Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 287 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 139 out of 287
  2. Mixed: 62 out of 287
  3. Negative: 86 out of 287
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  1. hibiscus
    Jun 28, 2016
    5
    I imported this game from Japan when it came out because I like Star Ocean. I was disappointed by this game.

    The main scenario took me around 20 hours due to my slow reading speed. I also did side quests (around 70% of them) and the Cathedrals. I think someone who is fluent in Japanese could take around 15 hours. For reference, SO2/SO3/SO4 were all 30 hour games for me, without doing    I imported this game from Japan when it came out because I like Star Ocean. I was disappointed by this game.

    The main scenario took me around 20 hours due to my slow reading speed. I also did side quests (around 70% of them) and the Cathedrals. I think someone who is fluent in Japanese could take around 15 hours. For reference, SO2/SO3/SO4 were all 30 hour games for me, without doing many side quests.

    For an action RPG, the camera is pretty important. The camera in this game is just wonky... When you walk around on the field, the camera is focused relative to how far from the ground Fidel is walking around at. During cutscenes, you have to move the camera around yourself (on the amusing side, you can emote during "cutscenes" and make silly faces during important parts) but you can't do something like first person mode or re-focus the camera so the back of Fidel's head isn't the center of the frame.

    In battle, the camera will sometimes get snagged on the terrain/environment. You now seamlessly transition into battle from the overworld (in previous SO games, you'd load into battle and have a square battle field with no environment / terrain). The boundaries and objects in these environments aren't very well defined, resulting in characters sometimes getting stuck behind walls/etc. Like if a character was behind a wall when you approached an enemy and started a battle, they can still be behind the wall (and their AI will run around in circles trying to get out of the wall until you manually move them - it's pretty amusing).

    The battle system itself is good, combining elements of SO3 and SO4. It feels a bit like SO3 ("cancel" combos and such) but you can build up a Rush gauge like SO4. There is an artificial difficulty spike in combat once you reach a segment where you have to protect a character in battle multiple battles in a row. You use every single character you get in your party, but battles are seemingly balanced around all participants being alive at all times. In reality, people die pretty quickly.

    The new role system augments the SO3/SO4 battle system pretty well. You can level the roles and set bonuses and such and influence how the characters AI works. But there is a particular set of roles that can make combat a complete joke, well into the post game dungeon. (I'm not going to spoil what they are.)

    Despite you now being able to use every single character in battle, the new battle skill system means you have to pick and choose who to give skill books to. You don't get battle skills by leveling up. You have to find a book that lets them learn level 1 of the skill, but 2 characters will share each book. I think this would've been better suited to a previous SO game where you didn't have every single party member in your party at once.

    The story and characters aren't anything particular to write home about. The story is basically "protect this little girl because she is a little girl". The majority of the characterization takes place in optional Private Actions. As mentioned before, you now control the camera during cutscenes, so unlike Star Ocean 4 where you had more cinematic cutscenes for all of the Private Actions, Star Ocean 5's private actions are you standing there talking to the other character, and you can still emote as you control Fidel. Welch's Private Actions (which unlock Item Creation) were all pretty enjoyable. The rest were mostly anime tropes.

    The world itself is not very big. You only travel to one planet, and there are 4-5 proper cities/towns (YMMV on whether the 5th one counts as a town or not) on this planet. There aren't many overworld maps or zones either.

    For those of you looking for new music by Sakuraba, you won't find much of it because 1/2 of this games OST was taken from other tri-Ace games. Not even remixed like Stab the Sword of Justice was remixed for SO4, but straight up copy/pasted. The shrine uses the same shrine music from SO3. The battle vs Del Sol uses The Divine Spirit of Language. Etc.

    Overall, I can't recommend the game unless you absolutely must play every Star Ocean game.    … Expand
  2. Super_Cloud
    Feb 14, 2018
    5
    What a huge disappointment Star Ocean 5 is, no space exploration is what kill it for me. They also got lazy recycling music, this is not a bad thing since they are good but i wish i could have discovered brand new music. This was also the shortest Star Ocean i played. The difficulty was unbalanced sometime from very easy to hard to very easy again. The battle system was enjoyable for mostWhat a huge disappointment Star Ocean 5 is, no space exploration is what kill it for me. They also got lazy recycling music, this is not a bad thing since they are good but i wish i could have discovered brand new music. This was also the shortest Star Ocean i played. The difficulty was unbalanced sometime from very easy to hard to very easy again. The battle system was enjoyable for most part except i wish the skill were better, the basic double slash was more over power than the one you get later. I would lie if i said i did not enjoy this game but it was still disappointing.… Expand
  3. moonman1994
    Feb 5, 2017
    6
    Star Ocean 5 invotates some in terms of gameplay but lacks in most of the other places that the Star Ocean series usually excels. Over all it's an alright game but certainly the weakest entry in the series. Overall score: 6.5/10

    Battle System: 8/10 The battle system in Star Ocean 5 is mostly innovative. It allows you to control each individual character as well as take your entire team    Star Ocean 5 invotates some in terms of gameplay but lacks in most of the other places that the Star Ocean series usually excels. Over all it's an alright game but certainly the weakest entry in the series. Overall score: 6.5/10

    Battle System: 8/10 The battle system in Star Ocean 5 is mostly innovative. It allows you to control each individual character as well as take your entire team into battle. Your team also runs around the map with you and the transition from map to battle is pretty fluid. As far as criticisms of the battle system go: there are a lot of battle skills but manually you're limited to four which kind of sucks. Also you don't many normal attacks that you can string together unlike in the other star oceans which makes the individual (non skill) attacks seem kind of slow. The largest criticisms I have of the battle system are during certain boss battles or story events. During some battles there is important dialogue that is near impossible to hear which is frustrating. There are also these protect Anne events that are simply infuriating. That being said these are luckily few and far between. Some reviewers mentioned the battle camera which I personally never had a problem with so I don't really understand where their issues came from.

    Graphics/World Design: 8/10 The graphics are a major step up from Star Ocean 5 and the manage to maintain the Star Ocean design. The world is absolutely beautiful (possible aesthetically the best of the star ocean games). Unfortunately the world is small and because of this the awe of beauty that you had looking at each new location ends up wearing off by about 15 hours into the story since you've seen almost every location and you've seen all of them many times.

    Soundtrack: 5/10 The soundtrack relies on songs from previous Star Ocean games far to much and the new songs are nothing special. The unfortunate reality is that every tune that stuck out tended to be a song from Star Ocean 3 that was reused. The new music wasn't bad but was completely unmemorable and the Maze of Tribulations music wasn't even a new rendition which was simply disappointing.

    Story: 6/10 The story is just enough to keep you engaged. It's short (around 20 or so hours), you also are stuck on one planet (minus several spaceships) the entire time, and it just felt like large portions of it were cut. The villains were not fleshed out and they were pretty much cookie cutter villains. It feels too like there were times where another planet could easily have been added, or lore could have been added but it seems simply that that too was cut.

    Characters: 6.5/10 The characters are all at face value interesting enough and they're designed well enough but they're not fleshed out at all. Their motivations are hard to make sense of because (minus the two from earth) the motivations they have for their actions seem to come completely from the fact that "they're good people" which is kind of ridiculous. The game also brings back the PA system which would be great if every PA wasn't 30 seconds at max length and if these were actually used to develop the characters. Unfortunately the characters seem like outlines of what could have been great characters with nothing filled in.

    Side Quests/Bonus Material: 7/10 There are a lot of side quests, PAs come back, you have many unlockable roles and specialties, and everything seems collectable (items, enemy encounters you name it). This all makes the completionist gamer happy but as many extra things as there are to do they end up getting derivative after a while so I find it highly unlikely that many people did or would even want to complete all the lists in the game (battle trophies, items etc.) Also the game features the good old Maze of Tribulations so you do at least get a solid bonus dungeon.

    Misc: There are certain other slightly annoying aspects of Star Ocean 5. The (english) voice acting for some of the minor characters and minor villains is bad and in some cases really bad however the voice acting for the main cast is pretty solid. The minor villains in particular are not well developed and on of them is a direct rip of of Star Ocean 3's Albel (minus the redemption).

    Summary: Overall Star Ocean 5 was just disappointing. Star Ocean 3 is my all time favorite game and I throughly enjoyed the other three star oceans. It felt like the production was rushed and it felt like they turned the outline of a game into a full game with out adding anything past the outline. This won't stop me from hoping for a Star Ocean 6 but I certainly hope that they return more to their roots. Overall: 6.5/10    … Expand
  4. Sai1
    Mar 12, 2018
    6
    This game was extremely disappointing as it wasn't really that 'rpg.' Just because something has a story, doesn't mean it's rpg, regardless of the sea of fraudulent companies (looking at you FF 13). Exploration, bond with characters (think star ocean til the end of time or ff10), soul instead of genericism all matter. I don't think star ocean I&F is the worst 'rpg' but it's definitely notThis game was extremely disappointing as it wasn't really that 'rpg.' Just because something has a story, doesn't mean it's rpg, regardless of the sea of fraudulent companies (looking at you FF 13). Exploration, bond with characters (think star ocean til the end of time or ff10), soul instead of genericism all matter. I don't think star ocean I&F is the worst 'rpg' but it's definitely not true to the original series or it's fans or any rpg fans tbh. A larger scaled platformer (by that I mean more explore room than mario, but not enough to be REALLY considered explorative. Quests gotten from billboards makes me not care about quests. Not enough individual character story or scenes to make me care about characters. I know you are trying to appeal to autistic, lazy, instant gratification, illiterate casual gamers, but ppl that buy rpgs are the opposite of them, they don't want generic, easy win, souless crap k? Learn who your target market is please!… Expand
  5. Zero_Kyrael
    Jun 29, 2016
    7
    This game has a bit more to offer than I believe most reviews are giving it credit for. It has flaws Hands down, but there is enough here to make it a good JRPG. It is not great, but I have no regrets about my time spent with it. Why well....
    1. The music is pretty great. I had the game come with Valkyrie profile music, but did not use it much as I was really enjoying the music on its    This game has a bit more to offer than I believe most reviews are giving it credit for. It has flaws Hands down, but there is enough here to make it a good JRPG. It is not great, but I have no regrets about my time spent with it. Why well....
    1. The music is pretty great. I had the game come with Valkyrie profile music, but did not use it much as I was really enjoying the music on its own. It is used very well and fits the tone while also being memorable.
    2. Game runs smooth at 60 FPS no issues has a few bits of great scenery to enjoy!
    3. The characters are solid. While the story has issues (I'll address below) I really enjoyed everyone from the Fidel to Fiore.
    4. I had a lot of fun with the combat. There can be a lot of micromanaging, but with a party of seven you really get a brawl feel that works out FAR better than most people say it does. There is ONE glaring issue that really sours the combat experience and I feel is focused on too much which again I'll address below.

    Downsides however...
    1. Really short and not very imaginative Story. Star Ocean fans will know it for its fun mix of Sci-fi and Fantasy along with long story that gives everyone time to grow. This game clocked me in at 22 hours and it felt a bit rushed. Story itself is good, but nothing you have not encountered before really using a lot of cliches.
    2. Okay the combat problem! ESCORT MISSIONS! While the AI is not amazing you won't have to much of an issue until you hit one of these. With 7 members fights are a bit crazy and the enemies will rush your escorted target making it really hard to keep them up without a lot of micromanagement. Having to watch an intro scene before each of these fights coupled with that issues will piss anyone off. However, I still feel that these are only a few fights and the rest of the combat is solid.
    3. Camera issues. These are not game breaking, but they might break your immersion. The game tries for a seamless mix between game world and story telling so you will just be kept in an area not able to leave while everyone talks and does whatever. This can be annoying and hard to get camera in place to watch/listen in an immersive manner. Sometimes you may miss things cause you are fighting to get things into place.

    Overall I think that Star Ocean 5 is a Average JRPG. It has good and it has bad. I don't have any regrets about playing it, but it is definitely not the most memorable or genre defining entry in the star ocean series. If you are a Star Ocean fan you will enjoy the game. If you are a RPG fan and looking for something to spend time on then they're far worse games to choose, but also better ones out there! I hope this helps someone with their choice! Cheers!    … Expand
  6. AvantGuardian
    Jul 10, 2016
    7
    Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithfulness, "Faithfully" gives fans of the Star Ocean series the things they loved about the previous games while drastically improving upon the combat and leveling system. Star Ocean boasts an extremely original and phenomenally crafted leveling system, by which, in addition to gaining experience after battle, you gain "SP" which you use to spend on roles thatStar Ocean: Integrity and Faithfulness, "Faithfully" gives fans of the Star Ocean series the things they loved about the previous games while drastically improving upon the combat and leveling system. Star Ocean boasts an extremely original and phenomenally crafted leveling system, by which, in addition to gaining experience after battle, you gain "SP" which you use to spend on roles that you can upgrade and assign to each character. The roles, of which each character can have 4, determine what they do in battle as AI when not controlling them, and gives them stat boosts as you upgrade the roles. So technically, with this system, there is no limit to the customization and how strong you can get. You can also Min-Max, and become and incredibly powerful glass cannon, which is rare, and cool for an JRPG.

    Pros:
    •Fun and colorful cast of characters including a perfect girly, a gorgeous girly, and a super cutie who has a huge crush on the protagonist.
    •Amazingly fluid and innovative combat and leveling system
    •Classic Star Ocean Planet/Space story with a combination of fantastical magic and super advanced space technology
    •A unique style of cutscene more retro than new, but allows for some really well-written dialogue. It feels sort of Star-Trek-esque the way the space ship cutscenes are handled. It's rather neat.

    Cons:
    Very short - about 18-24 hours playthrough, depending on how much side questing you do, which you really needn't bother as all they offer is items to make you stronger and you can get plenty strong without them.
    Unoriginal Story, and rather lame one at that - Plot revolves around a very young girl with incredible lab-created powers and a long game of cat and mouse protecting and rescuing her over and over again.
    I feel this game would have much better reviews if they had a better storyline. That being said, almost every other aspect of the game was certainly up to par with both Star Ocean, and other JRPG series.
    •Minor annoyances such as inability to skip cutscenes, a worthless crafting system compared to The end of Time, 3 protect-based battles which were absurdly difficult to the point of calling Square Enix and complaining, and instant game over screens that leave you wondering WTF happened.

    Overall:
    Worth playing for sure. Why not?    … Expand
  7. mikehettfield
    Mar 11, 2017
    7
    I'm not fan of space plots, but this game is so beautiful, a little too anime for my taste but the music is so epic that made me bought this game and i dont regret it, combat is so fluid, and its a real rpg in every sense. great value if you used to like golden era of JRPGs on ps1.
  8. Sopheriah
    Jul 3, 2016
    6
    Ok so far I loved the previous star ocean , but this one is horrible you dont get any feelings for the characters whatsoever , and then one moment your plowing trough mobs and bosses easy mode and then they imply a mechanic where either your healer is gone and/or you gotta protect someone who seems to have the defense of a piece of paper , causing you to have to grind mobs and then youOk so far I loved the previous star ocean , but this one is horrible you dont get any feelings for the characters whatsoever , and then one moment your plowing trough mobs and bosses easy mode and then they imply a mechanic where either your healer is gone and/or you gotta protect someone who seems to have the defense of a piece of paper , causing you to have to grind mobs and then you still need luck on your side to make it trough.I really wish they hadnt put that in the game , sometimes all your toons will just stack together and then the boss will hit you with a half field wide aoe attack which causes everyone to die.Story wise its not really anything that hasnt been done before I really think they could have made alot more out of those game cause the battle system is pretty good and in some ways reminds me off tales of games in the way off executing a huge damage attack but to be honest half the time I was pretty bored moving from the cabin to the wall and back again.… Expand
  9. Ryskim
    Jul 1, 2016
    7
    I will give SO5 a 7. It its pretty low considering it comes from an all-time Star Ocean fan. The game pretty much fails at character design. Camera movement is quite frustrating at times but other than that I don't see any other problem with it. It's kinda short, not may hours of gameplay and considering there will be no DLC we could basically say this is all we'll get. Weapons and armorsI will give SO5 a 7. It its pretty low considering it comes from an all-time Star Ocean fan. The game pretty much fails at character design. Camera movement is quite frustrating at times but other than that I don't see any other problem with it. It's kinda short, not may hours of gameplay and considering there will be no DLC we could basically say this is all we'll get. Weapons and armors are not visually shown, you only see them in the menus, that's a nother big fail. Personally would've liked a more adult-looking game. Can't control other characters outside battle. And last but not least, transitions could be better (entering houses, etc...). I spent 60 hours in Star Ocean 2. They say Star Ocean 3 is the best one so far. I guess it will stay that way.… Expand
  10. XiolaJin73
    Jul 1, 2016
    7
    This game had a real old school feel to it...it's like an updated Star Ocean 3. (Just not a real hard creation system) I would give it a 70. Battle system is good, even though its a downgrade from previous SO's I like the creation systems and I like that they didn't over-do the graphics. Now I know that sounds weird in a time where games are being made to look as real as possible, but youThis game had a real old school feel to it...it's like an updated Star Ocean 3. (Just not a real hard creation system) I would give it a 70. Battle system is good, even though its a downgrade from previous SO's I like the creation systems and I like that they didn't over-do the graphics. Now I know that sounds weird in a time where games are being made to look as real as possible, but you need graphics like this for a Star Ocean game. This game is a real grinder, the good thing is you make a lot of Fol and rake up the items. Not a surprise that the mighty Game Informer gave it a 5, they just LOOOOOOOVE JRPG's, then again, it's the same magazine that gave Fallout 4 a 9! Again, I give this game a 7/10. I'm really enjoying this game. Not the hardest or most interesting game on the block, but there is enough here to make me smile while playing it!!… Expand
  11. Werchiel
    Jul 11, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I can't really call myself a fan of the series but I did play my share of it - I really liked the third one - Star Ocean Till The End Of Time despite it's flaws. On the other hand I absolutely hated Star Ocean Last Hope with a seething passion - the characters the voice acting - they just ruined the game for me despite the fact that I wasn't blind to some things that the game did correct - altough it didn't matter faced with my constant anger towards most of the cast.

    Now that we have this out of the way I am happy to inform - this game is better that Star Ocean 4 in most regards but still not as enjoyable as Star Ocean 3.
    I did like the characters - most of the cast even if not written perfectly are enjoyable to watch and if there is anything that really hurts them is the fact that there was not enough time for them to develop. They don't really change throughout the course of the game and some scenes that SHOULD have that effect on them - just don't. And while we're at it - they don't have an effect on the player as well.

    Now what we need is an example - examples are good. And here's where we go into the spoiler territory. So let's roll with the character of our protagonist's father. He is being build up from the very beginning as the typical badass character - he is strong, he is smug and he is the one last thing that can defend the kingdom - training the royal army and leading them to battle... well - the usual stuff you know. But quite literally the only thing that this character in the course of the story is get himself killed randomly. I'm not even overstating this - he did not draw his sword even a single time throughout the game. Okay now game developers - here is a free tip. If you want to establish that character A is badass - show us character A in action. Show us like he's cleaving through enemies or maybe his tactical prowess or even at least how he's training soldiers. But no - we get nothing, he just gives a few words of advice, issues a couple orders and shares a single "bonding" moment with his son before dying.
    It might seem like I'm harping on this one thing but not too long ago I played a game that also established a character in a simmilar fashion - that was Trails of Cold Steel and the Radiant Blademaster - only Trails did this thing exactly as it should be done. I won't tell you how since some may consider it spoilers but trust me - it was awesome there.

    Now we have to talk about combat. Oh boy the combat. It looks great - skills are very cool loking and flashy and you can feel the power behind them. There is just one issue I have with this game and it's all the more irritating since I believe it could have been easily fixed with more time since it stems from the lack of balance. Our protagonist's starting skill is called Double Slash. And you use double slash for 5 hours. For 10 hours. For 15 hours. And then you beat the final boss with it. I'm pretty sure I got all the skills in the game (last one was from the last dungeon called Air Raid and again even though it looks really cool - it's weaker than double slash) and none would even compare. Even if a skill would do more damage total - it's animation was way too long and Double Slash simply provides higher DPS. So very early in the game I figured the master strategy is co chain Double Slash indefinetly (well until 200% charge and then just repeat) IN EVERY FIGHT. Bosses included. I was playing on medium difficulty and it was just ridiculous. Especially since like in every other Star Ocean game crafting is just silly. If you just spend some time (not even that much really) putting a little effort into your crafter items they will quickly get just straight up OP. With a combination of craft/berserker and some other stuff I could easily one-shot regular mobs. Even minibosses would die and I would only notice this later on after checking inventory. Our damage output is just insane and you can achieve it with around 1 hour worth of crafting and simply spamming one button in combat. It is quite cool to have all the characters participate however.

    The game is also painfuly short - 20 hours for me and I had spent time on crafting and had around 50% sidequests done. I say sidequests but they are simple fetch quests and they are just annoying since you run back and forth between the same locations. And there aren't even that many locations - the number of locations is just pathethic when you compare it to any other jRPG and filling the world with nonsense fetch quests is the most lazy way of trying to add game time.

    Since I play a lot of old games all the time I am usually very lenient when it comes to graphics but even I could say that watching the water made me think even world of warcraft has better water effects. Character models however are pretty good and so is the music - maybe not my favourite soundtrack of all-time but it gets the job done.

    All in all I am really dissapointed in this game but I still had some fun playing it.    … Expand
  12. Okamisen
    Jul 1, 2016
    7
    Получил код немного заранее и уже достаточно сильно игру попробовал.

    Для начала - это явно не шедевр т.к. игру делал весьма молодой директор хоть и при поддержке весьма и весьма уважаемого разработчика. Многое у них явно не получилось многое пришлось выкинуть, однако для опытного геймера это не является проблемой - все же главной вещью в любой игре является атмосфера. Арт и персонажи    Получил код немного заранее и уже достаточно сильно игру попробовал.

    Для начала - это явно не шедевр т.к. игру делал весьма молодой директор хоть и при поддержке весьма и весьма уважаемого разработчика. Многое у них явно не получилось многое пришлось выкинуть, однако для опытного геймера это не является проблемой - все же главной вещью в любой игре является атмосфера.

    Арт и персонажи на отлично - все выполнено прекрасно и персонажи выглядят с одной стороны не так уж далеко от своих старых вариаций но при этом количество деталей костюма сильно по прибавилось. Средне можно сказать о окружении - много всяких зон но мало заполнения. Монстры разнообразны но вот третий раз один и тот же босс в соборе - расстроил.

    Боевая система заслуживает высокую оценку - все тото же баланс на уровне "держать все в руках и управлять оркестром в одно лицо", только теперь ещё и вфигачили систему взаимного разрушения блока, сильной атаки и слабой атаки + вернули систему отмена анимаций. Камера разве что не много шалит но это так же не особенно беда.

    Наибольшая инновация - отсутствие большого количества кат сцен - вместо этого имеем разговоры на ходу + быстрые ивенты.

    История пока для меня не раскрылась но судя по тому что видно - стандарт с небольшим плюсом в сторону взросления. Все же даже главному герою тут 23, а не обычные 18.

    В общем игра стоит своей небольшой суммы но придется закрыть глаза на ряд недостатков. Если хотите олдскульную JRPG под новым соусом - обязательно зацените.    … Expand
  13. tensa2341
    Jul 6, 2016
    6
    It's a very substantial game. With its varied characters, atmosphere, graphics, and it's real-time hack/slash gameplay. The problem with the game though is that it's a very underwhelming experience as the world that Fidel, Miki, or whoever lives in it feels dull in comparison to some other games like the Tales of series.

    Pros: -Gameplay is fluid and fast -Enough content to be distract    It's a very substantial game. With its varied characters, atmosphere, graphics, and it's real-time hack/slash gameplay. The problem with the game though is that it's a very underwhelming experience as the world that Fidel, Miki, or whoever lives in it feels dull in comparison to some other games like the Tales of series.

    Pros:
    -Gameplay is fluid and fast
    -Enough content to be distract from
    -Characters and voice acting is great
    Cons:
    -The world is so dull
    -Pretty short for a JRPG (20-30 Hours)
    -After a few hours, you are getting pretty much what the game offers

    Now the question is " How can I keep playing this game if it doesn't have much to offer?". There are two answers for that. Either you play for its story ( Which is actually pretty interesting ) or you play for just the enjoyment ( Which it also is ). I'd say wait till the game drops in price like 20-30 bucks. It'll be worth that much after.    … Expand
  14. NihiRagnarK
    Nov 18, 2016
    6
    You can actually feel how bad it is when you only play it for an hour or two. The story is so tedious and the game doesn't seem like fully completed. I thought it would be a shame for the famous star ocean series and a failure in the JPRG world.

    HOWEVER, I pretty much enjoy it !!! I don't know why, maybe because the lack of JPRG in this generation or the memory of old    You can actually feel how bad it is when you only play it for an hour or two. The story is so tedious and the game doesn't seem like fully completed. I thought it would be a shame for the famous star ocean series and a failure in the JPRG world.

    HOWEVER, I pretty much enjoy it !!! I don't know why, maybe because the lack of JPRG in this generation or the memory of old task-level-strategy-combat like RPGs. But I do complete the game once with almost all side missions finished.

    I won't recommend to try a second or a third walkthrough for the trophies or level up 255 to beat the Secret maze though.    … Expand
  15. Hououin_Kyouma
    Sep 10, 2016
    5
    B4 reviewing, please note i played all the other star Ocean games and this review takes into account my experience with the other 4 games.

    Star Ocean Integrity and Faithessness and Star Ocen last hope simply do not live up to the original 3. Creating unique characters that can trigger emotional responses from players is something that the entire star ocean series had difficulty with.    B4 reviewing, please note i played all the other star Ocean games and this review takes into account my experience with the other 4 games.

    Star Ocean Integrity and Faithessness and Star Ocen last hope simply do not live up to the original 3. Creating unique characters that can trigger emotional responses from players is something that the entire star ocean series had difficulty with. However, Star Ocean the last hope and now this latest installment have really sunk to an all time low regarding characters. There is no emotion attachment to characters with nothing setting the characters apart.

    I am a big fan of the first 2 games. The stories of First Departure and Second Evolution seamlessly combined fantasy and sci-fi. Both series they include a well-constructed narrative that all players need to go through however at a deeper level they have provided ways who are interested in the story , to learn more about the universe of star ocean. Some of these events can affect gameplay as well. For example in star ocean second evolution players can explore the area and towns to learn about how the final boss was created and in doing so you can unlock his limiter and make him more powerful. This goes for characters as well you can conduct private actions to learn more about characters and create bonds that will change the ending. none of this is included in star ocean 4 or 5. to be fair there are private actions but they dont work the same.

    Ok sound wasnt bad. Star Ocean series usually have good sound.

    While i prefer the battle system of the first and 2 star ocean games ( biased perspective), The combat system wasnt the worst. the environments look nice, battles are fluid and there are some unique mechanics.

    Personally, I don't like the 3D much. As a design student, I know that going 3D isnt the always the best choice especially when the 3d stuff inst polished.With better and more powerful graphics I cant fight the 3D trend but here are a couple of things star ocean4 & 5 lost when it went 3D : character expressions, emotional states, and fluidity of the camera . you can't properly see the reactions and emotions of the characters or they are not well enough animated. Star ocean 1&2 had poor graphics but they compensated by haveing good art on the foreground and used many icons to represent characters emotional states. this part of the reason why u cant invest in the characters in the newer Star Ocean games. I know most games on the Ps4 are 3D but what im trying to say is that the first 2 games did 90% of what this game does but better. the only thing this game has over the first 2 are graphics. These faults can be fixed in the future ( hopefully).

    Overall i would give it a 6-7 for combat sound and art but ( biased opinion coming) I need to have relatable or likable characters with a good story to fully enjoy games. you can have minimalistic stories hence the phrase "gameplay is king". However, you can't have bad stories and hope your game mechanics will come save you. so I'm rating this as 5.    … Expand
  16. Chipzahoy
    Mar 31, 2017
    5
    Hmph. Well...beat the game, because I paid for it. After beating it, I remained silent, contemplating my thoughts on this game. It's not good...but it's not bad...so 5.
  17. Juras
    Aug 15, 2018
    5
    Quite disappointment, game look like unfinished, or very limited budget, only one planet to explore, much less content even if content is mostly copy pasted from previous games (music, monsters, equipment design, items), post game is practically one random dungeon and some rare mats farming/crafting (no mini games, races, arena, nothing), weapons models do not change visuals (it does evenQuite disappointment, game look like unfinished, or very limited budget, only one planet to explore, much less content even if content is mostly copy pasted from previous games (music, monsters, equipment design, items), post game is practically one random dungeon and some rare mats farming/crafting (no mini games, races, arena, nothing), weapons models do not change visuals (it does even in SO3 on PS2), no additional outfits, no directed cutscenes (only little few)-most of them are boring dialogues with free camera and limited movement. It's not what i expected.… Expand
  18. Friendzie
    Jul 6, 2018
    7
    I'm going to try and keep this short and focus on what I liked rather than dwell on the negatives. Star Ocean was a dead IP, and the devs did what they could with almost no budget. The graphics suffer, but they did some cool things with the game seeing as it's not very taxing on the PS4 hardware. In particular, you can bring all 7 main characters into battle at once. You don't worry aboutI'm going to try and keep this short and focus on what I liked rather than dwell on the negatives. Star Ocean was a dead IP, and the devs did what they could with almost no budget. The graphics suffer, but they did some cool things with the game seeing as it's not very taxing on the PS4 hardware. In particular, you can bring all 7 main characters into battle at once. You don't worry about whether you should buy equipment or power up characters you don't want to use. You just use all of them. The game has a highly customizable tactics system to help each AI understand what you want them to do. There are hundreds of character development skits. The battles take place right on the map and there's no loading screen before you fight. All your companions actually walk with you on the field! Optional quests are not that exciting, but give you reason to go back out into the world, where you'll discover that encounters are constantly changing. When you backtrack later on you will find a new set of monsters along the way. Character development skits happen as you travel to break up the tedium. Skits and quests give meaningful rewards sometimes. The combat system is pretty much like any other Star Ocean or Tales game. Later on you may be able to exploit some mechanics to become very difficult to kill, but so what? Same thing in previous entries in the series that garnered praise.

    The game has very few bugs, never crashed on me, has no loot boxes or microtransactions, and is plenty long enough. Give it a chance and you might like it. I'd rate it a 7.5, but I'm rounding up to 8 for purposes of this site.    … Expand
  19. JossCard
    Oct 4, 2016
    7
    TL;DR: The game is okay; lacks polish.

    I'm not a long-time fan of the Star Ocean series. I've only played the first one all the way through. I mention this as a warning that this review comes from someone without a lot of stake in the series so far. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a pseudo-action RPG. This means that battles aren't turn based, but they're not free-roaming    TL;DR: The game is okay; lacks polish.

    I'm not a long-time fan of the Star Ocean series. I've only played the first one all the way through. I mention this as a warning that this review comes from someone without a lot of stake in the series so far.

    Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a pseudo-action RPG. This means that battles aren't turn based, but they're not free-roaming affairs like other action-RPGs either. Instead, encountering a group of enemies on the overworld will initiate combat in a small area on that overworld. The battle system seems simple enough, with a basic ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS kind of attack set-up, with strong attacks breaking defense, defending breaking weak attacks, and weak attacks breaking strong attack wind-ups.
    The issues with the battle system are that they lack polish and conveyance to the player of what to do. Beyond a few tutorial slides (ugh, the WORST way of teaching a player), there isn't much to teach the player advanced strategies, what different roles can do, or even how to prioritize the special attacks. Whats more, for a game that relies heavily on their rock-paper-scissors fighting mechanic, they do very little to demonstrate what's happening in battle. With 6 active fighters in battle at a time, it's hard to see enemies winding up strong attacks, defending, or simply telegraphing weak attacks. As such, I've played about 30 hours, gotten 50% of the side-quests done, and I've yet to utilize the defense button at all. Instead I've simply alternated between weak attack and heavy attack (and the special attacks linked to both) and have had no problems. The battle can get chaotic and frantic, which would be great, if not for how easy it is to lose focus on what's actually happening in battle. I had issues with a boss fight where the enemy would disappear only to reappear with a devastating AoE attack, and more often than not, I wouldn't even notice that the enemy had disappeared until it was too late.

    The boss fights are also unrelentingly hard (played on normal difficulty) when compared to your average encounters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on how you feel about it, but it can kick your ass unexpectedly when you've been level grinding for so long.

    As far as the plot goes, it's fairly generic RPG affair, with a sword-wielding hero going on a quest to save and protect a little girl. The characters are fairly bland, and even though the writing is pretty fun in character interactions, those are so disassociated with gameplay and the story both, that they can be easy to miss. The main selling point of the Star Ocean series, as I've understood it, is the strange "worlds collide" set up of fantasy meeting harshly with science fiction. As such, one would expect more emphasis to be placed on the interaction between the future space-technology and the characters from the technologically unsophisticated planet. On this point, Integrity and Faithlessness disappoints, treating a futuristic space station like just another town. Even the interactions between the space-faring characters and the planet-side characters is bland on that point, with very few questions about life among the stars, their technology, or even the more basic "why are you here?" being passed over almost completely. On this point, I&F drops the ball completely, leaving the one, most interesting point of the story, alone in the dark.

    The character animations are beautiful in combat, but outside of combat run the gamut of Japanesey over-acting more akin to a cheap anime than a game that tries to take itself seriously more often than not. Many of the cutscenes aren't skippable, and in some cases, break the flow of the gameplay worse than cutting away to a cinematic, by suddenly slowing the player down mid-exploration and enclosing them in a small circle while the rest of the party stops walking to discuss plot. Conversely, character building interactions aren't considered cutscenes, so it's very likely to run into combat or exit an area in the middle of an entertaining conversation, cutting it short. The writing and it's implementation are all over the place, leading to an inconsistent experience throughout the game.

    I can't say much about the sound. The voice acting is pretty good, and the background music does its job of being entertaining, while not standing out too much. Everything seems appropriate here, if not something to write home about.

    If you're a fan of a grindy action RPG, this might just work for you. If you're looking for something with more depth, keep on looking. As for me, I've found that a majority of my time, I played the game while watching something on Netflix.    … Expand
  20. Manjisan13
    Jul 25, 2016
    7
    Cries..... Where is my 100+ hours experience.

    Altou they they did good jobs with improvements but lacks replay abilities :(

    Pours wine on the game. Shame, It could have been much more.....2months till FF15 xD, woopwoop
  21. The_BlueRose
    Oct 14, 2016
    7
    A classic japanese JRPG, simple story, a stone-paper-scissors combat system and simple side quests.

    Graphicaly mediocre buy with nice character design.

    The most interesting feature are the Roles, the are a lot and helps you the build a better structured characters.
  22. OxyKun
    Nov 17, 2016
    6
    This game is fun. But it's lacking in many areas.

    I'll start of with the pro's and con's and will go more in depth after. Pro's: - Great graphics. Probably one of the most gorgeous JRPG's on the ps4 yet. - Great music. - Easy to pick up and play battle system. - The game isn't done when you've finished the story. - Likable and diverse playable characters. - Over the top skills    This game is fun. But it's lacking in many areas.

    I'll start of with the pro's and con's and will go more in depth after.

    Pro's:
    - Great graphics. Probably one of the most gorgeous JRPG's on the ps4 yet.
    - Great music.
    - Easy to pick up and play battle system.
    - The game isn't done when you've finished the story.
    - Likable and diverse playable characters.
    - Over the top skills and spells.
    - Multiple endings
    - Multiple difficulties

    Con's:
    - Short story for a RPG.
    - Game is very linear. There is almost no room for exploration.
    - Many unskippable cutscenes
    - Lots of backtracking.
    - Shaky camera at times
    - You won't go out to explore other planet's like older star ocean games.

    Story:
    The game is about the 2 main character's finding a young girl, who is being chased around by some people after saving the girl they decide to go out and find her parents for her. On the way they meet people who are willing to help and join them in their quest. Not knowing there is much more to this girl than they think. I won't go in any more details because of spoilers. But the story does its part in keeping you entertained and not beeing to difficult to follow. It's a typical story which JRPG and anime fans alike will like. With characters taking on the anime stereotypes. Such as: The tough guy, the cute girl, the pervert and the sexy lady. To name a few.

    Gameplay:
    The gameplay is very simple it has a strong/weak attack and a button for blocking. And you can use skills and spells. Which you unlock more of the further you get in the game. The skills and spells are over the top and flashy. All party members are playable and fullfill the typcal classes of rpg's. Like the fighter/tank/mage/healer and ranger.

    Post-game content:
    After you finish the story, the game isn't done yet. You can do a lot of side quests and there is a post game dungeon for the truly hardcore jrpg fans. With bosses who are almost impossible to beat. It needs to be said though, that there is a difficulty spike here and lots of grinding needed do you want to finish of the final boss of the dungeon.

    Difficulty:
    When you start the game there are 2 options the games "easy" mode and "normal" mode. I have played the game on normal mode and the game felt like a breeze untill you finish the game. When you finish the story you'll unlock the games "hard" and "expert" mode. Which require some grinding at points in order to beat some bosses.

    Time to beat:
    To finish the story takes about 20 hours depending on your skill level.

    To finish the games post content and sidequest takes about 60 hours.

    To get al trophies is a grind and walkthroughs and guides are needed, and you need to beat the game 3 times as the difficulty trophies dont stack. This will take well over 100 hours to complete and feels like it was put in to compromise for the games short story.    … Expand
  23. Unicron35
    Jul 6, 2022
    7
    Reviewed on PS5. The graphics are okay. The music soundtrack is decent. The story is good. The protagonist is bland. The rest of your team fall into cliche character tropes. The antagonist is predictable. Several other villains are outright hilarious and I can't take them seriously.

    The combat is smooth and fluid. The UI is okay. The game froze a couple of times. There are difficulty    Reviewed on PS5. The graphics are okay. The music soundtrack is decent. The story is good. The protagonist is bland. The rest of your team fall into cliche character tropes. The antagonist is predictable. Several other villains are outright hilarious and I can't take them seriously.

    The combat is smooth and fluid. The UI is okay. The game froze a couple of times. There are difficulty spikes which will force you to grind to overcome them. The role system is addicting. I had my most fun with this game unlocking and experimenting with new roles.

    This was the first Star Ocean game that I finished. While it can be rough around the edges, the story plot and role system kept me engaged to end. I did find it disappointing that you are on one planet the entire game. I hope Star Ocean 6 has more planets to visit and that the role system returns. Overall, a decent JRPG.    … Expand
  24. Suzumiya1
    Apr 3, 2017
    5
    Muy decepcionado de este juego, yo pensaba que el patito feo de la saga era the last hope, pero no, este le gano, por favor que alguien me diga que este juego es un demo, por que eso es para mi, un demo de $ 60
  25. Brev_Karlaus
    Mar 23, 2019
    7
    Having played the series since Star ocean 3, I feel like the series has lost some of its personality and imagination over time.
    A lot of the familiar thing like the gameplay are still there. However the main story itself feels like a lot shorted of an adventure than previous titles like Star ocean 3 which proudly spanned 2 DVDs back in its days. 95% of the game takes place in a single    Having played the series since Star ocean 3, I feel like the series has lost some of its personality and imagination over time.
    A lot of the familiar thing like the gameplay are still there. However the main story itself feels like a lot shorted of an adventure than previous titles like Star ocean 3 which proudly spanned 2 DVDs back in its days. 95% of the game takes place in a single continent of a single planet.
    The spaceship parts are still as awesome as always and I wish there were more of them.
    The game almost totally lacks cutscenes and instead almost all the conversations happen with a free camera in real time, I think this really damages the storytelling that worked so well in the previous 2 games, sometimes I could not tell who was speaking when there was a supporting character mixed in the conversation.
    Motoi Sakuraba still breathes in life to the game with his music but even he seems to say "meh" and like 40% of the music is recycled from SO3 and SO4 (though I was glad to head again some pieces).
    Overall the world feels small, only stretched by the huge waking sessions from point A to B. The antagonists ended up being very lame compared to the world threatening adversaries of the previous SO games, it was kind of a let down.
    I believe the creators of Star ocean have more than enough time between the titles to come up with something more than this. If they are out of ideas I hope they would recommend SO1 and SO2 on either this or the next generation of consoles
    That said like a classic SO game it has a lot of playtime specially if you want to do the postgame and the side quests    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

46
#46 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
47
#47 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 67 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 67
  2. Mixed: 50 out of 67
  3. Negative: 8 out of 67
  1. Easy Allies
    Dec 1, 2016
    50
    Despite having nearly seven years to figure out a way to improve upon The Last Hope, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is lacking in just about every department. Not even a solid soundtrack is enough to salvage this wreck. There’s nothing special about this below average RPG, and it completely misses the mark.
    Read full review
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 12, 2016
    20
    A washout. Somebody let the vampire in at Tri-Ace and it sucked all the life and personality from the once weird and funny JRPG series. Bring EDGE MAVERICK back. [Sept 2016]
  3. Games Master UK
    Sep 6, 2016
    48
    A lacklustre offering in a long-running series of great games. A huge shame. [Sept 2016, p.80]
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