Star Ocean: The Divine Force

 PlayStation 5
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 161 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 94 out of 161
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 161
  3. Negative: 47 out of 161
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  1. yigeguangtou
    Nov 10, 2022
    3
    I have played one of the worst rpgs this year. 2 and 3 are my favorite rpgs in those years. However, except for the combat system, there is nothing I like about this work. The map design is very mediocre, and the exploration experience is poor.
  2. toy19640409
    Nov 11, 2022
    3
    battle is not fun
    Blindside is the only game that's fun
    There is no flashy technique in battle skills
    Especially the main character, Raymond, is terrible.
    Revenger = Thrust
    Fantasista = Kick
    You will only have to repeatedly hit the boulder crash that you learn in the early stages
  3. conges
    Nov 13, 2022
    4
    The story is not bad if it is only the outline, it is not bad, but there are few surprises and ups and downs.
    Despite that, I feel that the settings are good in places, but I can't make use of it in the main line
    The production is terrible because it is full of reused motions "The execution ground event is especially terrible." Combat is a good concept in itself, but in the end it    The story is not bad if it is only the outline, it is not bad, but there are few surprises and ups and downs.
    Despite that, I feel that the settings are good in places, but I can't make use of it in the main line
    The production is terrible because it is full of reused motions
    "The execution ground event is especially terrible."
    Combat is a good concept in itself, but in the end it pushes this and that, so doing it becomes monotonous.    … Expand
  4. Kungfu1963
    Nov 17, 2022
    3
    The story lacks depth and emotion, Everything always conveniently works out. The characters are lifeless and dull to the point of it being annoying to listen to them at times.
    The side quests were pretty much pointless as most just gave you money you could easily farm by taking advantage of the surprise attack modifier and lacked any kind of tracking system which was insanely annoying.    The story lacks depth and emotion, Everything always conveniently works out. The characters are lifeless and dull to the point of it being annoying to listen to them at times.
    The side quests were pretty much pointless as most just gave you money you could easily farm by taking advantage of the surprise attack modifier and lacked any kind of tracking system which was insanely annoying.
    The graphics honestly failed to even live up to Till the end of time. The models were stiff and robotic and repeated the exact same poses over and over.    … Expand
  5. woaimiyabi
    Nov 10, 2022
    4
    The game plot generally explores that there is a problem with the sprint design. The combat system is good in the early stage, but has a serious sense of repetition in the middle and late stages. In the late stage, the boss piles up numbers, and the character modeling is very bad. The expression is numb. But the game has a hidden maze, which is very gratifying.
  6. theprotagonist
    Nov 7, 2022
    0
    The English language version has censored dialogue, yet there is no mention of the removed content on the sales page. Very dishonest!
  7. yan713555
    Nov 3, 2022
    4
    The story is not bad, but there are few places to go and it feels cramped
    Even if you can fly and explore, there are few beautiful scenery and surprising discoveries
    As for the battle, the blind side itself is good, but the link combo is not utilized and it just crashes boulder.
  8. Tzelanit
    Nov 8, 2022
    0
    Yet another mediocre JRPG, and another bad entry for a series that had its legacy destroyed. It's amazing that The Second Story was the last good Star Ocean game, but people keep paying tri-Ace and Square Enix, who've been past their prime for over a decade now, to keep pumping out terrible entries.

    Looks like a PS3 game when things get busy on the screen, and barely reaches PS4 levels    Yet another mediocre JRPG, and another bad entry for a series that had its legacy destroyed. It's amazing that The Second Story was the last good Star Ocean game, but people keep paying tri-Ace and Square Enix, who've been past their prime for over a decade now, to keep pumping out terrible entries.

    Looks like a PS3 game when things get busy on the screen, and barely reaches PS4 levels of fidelity if standing perfectly still in an empty area. The optimization is garbage, so there are a lot of rough edges and performance dips.

    The story is more standard generic Star Ocean: someone on a space fleet gets stranded on a redneck planet and uncovers a plot that affects the universe, so everyone has to come together to stop this threat. So, typical Saturday morning weeb garbage that only 9-year-olds or emotionally-addled teenagers would give a score of a 10 to.

    The gameplay starts off strong and then devolves into a repetitive whack-a-mole against traditional Japanese design principles: AKA bosses being damage sponges who only really threaten you because they drag out a fight and expend your resources.

    The series should've stopped a long time ago, but the 14 people still playing this series who started with Til the End of Time who think THAT'S what Star Ocean should be keep signaling to these greedy developers that they're willing to pay literally any amount of money to have their nostalgia stroked.

    Hard pass. Waste of money unless you're either physically or emotionally a child and are easily impressed by pretty colors and simple stories with predictable outcomes.    … Expand
  9. hellpell
    Nov 7, 2022
    3
    First of all, it's true that the graphics are terrible, but the movement speed is so fast that it doesn't bother me that much when it's moving.
    However, events are held frequently with that graph, and it is honestly tough because you can only skip events without sending messages.
    If you move forward a little, actions that allow you to move in a straight line, including in the air, will    First of all, it's true that the graphics are terrible, but the movement speed is so fast that it doesn't bother me that much when it's moving.
    However, events are held frequently with that graph, and it is honestly tough because you can only skip events without sending messages.
    If you move forward a little, actions that allow you to move in a straight line, including in the air, will be unlocked.
    You will have to move the camera around to explore, but in a city with many buildings, this restriction is strongly affected and makes you sick.
    In addition, there are invisible walls here and there, and you may feel stress instead of exhilaration.    … Expand
  10. SanTza
    Nov 15, 2022
    2
    I wanted to like this game but it is actually awful. The writing is decent at its best parts and awful most of the time.
    The combat system is probably one of the worst systems ever in a video game. The balance is actually not existant. For example normal encounters take literally seconds to end while bosses take forever. There is no in between. The companion AI is awful. They get hit by    I wanted to like this game but it is actually awful. The writing is decent at its best parts and awful most of the time.
    The combat system is probably one of the worst systems ever in a video game. The balance is actually not existant. For example normal encounters take literally seconds to end while bosses take forever. There is no in between. The companion AI is awful. They get hit by literally everything and when you fight flying enemies, your companions just stand around and do nothing.
    The final dungeon is so badly designed, one can only hope the people behind this will never again work in this industry.    … Expand
  11. Unkosan
    Nov 2, 2022
    3
    accessory comes off
    Can't scan when character starts talking
    There are few battle skills and the battle is monotonous
    There is no lock-on button setting, so stress builds up on enemy lock-on
  12. toryalo
    Nov 8, 2022
    1
    Ironically, this game isn’t bad per say, and it’s definitely nowhere near as bad as the previous game, but it IS depressingly mediocre. Like, there’s no reason to play this if you have other JRPGs on your backlog, as there’s nothing amazing here. The characters are all terribly bland, the art style has no idea what it’s doing, the open areas are an afterthought that are thoroughly tediousIronically, this game isn’t bad per say, and it’s definitely nowhere near as bad as the previous game, but it IS depressingly mediocre. Like, there’s no reason to play this if you have other JRPGs on your backlog, as there’s nothing amazing here. The characters are all terribly bland, the art style has no idea what it’s doing, the open areas are an afterthought that are thoroughly tedious to explore, the crafting system is complete garbage and once again useless until and only if you care about the mindnumbingly boring post game, and combat is… frustratingly almost good.… Expand
  13. haruma71
    Nov 6, 2022
    2
    Making as a "game" is poor. The quality is unbelievable for a new product of this time.
    If you are playing a game, you want this kind of function at the very least.
    This was my first Star Ocean series, so I bought it with high expectations, but I felt it wasn't worth the full price.
  14. Xanos12
    Nov 6, 2022
    4
    The game is OK 5/10, it was a very average JRPG, not bad not good. But I have to remove 1 point because they removed Battle Trophies(!!!) and the Arena. Also the postgame is very casual and shallow.
    The open areas are too empty, I rather have them go back to how SO3 was.
  15. Renzokuken
    Apr 15, 2023
    1
    The Star Ocean series is dead to me, and this game killed it.

    The plot is bland, and feels like half of the exposition is missing. The characters lack any nuance, have threadbare backstories and terrible voice acting, Laeticia sounds more like a robot than the god damn android in the party. The player has zero reason to care about any of the cast. The world is for the first half of the    The Star Ocean series is dead to me, and this game killed it.

    The plot is bland, and feels like half of the exposition is missing. The characters lack any nuance, have threadbare backstories and terrible voice acting, Laeticia sounds more like a robot than the god damn android in the party. The player has zero reason to care about any of the cast. The world is for the first half of the game, boring, empty and lifeless with very little to do outside of travelling from point A to point B, then back to point A then to point C, then to point A again for the main story that has you constantly backtracking, thankfully with a fast travel system.

    Combat is poorly explained, and has a difficulty curve so bizarre it's almost offensive. Random encounters are laughably easy, random enemies die in one to two combos even with the brain-dead AI. The moment you walk into a boss fight though, the AI walks into all their attacks and dies within seconds, you spend half the fight picking them up off the ground. The combat is messy, and in boss fights where actually being able to react to attacks is important, the screen being full of noise frequently gets you hit.

    Performance is god awful, I had to turn off HDR due to numerous lighting bugs, and even on performance mode, the game had a constant stutter, and in some areas even dropped well below 30 fps despite a supposed target of 60. Some areas were giving me headaches due to how stuttery the experience was. I also experienced multiple crashes, and even a disk read error despite playing on a perfect working PS5 with a disk that went straight from box to console and has never left the machine. What's more, the save functionality is useless, the game crashed after a boss, and despite a manual save outside the boss room, loaded me back outside the dungeon as if I'd never started it, and even the manual save I made, just puts me right back outside.

    I bought this on sale and still feel cheated, this is low budget, unfinished garbage that sullies the name of a series I used to love. Between this and Valkyrie Elysium, everything I loved about Tri-Ace is dead and buried now.    … Expand
  16. TsukasaHiiragi
    Dec 3, 2022
    4
    Pro's

    Great graphics Great music score and voice acting Descent looking characters DUMA adds an extra way to travel Con's Bad AI Poor Battle system Terrible level designs especially late game EXCESSIVE backtracking Too much useless crafting fluff Lagging in certain areas even when set to performance Esowa requires no skill at all just brute force Heavily cliche story    Pro's

    Great graphics
    Great music score and voice acting
    Descent looking characters
    DUMA adds an extra way to travel

    Con's

    Bad AI
    Poor Battle system
    Terrible level designs especially late game
    EXCESSIVE backtracking
    Too much useless crafting fluff
    Lagging in certain areas even when set to performance
    Esowa requires no skill at all just brute force
    Heavily cliche story that barely qualifies as a Star Ocean game
    90% of the game is set on one planet only
    Significant grinding for the best weapons/gear
    Barely 40hr game at most to beat
    Side quests are bland and lack information
    D.U.M.A exploration gets character stuck in scenery
    Many areas are barren and empty
    Forced to keep re-equipping your characters accessories bug
    Enemy lock-on system is garbage
    Lacks many QOL improvements

    As a long time fan of the star ocean series, I was originally excited for this and after playing for hours and hours the short comings and issues that plague this game become very apparent and quickly ruin the run, the amount of backtracking in the first 10 hours of the game is pretty insane if I'm being honest, its go forward one zone....go back...go forward...go to the nearest village...go back to the first zone...go back to the shrine...go back to the village...go to the next village...go back to the first village and so forth, this level of backtracking is near CONSTANT and without fast travel it would get old fast, this level of backtracking puts older JRPGS to shame.

    The story is the typical Star Ocean trope to a tee, advanced civilization crash lands on an under developed planet that has two warring factions and end up in a war because, reasons. This plays out over a good 25 hours or more of your gameplay until you start to learn more of the truth behind the story, and at this point you'll start to get increasingly frustrated with the various bugs, questionable design decisions and levels, once you start to hit end game levels like the Hybrid Research Vessel Terranus you'll quickly develop a rage as this particular level was designed by a pseudo masochist, the level is so badly designed in a typical maze/puzzle that requires you to run around blindly to find key cards to unlock a doors to unlock an elevator all the time monsters will keep respawning endlessly, without the player being given any indication where to go, what to do and what to find that a guide is all but necessary for completion of the level, and this type of puzzle level continues into the final stages of the game just to slow down the players progress to hide the general lack of content the game offers.

    Graphics are above par but because of that, tax even the PS5 hardware even when set at performance over quality, quite often stuttering or even getting visible lag which shouldn't really happen. The sound and music are good too, as well as the excellent voice acting which helps to make the cliche story bearable.

    In closing, this really to me is just a Star Ocean game in name only. The vast majority of the main storyline is on Aster IV only and eventually it expands to the Vyr homeworld and that's it, the story feels extremely weak in places and highly predictable, the backtracking and grind is excessive and forces you to really beat the game with both playable characters as the story branches off at several points until the team reunites, honestly - this game started out pretty good but for me, just got worse over time and had to force myself to finish the game, in many areas the landscape is just barren with invisible walls all over the place too, this at the end of the day is a big disappointment that lacks polish, lacks a significant amount of meat to the game that is filled with a lot of time sink bloat, even the story itself often has so many plotholes it feels rushed.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 48
  3. Negative: 1 out of 48
  1. Oyungezer
    Jan 5, 2023
    65
    This long-running series returns to classic roots with this new entry, but I doubt whether this is a correct choice or not.
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  2. Gaming Age
    Dec 7, 2022
    50
    Star Ocean: The Divine Force is an improvement from the previous game; Integrity and Faithlessness, but this is not a return to form to games like Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, or The Second Story. tri-Ace, to me, could do no wrong during the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era. I would love to see tri-Ace return to greatness with a higher quality new Star Ocean title, but with this one I’ll have to settle for average.
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  3. Dexerto
    Nov 29, 2022
    40
    Star Ocean: The Divine Force presents us with a game that may have once been a stellar JRPG title 20 years ago, but those standards just don't hold up in 2022. When compared to its contemporaries, it's just not on the same level, in any way. It's always been a B-Tier Square Enix franchise, but once upon a time, Star Ocean was an essential title. It's a shame that more effort has not gone into modernizing and revitalizing a beloved franchise.
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