4 and now it's the perfect time for the Star Ocean 6. I love the series so much
Good to know! Ill definitely check it out! I've had it on my steam wishlist for a while. A lot of people are saying that it gives PS2 era JRPG vibes and that's music to my ears!!
Glad to see people appreciating this game. With 2nd story remade hope this is a Renaissance for the series to not go extinct like some other series. Also, the story is pretty good, they do question some existential philosophy which reminds me of old school jrpgs that go for a deeper plot.
I made a playthrough on Raymond. I'm planning a second playthrough on a harder difficulty to do the post game content (and get a different character ending) but I had a lot of fun with this one. The exploration was fun, the battles were fun. It just FELT like a Star Ocean game and for that I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
Loved this game played it day one. Great story and characters, that keeps you coming back for more.
I got this when it came out, finished my playthrough at about 45 hours, great game. It feels constrained by its budget but wow this game was a lot of fun. Since finishing it, I beat the first game on PS4 and I’m playing through the second. Great entry point imo
I had fun with this one. A little rough around the edges and a few random difficulty spikes, but overall it was good.
Also the music for this game is pretty nice, especially earlier in the game.
Ah this vid reminds me of when many years ago I played Star Ocean: The Second Story. Good stuff.
I got 60 hours in and id say its 5/10 when its all said and done. I wouldnt worry about the series.
I just beat Star Ocean 2. Really solid! Now I definitely want to check out 3 and this game.
2 is epic one of my favoriate games, they really need to remake that game,
Nice to see the series still going and not afraid to take some risks 👍 look interesting
Really enjoying my time with it, and so glad Star Ocean is back and feeling like itself again!!! Despite the stutters on PC, it really is beautiful in 4K. The skyboxes especially - quite the contrast from FF7R's.
Great video. You really bring a good calming energy
This is the best Star Ocean game for years and one of the best JRPG's of 2022. It's absolutely fantastic.
It’s actually on sale right now for Black Friday.
I will play my ps5 copy for christmas.
I just finished the demo yesterday and immediately bought it!
Definitely gonna buy this I miss star ocean but the last one was so bad thanks for the impressions my man!
was thinking about grabbing this it's 39 bucks on black friday deal & I could see this being a rare one to have later.
I just did last week hehe.
@@kaylam2556 I ended up grabbing it, was too tempting as I just fear it's going to be one of those low print physical games that are harder to get later :P
Just started it and a couple of hours in. Its a step up from their previous tries. Really like the graphics and environments so far. They skybox is really nice. Also like the exploration. They seem to have done a great job considering their budget was cut because of the lack of sales from the previous two games.
Yeeah I'm definitely not forgetting the star ocean 2 remaster.
I picked up divine force and crisis core a couple days ago and I’m having much more fun with divine force. Crisis Core has always interests me because i missed out on playing it on the psp and wanted to see how it played. The last star ocean game I played was the last hope on the 360 or ps3 can’t remember which version.
Bought it day one does it have issues yea a few but was it good oh yea i'd say great but thats just my opinion i never found one glitch never had to reload the game, It was finished and for that in this day and age in video gaming thats awesome. Had a great time with it beat both super bosses at end game they did seem ezy tho cause abuse crafting. Great vid as always Derek.
I watched someone stream the whole game and I gotta say it's nice to see they actually made a good game ! I was skeptical about it at first since they haven't made decent SO since 3 but yeah this is a must have ! Hopefully this will revive the franchise
you say star ocean the second story is one of your favourite games ever. I trust your recommendations
I swear to god every time you upload a video it costs me money 😂 Just been holding off grabbing it until it’s slightly more optimised for steam deck otherwise it looks really great!! Good video as always dude :)
I'm about 10 hours into the game as well. It's the most fun I've had in a Star Ocean game in a LONG time. This feels like what we should have gotten after The Last Hope, being it's a very natural feeling evolution of the series. Definitely not the few steps back we got from the last main line title. The timing for release wasn't the best with God of War only being couple short weeks away. Still not as bad as Sonic Frontiers only releasing 1 day apart from it though lol
The game's english dub is really fantastic. I'm the type to not think twice about switching to japanese if the english dub shows a moment of weakness but I was happy to play through it from start to finish in english. It's my personal GOTY.
Right or not, I guess it's nice to hear some positivity come out of the "Star Ocean" IP. I know after the last entry, and the mobile game, the future of the series wasn't quite clear or promising.
I'm not the biggest fan of "Star Ocean", though I have played a number of the entries:
- The remake of "1" I finished but I was indifferent towards it.
- The remake of "2" I have but never started since I lost interest in the franchise by that time.
- "3" was my first entry and while I enjoyed it, I never finished it.
- "4" I also enjoyed but never finished it.
- "5" I outright skipped due to disinterest and the widespread negative reception.
So needless to say, I don't have the best history with "Star Ocean" despite thinking they are decent ARPGs, probably why I ended up losing interest at some point. Maybe "SO6" might end up changing that and get me back in.
Currently playing thru it on Xbox Series X, I'm really enjoying it, I've only played the original on Super Famicom. I have 2 on PS1 and 'Til the End of Time on PS2 as well as The Last Hope on Xbox 360. I don't have a PS4 or PS5 unfortunatley. Really enjoy TriAce - Valkyrie Profile and Resonance of Fate.
If you like triAce, don't forget about Radiata Stories on Ps2
@@RaifSeverence Sounds good, haven't played it but I'd probably love it
i played the demo , planed on getting it
I hope this gives the tri-Ace a Renaissance the way Atelier Ryza did for Gust.
This would need to put them in the black first?
They filed for bankruptcy during its development from what I hear.
@@RaifSeverence No, they announced severe losses which could indicate insolvency, but no bankruptcy filings that I can find. It's unusual and risky to openly admit something like that to try and boost sales, but Gust similarly stated after the success of Ryza that they were also doing very poorly financially, to the point that it may have been their last game.
Really underrated game tbf. Some of the frame rate drops during some boss fights and the last 25-30% of the game let it down a little though, but besides that its fairly fun if you like playing action JRPG games.
Love collection you have.
i still have to finish star ocean 4! i stopped mid-journey and want to restart it again. or it's better i go straight to divine force?
I enjoyed this game. Nothing is ever going to capture the magic of their older games but it was good and came close. I did feel the lack of excitement to do any post game stuff so I shelved it. Is it just me or do video games these days seem to have lost the "magic" they used to have? Maybe its just me getting older
Did you finish this, Derek? If so, highly recommended? Thanks!
i got this game for 10 bucks on sale at GameStop. I'm a fan of the series, started with the first departure R because it had the aesthetics of RPGS i enjoy a lot (golden sun) and i got hooked on them.
each game ive played so far has its downsides but I can look past them. definitely having a blast with this title.
ive been playing on the hard difficulty, and apart from a few spikes in challenge its been doable, im sure ill play another run through once ive played some of the other titles in the series 🎉
Lovin this game so far. I'm playing ps4 version so performance has lotsa issues and has weird visual bugs like the warbly after effect "motion blur" for EVERYTHING, which kinda bothers me and cities chug framerate a TON, but even with all that I still enjoy it!
Yooo I don't get why there's such a bad vibe around this game on steam ? It's pretty fantastic, and really reminiscent of the better titles in the series. It's far from perfect, but definitely a worthwhile entry. As far as I know, it also sold pretty good ? I really hope it leads to a SO7 with more budget, would be nice to see one after 3 in the timeline. :D
beautiful game, just like the res of the series
Currently playing through original Star Ocean. Divine Force isn't gonna be the next game I play through, though i bought it already. Hoping for it to be the next one after though. Hoping like crazy SO2 gets ported as well.
I don't know if you have ever played Dragon's Dogma, but I think you would love it.
Yea D.U.M.A flying is great, his map scan ability however...is super annoying.
It doesn´t even scan the whole map at max level.
You get max level in the third area after getting D.U.M.A, which is like 2hrs into the story.
So after a playtime of 30hrs... Go figure.
Still, Star Ocean is great again! :)
Most underrated game this year
Addicted to this game. So fast and smooth on PS5. Never played the others, are they as good as this one?
Maybe when the cost drops to 25 bucks or less.
Yes i am sleeping on it lol. Main chacter looks like a chad body, baby head chucky doll. I do have the game and plan on playing it tho.
look, i love your channel and respect you, but i need my Star Ocean 3 review up before i die
LOVED the demo, got the deluxe edition so I could play it as SOON as it came out, and beat it within 10 days. Really dug it - just wanted it's final act to .. END ALREADY! haha
They also tackled covid, AI, and political issues in a way. Really want another game in this epic series. I hope we get it!
i want more or divine force 2
* PART 1 *
I respect your opinion on this game Derek but I have to be clear here with some 100% honest facts about the game.
You absolutely DO feel the boundaries of this game, it presents the illusion of an open world but in reality, your area of exploration is limited by invisible force fields. Some of which appear as an orange hexagonal wall, others just don’t appear at all, yet they stop you dead in your tracks all the same.
Sadly these invisible walls are in towns, as well as open areas and their placement can be annoying and frustrating. You could be flying from one rooftop to another in a town only to be stopped in your tracks, as you suddenly slam into one of these invisible walls, which has no reason to be there. Frankly the placement of many of these invisible walls appears to be rather lazy, pointless and haphazard. For example, you try to go around the back of a building in town, only to have an orange hexagonal force field suddenly appear in front of your character. You could be less than 3 feet away from the wall of a building or from a sheer cliff face, yet an invisible wall will block your path. This makes exploring clifftops, rooftops, behind buildings etc an exercise in trial and error, as you have no idea where you can and can’t explore. What you see in the game is definitely not what you get when it comes to exploring, as the true world of SOTDF is far more limiting. The invisible walls coupled with the jetpack mechanic result in some very frustrating exploration, as there will literally be fully visible ledges and platforms that you can never ever reach.
The English voice acting is OK in the game, but it is far from good. I played Laeticia’s quest line first and I swear if I hear her say one more thing is exquisite, I am going to go insane. Almost every single item I have collected as Laeticia has been and I quote “exquisite”, it doesn’t matter if it's a torn dirty rag or something made of gold, it’s always exquisite. This is annoying but I guess this isn’t the only game guilty of repetitiveness, as Lance wanted something a bit meatier throughout most of my play through of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 but at least in that game, there was some variation from time to time, SOTDF has none. Oh and don’t get me started on Raymond's here we go, here we go, here we go nonsense when you level up his skills. Beyond the repetitive and annoying conversations of your party members, who insist on telling you for the 4th time where to go next, whilst you are trying to explore, there is very little interaction between party members. Suffice to say, the voice acting in SOTDF is passable but far from exquisite ! Hell, they didn’t even bother to lip sync the cut scenes properly.
With regards to graphics, there is a setting for you to choose between Performance or Quality mode on the PS5 but why are we having to choose ? I am sorry but honestly, the graphics in SOTDF are of low quality PS4 at best. The PS5 is more than capable of running a game with such poor textures and simplistic lighting in quality mode at 60 fps. Character models are creepy and stiff, as they look like china dolls with absolutely no skin texture whatsoever. Yes, there are vistas in some parts of the game that look lovely but beyond those, SOTDF has some pretty bland graphics for a PS5 title.
Which brings me onto another problem, why is SOTDF not available on the Nintendo Switch ? Before anyone says it’s too big for the Switch, I’ll say this: “Breath of the Wild”, “Skyrim”, “The Witcher 3”, “Doom”, “Nier Automata” etc. With graphics as mediocre as this, there is no reason at all for SOTDF not being available on the Switch, beyond a laziness to port it. TriAce has already stated that this game needs to do well or they are in trouble, so why don’t they make it available for one of the best selling consoles ever made ? We already have Star Ocean First Departure R on the Switch (which came out over 3 years ago) and we have yet to see another Star Ocean series entry on the Switch. If a developer / publisher is serious about reviving the Star Ocean series, then how about you release previous games in the series on the Switch, Where is Star Ocean the Second Story R ?, Where is Star Ocean Till the End of Time R ? and why wasn’t this latest entry released for the Switch ? SOTDF has no reason at all to be tied to a Playstation / Xbox or PC / Steam only release. The irony is, the drab graphic quality of the game would be more acceptable on a portable device like the Switch but it is not good enough on the PS5. I even experienced several graphical glitches while playing in quality mode on the PS5, this is unacceptable for a title with such low graphical flare.
still waiting to get my PS5 so I can't play it yet lol... nearly picked one up this Black Friday IT'S FINALLY AVAILABLE (semi-easily if you know where to look)! But 600 bucks is still pretty steep for me... I mean when I'm buying presents for my family I can't really budget in a 600 dollar console. Hopefully I find one after New Years.
I'm not a fan of some of the changes I've noticed in the translation as I have the JP voices, but still loving the game, despite the choking up on base PS4 even while prioritizing framerate.
Gotta love them leaving the opening song.
I want to play but I have to get through some backlog first. I play too many rpgs and they take forever lol.
I'm waiting for a sale for Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile. Although I heard good things about this title compared to the new Valkyrie Profiles.
Its on sale on Xbox, original prize is like 70$ I think and rn its at 44$, make sure you get the Series S/X Verison though, bcus the basic edition doesnt have the upgraded graphics, or if you play the demo, you are not gonna get the full experience of the game when it comes to the graphics.
I've watched several videos and I'm really not sure about this entry.. Some of the effects used for their skills and spells almost look like ps 2 era lol.. Especially when they used abbysal gate that looks very similar to dimensional gate in star ocean 3... I've beat every star ocean except the very 1st one But this one looks very underwhelming.. I might pick it up when it gets cheaper... And that's a shame because I'm a huge tri ace fan. I'm kind of disappointed the new Valkyrie profile isn't like the 1st 2 games. This seems square is moving towards mainly action.... Which worries me for dragonquest 12
What happened to davidvinc's channel? It's like it vanished.
What?! I don't know, let me find out if I can...
Oh no, it looks like he got hacked! He's reaching out to support and looks like it will take 72 hours at least to get it back :(
Think they'll ever add any QoL changes and/or patches to this game before it's too late?
Depends on if this saved them from closing up shop.
They filed for bankruptcy during development
Does anyone know if Laeticia's route ever gets worthwhile? Raymond starts with quite long backstory on his ship, multiple additional characters are introduced, multiple space fractions are mentioned. Laeticia starts by standing next to a campfire, and then sees shooting stars. Nearly no backstory, you're as in the dark for what her goal is as Raymond, even though you're playing as Laeticia. Makes Raymond seem more main-character... I only checked the openings, as afterwards Denuvo DRM banned me from the game for 24h, and I really forgot about it and started playing something else...
Lae route actually give u more insight on the villian background and many characters development for the cast that u missing out in raymond route from private action . You will actually learn more about raymond family in her route as well . You will need to play both to get full picture of story .
@@thelegendaryjanitor2008 Nice. I was afraid it would end up like Maxwell story in Tales of Xillia. There if you started as Maxwell you would have no clue what was going on trough big part of the game, would miss out on a lot of important scenes and developments... And you didn't really get much in return!
I feel like most people were a bit harsh on the game. I absolutely loved it, and I hate tri-ace never gets the praise they deserve. I bought a digital and physical copy on Xbox series X just to help support the team as much as I can. Lol here's hoping for them to have a better financial future, and maybe even see some older games ported to the Xbox 🤷♂️
I wish I wasn't sleeping on this game but for some reason Amazon just can't deliver my copy lol
What I've been hearing is that the game is open world at first and then it feels like they ran outta money and went the, "linear corridor" route.
I really enjoyed this game.
it's kinda SO2 - SO3 -ish in some ways.
It really did have some subtle SO2 vibes, didn't it?
* PART 2 *
Music is for the most part pleasant, except for two tracks; one very early track, which is very jarring and does not fit the game style at all. The track stands out as an oddity when compared to the rest of the sound track. All other tracks are OK, some even good except for the one song where I hated the track so much that I had to switch off the music in the menu. The track sounded like a bunch of school kids wailing, which I do not want to hear at any point, let alone when I am trying to enjoy playing a game.
That said, graphics and even music are traditionally the least important factors in an RPG. I am completely happy with 8/16 bit graphics (as many 16 bit RPGS are my favourite games of all time). A JRPG works as long as the story and gameplay are good. Sadly, this is where SOTDF falls flat on its face and the following are some story and gameplay facts, not my opinions, facts, that totally let the game down ! :-
Towns have no more than 1 - 3 people to talk to (marked in orange), whether it’s to gain sub quests or progress the main story line, everyone else is simply filler and not worth talking to. Gone are the days of learning something interesting or picking up some hidden sub quests by talking to all the towns folk. There is usually just one place to go to progress the story within a town and that's it.
Towns are empty and devoid of any soul or life. This is especially noticeable when you reach the Royal capital as it looks nice but feels so empty. The towns make the world seem like a dead husk, not only are towns empty of any significant people to talk with but even the Inns where you choose to have a meal and decide to stay for the night just fade to black and skip ahead to the next morning. You never see your party sitting together eating or your party members sleeping, there are no animations for that. Almost every door in a town is locked and you can’t enter. The ONLY ones you can, are the town’s only shop, an Inn and one random NPC’s house. NPC’s say nothing when you enter their houses, smash up their pots, empty their one treasure chest and proceed to steal the only item of value they have in their entire home.
Nearly all shops in the game stock the exact same items and there is no reason to travel to a particular area to get any specific armour or weapons.
Money is practically pointless in the game, as I was always able to afford the next armour, weapon or accessory without ever selling my previous equipment.
The main story is full of endless backtracking and fetch quests, with fast travelling being the only way to avoid it. That is if the game allows you to fast travel at that point, as frequently, you aren’t allowed to do so.
There are very few puzzles in SOTDF, instead the game relies more on repetitive maze-like environments (particularly later in the game).
Your party members are pretty much dumb as rocks and will die very often, as will you unless you keep an eye on them and keep spamming revival items. This becomes even more noticeable in the later parts of the game and some boss battles.
Your party members are frequently changed without your approval, this is bad enough but when a party member is automatically removed from your party, their accessories are automatically unequipped. This means that you have to constantly re-equip them. This got so annoying and repetitive the 6th time it happened, that I simply gave up re-equipping accessory items to my party members and ignored accessories entirely.
There is very little enemy variety in the game. You even battle some characters several times over the course of the story. You defeat them only for them to beam away again and again and again. It gets old very quickly. Enemies seem to repeat from region to region and even boss level characters do the same.
The absolute worst game play issue is that despite being 94% through the entire story, I am unable to complete the game due to a bug related to the last dungeon for Laeticia’s quest line. This is a rare bug only experienced by a few players, at least when I have looked online. However, this should never happen at all, especially not after 32 hours of game play. This was the final straw as far as this game is concerned and the last chance I am ever prepared to give any new Star Ocean game. At present this bug has yet to be patched but as I paid $60 / £55, I expect the game to be finished and for it to be possible to experience the whole narrative and not have my progress brought to a grinding halt so close to the end due to quality control issues.
Sadly, all of the above points contribute towards making SOTDF feel like an unpolished, repetitive and empty game devoid of any soul. It’s like Tri-Ace decided to build an RPG around a combat system rather than building it around a story. Don’t get me wrong there is a story in here somewhere, amongst the endless backtracking and constant fetch quests but this is certainly not a title worth $60 / £55. This should have been released as a $30 / £25 title and the game should certainly be available on the Switch. The portability of the Switch in conjunction with a lower price point would have made the bland, repetitive, monotonous world, poor graphics and game play a much easier pill to swallow.
Is it for the nintendo switch also
Sadly no, is not
So why is this game being hated on? I'm planning to pick it up but it has mixed review on steam.
Expectations vs reality, I think. This came out in the wake of Tales of Arise, a "rival" series. I think a lot of people expected another AAA experience along those lines, but instead we got a relatively budget experience. I'd recommend giving the demo a shot and see how it strikes you. :)
They should have hired Ubisoft for the ocean lol still a fantastic game
Sharp hair cut dude. I do really want this game. but things have been tight this last few months and with christmas and my SO's birthday also in December it wasn't possible to buy as many games as i usually would. that being said if it's back on sale after christmas for boxing day...
Damn Derek did you lose weight bro you look good man
i agree with your points. I'm really enjoying the game despite the ocean they designed is the worst in game history!
Reminds me of the ocean on Grand a Theft Auto 3! They really just shouldn't have mentioned the ocean at all and hoped nobody would look 😂
I'll be waiting until it's about 20 USD or so before I pick it up. I am not confident in Tri-Ace much these days, especially after Star 4 and 5. I hope I am wrong about this entry and I enjoy it but they have lost my trust in terms of quality Star Ocean titles.
Yeah, don't miss 5 either. The story in that game isn't the greatest, but everything else is either just as good if not better than 4. People hate it for the same reason FF fans say 7 is the best. They just want to fit in.
coming from a decently early/mid game perspective i agee but by the end of the game i was certainly done, there is just no difficulty and as in depth as the combat moves seem it boils down to just set 1 move per line and spam it leaving every other spot blank. it unequips your accessories every 30 seconds it feels like and outside of exploring it just never felt enjoyable. people comparing this to as great a game as SO2 are crazy and is why i dont/shouldnt listen to reviewers. the lack of any space travel and the smal amount of maps (abiet large maps at least) was really disapointing after playing something like last hope.
Its a pretty good game, but honestly, we have seen this game countless of times by now. The big studios are, as they say, pretty much creatively bankrupt at this point. Thank god for indie devs.
I'll second that part about indies. :)
If you're only about 10 hours into it, the bad stuff in this game hasn't really hit you yet. The DUMA combat system is the 10/10 killer feature, and it's enough to carry the game for quite a few hours of play-time, but then you realize how flawed the game truly is. To wit:
-the tiny font size everything is in. I couldn't read anything, so I skipped tutorials because the font size everything is in makes me have to squint to read anything, and there's no option to increase it. Fortunately, this isn't a deal breaker since the game's controls are intuitive enough to pick up without a lot of explanation.
-The Menu system is terrible, it's byzantine and I could never get used to the layers upon layers of sub-menus. Your skill tree is not the only place you can spend those experience points, you can also spend it to power up your combos and to upgrade your crafting skill, all of which is explained terribly.
-The story is good, in my opinion, during the first half of the game, where you're playing in Lettucia's mid-eval fantasy world, but then I feel like the sci-fi part of the game, in the second half, falls apart completely. Also, the NPC dialogue, as in there are maybe 4 or 5 NPCs per town that you can actually talk to. Most NPCs do nothing, aside from fall over when you bump into them. Having played so many trails games in the last two years, it's hard to ask a man to come back to this after experiencing that. Put the story this way: when DUMA is a fun part of the combat and exploration, the game's story is good, when DUMA becomes the central part of the plot, the game falls apart. I feel like the first half had more time and effort put into it than the second half did.
-The esorwa (Spelling?) mini-game is fun, but getting started is pretty terribly implemented. To even be able to play it, you have to talk to a specific NPC in a specific town to get a starter set, and once you do, there is no one in that town that you are eligible to play until you've played a few games and you get your rank level up, so you have to back-track to the earlier towns and work your way up from there. If you want players to play and enjoy your mini-game, a good game design strategy is put as few barriers to entry to allow the player to just sit back and play as possible. You should be able to play as soon as you get the starter set, and that should be in the first town (or earlier) and how to do so should be clearly marked. Don't get me wrong, I had fun playing it, but putting the starter set in like the 4th town, and not having anyone in that town the player can play against right away, is a head-scratching game design move. Trails of Cold Steel didn't ask you to find a deck of blade cards, then back-track three towns to play the game, you're on the train heading to your field study and you play a game of cards because everyone in this universe has a deck.
-the game's terrain is large and empty. Large, spacious world maps with plenty of space does not equal good game design unless you do something with that space. There was one section, early on, where there is a ridge in the middle of a map and you need to climb up and down the ridge to get to the other side, and you can't simply run across. If they had done more of that, use that large space to put obstacles in the player's path, the game would have been better. Instead, it's largely big for the sake of being big, and the game has pretty sparse enemy encounters on the world map. I hated the amount of back-tracking in the mid-portion of the first half, "go all the way over here, talk to this one person, and come all the way back" type of deals. Just padding, nothing more.
This game isn't bad, as the DUMA combat system and DUMA exploration are really well done and elevate the game. Like I said, when DUMA is a game mechanic, the game is good, when DUMA is the game's plot, the game falls off significantly. I also didn't like the crafting system, note to star ocean games: stop trying to make luck based crafting systems happen, they aren't fun at all, they become boring crafting grinds until you luck out and get the thing you want. I'm playing Dragon Quest 11 right now, and that skill based crafting system is so much more fun; with Dragon Quest, I can actually get good and make the stuff I want and I can feel that I'm improving. This motivates me to keep trying to get better at it. Practice yields a tangible reward, SO is just luck, and that's terrible.
Again, I don't want to be too hard on this game, there was a lot to like, but it also has problems and felt like an incomplete game. Here's the best remark on the game I can give: despite Letuccia, Nina, Chloe and Elena all being hot, and despite them all being main characters, I'm sorry, but Lola is best girl.
Nina’s 15 🤨
Seems like a average hack button mashing game lite rpg with a story added to it.
I passed on this on launch Last hope had great gameplay but the most unlikable cast I had ever encountered in a JRPG and then I got integrity and Faithlessness and I both hated the gameplay and felt the cast bar 1 or 2 party members had no personality
But after seeing how well the reception for this one has been I bit the bullet and bought a copy at a Black Friday sale
I tryed the demo and nope, the combat really was not something i liked, even as a big Star ocean fan, this one just never felt right.