Star Ocean: The Divine Force Review - Noisy Pixel

[@jessycruz2465]

Man I got burned by integrity and faithlessness. Still buying this one because the reviews are actually decent for this game.

[@omensoffate]

Eh game seems pretty mid as well.

[@DieselJT]

Same! But definitely picking this one up!

[@StregaKyto]

Same.... same...... I'm hoping 🙏

[@silviuamuza3902]

Same. Was itching for a long action jrpg.

[@Facepalm9]

"The last few games have been shit, but other people think this is good so I will too."

[@KarimJovian]

I didn’t even know a new one came out. I loved 4 and I absolutely am amazed with this one. I love it and purchased the deluxe and bought it physical too. I mean the fighting combo customization alone is the best thing I’ve seen. The character, graphics, the es’owa mini game, and story, combat, exploration and traversing with DUMA is fresh and fun and most of all AMAZING voice acting.

[@lucyrus83]

Really happy with what they were able to pull with the low budget. Hope in the future they finally get some deserved attention and resources for further entries. Square has to stop eating ice cream with it's forehead and actually invest in series that have so much potential! FF is what it is but they need to branch out of that and embrace their deck of options. Great review and lets hope tri-ace recovers from the present difficulties. Fingers crossed for them to keep supporting the game and patch the small issues to make the experience even better.

[@SilvxrWxlf]

this was a good review from the perspective of someone who enjoys star ocean it has its faults but it seems that they learned there lesson from 5 and this looks to be a great experience for people who already love the games im hopeing this will bring more people back to the franchise and show that it can still live up to it predecesors if the right people and love are put into it. blindside coming back is also a good sign that they went back to what works and what star ocean fans want .

[@selpharessecret3899]

Oh I agree blindsight was some of the best mechanics from 4 even as I was the first time to stupid to use it correctly and than ended up to spam it constantly, it was just fun. :)

[@mathewgagnier9432]

I love how frantic battles are in this game now. It sort of matches up with how crazily hectic Star Ocean 2 battles were. Spam is kept in check at least, but if done in moderation, throwing out a bunch of comboed skills looks incredible.

[@Xerain]

This review gave me the confidence I needed to finally pre-purchase the game. The sales of this game or going to determine whether or not tri-Ace continues to exist.

[@caseyblankenship987]

Great review the demo was fun I’m glad the game out performed its budget

[@Mecharocca]

What a great review. I was already a big SO fan, however I found the demo just okay. Great to hear it fleshes out much more after the first 15-20% of the game. I'll be picking it up alongside Bayo 3 because of how clear and informative your coverage was. Subscribed and thank you.

[@jonathansoko1085]

Do you ever make a decision by yourself or do you always rely on strangers to dictate your life for you? Have you even generated a unique opinion?

[@JayBeeThree]

Awesome review. So glad to see that the game is more hit than miss. Can't wait to play it.

[@jahipalmer8782]

I am soo excited for this. Like, I know it's just a game but I have been playing SO ever since SO2 came to Playstation. I have much emotion and many feelings for the series.

[@Nookiezilla]

So2 is my #1 of all time, but all SO games after the second one are crap, it‘s such a shame.

[@stonefantasy2012]

@@Nookiezilla No! SO3 is also masterpiece! SO3 has the best battle system in the whole series

[@tazmanceltic]

Great review, a lot of newcomers need to see this !!

[@oldheadgamer6329]

Great review! Please understand Tri Ace did this all in house.Square Enix did not help with funding for this game.I'm sure you know that this game if not liked would being the end of Tri Ace.I am happy to see that people are enjoying and will invest in this game thanks to the reviews.I get mine tomorrow and can't wait to play it.

[@blumiu2426]

Even if SE helped with funding, look what their help accomplished with the last Star Ocean. Seems this one has more funding behind it. The problem isn't so much funding, it's that Star Ocean needs a change, and I don't say that lightly given I'm against that sort of thing. But there is something about the formula or their approach that isn't holding up or they need better staff to give needed life to the franchise. Stop using the same archetypes and tropes, step out on a limb with the narrative and cast. No other game by them suffers this issue. If this flops, getting absorbed by Square-Enix might help them as SE would have to care then being a part of them. Unless they relegate them to AA titles, which maybe is fine. No pressure and freedom to do more with secured funding.

[@citizengomez7214]

It's consistent with what can be played in the demo, good job

[@MonsterEats3]

Just finished it. My first ever Star Ocean game. Easily 9/10. Fun af. Had everything a good game needs. I recommend playing with Japanese voice actors, flawless voice acting. Story was 10/10 omg maybe top 10 game stories ever for me. Would recommend to anyone!

[@OniLink99999]

Great review! Very well written, and it went into all the details I was curious about in regards to story and gameplay. I enjoyed the demo despite the technical/aesthetic issues, and it sounds like the game only gets better as it goes on, so I'm looking forward to playing the full release =D

[@lefro77]

I enjoyed the demo and at the end of it was thinking man I want to play more, was gonna be between this or Gotham, but not being massive into the superhero theme and it being 70$ and seemingly undercooked, It was easy to choose this

[@OrphanCrippler1]

Wait for a deep deep sale on Gotham.

[@EllipsesMusicc]

currently playing. currently addicted. discovered this series by seeing first departure on sale for Nintendo switch, and i loved the old school aesthetic. little did i know I would want to play every entry after that 🎉

[@FredHerbert999]

I can easily overlook graphical or fps slowdown. So I can already tell it's going to be at least a 9 for me. Plus the demo is great.

[@Evanz111]

I can’t remember the last time I was so nervous to watch a review. Star Ocean 3 is one of my favourite games of all time, I wasn’t so keen on SO4 and then of course 4 happened. The less said about that the better. So glad to hear that this isn’t the game’s death knell, but rather its swan song.

[@john_7000]

It crazy how so many people don't like SO4 but I actually loved it, I got into the star ocean games this year and I started with SO4 and I really liked it like really really liked it, SO5 is the one I wasn't impressed by it, I enjoyed it but not so much and then I played SO3 still didn't finish it but I am loving it so far

[@MarluxiaX2]

Star Ocean 4 gets waaaay too much hate.

[@JoshArtisto]

@@john_7000 I got into the Star Ocean series with 4. I love the character designs. I need to play 3 tho.

[@JRPGforlife]

I enjoy Star ocean 4 for the combat only, it by far has the best combat in the series. The story and characters however is dogshit

[@ifrit1937]

Only played the demo so far, getting the game tomorrow, so maybe the base game is a bit different and while I think the combat is so far the best in the series to date there was 1 thing i realized while playing a bit last night that made it a bit weaker than I'd prefer...specifically 2 things the Tales series had done games ago that made their combo based combat systems always more refined than SO's ever been: -1st and probably more important, at least in the demo, there's no way to recover when knocked down/into the air (Tales would allow your character to more or less backflip midair to re-orientate themselves for example...maybe one of the skills in the base game of SO6 allows this but the demo's combat doesn't at least). -2nd would be the chain combos don't seem to allow you to mix up the 3 attack/chain combo button's special moves together...as in you need to hit square 3 times to get to the 2nd and 3rd attack in the sequence, you don't seem to be able to do something like circle to square to square to get to the 3rd button, changing the button just resets to the first special attack in the new button's sequence (unlike Tales's arte tree games where you can press the other buttons and get into later artes in sequence just by using other moves in the arte tree or even other actions like dodging). So if made the chain combo thinking you could alternate between them that won't work so you should more or less choose 3 special attacks that flow well into each other for each button's sequence and then put attacks on the hold button that you'd want to use at any time (for example spells or elemental imbuement would probably fit better in the hold button tbh or attacks like Ray's wind element shockwave or 'demon fang' lol). I initially thought it was like Tales and you could mix and match them but after feeling something was awkward with how I was comboing I finally noticed this aspect of the combo sequences. Besides that though only real issue with the demo was characters looked a bit washed out (but may be due to TV settings...messed around with them a bit and got it to look a bit better), text being a bit too small (can read but may need to lean in or get closer to the TV than I normally would...feels like when I played games on standard TVs and then all games started being made to reflect HD TV settings thus making the text too small for games back on the PS3 a decade ago...the washed out look may also be due to that), and the voices of the npcs nearby can almost barely be heard when they start talking and their text is on the left side of the screen (would've been better off not even voicing those lines at that point if their voices were that low tbh...hoping the base game fixed that up a bit). But ya outside of that the game's more or less looking good to me...hell even with my base PS4 I've had pretty much no, or at least no very noticeable framerate issues and as far as pop in goes I've grown used to it on all games by now so unlike say Digital Foundry couldn't care less about it and other graphics aspects as long as combat, story, and side content are all good and no technical issues become too much of an issue (constant crashes or long laggy frame drops that are noticeable for most of the time...for example as far as Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 go the game was fine in all places except the snow region during battle when a lot of spells, especially big ones, were used as all the particle effects caused a noticeable 2 to 3 second lag spike/frame drop that even I couldn't ignore as it was almost on par with a MMO having connection lag for a few seconds...if that were to happen for most of an entire game even in places with little to no particle effects going on to push the console hard than yeah even I , with minimal care with graphics, would have an issue with that).

[@justbuildgunpla1315]

Ok

[@b.b.s7545]

Tales games got a bigger budget

[@BrockWalshCTD]

Awesome and informative review! Thanks as always. I am very excited for my PS5 copy to arrive.

[@takeoh]

Finally a reviewer that actually played through the whole game and didn't focus on criticizing "the beginning hours". Thank you! Day 1 purchase here. On question, did you play with VRR on? At least on the demo, I had no framerate issue once VRR was on.

[@sionmattsu]

One of the only review channels I trust for games bought and played so many good games i would have givin a miss otherwise

[@TheShowerofSlime]

Thanks for the review. This will be a "wait and see" for me. Love the outro music so much

[@coreymartin3218]

I was always freaked out by my grandmother's porcelan dolls when I was a kid.............and though I'm not freaked out now, I just "can't" with the character models in this franchise.

[@KobayashiBrynhild]

This game is awesome. I'm loving it so far. So easy to get into it, and lose complete track of time.

[@supaxz5357]

💯🎯

[@gureguru4694]

its looks like what xenoblade 3 should have been if its not limited by the nintendo switch's calculator class hardware.

[@RazorBladezX]

What I'm mad about is..HOW ARE THEY GOING TO TEASE ME LIKE THIS. They added Jack and Ridley game pieces to the game. I swear they better make a remaster of Radiata Stories!!

[@KobayashiBrynhild]

I NOTICED THAT TOO. I'd love to see a remaster of Radiata Stories.

[@losnfjslefn8857]

Oh, how I miss that game! I would *love* a remaster/remake!

[@xelthos2051]

Always been a fan of Star Ocean, 2 is still tied for my all time favorite game. Kind of shocked that even the ps5 has some lag towns. Debated getting it on the PC, but it just felt right playing it on a playstation.

[@melloyello6464]

Im a fan of the originals as well, what do you think of this one? Im debating still, I like Star Ocean 1-3, and didnt like 4,5

[@kamiloo86]

If the game will have good financial figures I'm sure SQ will release some decent updates. I will support them, I'm certain this is the best STO in the last 10 years.

[@godsplayingfield]

i am disappointed the role system didnt return as it was amazing, and for it’s faults, the fact all party members were involved in combat in 5 was amazing. still, i am glad this one eturns some of the spark of the SO series, here’s hoping they can keep going

[@hisradiancelordnasty]

5 also boasts some of the best “realistic” anime graphics. the textures physics and lighting/shadows are phenomenal

[@shoyu6]

Great review. I would have liked to see some specific examples of performance issues before I commit. But this definitely helped with my decision. Thank you!

[@Kennosuke88]

I'm a big star ocean fan but I'll probably be waiting to get this game on sale from steam. Shame they don't give this series a bigger budget, it just make it so much better.

[@MasterPJ86]

Video: showing the Heisenberg boss fight. Comments: I'll not go into any spoilers. Video: showing the ending after the rescue of Rose. Good job!

[@zen3rd781]

This will be my first SO game so I'm really looking forward to playing this!

[@experience_point6233]

I really hope I will get my copy tomorrow I am so excited to play this, it is my most anticipated game of the year alongside Bayonetta 3.

[@jumbowizard9154]

I haven't been into the series before but I was sold from the demo

[@ombra711]

Lack of Bosses overall? Thays a nad thing. The Blindside mechanic returning is ehats keeping me invested though.

[@Oag1992]

Just ordered this game the other day. Super excited to continue playing it from where I left off in the demo.

[@demarcoadkins]

Watching the review for this game was awesome I am a huge fan of games from Square Enix and Tri-Ace as it relates to Star Ocean I really enjoyed playing Till the end of time and Last Hope I even bought a official strategy guide for both games from Bradygames that are really helpful!! I even got the pre-order bonus for my Xbox One that comes with the Potion Pack and Mini Game Pawns so I am really excited about playing this game because I enjoyed playing the other two mentioned.

[@BloodSinEngraved]

I'm of the opinion that if they are going to make the bodies more realistic looking they need to have similarly themed faces. I still plan to play this game, it's just one nitpick I have.

[@blumiu2426]

I agree, I've no idea why they are giving them super stylized faces while their bodies have detailed proportion. Not even how that works in anime, so why do it here?

[@nbdante]

My impression was already positive after playing the demo, this review convinced me in picking a copy! I wish more game stop using skill tries in action RPGs (Be more like Ys games)

[@NoonDragoon]

Huh, very similar plot setup to Second Story, that's a plus in my mind.

[@Designer239]

I do hope that this game comes onto The Switch. But I would love to have this game.

[@GamerConnoisseurRei]

I want to buy this game so badly....but im poor so I'll wait for sales and definitely buy it! Thanks for your review!

[@Terron29]

Very pleasantly surprised by this review, I was damn well convinced this was gonna score around the 5 or 6/10 mark. I really hope it does well to keep the company in business. I have a ps5 so will certainly be playing it there as I hear there are performance issues on ps4 (at least the demo had apparently). Hope all fans enjoy this one!

[@distinguisheddrei7036]

Nice review, and I'm glad its good. I never played a Star Ocean game, but I'll definitely try this one- and it's good to see them back.

[@NastyClanRecords]

Read the review on your site but came to watch it also. I have it preordered so i just can’t wait I haven’t even played the demo but I can feel the improvements. I agree with your point about this game getting review bombed. ppl are going to be ignorant, have hateful attitude, overlook things, and even simply not even attempt to understand or immerse themselves . Hell the IGN reviewer didn’t even try to squeeze in some of a second playthru for Laeticia’s story because he was mad over no NG+ . I just expect the community to maintain the same childish sophomoric attitude they’ve had for the past 7 years. but at the same time, I fully and confidently believe this will be the greatest Star Ocean. until the next i’d say. if we can build a nice install base for this title, i’d say we’ll be looking at a SO7 that probably encourages more actual interplanetary freedom and things like that

[@blumiu2426]

No NG+ in a Tri-Ace game?? That would piss fans of their games off. They are known for that just being standard.

[@ohitsdannie]

i was burned by the last one i played Integrity, but i will watch people stream this one. great video!

[@heruales9768]

Noisy pixel I really enjoy your reviews on video games. Thank you for reviewing a Star ocean Divine Force I'm going to get it in a couple days I hope. So this is very important to tri Ace to succeed this game and square enix everybody have a good day thank you again noisy pixel for this review.

[@ben_sisko2149]

Wow! It actually has cutscenes this time around 🎉

[@Aerhelios]

Fantastic review! It's really unfortunate that my concerns about performance from the demo persist into the full release. (Hopefully they can still patch it up eventually) But it's great to hear that the game will be a return to form for the series! There's a lot that I liked about the demo (and I like Star Ocean in general) so I can look past some issues and pick up the game. Thanks.

[@Yusei255]

The Lip sync was fixes, so that's good.

[@Aerhelios]

@@Yusei255 That's great since the English VA (besides leticia's weird slow delivery) is pretty great imo

[@Yusei255]

@@Aerhelios I'm also glad they Ditched battle trophies. Cos TLH was annoying in regards to that, since there were Lv cap increases hidden behind them.

[@Aerhelios]

@@Yusei255 I def don't disagree since I never really paid attention to them honestly

[@brandonhanserd7832]

The main protagonist is living in a futuristic sci-fi universe rocking an 80’s hairstyle 😂

[@Nastara]

Well the mullet is back so anything is possible

[@TheDreadedZero]

Thanks. Didn’t even know about this till I was the blank spot for it at work. Probably going to buy this now.

[@rezonxthepiggert9647]

I hope everyone spreads the word to support this game.

[@Facepalm9]

Why? Star Ocean hasn't been good since The Second Story.

[@b.b.s7545]

@@Facepalm9 lol till the end of time was great! Screw all the haters who didn't like the plot twist. They didn't get it 🤣

[@ben_sisko2149]

I come from the future: they didn't

[@ZanarkandFFX]

0:21 this changed my mind, this is a MUST buy! 😤

[@Cottentail]

Welch = instant buy. Good to see there's an english dub in addition to the Japanese dub. Nice review!

[@KYFPM21]

Playable Welch DLC NOW!!

[@Cloudo4]

Its sad that they dont have more subs. English is good enough but many people would like to have at least subs in their language.

[@snugglebuns6193]

I've always known of Star Ocean but never actually played them. I think this will be the point where I finally give the series a try.

[@tchitchouan]

Great Review, Thank You.

[@marcocervesato115]

Do we have gabriel celeste and ethereal queen?

[@garlanramadhan4291]

This looks like a mixed of Xenoblade and traditional JRPG with many enjoyable mini games. Looks good!

[@lucasl3657]

Nice to hear that this Star Ocean is a return to form

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

I loved The Second Story but the later games have never managed to capture the same feeling as when I played that in 2000. Nice to hear this one is better than the last one though. Too bad about the frame rate but as long as it isn’t horrible I can get past it. It must be worse for those playing on PS4.

[@justinfaulcon9498]

Never played SO but always wanted to, definitely gonna check this out

[@suntzu4607]

Gonna buy this one on PC. Hope it's optimized since I played 1-5 in consoles.

[@TimoNaaro]

Thank you so much. How is the singleplaytrough lenght? Is there new game plus?

[@supaxz5357]

I took a chance on this game... I didn't think it was gonna be any good but I was so shocked at how much fun I was having!!!!! This game is FF7 remake. I love it. I'm already level 18 at the beginning of the game.

[@DonGwapoV]

I been a fan of SO since till the end of time and i can say for myself i love the franchise, i feel like its gotten better obviously to my knowledge great game others might have there own personal perspective and it is understandible..

[@rookless4121]

Honestly this is one of those games I knew I'd just put on the back burner. It seems fun but I just have other games that grab my attention more atm.

[@KobayashiBrynhild]

That's fair, but when you have time, I personally recommend you check it out. It's really good.

[@plgj7]

Thanks for the review I purchased it a couple days ago going to give it a shot (I doubt it) but did they fix the voice matching ? Thank again

[@maiwei]

Free-to-play on PS+ now! Same with SO5! After the review bomb of 5, I wasn't gonna buy, but now I can at least give it a chance without caring if it's bad. And now we can play this woo!

[@chrisbomber101]

I'm playing right now thanks to plus 👍 it's not bad tbh

[@thissouthpark]

Thx for great review. I have some questions if u dont mind. PA's choices affects future PA or character endings? Can i miss any PA? Endings works like so4 where i should watch all PA and choose best options? Or its like so5 and i can use Love Potions for boost affinity to get endings?

[@gundambassexe31]

NGL I forgot about this one between persona 5 Royal and Bayonetta 3 but I'll definitely give this a try

[@KevinoftheCosmos]

I'm gonna buy this just to support the series. I don't want this to be the last title in the Star Ocean series.

[@xavito4337]

Can't wait! 😀

[@grandpowr]

FINALLY! STAR OCEAN IS BACK BABY!!!

[@axelus2]

which version you are review it on? I just saw the newer version on 1.0.2 have very stable framerate even on the problematic map in Demo.

[@KoryuuCialce]

Just finished this game a couple weeks ago, my only real issue with the game was the villains, the fact that you fought the same battles like 15 times, it felt like Team Rocket in the Pokemon Anime. "Can't you do something new, or can we fight someone else?" I really liked the game, but the repetition of constantly seeing the same few faces for boss battles just deflated my enthusiasm a bit... I admit though, I did break the game with the crafting system and hit level 255 when I should have been about level 70, so bosses were basically normal battles with cutscenes before and after them.

[@TylerEdlin84]

I’ll buy this but too busy so I’ll wait on sale

[@Synlidwirh]

the game looks great and I own all of the others on playstation now (slowly playing and replaying) but so much backlog... still this helped confirm that I should get it without waiting.

[@drowningin]

Is Star Ocean First Departure R- Star Ocean 1?

[@protodad6151]

yes, it is.

[@JacaboBlanco]

Currently finally playing Trails for cold steel 1 and 2 (played 3, and zero recently). Afterwards, I'm definitely gonna play this. And then go back and play some of the old ones. Got first departure r on switch. Hopefully it's good.

[@SrWedo]

I'd love to play this on Switch.

[@gnoclaude7945]

Steam deck my friend.

[@EconomistaVJ]

Great Review, can't wait to play it tonight

[@KrsJin]

Am mondo excited for this. Thanks for this review.

[@nastysoda9212]

Nice review, def buying this game! Miss the magic I felt in radiata stories and star ocean 3

[@dorrellcollins4634]

Great review but how's the camera and lock on system? In the demo both are very wonky and the lock on system felt pretty bad.

[@kagepoker]

I only play on emulators because I enjoy retrogaming ang a cheap ass but I'm buying this to help Tri Ace somehow and show my gratitude. SO2 was a great part of my childhood.. I hope they continue to survive..

[@smashingpumpkin1986]

I'm glad this turned out okay 🙏🏼

[@MithosDagon]

Preordered the game on PS5 to support. Hoping Tri-Ace doesn’t go out of business.

[@gamestarr4048]

This will be my first Star Ocean, I’m really excited to check it out after Bayo and Resi!

[@fullmotivatedgamer8612]

I was interested in this but considering how they still haven't fixed the frame rate I'll just wait for sale

[@flamehiro]

picking this shiz up tomorrow. Sad they never could fix the peformance issues tho.

[@MrCaffebene]

does this game ps5 version have adaptive triggers support? Like bow trigger

[@dripkinglars6036]

Sadly couldn't get this on release but i was already kinda sold from the demo. I see it as cheesy as all but definitely part of the games charm, though your review only sold me harder on purchasing this game when I can!

[@yass3425]

I didn't liked the earlier games in the series but this one looks interesting ngl

[@JH-vb1wo]

I just ordered this for 40 on amazon.. black Friday sale so to me that's a fair price for a jrpg and I also got no man's sky on ps5 for 30.. star ocean will be my next rpg I play

[@MidUser95]

This review reminded me of the underdeveloped planet you end up on at the beginning of Star Ocean 3 and how with all of your technological advances and planet-traveling technology, you can still get your ass scrapped by the most inconsequential, medieval, runescape-type nobodies...

[@RangoTheMercenary]

"Cutting edges of notion." I see what you did there.

[@dunglifemovement]

I like your reviews, man

[@louisfranclouisson8398]

This is the first game in the series I have tried and I really like it. I should go pick up the others and give them a try too.