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Completed
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Time Played
--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
November 8, 2022
Platforms Played
what a colossal fucking disappointment
star ocean has always been a fairly niche series built more on its mechanical depth and replayability than storytelling. however most games in the series at least manage to be entertaining, whether for plot or character driven reasons there's always something to care about besides just the gameplay
enter the divine force - where, uh, that's really not the case at all. i'm not sure i've ever played a game to feature a more boring cast of characters in my entire life, which is a huge problem because unlike in the 16 and 32 bit titles this game prides itself on homaging nobody here ever shuts the fuck up even when the only dialogue they have to contribute is a rephrase of the same thing they said 15 minutes prior and will say again multiple times over within the following hour
almost nobody grows or develops. there are attempts at emotional moments that all fall completely flat since the chemistry between cast members is roughly comparable to the relationship a cashier has with their customer. it's all so formal, lifeless, and downright unbelievable, but if your suspension of disbelief doesn't shatter in half there, the stiff cutscene animatronics a la ffxiv (2010) will sever any and all possible connection you could have ever had to this very inspired plot about a ragtag group fighting an evil space faction (which isn't properly introduced until over halfway through the game)
next i'd like to take a moment to discuss the soundtrack:
combat is the only point where the divine force ever shines, and even then it's still frequently mishandled. welcome to the worst targeting system in the series, (there is no fucking hard lock-on!) and possibly the most braindead ai ever seen in any arpg. on galaxy (normal mode) you might not even get to notice since it's so damn trivial that some bosses can die to a single buffed-up attack. but on universe (hard) and above most of the difficulty comes from not running out of revival items for your dumbass party members who keep sprinting into the same overtly telegraphed, mmo-style, circular kill-zones (and sometimes using their own abilities to warp you into said kill-zones for good measure)
party tactics are pretty much nonexistent. you can tell the ai to focus on separate enemies, the same targets as you, or to "do whatever you want lol". there's no "stay put" option, which means there's no efficient way to coordinate combos between characters. you can't even really buffer moves and then switch because the ai will typically just cancel whatever you were doing and run up to get slaughtered some more. it's a shame because with some basic commands (or even a really stripped down gambit system) this could all work perfectly. but instead everything is a giant clusterfuck and certain bosses on harder difficulties are either solo chipfests or cheesy washouts depending on the player's willingness to grind the crafting system for broken equipment
outside of combat there's pretty little to do. sidequests are about as bland as bland gets. wanna go to that place you just left and grab an item in exchange for some other item? or better yet - find some little girl's cat? then go for it i guess. otherwise between the action you're just going to be aimlessly gliding for exp crystals and battling it out with townsfolk in the most insultingly mindless minigame (es'owa) i've ever seen. triple triad this is not. still, you'll probably end up grinding your civilian opponents to dust anyway just because the rewards for doing so earn you some good accessories. oh boy!
by now you're probably thinking i hate this game, and, well, you may be correct! i went in with fairly high expectations, and while they were certainly tempered after playing the demo i still had hope that the characters would improve and the combat would have more to it than first impressions let on... and then after around 15-20 hours of the full release i ended up running so3 intermittently to remind myself that this series wasn't always a soulless husk of itself
sure it's fun to play at times, but there's so much wrong here that i can't in good faith recommend this game unless you're a diehard star ocean fan who intends to skip all the cutscenes or you're just craving mid and your diet is insatiable
star ocean has always been a fairly niche series built more on its mechanical depth and replayability than storytelling. however most games in the series at least manage to be entertaining, whether for plot or character driven reasons there's always something to care about besides just the gameplay
enter the divine force - where, uh, that's really not the case at all. i'm not sure i've ever played a game to feature a more boring cast of characters in my entire life, which is a huge problem because unlike in the 16 and 32 bit titles this game prides itself on homaging nobody here ever shuts the fuck up even when the only dialogue they have to contribute is a rephrase of the same thing they said 15 minutes prior and will say again multiple times over within the following hour
almost nobody grows or develops. there are attempts at emotional moments that all fall completely flat since the chemistry between cast members is roughly comparable to the relationship a cashier has with their customer. it's all so formal, lifeless, and downright unbelievable, but if your suspension of disbelief doesn't shatter in half there, the stiff cutscene animatronics a la ffxiv (2010) will sever any and all possible connection you could have ever had to this very inspired plot about a ragtag group fighting an evil space faction (which isn't properly introduced until over halfway through the game)
next i'd like to take a moment to discuss the soundtrack:
combat is the only point where the divine force ever shines, and even then it's still frequently mishandled. welcome to the worst targeting system in the series, (there is no fucking hard lock-on!) and possibly the most braindead ai ever seen in any arpg. on galaxy (normal mode) you might not even get to notice since it's so damn trivial that some bosses can die to a single buffed-up attack. but on universe (hard) and above most of the difficulty comes from not running out of revival items for your dumbass party members who keep sprinting into the same overtly telegraphed, mmo-style, circular kill-zones (and sometimes using their own abilities to warp you into said kill-zones for good measure)
party tactics are pretty much nonexistent. you can tell the ai to focus on separate enemies, the same targets as you, or to "do whatever you want lol". there's no "stay put" option, which means there's no efficient way to coordinate combos between characters. you can't even really buffer moves and then switch because the ai will typically just cancel whatever you were doing and run up to get slaughtered some more. it's a shame because with some basic commands (or even a really stripped down gambit system) this could all work perfectly. but instead everything is a giant clusterfuck and certain bosses on harder difficulties are either solo chipfests or cheesy washouts depending on the player's willingness to grind the crafting system for broken equipment
outside of combat there's pretty little to do. sidequests are about as bland as bland gets. wanna go to that place you just left and grab an item in exchange for some other item? or better yet - find some little girl's cat? then go for it i guess. otherwise between the action you're just going to be aimlessly gliding for exp crystals and battling it out with townsfolk in the most insultingly mindless minigame (es'owa) i've ever seen. triple triad this is not. still, you'll probably end up grinding your civilian opponents to dust anyway just because the rewards for doing so earn you some good accessories. oh boy!
by now you're probably thinking i hate this game, and, well, you may be correct! i went in with fairly high expectations, and while they were certainly tempered after playing the demo i still had hope that the characters would improve and the combat would have more to it than first impressions let on... and then after around 15-20 hours of the full release i ended up running so3 intermittently to remind myself that this series wasn't always a soulless husk of itself
sure it's fun to play at times, but there's so much wrong here that i can't in good faith recommend this game unless you're a diehard star ocean fan who intends to skip all the cutscenes or you're just craving mid and your diet is insatiable