I have been a fan of the Star Ocean franchise for a long time. In fact, there was a time in my life when I felt that Tri-Ace RPGs were the pinnacle of RPG craftsmanship, even beyond the Final Fantasy franchise. Hopefully, soon I’ll have a review of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth so I can wax poetic about how much I adore one of the greatest RPGs of all time, but I digress. Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the 6^th entry in a franchise that I hold dear to my heart for many reasons.

There are those who believe that the franchise lost its way after the release of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time back in 2003. I can’t say for certain that this is the case, but the mixed reviews of both Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness sure seem to make that point for me. I would argue though that Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the first step in the right direction that the franchise has taken in a very long time.

Before we get into this review of Star Ocean: The Divine Force any further, I should mention that this review almost didn’t happen. At least, not for the PlayStation 5 version. I encountered a strange bug as I tried to launch the game that caused it to not want to move past the PlayStation 5’s title art before the game itself would load. It was bizarre, the game just wouldn’t start. All my other games ran fine, so I assumed something was up.

I spent well over a month corresponding with the publisher via my usual email contact channels, who reached out to the dev team on my behalf. They tried their best to replicate the issue but couldn’t. So, they recommended that I reach out to PlayStation support. Without going into too many details, I’ll just say that PlayStation support was far less than helpful.

Out of ideas, concerned, and very frustrated, I went to Google. Luckily for me, someone else had this same issue and posted about it on Reddit. It apparently had something to do with a conflict that required me to turn off the PlayStation 5’s wifi connection and then launch the game. I’ll link instructions here in case anyone else has the issue after seeing this review. I’ve made the developers aware of this issue so, hopefully, they can fix it moving forward. Anyway, on to the review itself.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is an Action RPG in which you choose one of two main protagonists and follow their perspective in a story that spans multiple planets and a variety of gorgeous vistas and environments. Like previous installments, choosing your protagonist (either Raymond or Laeticia) locks you into a singular perspective which changes the lens that the narrative is viewed through.

Large portions of either path are the same, mostly from about the middle onward. However, there is a fair bit that you won’t see as either protagonist. There are also some other differences and changes depending on who you pick, but truth be told it is mostly up to personal preference. It also makes for a good reason to play through the game a second time, once you know what you might be missing. I’m not mentioning specifics because of spoilers, obviously.

One thing that is important to note, however, is that there is (currently) no built-in New Game Plus feature. So, playing through the game a second time means that you’ll be starting from scratch. For most people, this won’t be an issue, but it is important to know that ahead of time anyway. I would say that from here, Star Ocean fans would know what they are getting into. However, there’s a fair bit that is different this time around, at least from my perspective.

For one, unlike previous installments of the franchise that played similarly to the Tales franchise in terms of combat, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is an Action-RPG with a heavy focus on mobility. It uses the Chain Combo system, where you can connect 3 skills together in a chain tied to a specific button, executing the chain in a 3 hit sort of combo. You can also hold down the button to use a 4^th skill or you can bind an item to that button so you can quickly heal or revive a party member without needing to open the menu.

You can utilize Stop Mode to pause the action, switch characters (though you can switch on the fly as well) have other characters use items, etc. The commands you can give to AI party members are minimal, unfortunately, so most of the time it makes more sense to switch to that other character and do whatever it is you want them to do.

Each of your attacks consumes part of the Vanguard Assault (VA) Gauge which we will get into in a minute. However, this makes it reminiscent somewhat of the ATB system found in games like Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns, though on a much more polished scale. Your VA gauge will increase over time, and you can extend its maximum by utilizing other mechanics such as D.U.M.A.

Aside from the Chain Combo system, you can dodge, and use a mechanical helper robot known as D.U.M.A. (mentioned above) which allows you to charge at the enemy or perform blindside attacks. Blindside attacks happen when you utilize D.U.M.A to charge forward, then change direction right before you hit the enemy. This allows you to hit them from the side instead, doing extra damage and even stunning enemies.

You can also eliminate vulnerable body parts of larger enemies to debilitate them or use D.U.M.A. to get you to a higher elevation to attack a larger enemy from a different position. D.U.M.A. has a lot of other combat applications that you’ll unlock over the course of the game, but I won’t spoil them here. Instead, you should know that D.U.M.A. is used outside of combat as well.

D.U.M.A. will allow you to launch yourself to higher vantage points, so you can collect items hidden on cliffs, roofs, and all manner of other places. You can also scan using one of D.U.M.A.’s passive skills which you upgrade with D.U.M.A. points collected from purple crystals in the environment. The scan allows you to pinpoint items, chests, and other points of interest in the environment.

As your characters level up, you’ll gain SP, which you can invest in the skill tree to unlock stat increases, new skills, and other things like elemental resistances. You can also use SP to upgrade your already-learned skills to increase their effectiveness and upgrade things like your crafting proficiency. Personally, since there isn’t a respec option, I think having so many things tied to your SP is a little restrictive for my liking. However, you may not find it to be too much of a problem.

I would also point out that the skill trees for each character are (to put it mildly) laid out in a fashion that is ridiculous. The further out from the starting node you go, the more things cost. However, it also provides diminishing returns on your stat increases. This isn’t an issue if you’re going for a skill close to the center. However, where the skills are laid out in each skill tree makes optimal use of your SP somewhat difficult.

While I don’t like how the skill tree is laid out, it does provide a variety of options for character builds. You can also switch between characters at any time, so you can try out their individual playstyles and play a character you like the most. There is a lot of variability and customization involved.

There is a lot of other content in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, from its own board game/mini-game to crafting and all manner of other bits of content. There are also side quests you can undertake, and “Private Action” scenes that allow you to understand the motivations and backgrounds of your characters better. Star Ocean: The Divine Force is full to bursting with content, but aside from the issues I’ve mentioned up to this point, I have two other problems to point out.

The text in the menus is very small. Subtitle dialogue isn’t too bad, but the text in menus is on the smaller side, and there is no way to increase it. There are a variety of accessibility features for toggling various hold-actions, and other such things, but nothing for font size.

The other issue I have is that the character models, particularly their faces, don’t seem to put forth any emotion. Their mouths move and they blink, but their faces otherwise tend to be somewhat neutral. It isn’t always noticeable, but there are points where it is glaringly obvious and somewhat unnerving. Other than that, the visuals are gorgeous, even on the graphics settings that prioritize framerate.

While this entry in the Star Ocean franchise isn’t perfect, and I think it leans a little too heavily on the action side of Action RPG, I think it is a great step in the right direction. It is the first Tri-Ace game in a long time that felt like a Tri-Ace experience for me, and I hope this is a sign of good things to come for the franchise. They really went back to classic Star Ocean elements and it shows, even if the action combat is far removed from the original games.

It would be nice if you could issue commands to party members, or set more specific AI elements to them, but the setup they have here works well enough. If you’re a longtime fan like I am, then give this one a try. Alternately, if you’re looking for a solid Action RPG that’s different than what you’re used to, The Divine Force will do you just right.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of Star Ocean: The Divine Force was provided by Square Enix for this review.

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Star Ocean: The Divine Force

$59.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Variable Difficulty
• Interesting Story
• Lots of Replay Value
• Character Builds for Multiple Playstyles
• Engaging Action Combat

Cons

• Limited Direction for Party Members
• Small Menu Text
• Facial Features Don't Move Much
• Skill Tree is Weirdly Laid Out
• Too Many Uses for SP