@@JimC1984 There was Star Ocean First Departure R that came out a couple years back. Out of that one, the last game, and now Divine Force. This is my favorite.
I liked the main male lead, come on in a lot of Japan's literature recently whether it's TV dramas or anime there's too many infeminate beta males type as the main lead and it infuriates the heck out of me To see a guy who's a total Chad doing Chad things that you do kind of wish you were who gets up close down and dirty showing compassion for his comrades putting on a strong front even when he's not feeling it cuz he wants to believe in his duties as a captain and even having skill sets and abilities that power up his comrade makes me so glad that he's a character in a video game right now coming from a Japan RPG I mean look at the last MC he was a quiet pretty boy with the edgy vague pass and dead Father and the last hope while being in all right game had very very meif characters like faize weird romance and then going crazy thing before his supposed death and edge having such a bad emo moment it bled into his characters victory sequence
I hope this does well enough to where Tri-Ace can stay open and keep making more Star Ocean titles. The Divine Force is literally their "Final Fantasy" moment...a last ditch effort to keep their doors open similar to Square back in the day with the first FF.
Exactly what i was thinking. I love tri-ace games. I just wish they had more budget to develop and polish their games. Hopefully, this star ocean gives them the jumpstart they need and be on par once again with the tales series.
@@suntzu4607 Thats actually pretty impressive, when i read the steam reviews i thought it didn't sell well lol, looks fun like a 7/10 game, definitely didn't deserve the mixed reviews rating
Ray the main character feels like a real person thats grounded and feels like a true leader. Hes never whiny but will stand his ground firmly and truthfully.
Yeah you picked me as the protagonist. And I'm glad you had fun with this game. And when you put into mind what Tri Ace went through when developing this game you begin to appreciate what they did over what they couldn't fully flesh out. At least that is what I did
Far as the point on the problem with Side Quest, NPC that give them are marked with a yellow circle on the map. The Esowa Quest is given In Rythal. To access the quest log, open the map (not the World Map) and there should be an option for it. On PS5 it was Triangle, I think. NPC on the map with a larger circle, usually can be spoken to and are able to play in Esowa. Your, not wrong that a lot of this information should have been provided to the player in-game. Also won't hurt to help provide that info in the video for the community. Remember Rpg rule tho, talk to everyone !! You will miss a lot less. Really surprised me, you only found 2 quest...
I'm still making my way through the game. But I'm definitely having a blast playing it. Side note on the mini game Es'owa. I love it. It is pretty simple and doesn't take to long (as long as you keep up with updating your deck). Maybe it is the pawns being characters from the previous games and that makes me want to keep playing it just to collect all the pieces lol
From the sound of things, Star Ocean is on the right path but isn't quite where it needs to be yet. I look forward to playing this game and can't wait to see what Star Ocean 7 does.
I loved this game - beautiful scenery, great music and good characters - a return to form for the series, and I hope they are rewarded for it and the series continues. Denuvo and performance issues on PC almost ruined it though. Hope some day they patch it so more folks can run at a smooth 60FPS.
Star ocean still needs alot of work, for a game that has a universe that you could explore it always hindered by rushing production and money issues. If they could actually get decent budget, good writing team and patience in development team this series could turn into triple A title. Possibilites are endless it's just never met with those ideas.
I played the demo and... i really like it! I felt sucked in and I wanted to keep going when I finished the demo - which is special to me! I hardly feel motivated to keep going after playing a game for an hour.
I understood the AP system right away for some reason this game reminds me very much of Star Ocean the Second Story... I remember how the battle system worked in that game and there were few other games that followed a similar battle system so once I played this one it was like instant muscle memory I had no problem adapting... it's very revamped compared to what it was but I'm glad that they did that and I'm glad that it's still the same type of battle system... and with being able to choose between two protagonists this game definitely feels like a return to form
You missed out on one of the coolest playable characters by choosing to play as Raymond, but I’m really glad you had a good time with the game and thank you for making a video explaining to people you felt you were wrong in what you said before!
The game is definitely better than the last one, hopefully in combination with the income from their mobile game that was shut down in 2021 and the more positive views from this game will keep the doors at Tri-Ace open. They have a fantastic world (well minus the BIG thing) that combines the best aspects of space operas. I hope they take the good stuff from this game and learn from their mistakes (particularly the presentation of the characters (faces are too much in the uncanny valley, semi-limited exploration, and too-narrow story). If you are a JRPG fan I would recommend grabbing this game when it goes on sale.
I really enjoyed it. I played about 40+ hours and didn't even get half of the sidequests done. Although maybe because I did several, I found the bosses quite easy in Normal difficulty, the hardest one for me was the worm because I was still getting the hang of it. I do have some complaints though: the fact that you only get 1 ending from the PA system. I was hoping to see small endings or scenes with the all characters after completing all the PAs and turns out you only get the one with highest affinity. Had I known that from the beginning, I wouldn't have wasted time going back a forth between towns finding all the PAs
Not sure there will be a next entry. I could be wrong, but this was probably Tri-Ace's do or die game, and I don't think it will do well enough to save them from the insolvency. That is unfortunate as Tri-Ace was one of my favorite developper when I was a teenager.
Man! Pretty happy to hear this game, it's defo one I want to get in the future. I liked the gravity rush reference haha.looking forward to the end of year stuff
Great video. I'm happy to hear that this new Star Ocean is better than the boring 'Faithless and Integrity' game. I plan to start Divine Force once i finish Persona 5 Royal. I was a huge fan of Star Ocean LAst Hope.
Feels like a very solid game to get on sale when it goes on sale then! Definitely interested but this month is just too packed with games, including tactics ogre.
Great job formulating your own opinion and playing the full game before reviewing it. When watching reviews of this game I got the impression many reviewers played the demo and wrote the entire review based off of that. I’ve been enjoying my time with the game and have been very impressed with the graphical fidelity and overall quality of the presentation. I think this games sets a new benchmark for b-tier RPGs and should be praised. I think back to the success of budget games like Trials of Mana and the huge success of that remake, which comparatively was really mediocre. This game should have greater success and yet it has been completely tossed aside with when games of much lesser quality but greater nostalgia appeal sell in huge numbers. Thanks for helping to show people that there is really something here to enjoy.
Thank you for the kind and thoughtful comment! I really do everything I can to make my reviews all encompassing, and of course actually finish the game 😉
Based on what I saw so far and after playing the demo, this isn't a game I would pay the full price for. It has "buy for a discounted price" written all over it. It's not AAA, why charge AAA prices? Ah, Squere Enix of course. The second area in the demo had huge framerate drops as well. Was that rectified?
So, to sum my Star Ocean history up: Loved Till the End of Time. Not so much liked The Last Hope. Really was surprised and liked Integrity and Faithnessless, despite all the critique. That taught me to not let myself be influenced by other's opinions. I liled the cast, I liked the fast paced combat. I even did all the sidequests, which is rare for me. And on top of that I thought the recycled OST not to be a downside, but a nostalgiaflash xD So... And now I click on this video and the first thing I see is some big boobed girl and then this protagonist, who's hairstyle makes me cringe every time, when I see it. Aww well...still gonna play it, I still got high hopes
Im glad i didnt listenened reviewers because im having a blast with it. Fun combat, lovable (and super funny) characters, gorgeous ost / art direction, super fun/movement exploration thanks to D.u.m.a.... great voice acting (heck they got my man matt mercer in it wtf) it's not perfect (there are some annoying stuff) but overall it's genuinely good?? like, i have very few complaints so far.
Good review and pretty much the general consensus. Rough but good I would have grabbed this too but Bayonetta 3 came out same time...and Ragnarok in a few days. Way too much stuff coming out now and next year haha.
Star Ocean 5 is now a textbook example of how much respect & faith a game series can lose. Not only is STILL the biggest joke in recent JRPG memory but effected the series to a point even "good enough" is acceptable to fans. Lastly, what's with the lack of recurring or creative races in the series? Is that so hard Tri-Ace?
I thought this would be a day one pickup for me but the demo + just timing pushed it back further on my priorities. Glad that the full game ended up better so I'm sure this will be worth nabbing on sale
that's how i feel about it, i'll get it maybe if it goes on sale during the holidays... it came out at a bad time, it's sandwiched between 3 of the biggest games this year (COD MWII, GOWR, and Sonic Frontiers) so it makes it hard to justify picking up
Glad you enjoyed it after all. Throughout the game only 3 bosses gave me "trouble" - the others I could somehow steamroll... don't ask how I did it, I mainly just played brute force and did not actively grind... I did have my own system when it came to selecting and upgrading skills tho. For my "main" I went the direction of getting to the most OP skill as soon as possible - and for my subs I went for HP and DEF only ^^; - my idea behind this was - I don't want my subs to die, I need them to stay alive at all costs, just in case my main dies. And the main should be able to dish out the most savage justice possible. XD Done. It was a lot of fun that way, for me.
I feel like Star Ocean is the epitome of a 7/10 jrpg. Some prominent jank in certain areas, a few annoying gameplay features that always seems a few years behind. But typically nestled in a great battle system and game world that is fun enough to explore. For me it's still a blast despite the shortcomings. I just hope enough people notice so that we get a more polished version of these gameplay systems down the line
It's weird that I don't agree with some of your statements/complaints. Quests are easily seen. They are yellow on your mini map and the npc has an exclamation point over their head when you interact. This is even covered in the first village you enter if you talk with the little girl a giant pop-up that tells you everything appears. There are several quests in the first three cities/towns you enter. The card system is literally in the first section when you walk into rythal. It is unlocked through a side quest which is again labeled on the minimap and further by interacting with your surroundings. The drawback of the quest system isn't finding the quests, its doing the quests. The quests are very dialogue driven and the tracker doesn't provide as much context as the intro dialogue of the quest. I think a lot of this doesn't stem from you or take away from your take on the game. I think it's just how we are wired as modern day gamers. All the other games are on rails, tell you where to go right down to the area on the map. Divine Force does not utilize these quality of life systems and makes players actually engage with the world to find things and rewards them for it.
I've played up to where you get Elena back and the game feels, I dunno. Soulless? The plot rushes by like they knew it wasn't very interesting, the characters are WAY too chill about there being a space man and robot girl here, and what should've been larger character moments came and went like a dose of the squirts. The characters are very fun and the combat is a blast so I'll stick it out hoping for the best.
I think the game is amazing but yes with a few flaws. I’m sure square Enix didn’t properly fund this game like they would with a final fantasy title which led to the issues we see. The walking and faces for one 😂 but it became some comical relief for me. The flaws didn’t bother me much and I Hope they get another chance with the necessary funding to put out a 10. For me it was an 8.5-9 out of 10.
@@slipstream7324 I understand what you mean. If I didn't enjoy the game and was just playing "just because", I'd be doing it out of obligation. I don't hate this game at all. I still enjoy the battle system and the story is better than I thought, its still fun to play
You need to go back and play the mini game if you didn't. It's basically gwent all over again. Lol It's simple, but extremely fun. It's more of a board game with figures instead of a card game though. You probably noticed the figurines In your inventory because you could equip them as accessories for Stat boosts.
Elena is the most underrated waifu this year and Nina the ideal daughter i want to have with Elena ;) the game is a whole other league than the 2016 Star Ocean, doll like character models are like a trademark of this series, so i am not bothered that much, although i also wished for more expressive faces. but better bad facial expressions than bad voice acting, you can still find the cutscenes of Star Wars KOTOR engaging thx to the excellent voice acting that game had and Divine Forces voice acting is superb and transports the necessary emotions...
It looks great and I'm very tempted, but the last 2 Star Ocean releases burned me so bad the wound is still scorching. I think I'll wait till at least half off discount on this one. Plus hearing that facial animations haven't been improved on makes me wanna wait for 75% off now.
Boss is easy to kill especially when you use Albaird his very OP. Just MAX his boomerang skills and you should know how to sidestep. My favorite is Theo as he is very tanky that he did not die in every fight.
I actually put the game on hold after your previous assessment because I agreed but I was already overwhelmed with the skills system and the small fonts, I still wanna get but it but not at full price .
The sidequests are marked on the map with small yellow dots, but are still easy to miss. To be honest, you haven't missed much. These quests are sometimes really annyoing and mostly typical fetch quests. Es'owa or whatever the game is called isn't much fun either. You unlock it in a quest. It's some kind of board game and most of the time I don't understand what's going on and it drags on and on... But besides that the game is really fun. It's not the best game ever, but it's good.
Yeah I found those dots near the end of the game and felt stupid but again the game doesn’t really explain it well. And glad I’m not missing much with the board game 😆
I've played relatively little of the game, but your observations are all eerily similar to my own. The difficulty spikes are off-putting, not unlike Raymond's scars. Exploring the exquisitely rendered environments requires a considerable time investment, with modest compensation in return. I'm probably not optimizing the battle system or character development, but I manage. Regardless of the title's various strengths and weaknesses, I'm aware of a constant feeling that I'm...missing something. Perhaps that "something" is merely a strategy guide.🙂
I thought it was amazing. It overcame the slow paced traversing of JRPG while keeping the classic elements like character dynamic, melancholy and charming towns. My wish list would be to have maybe 7 or 8 AP out of the gate for ranged class. Otherwise they all become the same, opening every battle with DUMA which puts you in a melee combat. A bit random, but kudos SE for adding a dead zone setting for the camera control on a controller. If you have a well trained right thumb, SE games can feel really sloppy and unsatisfying because of their customary big dead zone.
Wow not playing the board game locks you out of amazing accessories for the characters. The figures you win after playing an opponent the first time doubles as higher tier pieces to play the game with to help you win but also can be equipped. Some of these are OP like one that grants skills to freeze your enemies or gain huge healing buffs…
@@TheGamingShelf yeah dude I’m only in the middle of chapter 2 but I’ve got two figures from the board game that improves her skills a ton. One boosts her healing to all allies by 30% and the other heals herself for 20% every time she uses any heal skill. Improves her build a bunch imho.
More than once I've seen people complaining about the characters in JRPGs and how they behave or the sheer expression of emotions in animations or body language. And then it turned out that they used dubbing. After all, it's not hard to understand that it's impossible to render a completely different culture, language and pop culture in dubbing. It will never work no matter if we are talking about Japanese game dubbed to English or English game dubbed into other language. If you want to experience something the way the creators intended, don't use dubbing. The facial animations and body language of the characters reflect very well how the whole thing was originally created. You can't hold a grudge against the creators that some third-party company that has nothing to do with creators itself has once again completely failed in creating the dubbing. Rather, you resent yourself for using dubbing. You didn't say if you used the dub or original, but from the way you describe the whole thing I'm almost certain you definitely used the dub. And I sincerely feel sorry for destroying the whole characterization for yourself.
I totally disagree. I play every JRPG in English if available and very very few do I have this level of issues with the art style and their facial animations. Persona 3,4,5, Tales of Arise, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ni no Kuni, I could go on...All JRPGs that I have 0 issues with in terms of art style and facial animations when playing with the dub.
@@TheGamingShelf It still doesn't change the fact that this is a problem with garbo dub, not the game and original creators. These characters are animated properly to original script and original culture. Dubs for any foreign media are always the inferior way to consume it because they aren't made by original creators, writers and directors.
@@TheGamingShelf your list misses 1 big thing that they all have in common. Persona 3, 4, 5 = anime with still portraits to display emotion. Tales of arise = anime Ni no Kuni = anime Dragon Quest 11 = anime Ff7R is an outlier and that's because it has AAA money (and possibly facial motion capture) behind it.
I don't know, Integrity at least launched for me. This game surprised me by immediately crashing as soon as I started running around. I guess there are patches in the future?
I know I am late to the party but can some one please answer me if the big futuristic sword that ray has in the cover is it obtainable in game ? cuase I already have 38 hrs in the game and didn't got that sword I really like the design. cuase if not in the game that is false advertisement would really apreciet if anyone can answer me that please hope everybody is having a wonderful day.
I went from "this is going to be my first star ocean!" to "expecting it to be another bad game after playing the demo" and finally to "purchase on sale after reviewing demos". Hopefully mods will be able to fix some issues with the games
The game felt lackluster at best. I agree with most of what you say. DUMA was a cheap implementation to add excitement in combat and was clunky and unfun.
I honestly want interested in this at all. Then I played the demo had a few laughs and just a good time so long as I didn't look directly at the characters lol
haha yea worm boss was easy af. I didn't even die, and was kinda disappointed it was so easy. all I did was stick to him and didn't try to fight him at range.
Some of the problems with the voice acting and facial animation is that square enix really deviated from the Japanese dubs and I mean like obnoxiously so in some cases Square enix the company compared to the actual development team are really trying to push like pro-westerner pro worldwide acceptance while ignoring the fact that a lot of us fans really don't want it and I feel like they're going to drive the company into the ground if they keep doing this So at least in the English one the voices are going to be no sweet off in terms of the animation that the characters are actually making
Too bad square releasing all these more niche games in rapid fire so many will probably fall under the radar for many. Star Ocean deserves all the attention it can get, and hopefully we'd get Valkyrie Profile 3 someday.
This definitely has that star ocean feel, but with that being said there are too many shortcomings that ultimately made me stop playing before finishing the game. I'm at the part right after I recruited J.J. but I'm really not interested in going back and playing the rest. abysmally small font, creation menu is pointless/tedious/unrewarding, fetch quests galore, character models (especially the emperor's character model... omg his face is an abomination lol), combat is really the only good thing in this game. Also the minigame was interesting the 1st 3 games, and then it's an absolute chore the rest. I actually feel like I've put in so many hours into this game and in reality I'm at 28 - 30 hours. I'm around lvl 80? Max level is 225? It's one of those games I've lost interest in finishing, Overall generic but not cheated. The best way I could describe this game is, sometimes less is more.
Star ocean has always had bad facial animations lol its kinda a weird yet good charm to it. Its something that lets you know its a star ocean game lol. Ill try the demo tonight and maybe pick it up on sale.
I watched other people video about all the characters battle skills, i think all battle skills in this star ocean are meh. I didnt see flashy battle skills like in star ocean 3 and 4.
Man... I love me my JRPGs but damn is it infuriating that the "4 party members" trope is so boring to me at this point. Why not 5? Why not 10? I'm sure we have the technology to do this.
Not hard to top I&F. God that game is terrible. I've been an SO fan since I played SO2 way back in the day. I love SO3, and SO4 is good. Hope this game is a return to form.
It's rough and I found myself really slogging to finish the last dungeon but overall liked it. It's not terrible but it feels under cooked, ranging from cutscenes feeling disjointed to voice acting feeling wooden, despite having some well known and often used VA's (probably a voice direction issue) The mini game was simple but well designed and overall I felt like a Star Ocean game (unlike whatever the hell the previous game was) Mechanically I think the battle skills needed fleshing out more, as many of the harder to unlock moves were worse or had animations so long they were pointless to have.
I only unlocked the first tab for crafting. No idea how to do the rest or where to unlock it lol. Like I said in the review, I felt like the game did a poor job of explaining its side activities.
@@TheGamingShelf Welch contacts you from time to time after you unlock the first tab. That means you need to return to her for your next quest to unlock next crafting option.
When you don’t read tutorials you don’t know how to do things the game clearly states side quests are gold on the map and if you’ve ever played star ocean you know all shops have side quests
I guess it’s fair to call you trash for judging a game from its demo 😂. Hopefully you learn from this as Tri-Ace deserves a second chance as they did have a history of making very good games in the past.
I love ur videos dude ❤️❤️ but I stopped watching when u said u don't have to have the main character all the time which I appreciated, that sentence triggered me 😂😂😂 cuz me when I play a jrpg I hate when games made me remove the main character, and if a game have that option I just put the main character with me all the time, cuz when I play those type of game I want the main character to feel like my own character I want to feel immersed in that world I don't want to just play the game and watch the story, I want to feel like I am part of the characters lives, and that why I love the persona series u always play the main protagonist and u can't remove him from ur party which it perfect for me, so yes and this game it not appealing to me cuz it have duel protagonist I just prefer one protagonist in a jrpg that's all.
If you can't/don't have resources to do non-freaky faces or proper animations, just use 2D illustrations with a variety of expressions. Works much better. As is, I can't stand the look of the characters. Then again I don't like their designs either.
No wonder they cant ever get games right anymore.. half their audience doesnt want the difficult bosses and giant customizable character development (as in this reviewer).. and the other half like myself are getting bored with games taking the thought process out of developing your characters or fighting and overcoming difficult bosses.... why do people think we should be able to beat these games without any trouble on our first attempts?? ... thats isnt fun or rewarding
@@TheGamingShelf Some people seem to equate senseless difficulty spikes with challenge. Like, if you need me to learn a pattern or figure out weaknesses, I am on board. If you simply add a ton of HP and jack up the damage to call it a boss, that is not challenging. It is annoying.
🌟What are your thoughts on Star Ocean: The Divine Force?
Definitely the best Star Ocean game since The Last Hope 👍
@@jb0258 i mean the only star ocean game in between that was the most major flop in history so that statement doesnt say much ....
liked the demo, decided to get full game, the battle system especially is really fun, have great hopes for the story
@@JimC1984 There was Star Ocean First Departure R that came out a couple years back. Out of that one, the last game, and now Divine Force. This is my favorite.
I liked the main male lead, come on in a lot of Japan's literature recently whether it's TV dramas or anime there's too many infeminate beta males type as the main lead and it infuriates the heck out of me
To see a guy who's a total Chad doing Chad things that you do kind of wish you were who gets up close down and dirty showing compassion for his comrades putting on a strong front even when he's not feeling it cuz he wants to believe in his duties as a captain and even having skill sets and abilities that power up his comrade makes me so glad that he's a character in a video game right now coming from a Japan RPG
I mean look at the last MC he was a quiet pretty boy with the edgy vague pass and dead Father and the last hope while being in all right game had very very meif characters like faize weird romance and then going crazy thing before his supposed death and edge having such a bad emo moment it bled into his characters victory sequence
I hope this does well enough to where Tri-Ace can stay open and keep making more Star Ocean titles. The Divine Force is literally their "Final Fantasy" moment...a last ditch effort to keep their doors open similar to Square back in the day with the first FF.
Exactly what i was thinking. I love tri-ace games. I just wish they had more budget to develop and polish their games. Hopefully, this star ocean gives them the jumpstart they need and be on par once again with the tales series.
It did sell well. Was one of the top 10 sales in its first week of release, top 3 to be exact. Outsold CoD MW2 and Bayo 3. Hence. we got SO2 R.
@@suntzu4607 Thats actually pretty impressive, when i read the steam reviews i thought it didn't sell well lol, looks fun like a 7/10 game, definitely didn't deserve the mixed reviews rating
Everyone buy it to keep Tri-Ace and Star Ocean alive.
No lie...the only reason I bought it. I haven't even played it yet lol. I'll probably get to it eventually, but right now i have no reason to play it.
@@shadowace940 At the very least I've heard it's good.
The only reason I haven't touched it yet is I'm seeing if it's gonna get any DLC or not.
@@shadowace940have you played it yet?
@@tolkienblack Not yet. And what's worse, now I have to buy Star Ocean 2 R when it comes out. I have quite the backlog already lol
Ray the main character feels like a real person thats grounded and feels like a true leader. Hes never whiny but will stand his ground firmly and truthfully.
Yeah you picked me as the protagonist. And I'm glad you had fun with this game. And when you put into mind what Tri Ace went through when developing this game you begin to appreciate what they did over what they couldn't fully flesh out. At least that is what I did
Star ocean is a great game. And I found myself liking all the characters.
Far as the point on the problem with Side Quest, NPC that give them are marked with a yellow circle on the map. The Esowa Quest is given In Rythal. To access the quest log, open the map (not the World Map) and there should be an option for it. On PS5 it was Triangle, I think. NPC on the map with a larger circle, usually can be spoken to and are able to play in Esowa. Your, not wrong that a lot of this information should have been provided to the player in-game. Also won't hurt to help provide that info in the video for the community. Remember Rpg rule tho, talk to everyone !! You will miss a lot less. Really surprised me, you only found 2 quest...
I'm still making my way through the game. But I'm definitely having a blast playing it.
Side note on the mini game Es'owa. I love it. It is pretty simple and doesn't take to long (as long as you keep up with updating your deck). Maybe it is the pawns being characters from the previous games and that makes me want to keep playing it just to collect all the pieces lol
From the sound of things, Star Ocean is on the right path but isn't quite where it needs to be yet. I look forward to playing this game and can't wait to see what Star Ocean 7 does.
well bad news for you . Tri-Ace - the makers of this game, have declared bancrupcy, just after releasing this game... so....
I loved this game - beautiful scenery, great music and good characters - a return to form for the series, and I hope they are rewarded for it and the series continues. Denuvo and performance issues on PC almost ruined it though. Hope some day they patch it so more folks can run at a smooth 60FPS.
I hope so too!
50% of my playthrough is the “card game” ❤️
I even dream about Esowa in my sleep 😂
Star ocean still needs alot of work, for a game that has a universe that you could explore it always hindered by rushing production and money issues.
If they could actually get decent budget, good writing team and patience in development team this series could turn into triple A title.
Possibilites are endless it's just never met with those ideas.
@yourleftnut1Yes,exactly
Great review as always. I don't have time to play this for quite a while but it's going down on my Christmas list now.
Will probably be on sale by then too!
I played the demo and... i really like it! I felt sucked in and I wanted to keep going when I finished the demo - which is special to me! I hardly feel motivated to keep going after playing a game for an hour.
I understood the AP system right away for some reason this game reminds me very much of Star Ocean the Second Story... I remember how the battle system worked in that game and there were few other games that followed a similar battle system so once I played this one it was like instant muscle memory I had no problem adapting... it's very revamped compared to what it was but I'm glad that they did that and I'm glad that it's still the same type of battle system... and with being able to choose between two protagonists this game definitely feels like a return to form
You missed out on one of the coolest playable characters by choosing to play as Raymond, but I’m really glad you had a good time with the game and thank you for making a video explaining to people you felt you were wrong in what you said before!
I didn’t even know there were other characters! Who was it out of curiosity?
@@TheGamingShelf The character names of route exclusive playable characters were JJ And Theo
Oh interesting! They aren’t just guest characters. That’s super cool.
The game is definitely better than the last one, hopefully in combination with the income from their mobile game that was shut down in 2021 and the more positive views from this game will keep the doors at Tri-Ace open. They have a fantastic world (well minus the BIG thing) that combines the best aspects of space operas. I hope they take the good stuff from this game and learn from their mistakes (particularly the presentation of the characters (faces are too much in the uncanny valley, semi-limited exploration, and too-narrow story).
If you are a JRPG fan I would recommend grabbing this game when it goes on sale.
I really enjoyed it. I played about 40+ hours and didn't even get half of the sidequests done. Although maybe because I did several, I found the bosses quite easy in Normal difficulty, the hardest one for me was the worm because I was still getting the hang of it. I do have some complaints though: the fact that you only get 1 ending from the PA system. I was hoping to see small endings or scenes with the all characters after completing all the PAs and turns out you only get the one with highest affinity. Had I known that from the beginning, I wouldn't have wasted time going back a forth between towns finding all the PAs
The combat is made to switch between characters frequently to bypass running out of AP
I see. Meh, I had more fun just relying on the other chars AI - while I run around waiting for my AP to recover lol
Not sure there will be a next entry. I could be wrong, but this was probably Tri-Ace's do or die game, and I don't think it will do well enough to save them from the insolvency. That is unfortunate as Tri-Ace was one of my favorite developper when I was a teenager.
Man! Pretty happy to hear this game, it's defo one I want to get in the future. I liked the gravity rush reference haha.looking forward to the end of year stuff
It should be fun to put together! Normally I only do Top 5s but this year was loaded so I think I’ll have to do too 10s.
@@TheGamingShelf I can't wait to see it man! It's been a stacked year!!! I really enjoy creating top 5s at the moment on my channel!
They’re super fun to make! People love watching them too so it’s a win-win
So far, I haven't struggled with any of the bosses, but I also enjoy the combat so much that I end up grinding without really intending to grind.
Great video. I'm happy to hear that this new Star Ocean is better than the boring 'Faithless and Integrity' game.
I plan to start Divine Force once i finish Persona 5 Royal. I was a huge fan of Star Ocean LAst Hope.
It’s a solid game for sure! Not gonna blow you away but a real solid game.
Feels like a very solid game to get on sale when it goes on sale then! Definitely interested but this month is just too packed with games, including tactics ogre.
Yeah, squenix pricing in my region is criminal, can't help triace there
I think you’re making the right move 😎
Great job formulating your own opinion and playing the full game before reviewing it. When watching reviews of this game I got the impression many reviewers played the demo and wrote the entire review based off of that.
I’ve been enjoying my time with the game and have been very impressed with the graphical fidelity and overall quality of the presentation. I think this games sets a new benchmark for b-tier RPGs and should be praised. I think back to the success of budget games like Trials of Mana and the huge success of that remake, which comparatively was really mediocre. This game should have greater success and yet it has been completely tossed aside with when games of much lesser quality but greater nostalgia appeal sell in huge numbers.
Thanks for helping to show people that there is really something here to enjoy.
Thank you for the kind and thoughtful comment! I really do everything I can to make my reviews all encompassing, and of course actually finish the game 😉
I had mad fun playing with this game to the point of almost quitting games all together.
Based on what I saw so far and after playing the demo, this isn't a game I would pay the full price for. It has "buy for a discounted price" written all over it. It's not AAA, why charge AAA prices?
Ah, Squere Enix of course.
The second area in the demo had huge framerate drops as well. Was that rectified?
Most of the framerate issues are fixed outside of one area later in the game that's just a mess.
So, to sum my Star Ocean history up:
Loved Till the End of Time. Not so much liked The Last Hope. Really was surprised and liked Integrity and Faithnessless, despite all the critique. That taught me to not let myself be influenced by other's opinions. I liled the cast, I liked the fast paced combat. I even did all the sidequests, which is rare for me. And on top of that I thought the recycled OST not to be a downside, but a nostalgiaflash xD So...
And now I click on this video and the first thing I see is some big boobed girl and then this protagonist, who's hairstyle makes me cringe every time, when I see it. Aww well...still gonna play it, I still got high hopes
Im glad i didnt listenened reviewers because im having a blast with it. Fun combat, lovable (and super funny) characters, gorgeous ost / art direction, super fun/movement exploration thanks to D.u.m.a.... great voice acting (heck they got my man matt mercer in it wtf)
it's not perfect (there are some annoying stuff) but overall it's genuinely good?? like, i have very few complaints so far.
Good review and pretty much the general consensus. Rough but good I would have grabbed this too but Bayonetta 3 came out same time...and Ragnarok in a few days.
Way too much stuff coming out now and next year haha.
I agree 100%! Both games look fantastic and this will probably drop in price in a month or 2 anyways.
Star Ocean 5 is now a textbook example of how much respect & faith a game series can lose. Not only is STILL the biggest joke in recent JRPG memory but effected the series to a point even "good enough" is acceptable to fans. Lastly, what's with the lack of recurring or creative races in the series? Is that so hard Tri-Ace?
I thought this would be a day one pickup for me but the demo + just timing pushed it back further on my priorities. Glad that the full game ended up better so I'm sure this will be worth nabbing on sale
that's how i feel about it, i'll get it maybe if it goes on sale during the holidays... it came out at a bad time, it's sandwiched between 3 of the biggest games this year (COD MWII, GOWR, and Sonic Frontiers) so it makes it hard to justify picking up
Same here. I'll probably wait for a sale. It looks good but not "Tales of Arise" good. Something feels wrong about paying the same price for it.
Glad you enjoyed it after all.
Throughout the game only 3 bosses gave me "trouble" - the others I could somehow steamroll... don't ask how I did it, I mainly just played brute force and did not actively grind...
I did have my own system when it came to selecting and upgrading skills tho. For my "main" I went the direction of getting to the most OP skill as soon as possible - and for my subs I went for HP and DEF only ^^; - my idea behind this was - I don't want my subs to die, I need them to stay alive at all costs, just in case my main dies. And the main should be able to dish out the most savage justice possible. XD Done. It was a lot of fun that way, for me.
Even with good combat, the lackluster story was putting me off. The shorter length might be enough to nudge me toward trying it though!
I feel like Star Ocean is the epitome of a 7/10 jrpg. Some prominent jank in certain areas, a few annoying gameplay features that always seems a few years behind. But typically nestled in a great battle system and game world that is fun enough to explore.
For me it's still a blast despite the shortcomings. I just hope enough people notice so that we get a more polished version of these gameplay systems down the line
It's weird that I don't agree with some of your statements/complaints. Quests are easily seen. They are yellow on your mini map and the npc has an exclamation point over their head when you interact. This is even covered in the first village you enter if you talk with the little girl a giant pop-up that tells you everything appears. There are several quests in the first three cities/towns you enter.
The card system is literally in the first section when you walk into rythal. It is unlocked through a side quest which is again labeled on the minimap and further by interacting with your surroundings.
The drawback of the quest system isn't finding the quests, its doing the quests. The quests are very dialogue driven and the tracker doesn't provide as much context as the intro dialogue of the quest.
I think a lot of this doesn't stem from you or take away from your take on the game. I think it's just how we are wired as modern day gamers. All the other games are on rails, tell you where to go right down to the area on the map. Divine Force does not utilize these quality of life systems and makes players actually engage with the world to find things and rewards them for it.
I've played up to where you get Elena back and the game feels, I dunno. Soulless? The plot rushes by like they knew it wasn't very interesting, the characters are WAY too chill about there being a space man and robot girl here, and what should've been larger character moments came and went like a dose of the squirts. The characters are very fun and the combat is a blast so I'll stick it out hoping for the best.
You’re not wrong. The story is definitely the weakest part.
I think the game is amazing but yes with a few flaws. I’m sure square Enix didn’t properly fund this game like they would with a final fantasy title which led to the issues we see. The walking and faces for one 😂 but it became some comical relief for me. The flaws didn’t bother me much and I Hope they get another chance with the necessary funding to put out a 10. For me it was an 8.5-9 out of 10.
5:59 "designs" heh heh
Im about 85% done and I am enjoying it. Is it a great game? No, but it is a decent game about an 8/10. The ost is banging
8/10 is a great score imo. I’m quite hard with games so for me 8/10 is very very good.
sounds like you're playing the game out of obligation
@@slipstream7324 im playing a game because ive enjoyed the series in the past? If that's obligation, then sure
@@nunyabusiness69 don't take what i said as a 'slight.' i felt like i was playing a mediocre sequel to a game out of obligation before.
@@slipstream7324 I understand what you mean. If I didn't enjoy the game and was just playing "just because", I'd be doing it out of obligation. I don't hate this game at all. I still enjoy the battle system and the story is better than I thought, its still fun to play
You need to go back and play the mini game if you didn't. It's basically gwent all over again. Lol It's simple, but extremely fun. It's more of a board game with figures instead of a card game though. You probably noticed the figurines In your inventory because you could equip them as accessories for Stat boosts.
Elena is the most underrated waifu this year and Nina the ideal daughter i want to have with Elena ;)
the game is a whole other league than the 2016 Star Ocean, doll like character models are like a trademark of this series, so i am not bothered that much, although i also wished for more expressive faces. but better bad facial expressions than bad voice acting, you can still find the cutscenes of Star Wars KOTOR engaging thx to the excellent voice acting that game had and Divine Forces voice acting is superb and transports the necessary emotions...
It looks great and I'm very tempted, but the last 2 Star Ocean releases burned me so bad the wound is still scorching. I think I'll wait till at least half off discount on this one. Plus hearing that facial animations haven't been improved on makes me wanna wait for 75% off now.
I preordered the deluxe edition for my PS5. But it is still in my backlog, I will probably buy for PC as well to support.
Boss is easy to kill especially when you use Albaird his very OP. Just MAX his boomerang skills and you should know how to sidestep. My favorite is Theo as he is very tanky that he did not die in every fight.
seems like a great game to buy for 75% off
My thoughts, exactly
I had no issue finding side quests, also i felt the bosses were too easy on galaxy difficulty least til the last 4 hours of the game
I actually put the game on hold after your previous assessment because I agreed but I was already overwhelmed with the skills system and the small fonts, I still wanna get but it but not at full price .
It'll probably drop in price quickly so thats smart.
The sidequests are marked on the map with small yellow dots, but are still easy to miss. To be honest, you haven't missed much. These quests are sometimes really annyoing and mostly typical fetch quests. Es'owa or whatever the game is called isn't much fun either. You unlock it in a quest. It's some kind of board game and most of the time I don't understand what's going on and it drags on and on...
But besides that the game is really fun. It's not the best game ever, but it's good.
Yeah I found those dots near the end of the game and felt stupid but again the game doesn’t really explain it well. And glad I’m not missing much with the board game 😆
I've played relatively little of the game, but your observations are all eerily similar to my own. The difficulty spikes are off-putting, not unlike Raymond's scars. Exploring the exquisitely rendered environments requires a considerable time investment, with modest compensation in return. I'm probably not optimizing the battle system or character development, but I manage. Regardless of the title's various strengths and weaknesses, I'm aware of a constant feeling that I'm...missing something. Perhaps that "something" is merely a strategy guide.🙂
I thought it was amazing. It overcame the slow paced traversing of JRPG while keeping the classic elements like character dynamic, melancholy and charming towns.
My wish list would be to have maybe 7 or 8 AP out of the gate for ranged class. Otherwise they all become the same, opening every battle with DUMA which puts you in a melee combat.
A bit random, but kudos SE for adding a dead zone setting for the camera control on a controller. If you have a well trained right thumb, SE games can feel really sloppy and unsatisfying because of their customary big dead zone.
Would future star oceans games be better served going turn based like DQ11
raymond belongs in an 80s hair band
Wow not playing the board game locks you out of amazing accessories for the characters. The figures you win after playing an opponent the first time doubles as higher tier pieces to play the game with to help you win but also can be equipped. Some of these are OP like one that grants skills to freeze your enemies or gain huge healing buffs…
No wonder Nina wasn’t as good as I hoped lol. If I reply this I’ll have to try it!
@@TheGamingShelf yeah dude I’m only in the middle of chapter 2 but I’ve got two figures from the board game that improves her skills a ton. One boosts her healing to all allies by 30% and the other heals herself for 20% every time she uses any heal skill. Improves her build a bunch imho.
More than once I've seen people complaining about the characters in JRPGs and how they behave or the sheer expression of emotions in animations or body language. And then it turned out that they used dubbing. After all, it's not hard to understand that it's impossible to render a completely different culture, language and pop culture in dubbing. It will never work no matter if we are talking about Japanese game dubbed to English or English game dubbed into other language.
If you want to experience something the way the creators intended, don't use dubbing.
The facial animations and body language of the characters reflect very well how the whole thing was originally created. You can't hold a grudge against the creators that some third-party company that has nothing to do with creators itself has once again completely failed in creating the dubbing. Rather, you resent yourself for using dubbing.
You didn't say if you used the dub or original, but from the way you describe the whole thing I'm almost certain you definitely used the dub. And I sincerely feel sorry for destroying the whole characterization for yourself.
100% this
I totally disagree. I play every JRPG in English if available and very very few do I have this level of issues with the art style and their facial animations. Persona 3,4,5, Tales of Arise, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ni no Kuni, I could go on...All JRPGs that I have 0 issues with in terms of art style and facial animations when playing with the dub.
@@TheGamingShelf It still doesn't change the fact that this is a problem with garbo dub, not the game and original creators. These characters are animated properly to original script and original culture. Dubs for any foreign media are always the inferior way to consume it because they aren't made by original creators, writers and directors.
@@TheGamingShelf your list misses 1 big thing that they all have in common.
Persona 3, 4, 5 = anime with still portraits to display emotion.
Tales of arise = anime
Ni no Kuni = anime
Dragon Quest 11 = anime
Ff7R is an outlier and that's because it has AAA money (and possibly facial motion capture) behind it.
I'm disappointed in lack of romance. 4 was great in that aspect..
I don't know, Integrity at least launched for me. This game surprised me by immediately crashing as soon as I started running around. I guess there are patches in the future?
I know I am late to the party but can some one please answer me if the big futuristic sword that ray has in the cover is it obtainable in game ? cuase I already have 38 hrs in the game and didn't got that sword I really like the design.
cuase if not in the game that is false advertisement would really apreciet if anyone can answer me that please hope everybody is having a wonderful day.
I went from "this is going to be my first star ocean!" to "expecting it to be another bad game after playing the demo" and finally to "purchase on sale after reviewing demos". Hopefully mods will be able to fix some issues with the games
Soul hackers was very meh. I’m glad this is better then I 1st thought.
The characters literally look like an irl person wearing a kigurumi mask
seems like an indie game that should be 30 or 40$ instead of full price
I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I think waiting for a sale is probably smart.
Feels like an old star ocean/tri-Ace game. Tons of little Easter eggs for old fans.
This said, I'm loving it so much.
if this game doesn't sell well tri-ace will go bankrupt
Sad but probably true :/
The game felt lackluster at best. I agree with most of what you say. DUMA was a cheap implementation to add excitement in combat and was clunky and unfun.
No explanation about crafting?
yay! star ocean has been saved!🤣🤣🥳🥳......right? but no seriously i cant wait to play the full game myself. nice review taylor.
It’s on the right track! I’m waiting for its “Tales of Arise moment” but it’s not quite there.
@@TheGamingShelf yeah me too, i thnk it will get there now after seeing and playing this.
Got it day 1 love it so far
@@Black_Numba1 cool man love to hear that
I honestly want interested in this at all. Then I played the demo had a few laughs and just a good time so long as I didn't look directly at the characters lol
🤣
The character design is great.
I hear everyone complaining about the worm boss... but he seemed super easy to me :/
I’m jealous!
haha yea worm boss was easy af. I didn't even die, and was kinda disappointed it was so easy. all I did was stick to him and didn't try to fight him at range.
Some of the problems with the voice acting and facial animation is that square enix really deviated from the Japanese dubs and I mean like obnoxiously so in some cases
Square enix the company compared to the actual development team are really trying to push like pro-westerner pro worldwide acceptance while ignoring the fact that a lot of us fans really don't want it and I feel like they're going to drive the company into the ground if they keep doing this
So at least in the English one the voices are going to be no sweet off in terms of the animation that the characters are actually making
Too bad square releasing all these more niche games in rapid fire so many will probably fall under the radar for many. Star Ocean deserves all the attention it can get, and hopefully we'd get Valkyrie Profile 3 someday.
This definitely has that star ocean feel, but with that being said there are too many shortcomings that ultimately made me stop playing before finishing the game. I'm at the part right after I recruited J.J. but I'm really not interested in going back and playing the rest. abysmally small font, creation menu is pointless/tedious/unrewarding, fetch quests galore, character models (especially the emperor's character model... omg his face is an abomination lol), combat is really the only good thing in this game. Also the minigame was interesting the 1st 3 games, and then it's an absolute chore the rest. I actually feel like I've put in so many hours into this game and in reality I'm at 28 - 30 hours. I'm around lvl 80? Max level is 225? It's one of those games I've lost interest in finishing, Overall generic but not cheated.
The best way I could describe this game is, sometimes less is more.
Star ocean has always had bad facial animations lol its kinda a weird yet good charm to it. Its something that lets you know its a star ocean game lol. Ill try the demo tonight and maybe pick it up on sale.
this game is amazing, nothing much else to say.
rip Gravity Rush.
😭
Esowa is Love
Esowa is Life
Hopefully after Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness failed , this will revitalize the series
Definitely a enjoyable game. Some annoying flaws here and there but I definitely like rhe game so far
I wanna play it so bad but the performance on PC seems to be terrible...
Really? That’s a real bummer to hear.
I don’t get that blindside system
yeah I thought it would be well kinda bad after the last game end up finding it pretty good...I guess tri-ace last hope
I watched someone play the demo. I had a hard time listening to the voice acting not matching up to the facial animations at all.
Raymond legit looks like he’s a tweaked character out of The Dark Crystal.
very positive sounding review among the loud shitstorm which rained on this game
I watched other people video about all the characters battle skills, i think all battle skills in this star ocean are meh. I didnt see flashy battle skills like in star ocean 3 and 4.
Man... I love me my JRPGs but damn is it infuriating that the "4 party members" trope is so boring to me at this point. Why not 5? Why not 10? I'm sure we have the technology to do this.
Not hard to top I&F. God that game is terrible.
I've been an SO fan since I played SO2 way back in the day. I love SO3, and SO4 is good. Hope this game is a return to form.
It's rough and I found myself really slogging to finish the last dungeon but overall liked it.
It's not terrible but it feels under cooked, ranging from cutscenes feeling disjointed to voice acting feeling wooden, despite having some well known and often used VA's (probably a voice direction issue)
The mini game was simple but well designed and overall I felt like a Star Ocean game (unlike whatever the hell the previous game was)
Mechanically I think the battle skills needed fleshing out more, as many of the harder to unlock moves were worse or had animations so long they were pointless to have.
No card game.. I'm guessing you didn't unlock crafting.. almost no side quest.. Did you even play the game? lol
I only unlocked the first tab for crafting. No idea how to do the rest or where to unlock it lol. Like I said in the review, I felt like the game did a poor job of explaining its side activities.
@@TheGamingShelf Welch contacts you from time to time after you unlock the first tab. That means you need to return to her for your next quest to unlock next crafting option.
Seriously lol
When you don’t read tutorials you don’t know how to do things the game clearly states side quests are gold on the map and if you’ve ever played star ocean you know all shops have side quests
i was so surprised when we actually got to leave the planet
I never thought it would happen!
The title made me think it was going to be a more positive review lol
Watch my demo review and then this. Definitely more positive by comparison, but I could see how you would this this.
The character models just completely kill my desire to play the game lol
the square fanboys will slate you for mentioning anything negative with it fml
I’m used to it lol
I guess it’s fair to call you trash for judging a game from its demo 😂. Hopefully you learn from this as Tri-Ace deserves a second chance as they did have a history of making very good games in the past.
Not for $80.
I don't get the hate for I&F, it's not anything to write home about but it's certainly not the worst game out there.
I love ur videos dude ❤️❤️ but I stopped watching when u said u don't have to have the main character all the time which I appreciated, that sentence triggered me 😂😂😂 cuz me when I play a jrpg I hate when games made me remove the main character, and if a game have that option I just put the main character with me all the time, cuz when I play those type of game I want the main character to feel like my own character I want to feel immersed in that world I don't want to just play the game and watch the story, I want to feel like I am part of the characters lives, and that why I love the persona series u always play the main protagonist and u can't remove him from ur party which it perfect for me, so yes and this game it not appealing to me cuz it have duel protagonist I just prefer one protagonist in a jrpg that's all.
I totally know what you mean! When you’re not playing as then it feels like they’re unimportant or something.
If you can't/don't have resources to do non-freaky faces or proper animations, just use 2D illustrations with a variety of expressions. Works much better. As is, I can't stand the look of the characters. Then again I don't like their designs either.
No wonder they cant ever get games right anymore.. half their audience doesnt want the difficult bosses and giant customizable character development (as in this reviewer).. and the other half like myself are getting bored with games taking the thought process out of developing your characters or fighting and overcoming difficult bosses.... why do people think we should be able to beat these games without any trouble on our first attempts?? ... thats isnt fun or rewarding
I don’t mind a challenge, but the bosses just felt cheap. Especially that bird boss. The game doesn’t give the proper tools to fight it.
@@TheGamingShelf Some people seem to equate senseless difficulty spikes with challenge. Like, if you need me to learn a pattern or figure out weaknesses, I am on board. If you simply add a ton of HP and jack up the damage to call it a boss, that is not challenging. It is annoying.