Star Ocean: The Divine Force Review (PS5) | Backlog Battle 

I felt the same way. Despite some shortcomings, I kept playing through the entire game. I'm even ready to do a second playthrough, but I'll probably lower the difficulty to make it go by faster lol

I'm pleased that Star Ocean The Divine Force is available for the PS4, I've read that the PlayStation 4 might stop receiving support by 2025? I don't own a PS5 or Xbox Series X sadly so I'm pleased that this game might be the last game I ever buy for this amazing console. Thanks for pointing out the length of the game, as other reviewers have not mentioned this. The Divine Force reminds me of Star Ocean 2, which is one of my favorite games on the PSX. Thanks for making this review.

Thanks for this review Alex! I personally have been on the fence if ill buy it or not for awhile. Hearing your fully formed thoughts on it after completing it was to be the determining factor for me (no pressure 😅). The fact that it is on the shorter side surprised me but makes sense with dual protagonist. Like Scarlet Nexus, short and sweet to encourage a second playthrough. The overall impression you had was enough for me to decide that Ill give this one a chance and add it to the backlog!

Great video. I finished this game 2 weeks ago and while it isnt my first Star Ocean its among my faves cause of how engaging the gameplay felt. DUMA was a fantastic addition for world traversal. I also enjoyed spending 20 minutes in a menu setting combos and upgrading skills, love when JRPGs have me do that

Great review! Although I’m a bit confused why multiple reviewers have criticised the skill tree as they say they’re not sure what they’re meant to be doing with their SP. Like to me that’s the whole point? There’s no *right* proper use, you just allocate them on whatever you want, to shape the character’s to play the way you want? Like if you want Nina to be a healer or a buffer; if you want Albaird to be a spellcaster or a chakram-slinger. Or even if you want a character just to have super buff stats or talent at item creation.

Great video! I wish that more games reduced the padding/grinding to reasonable limits. I understand wanting to get the most for your dollar in terms of gameplay but I have a collection of *long* games I never beat or even put that much time into because they were so damn boring. I love a short game that you want to play over and over, or delve deeper into the lore and really get into.

This is THE review I was waiting for. Wow, amazing work finally nailing it, this is the one I'm going to link.

This isn't quite the return to form Tales of Arise was for the Tales series, but this is definitely a step in the right direction for a series that has been on shaky ground for a long time now.

I was surprised how much I liked the game after being disappointed by the last few. I played as Ray and found myself pleasantly surprised by the voice acting too. A lot of the negative points that you mentioned, I hardly even noticed, but some I felt in my soul *ahemtinywritingahem* There are definitely small QOL things that could really help the experience, though they did a recent update that was nice. Overall, this gives me hope that the series isn't done and could actually do well in the future.

I just finished the game, my impression of it are quite similar to yours. Not a block buster AAA game, but give me the classic JRPG vibe without being too grindy. Last Star Ocean game I played was The Last Hope, and I enjoyed that one. Story line move along at a decent pace, but I honestly wish the game is a little longer than 25 hours. I don't intend to make the 2nd play through though.

I died about 12 times at the worm battle 2 hours in. Really challenging bosses and you need to master combat

Star Ocean is a series that, if done better, could legit be some of the best, if not the best Sci-Fi JRPGs out there. Instead they’re mostly below average generic fantasy games with way too few Sci-Fi elements (spare the first three games, they’re good, but they could be better imo)

I never notice when lip is not in synch to speech... i'm weird i guess. And I like the 3D models - maybe a better shader could have used but I like the models more than the concept drawings...

Alright you convinced me. Haven't enjoyed star ocean since till the end of time. I've been hoping this series would get back on its feet. Definitely going to give it a go after Ragnarok.

I've never played a star ocean game but I had been interested in the series for a while. I don't know if I'll play it but I enjoyed the demo. Almost felt like if Tales of Berseria met Xenoblade, which made me want to play xenoblade

You could get thru this game quick if you fast travel to a destination but if you do that you really do miss out on the conversations that happen when you backtrack. I'm not sure if you fast traveled or back tracked to listen to all the conversations that could crop up.

I think they should've gone with a cell-shaded graphic style. It would fit the characters better

I'm almost finished with this game, it's actually kind of short compared to its predecessors but at the turn of the generation we expected a splurge on empty graphics over any real content. I'm probably 75% through at level 104 so I'm playing for the endgame hoping that if it exists, I will be able to justify playing this game for more than a nice view. I also love how people are googling Star Ocean: The Divine Hope instead of Divine Force or the Last Hope. Lmao

Great video thanks❤ sad I can’t play this game myself 😂 currently watching a playthrough of this… hoping this game might possibly come to the Nintendo switch at some point 🤔 because I’d buy a special version of it❤❤

"Is Star Ocean: The Divine Force the series' last hope?" No, that would be 2009's Star Ocean: The Last Hope

How did the PS5 version run compared to the PS4 Pro

Also, the Series X has the same issue with the lip syncing. The lands are really beautiful, but every area past the beginning feels so empty.

It's really an excellent JRPG with some UI, presentation and performance issues. The story is unironically great, they realize that whole "scifi meets fantasy" theme really well, with characters reacting realistically and meaningfully to both scifi developments and medieval politics. The characters are all likeable, the combat is arguably tri-Ace at their peak and the exploration while faltering every now and then is competently executed. What more do you need from a JRPG? It is, first and foremost, a videogame. And I am biased towards videogames that try to be videogames first and foremost. I hope tri-Ace's situation improves. I loved SO4 and I love SO6, and Radiata Stories was very formative for me. They are an important pillar of the JRPG ecosystem but unfortunately are aggressively neglected atm. Also I LOVE Es'owa, I for one love Weiqi where my opponents are morons.

Currently playing, and the world feels really barren tbh, and the difficulty is inconsistent, and sp points are overwhelming. it feels very MID it is my first star ocean, and it does make me curious to play 1-3

Wikipedia says that the series was inspired by Star Trek. But that does not mean it’s going to be exactly like it.

The lip will syc if u change the voice into Japanese.. It has nothing to do with frame rate

My main problem with Star Ocean is the characters. I don't mind be in one episode of Star Trek style story, the last game fits in Star Trek so well. But please give me professional adults instead of edgy highschoolers! The first game has this issue so bad I couldn't even bring myself to finish it... I don't have issue with edgy highschoolers. I have issue when they are not suppose to be in the story. The story suggests that whoever you play as was suppose to be professional, almost the best of the best. Yet the character never acted like that.

VILE DISSEMBLER (this isnt directed as a negative towards the reviewer)

hmm.. amnesia?

i cant stop looking at the faces and how weird it looks. I wish it was like an anime instead.

I don’t know, not saying the game is bad, just going from what I saw in the trailers, I believe that the ps3 graphics, the models and how empty the world looks, would put a lot of people off from buying this, not to mention how terrible the last game was. Like I had my issues with Tales of Arise, however if you look at that game, it at least looks like a next generation Tales game, where this game does not.

Speaking as someone who while he did enjoy the last hope, that was only because of ONE character which was Reimi, the gameplay and music, the other characters were very annoying, the plot was very stupid and the artstyle was utter ass. A lot of the characters looked like dolls and as for the 5th game the cast looked even worse. The combat was really under utilized in that 1, the game was rushed out the door, the story was very forgettable and the characters were also very forgettable and if not that then they were just rip offs of past game characters. Even the music was just ripped directly from star ocean till the end of time meeting the entire game was a huge rush job. So when I heard that the divine force was coming out I was a little bit hesitant until tri ace decided to do something interesting which was show us a good chunk of the dev process and after playing the demo, yeah some things were rough but for the most part, I wanted more and thankfully going through Raymond's path now, honestly this is the most fun I've ever had with a modern star ocean game. The combat may have some of its hiccups with the camera but it just means that you have to learn how to Dodge and use Duma to maneuver on the battlefield instead of just standing there and guarding a lot. I know some people will have an issue with that but it just takes a good amount of time and practice and I had no issue with the AP system as it means that you're not spamming your abilities a whole bunch then pausing the game just to use the berries that would normally heal MP since those don't exist anymore. You just have to learn again how to use the system effectively and don't try to go Leroy Jenkins a lot of the time I know I tried lol. As for the story in this game my God was it way better than the past 2 games as I actually remember it, Raymond is a way more better protagonist than the past 2 protagonists that we've had and the characters........ It is super fun to use every single character in the game that you get and with the ability to do the private actions that don't feel off this time it's a nice breath of fresh air. The voice acting is league's better too when compared to the last hope and even the 5th game as it feels like the actors got a better director so they can give a s*** about what's going on on screen. Hell I actually had a lot of fun with the Mini game in this one with it being a very awesome chess game thing reference to every single game in the series which speaking of reference, I'm not gonna mention it but there is a character in this game that references 1 character and that character's son from the previous 2 1st games in the series and when I knew that it was a cute level of detail. Now does the game have issues yes it does I wasn't really paying much attention to the lip syncing issues because at this point that's become a near staple in JRPG's but since I was playing the PS4 version for some reason there are times where the game kind of has weird frame rate drops even when I'm using one of the 2 graphic settings to try to fix it but for the most part it's a little bit on the mixed side. Not only that but there were times when I didn't know if I activated a quest or not until I went to a menu that had it and I was like wait usually this is on the main menu. I even had to tell my friend this because even he was lost on that subject. And yes the characters may not look good but honestly comparing the creepy a** dolls from the last hope and the lifeless versions of the characters from the 5th game where there were barely any cutscenes at all, I'll take what I can get with this one. At least I care about the story, characters and the world and the combat which is all I really wanted from this game including the very excellent exploration. Plus it gave me something I can actually talk to with another person who was also waiting for this game to come out so if anything I'd say it succeeded. And he at least this series revival has been way more interesting to go play than say a certain Valkyrie game that just came out that is the definition of this is undercooked, has a very boring world and very boring voice acting. Fantastic job with the review as usual Alex!

Hey Alex! Great minds think alike, I finished this up the other day too, and released my review right about the same time! I’m so happy you enjoyed it too!

I for one am totally happy with a shorter JRPG. They all don't have to be massive like Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I am also starting my play through as Raymond. I feel like being someone from outside the world is a better place to start the game. I am totally happy to do a Laeticia playthrough a couple of months after finishing the game.

I've always been kind of baffled on this franchise's name. "Star Ocean" paints the imagery of you traveling an ocean of stars... but all of the games take place mainly on one planet?? I can't be the only one that finds this strange.

I've been loving everything I've played of Divine Force so far, the combat and exploration are both just pure fun, and the characters exude the classic Star Ocean charm that's all its own. My old big complaint is the font size. Teeny tiny fonts are trend that really needs to be tossed into a trash can

Im about halfway through Raymond's campaign and I'm having A BLAST so far! Its really not as bad as I though it would be.... even at full price. My only issues are: -Sub-par graphics. Im not really impressed (even on my Xbox Series X and a 4K TV) -Really lame UI (with the text font being way too small) What I do like: Everything else! (Gameplay, exploration, battle system, music, story and characters) Thanks for the review;) I'll subscribe!

Ayyy, i didnt know that you watched Star Trek Strange New World, thats an amazing series. Hope they continue to season 2

Terrific review, Alex! I was very on the fence about picking this up at launch, and I ultimately decided to wait for a sale. Your review definitely drives home that, for my taste, that was the right choice. Next up, God of War, right??

Im having so much fun playing this game, after playing, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 & Startegy games its fun to jump on some Action RPG🔥

thanks for the review alex! I was so glad that there's a lot of features in this game. - At level 39 i just unlocked the "ultimate" moves feature. It's really well done. I recently found out that the max level is i think level 255. that friggin makes me happy :D - Kinda sad you didn't include the es'owa mini game cause i strangely found it super satisfying. (I'm already master 7 lol) - The combat is very nice for me, i like how you can mix and match the square, triangle, circle as well as their hold features. Also, mapping items into the "hold" buttons make it instantaneous. - The super fast in & out of battle is just *chef's kiss*. - It's good playing as even the other party members. The support/healer/buffer of the group has a different combat mechanic and it was so satisfying to play. Midas is just annihilation. I give it an 8.5/10. -0.5 point - for the design of the characters need a lot of getting used to. They improved the lip-syncing however, the characters look so stiff at times. It's such a shame considering the absolute god-tier voice acting quality in this game. -0.5 point - there are a lot of features in this game that they pretty much didn't explain. There's a "delivery" feature in the stores which wasn't tackled. I would very much like more explanation on the Item Creation aspect of the game -0.5 point - for the lock-on symbol. It's overly designed. When you're about to encounter an enemy, you want to snipe them from afar with a VA. However, you'll just see a big ass diamond covering the enemy lmao If the enemy is small, it feels like i'm fighting a floating diamond target. I don't know if i'm targeting their front or back. A re-design of the lock-on target would be great. Still have no regrets buying this day 1 :D

Traversal looks great and I enjoyed the verticality of the environments (based on the demo). But the character models really were a bummer and the fact that every Star Ocean sticks you on a primitive planet every time. Would be nice if they actually had more sci-fi to them. Haha. I might pick this up on sale at some point though. Thanks for the review!

I consider this to be the JRPG version of a kusoge. It's undeniably flawed and I don't think I can objectively say it's a good game but I still had a lot of fun playing it.

I just finished this game a few hours ago, after letting it sink in, my thoughts pretty much line up with yours. What this game does well, it does really well. Flying around with DUMA is really fun, although I did find the invisible walls kind of annoying, combat is fun, and I did appreciate the customization, not overly grindy, doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, it did have its small annoyances here and there, but overall, I enjoyed my time with this game.

The only that turn me off to pick up recent Star Oceans game was their decision of making the characters look like plastic doll which I’m not a fan

I really liked the character models and the characters personalities. I have had a blast playing and I’m almost done with the game. I think tri-ace did a great job with the low budget they we’re probably given. The combat was super fun too. I am disappointed that the length of the game is so short. I was getting super into it then it’s was like BAM ur about done. Hoping post game I can dump hours into. I am very much into very grindy games and out 250+ hours into SO3 which is my fav of the series. I hope this isn’t the end. Tri-ace is responsible for some of my fav games of all time they really fell off after hard but this game was great.

Its definitely heading to a right direction with modern audience, but damn.. the fmv/cutscene team literally had zero budget. Some of the space battle scenes could be fleshed out and not just shown on a monitor with dotted lines, also some scenes that was supposed to be grand or supposed to be filled with npc is literally empty with only the main cast

My mistake when playing this game is using leveling trick and get max level early,and make the game too easy and boring😅

This game has flaws some are prety bad it was prety good. Till the end of time was most memorable though, i would rate this a 8/10

On plus right now, about 15hours in, its not bad tbh.

A very mid game with some good ideas. Final part especially was a chore.

Jw how does this game compare to something like tales of arise?

It's just....Fun. It's a damn fine game.

I'm about 5 hours into the game and so far am enjoying it, I think I will enjoy it more once I master the combat though.

Thanks for this video, I was looking for footage past the demo to see how they handled the FPS. It seems better than in the demo.

I like your content, but this game's character are ugly af! The girls look okay and the boys look weird. Like the main characters head doesn't even look like it matches his body 🤦🏾‍♂️ they should've just made this a character creator MC 😒

Should I but this game?

I really want to play this, but I've heard the PC port is incredibly bad... And as a PC only gamer, that means I'm going to have to give it some time and see if they actually fix it.

I love the game, i don't really get the mixted reviews, i can't name a recent (less than 10 years) JRPG that's better than this. Ok maybe Persona 5 which is great in itself but i'm tired of the same mechanics which have been used in the series since countless episodes. I agree SO6 lacks a bit of performance optimization, some balance to make more encounters difficult and nerfing a few skill abuses, maybe a little more extra content. But there are so many great things in this game ! Love the combat, the characters, the plot, the bosses, the exploration... So many good things that are NOT in any other game.

The combat was pretty fun during the demo. But after playing through the game, I found that all I did was keep pressing square 3 times for my main chain combo. There wasn't ever a need to do anything else, which is a shame. The gameplay became very basic and tedious. The story for the game was fine. It's a good thing it's a fairly reasonable 30 hour playthrough, otherwise I think it'd get very tedious. The game has a good foundation to build on, and i hope they make another one. In the future, I'd like combat to be tightened up. Skills should feel impactful. As well as good defensive options. Blocking, dodging, or parry options would be great.

I'm so glad this game exists. When I first booted up the game I was very turned off by the lip syncing. Every time the line was over their lips had to move back into the idle animation awkwardly. But it's funny that by the time I get to the first town and the story picks up.. it's like I stopped caring. The game just gets really fun and pretty fast. Not to Mention theirs alot of skill leveling here that can be fun to play with. I find it weird when people have complained about the ap though. I haven't had an issue with it at all.. (I play with elena and she has a skill that gives you ap back when you kill enemies). The enemies drop fast so that skill is useful. The game does have its bad stuff admittedly. The side question tracking for the esowa mini game (which I'm surprised you didn't even mention here cuz it's cool to get pawns of all my fave characters in star ocean history) was bad because you couldn't tell who you had played before making collecting the esowa pieces a bit of a chore unless you go look up a list online. But I'm so glad for this game.. I thought after integrity and faithlessness I'd never enjoy star ocean again. Star Ocean was always one of my favorite series and I still haven't beat integrity and faithlessness (I keep giving it tries but it is really a terrible experience.) Anyways nice review and I hope star ocean continues in the future. I really don't want this series to die.

THANK YOU for the description of text issue as I too play on a 55 inch at a bit of a distance. That’s a deal breaker for me. I couldn’t stand Darkwood for the same issue and bounced off after the prologue. At least I didn’t spend much on that.

The game looks good, I've tried to play games from this franchise. I will probably try to play it. Unfortunately for me, time is not one of my resources and there are several other games that will be considered higher priority in the backlog.

Whoa 25 hours? That's tiny! Might be a dealbreaker for me. I cant stand these little rpg ordeuvres. RPGs need to be epic and I think anything under 60 hours is just too bite sized. Even if its really good, maybe especially. Be over just as you are getting invested! 25 hours is like disc 1 of FF7. Bummer.

Highly detail doll models… that’s how I think of its characters. I found it has been dropped into the uncanny valley.

I'd like to try the game but every time I see that guy's hair (Raymond?) it's so cringy and ugly.

I tried the demon of this game on my ps4 pro and I just could not. The subtitles were sooo small and even the ingame text in the menu was like stupid small. When I was getting the tutorial texts I couldnt even read any unless I was right infront of my tv. I have a 50 inch tv and have no idea who was in charge of the font option. Im hoping it gets fixed eventually and if the game goes on sale may pickup but for now I will pass on the game. Not sure if its an issue just on the ps4 or not but it was sort of slow in the fights. Wish they had a bigger budget. This series I did enjoy playing 1-3. But it kinda went down hill after 4. :/

Hey, so, is everyone just gonna pretend that there isn’t a game where they reveal that the whole game series is a video game within a video game?

I’m still on the fence, but since I played the demo and liked the characters, I might buy it today. I hope someone manages to read my comment and tell if my choice is good or bad.

Also i loved this game, i want more i hope the series stays alive. I just finished my first playthrough at 40.5 hrs yes i explored did some side quests and some crafting but it was great and a lot of fun. It wasnt a Triple A title so i didnt go in with top notch expectations. I will definitely play this many more times.

Great review! I'm giving it another try now on PS5 after watching this.

Looking forward to trying this game :)

I’m interested in this game… I’m so glad you reviewed it.

It's triaces last hope. They're not doing too hot.

The battle system sounds awesome. I love the stamina mechanic 💟

Save Star Ocean!

Doubt this will ever come to switch

if this game doesn't sell well tri-ace will go bankrupt

The character models are so creepy, reminds me of Chucky 🤷🏾‍♂️

The last game i played what Star ocean 4 the last hope and i have 15 hours into Star ocean 6, and i can say i am very disapointment, the combat is worse in every way posible, the lock on system is not riable , the camera is a mess, boss fight are totally chaoitic , ia is bad and suicide , the only thing is better here is some grapich and the exploration , and probably the characters(?) , the story is a step down even Las hope have a better premise , i prefer this protagonist thand Edge , its seems more mature and reliable , Edge is too noob for his job but i get why they have it , to the combat again the combo system is good i think but its feel really unfocus like you said , is hard to get a progress in the skill tree and what matter or not , in star ocean 4 skill are unlock by lvl , so is pretty linear the progresion , but at least in star ocean 4 the camera always lock some enemy after defeat one , and always track your movement correctly , and the ia is not dumbass , i want to like this game bug when i tried the camera move wrong , and the combat is short , is really sad .