Star Ocean The Divine Force Review

Star Ocean The Divine Force is best described as being the best possible outcome for the series. As someone who has played all of the mainline Star Ocean games up to this point, I recognize that each game has its ups and downs. In the comparison article, I brought up the many criticisms I have with each individual game in the series but I managed to enjoy all of them despite their shortcomings and this is mainly due to the fact that I absolutely adore the Star Ocean formula. Star Ocean The Divine Force feels like an attempt to address many of the criticisms I had with the previous entries, while also bringing something new and fresh to the Star Ocean formula.

What makes the Star Ocean formula so appealing to me is how it manages to constantly excite you with its subsystems. Going into a Star Ocean game, I expect to experience a lot of character management and Star Ocean The Divine Force doesn’t disappoint in this regard. The skill books found in previous entries are no more and have been replaced with a skill grid for each character, allowing players to learn skills in any order they like as opposed to having to find skill books or visit skill shops to unlock new skills like in the previous games. This allows for considerably more freedom in regards to how one chooses to build their characters. On top of this, you still have the ability to level up skills with SP acquired from leveling up your character like you can in previous entries, so you still have the freedom to strengthen your character’s skills in any order you please without feeling gated off to anything. I didn’t find the skill grid to be all that restrictive either since each skill you learn connects to numerous other skills, giving you plenty of choice in regards to what skills you want to learn first, within reasonable boundaries of course. Honestly, this may quite possibly be the best skill system in the series as there are very few boundaries as opposed to previous entries and the system is easy enough for newcomers to understand, albeit a tad overwhelming but if it wasn’t then it wouldn’t be a Star Ocean game.

For the first time in 21 years, Star Ocean The Divine Force employs the original item creation system that was used in both the first two entries and Blue Sphere which is a real treat for fans who have sorely missed the simple, yet addictive process of discovering new items at the expense of raw materials. When Star Ocean Till The End Of Time released, this system would be replaced by the convoluted Invention system, which was so terrible that they ditched the system entirely in Star Ocean The Last Hope which instead used a more conventional crafting system that you see in so many games nowadays and while it was considerably less aggravating than Star Ocean 3’s invention, it felt rather generic and uninteresting by comparison to the item creation found in the earlier games. I feared that this system would return in The Divine Force and while the game kind of does bring back the concept of recipes used to craft certain items, it is no longer required of players to follow these recipes when partaking in item creation allowing them to freely make items without having to fulfil a strict criteria, which I strongly prefer over The Last Hope’s more restrictive system. On top of all this, there are a few changes made to item creation. Players can now choose to retry a failed item creation up to two times with each one, which helps to mitigate the need for save scumming when a valuable material fails to produce the desired item.

In previous entries, part of the fun of item creation was visiting all the different kinds of stores in towns to purchase materials and ingredients to create certain items. All but one town in Star Ocean The Divine Force has but a single merchant and while this does make shopping for items more convenient, it is a bit of a shame that there’s no reason to enter different buildings in towns save for story related purposes and finding a few items in people’s houses. The game more than makes up for this however by placing purple crystals around town for players to collect, these crystals can also be found outside of towns too, particularly in field areas which are considerably larger than the field areas in the previous entries, even Star Ocean The Last Hope’s field areas are dwarfed by the ones in Divine Force and that game had some pretty huge field areas for the time. These crystals can be used to level up DUMA, a robot companion which the entire game revolves around. DUMA can be used to get from A to B quickly but it also has an important functionality in battle. By upgrading DUMA, you can learn skills that relate to both field navigation and combat. Much like character progression, you are free to upgrade DUMA in any way you please, giving you even more to manage, as if the character management alone wasn’t good enough.

Mission Failed… We’ll get em next time…

Private actions return and this time upon entering a town you have already visited (so long as it is not connected to the story) the party will automatically disband, leaving you with only Raymond or Laeticia to control. During this time you can interact with your party members like in Integrity And Faithlessness without having to move to the whistle icon beforehand. While most private actions involve conversing with the other character like you would a generic NPC, there are a few that play cutscenes with background music of their own like in The Last Hope. It’s nice to see a good mix of both this time around. One issue I do have with the private actions in this game however is that there is no way to tell how many private actions are available in town. Back in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness, there was an indicator that showed how many private actions you had left to do before you had to stay at the inn to refresh them. This feature is completely absent from The Divine Force which is rather aggravating as you try talking to every single character after every story interval in towns to make sure you aren’t missing anything, only for most of them to repeat the same lines of dialog relevant to the plot at the time of interacting with them. Sometimes it’s easy to tell as they usually have their own spots but these spots tend to change as the plot moves on making it even more difficult to find them. Sometimes you will see characters stood together which makes things a little easier. Fortunately many of the game’s private actions are entertaining enough to make seeking them out worthwhile.

If private actions aren’t your thing, there’s yet another distraction for players looking to kill time in towns in the form of a new minigame titled E’sowa. This minigame has you collecting pawns that represent characters from previous games which is a nice callback. At first the game can seem a bit complicated but upon learning how it works, you realize that at the start of the game, many of the stats do not matter as you can abuse the smaller boards by surrounding as many empty spaces as you can to essentially place your opponent into submission, rendering it impossible for them to place a pawn. The same can happen to you however and it can feel a bit frustrating if it happens because you could have a ton of health but without the ability to place a sufficient amount of pawns, all you can do is sit there and wait till you are defeated as there isn’t usually an easy way to turn things around when things go sour unless you just happen to have assassin pawns, which can be difficult to acquire early on. I did find that later on, E’sowa did become a bit more challenging and fun. The desire to collect all the pawns and reach the highest rank is definitely alluring, so I found myself playing way more E’sowa than I had anticipated. The way this ties into the gameplay is that pawns can be equipped as accessories or be used through synthesis to extract its valuable factors. If you don’t like E’sowa for some reason then you do have the alternative option of crafting the pawns through item creation but I find that approach to be very difficult if you are looking to acquire a particular pawn that may otherwise be easier to obtain by winning an E’sowa match.

All your favorite Star Ocean characters return in E’sowa… but unfortunately so does Lymle.

So as you can see, there’s a lot to do in both towns and field areas, making visiting new locations just as exciting as it is to level up your character to invest skill points in whatever you choose. The feeling of excitement brought about by these two things is ultimately what sets Star Ocean apart from other Action RPG’s as it truly is the core of what makes these games enjoyable. Star Ocean The Divine Force not only maintains the standards set by previous entries in this department, it improves each and every one of them and for that alone, I’m greatly impressed with what this game brings to the table already. There is one thing however that Star Ocean often gets outshined by its competitors in the genre and that is the game’s combat system. While the combat in the series isn’t necessarily bad outside of the third entry, I find that tri-Ace seem to have been fighting an uphill battle against Tales with each and every game in this department and while a few games arguably match their Tales counterparts, most of them fail to reach the standards set by the Tales games released around the time they came out. Due to Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness having a rather archaic combat system for the time, being based on Till The End Of Time’s combat system and all, a major change was needed in order for future entries to stand the test of time. Star Ocean The Divine Force addresses this issue by completely reworking the entire combat system whilst adding something fresh to help it stand out from its competitors.

For starters you now have an AP gauge which governs how often you are able to take actions in battle. The AP gauge may feel similar to that of fury from Star Ocean Till The End Of Time but unlike that game, the AP gauge can be restored when moving, much like in Valkyrie Profile 2. Speaking of Valkyrie Profile 2, the attacks are mapped to the face buttons, much like that game. The only difference is that the X button is used to jump, every other face button allows you to input a sequence of up to 3 actions much like how Valkyrie Profile 2’s characters each have 3 moves of their own that trigger in a linear fashion. There is also the ability to hold down one of the buttons to perform a different action, which is kinda similar to how you could press a direction on the d pad mid combo to scramble attack in Valkyrie Profile 2, letting you mix between the linear combos to make more free flowing combos should you wish to do so. There is a lot of potential to be had with this system and it allows for much greater flexibility than previous entries in the series. The question is, is any of this flexibility meaningful? While I can’t say that the moves aren’t spammable, because they most certainly are, it is interesting to note that many of the attacks learned by each character comes with a unique factor that makes it specialize in certain situations. Some attacks have I-frames while others can deal extra damage to downed enemies to name a couple of examples. I find that this helps to make combat a little bit more interesting than just button mashing because you may be able to find an opportunity to utilize a different move for a better effect.

Sweet Chin Music!

The main draw of the game’s combat lies in your new robot companion, DUMA. With DUMA you are able to do numerous things both in and out of battle but in battle it serves as a means of closing in on enemies at high speeds with a VA attack. You can also use it to provide passive buffs by switching to estery cage mode but you will be unable to use the VA attack, nor will you be able to increase the VA gauge with attacks. This means that you will be unable to utilize blindsides which can be performed by initiating a VA attack and changing directions when facing an enemy that is readying an attack against you, making it very different from how blindsides worked in The Last Hope as instead of evading an attack, you are instead closing in on an enemy with a VA attack. This speeds up the pace of the combat considerably as you are no longer charging up your rage gauge waiting for the enemy to approach for an attack, instead you are approaching them, only to change course to take them off guard. Blindsides not only grant you bonus damage but they will also immobilize the enemy for a brief period of time. It is also possible to blindside multiple enemies at once in this game which can be even more rewarding as your allies can take care of the other immobilized enemies while you focus on the one you targeted. Blindsides also increase your maximum AP capacity in battle which allows you to perform more actions, making it a critical skill to utilize to maximize efficiency in regards to your actions. The estery cage is handy in situations where enemies cannot be blindsided like the worms you encounter in the mines area as it helps to protect the party by giving them a huge defense boost, among other things. It can also be useful when you are in a tight spot and the AI are having trouble staying alive, which will happen a lot in the later portions of the game as there are very few commands available to give to the AI. The only options you have are to split up or focus on a single target, that’s it. There’s no option to keep distance from enemies so if you want to do that, you’ll have to do this yourself by removing all of the chain combos and positioning the character away from the action, which is hardly ideal but sometimes it is necessary.

It is worth noting that there is no MP in this game unlike its predecessors, so you can’t just rely on MP regeneration and repeatedly use healing spells to keep your party alive, you will have to use items if you want a good chance of surviving. Those who choose to place Nina in the party will have the ability to heal and revive the other party members. The MP restoration items now serve to replenish AP instead, though I found that my AP replenished fast enough on its own anyway, plus without the quick usage skill, you will spend a considerable amount of time waiting for the item to trigger, it is highly recommended to equip that skill on your most used character as soon as possible. There is also an auto healing skill that really comes in handy when you’re running low on healing items, equip that skill as well if you have it and be sure to max it out when you can as it makes a huge difference. If you’re finding the pace of the combat to be overwhelming or you need to change targets, you can enter stop mode (which is the touch pad button on the PS4 controller) to stop what you are doing in the middle of battle to change targets, assess the situation, use items and change the AI behaviors without having to do so in real time. It’s a good thing that this feature exists because much like in Valkyrie Elysium, the lock on button is mapped to R3 but with stop mode this is hardly an issue.

If you use a VA Attack on an elevated target, you can reach great heights and can attack foes while airborne

The good news is that most of the inputs for actions in battle and on the field can be customized should you wish to use a more convenient layout. Personally I switched the dodge button to circle and the circle moves to L1 because I found it to be more convenient personally. Having the freedom to change the inputs is always a good thing and given the fact that many of the Star Ocean games use triggers for their special moves, should you wish to play the old fashioned way with the triggers instead of the face buttons, you can. Sadly though you are still unable to change the lock on inputs which is a tad disappointing. Nevertheless there are some other features worth noting such as the ability to break off enemy body parts like in Valkyrie Profile 2 and this often leads towards item drops. Certain larger enemies have different targeting points you can switch between and sometimes it is better to target a specific part for greater effect. It should also be noted that if your inventory of a certain item is full, any of those items that are dropped from enemies will be sold automatically which is a convenient way of dealing with excess items, the same also applies to items made in item creation too, so instead of these items simply not appearing in your inventory despite been shown as being acquired, you at least get some kind of reward for it.

There is a downside to inventory management though and that is the fact that at times certain characters will leave the party and upon doing so, the game will unequip their accessories constantly (Edit: Patch fix incoming for this issue). Now there are a crap ton of accessories in this game, many of which will likely be pawns acquired from the E’sowa minigame so it can be a pain having to navigate through all of them. While there ways to sort the inventory to make things a little easier, if you’re looking for a particular accessory, it can still be a pain trying to find it. I do understand why they did this though since it means that if the characters that left kept their accessories equipped, you would lose those accessories until they came back (Edit: Once again, Patch Fix), so in a way it’s kind of a double-edged sword. It should also be noted that the text size in this game is absurdly small which can make the tutorials an absolute pain in the ass to read. Considering how much different this game plays when compared to its predecessors, this can leave even long term fans confused if they struggle to read the tutorial text. There are also times where enemy encounters become glitched and won’t recognize you, though it’s more of a minor nuisance than anything. Other than that, I really don’t have much else to complain about in regards to the gameplay as pretty much everything else works about as well as any Star Ocean game should.

Now Star Ocean has never been known for having the greatest of narratives so with all that in mind, I was rather impressed with how the story was handled in The Divine Force. It starts off quite slow but in a good way as it introduces you to the world and the characters. Around the half way mark, things start to get a lot more plot heavy and while that’s great and all, it does disrupt the game’s pacing a little as you’ll find yourself in situations that involve constant back and forth between areas to watch cutscenes with very little going on in the gameplay department, which can feel like a slog, particularly for players who want to get back to the action. To make matters worse, during these sections party members will come and go and due to the way accessories are handled, this can get pretty infuriating (Edit: Once again, they’re patching this issue). I get that they were trying to build up to a huge story moment but I think they could have trimmed it down a little and still had the same effect.

The latter half of the game’s story is when things start to get a little complicated as it introduces some new concepts with a ton of exposition to explain them in greater detail which was pretty hard to follow. I did find the concept itself to be interesting however and the way it tied into the theme of the narrative was really well done. Ultimately, the story as a whole was gripping enough to keep my attention, which is all I really need in a Star Ocean game as the meat of the experience lies more in the gameplay rather than the story. It’s definitely more ambitious than the previous entry that’s for sure and is up there with Star Ocean Till The End Of Time’s story in regards to how interesting it was to me. One thing that I did find lacking though were the game’s villains as while the story tries to give them interesting motives, they fall completely flat due to the fact that they present themselves in the most generic way possible, making them very hard to take seriously.

The game more than makes up for the villains shortcomings with its diverse selection of playable characters. They even brought in some new races to make things even more interesting. The characters truly are the main appeal of the game’s story if you ask me as while the plot itself is interesting, it’s the characters themselves that make it work because you genuinely care about them, unlike The Last Hope where the characters were so ridiculously absurd that I just couldn’t take the story seriously. It certainly helps that the male lead, Raymond is a lot more cool-headed and mature than many of the other male leads in the series, he can also be rather snarky at times which adds to his likability. After suffering through characters like Fayt Leingod and Edge Maverick, who are considerably more unlikable, playing as Raymond feels like a breath of fresh air, without a doubt the best male protagonist in the series hands down. My favorite character though would have to be Midas since I found him to be the most relatable character out of all of them. Not only is he dapper but he’s also surprisingly swole for a semiomancer in his older years. I greatly resonate with his bluntness, as well as his cynical attitude, even though it brings nothing but trouble for the party, his rebellious nature makes him stand out from the rest of the cast as he is pretty much an anti-hero, which is a very common trope for many younger characters but it’s nice to see an older character embody this trope for once. The rest of the characters are also likable in their own way and bounce off of each other’s personalities really well, which is especially important in a Star Ocean game, given the fact that they tend to have numerous private actions.

The characters not only have great personalities but they also look great aesthetically as well, Akiman definitely made some interesting looking characters this time round. It’s definitely an improvement over the previous entries, even though I did like the artwork for Integrity And Faithlessness as well. He is definitely my favorite of all the Star Ocean artists by far, though I know that not everyone will agree with me on that. What I really enjoyed about the visuals the most in Star Ocean The Divine Force is the environments. I have heard countless people complain about the graphics being outdated for the time but I don’t care what those people think, visually speaking, this game looks absolutely stunning and is without a doubt the best looking game in the series hands down. The level aesthetic absolutely nails the otherworldly feel in ways that other games failed, such as the existence of floating islands in the sky which can be reached by flying to them with DUMA for a better view of the landscape. In addition to this, there are some absolutely gorgeous skyboxes to build on that otherworldly feel with what appears to be two moons in the sky, definitely one of the best skyboxes I have seen in a videogame for sure.

Nice view, wish I had someone to throw…

The soundtrack is best described as being grandiose. I particularly enjoy the music that plays in the more futuristic locations the best as they kinda have this electronic rock hybrid to them which I really enjoyed a lot. While it may not be Motoi Sakuraba’s best work, it’s definitely a solid soundtrack nonetheless, though I wouldn’t say it is my favorite soundtrack in the series. Some songs stand out better than others but the ones that stand out the most are fantastic. Ultimately though, the music does an incredible job at bringing the game’s environments to life and that’s all that really matters.

Star Ocean The Divine Force has everything a Star Ocean fan could possibly ask for. While it may not be a perfect game, it does revitalize the Star Ocean formula and for that alone, regardless of its flaws I find it impossible to dislike this game. The question is however, how well does this game hold up with the other games in the series? In retrospect I kind of released my comparison article too early as I never expected this game to come out but after playing this game and seeing how well it holds up against all of the classics, I’m going to have to change my answer. As good as Star Ocean The Second Story is, I honestly feel that Star Ocean The Divine Force is the better game overall. Sure Star Ocean The Second Story has a lot more item creation specialties and character endings than The Divine Force and is still an outstanding game for its time but I honestly think that The Divine Force beats it as my all time favorite Star Ocean game for the simple fact that it successfully managed to do what no other game in the series could. It is the only game in the series so far that manages to have a great story, the best looking visuals in the series, my favorite cast of characters in the series to date and most of all, the best combat system in the series hands down. In other words, it succeeds in all four areas. If this is the last Star Ocean game we will ever get then I can at least say that the series ended in the best way possible.

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Story/Plot: Great

Visuals: Excellent

Gameplay: Excellent

Music: Excellent

Lifespan: Decent Length

Difficulty: Easy

Would you Replay? Yes

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Overall: Excellent

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