We Need To Talk About Star Ocean: The Divine Force...

[@ErickLandonRPG]

If the resolution of the game in my review looks blurry, it's because I chose to prioritize the frame rate instead of the image quality, which made all the footage I recorded in 720p. The game shouldn't look like that on your PS4, don't worry.

[@TheNerd]

I know thats one of those usual comments but: Meanwhile on PC: 4K at > 60FPS. Btw: I think the blurriness of your video is more due to the VERY low bitrate of the footage. 720P can by sharp like a japanese knife. Also: KZbin crushes 1080P and below into a blurry mess. Sometimes upscaling to > 1080P actually does give you a better (technical) quality because you get better encoder settings from YT. I feel like "they" don't really give a f about "1080P and below" anymore and heavily prioritize small videos to save bandwith.

[@DKarkarov]

To be honest you made the right call. I played it at much higher res and not on a ps4. But then I put it on performance anyway because the quality difference is barely visible but the frame rate loss for no observable reason sure wasn't. You want to play this on performance regardless of platform or version.

[@reyntime1950]

I'm playing on ps5 with higher frame rate but it still chugs.

[@Mangomesh]

I'm thinking of getting this for my PS4, is the the game really frame jumpy?

[@vidarCRC]

Did you capture it using PS4s recording? It is a really basic recorder and most of the time ot hinders quality. I looks a lot better on PS5 but the framerate falls short on open spaces. Would get it on PC but I share games with a friend and this is hers.

[@eliotwildermann]

I like how choosing between the 2 leads actually changes the way the story unfolds and different party members

[@NN-pz6be]

I have read that another character is supposed to be the lead instead of Laeticia. Wonder what that story could unfold though laeticia herself is also interesting.

[@TheNightofWalpurgis666]

Reminds me of Radiata Stories. It offers a different perspective of the on-going conflict in the world too

[@sopheakmao5143]

@@NN-pz6be 0

[@momokosakurada605]

@@NN-pz6be the girl seems to be the main lead since the guy meets the girl later so meaning the girl is the main lead

[@NN-pz6be]

@@momokosakurada605 Well, I was talking about **spoiler** Kenny. She was to be the lead along with Ray in early development before change it to Laeticia. It would have make more senses to divind the story on the opposite side.

[@nrossetti2046]

Totally agree- Elena is a very “well-rounded” character!

[@coreymckee4844]

😏😏👌👌

[@wilso572]

Been watching your videos for years. So happy to see how your channel has grown. Keep making awesome reviews!

[@Artemis-Polara]

A little note: While DUMA's crystals don't respawn, new ones will spawn in different areas as the game progresses.

[@omensoffate]

Yea and the game tells you that

[@Artemis-Polara]

@@omensoffate To be fair, I rarely read through the tutorials. Only if I was stuck did I bother.

[@brivnii]

I thought I was going crazy but yeah you are right. I thought I missed some obvious ones

[@Artemis-Polara]

@@brivnii The logic for it is sound. Since the game does have some backtracking, it makes sure you aren't simply running through without anything new to collect.

[@glorkbork776]

I think in many Tri Ace games they pick out a few bosses or encounter styles which are perfectly designed to hard counter either the most common player strategy or your own ally AI, just to mix things up.

[@tepandflash5950]

Yo why does the boss have his first gambit set to swift cast a nuke when I use an item

[@Kaldrim72]

Pretty much this. There were they want you to change up your strategy so you don't just do the same thing over and over. For some of the "hard" fights I just Controlled Marielle and beam blasted them all to death and it was very easy. Switched to Nina if I wanted to heal quickly. The bird was troublesome at first, but it has a pretty easy attack pattern to manipulate. Dash -> 1 power attack -> dodge away -> it screams -> repeat. The fight with the shielded guy. The fight itself was easy, what made it hard was the extra spawning enemies. I couldn't find any decent way to deal with them unless Midas had his Nuke ready to cast.

[@thewanderer9371]

It works well on PS5. It might be 2022 but the PS4 is a 2013 console.

[@marcrics]

Beat me to it lol

[@Jburneyjr]

At first I was wondering why you made this comment, then I realized why you brought it up.

[@scroom1202]

I always cringe at the idea of a console player using the "in current year" argument. Their hardware doesn't magically upgrade each year.

[@Claudio91329]

The game is poorly optimized

[@scroom1202]

@@Claudio91329 Or it could be that the toaster, I'm sorry I mean PS4, has finally stopped holding games back. Now the PS5 can do that. To be fair though, that is an improvement of almost one decades worth of hardware.

[@gremlinn7]

One other negative is that, especially if you accumulate a lot of unsold items through item creation, it takes a LONG time to find the item you're looking for in a huge inventory list, with no way (unless I missed it) to scroll page-by-page. Also, for accessories, you can sort by base stat but it seems you can't search/sort by factor, so that's an extra source of tediousness when doing synthesis.

[@celticspike2522]

Blindsides in the last hope were awesome and you felt like a badass every single time. So glad they brought it back

[@dennisbergkamp17]

I’m so glad you mentioned the insane difficulty spikes for some of the bosses. None of the other reviews talk about that, and I thought maybe it was just me. Despite my annoyances with the game though, I still enjoyed my time with it. I’d definitely consider this an above average jrpg, but not great in my opinion.

[@theoaremevano3227]

@Michael Lochlann : I think that's the issue, not only are they trying to account for how crazy item crafting can get, the characters can have some surprisingly powerful skills as well. When I ran into that boss he was showing, I wasted him with Marielle because he loves to spin in circles and she had both passive skills AND accessories that boosted close range damage and damage from behind.

[@PandoloFox]

I personaly think those bosses were hard for the wrong reason. The bird was hard cause the only one that could hit it was ranged characters and you controlling duma, the party members doesnt use their ranged attacks and duma was not made for air battles. The gun boss was just hard cause your crew doesnt dodge ever, so they die leaving you alone to deal with it.

[@theoaremevano3227]

@@PandoloFox : Specifically, party members only do what you set up for them in their combos, so it's different from Tales, where it has an auto-set for them when uncontrolled. I had to set Midas and Albaird to use the moves I wanted them to. It's one of those things where it makes sense in retrospect, but not many people would immediately expect unless they got lucky and happened to notice their A.I.s doing it, (or happened to get a note about it on loading screens). There's a fair amount they could have explained in more detail in this game.

[@behzadmirmozaffari2563]

Hyped for it! Also, difficulty balancing is something Japanese developers never really know how to do....like ever!

[@Zathien]

Too difficult? Better grind! Seems to be the mentality.

[@johnjackson2349]

I played through on universe (hard) and to be honest after the 2nd boss the game got much easier. Its so easy to level in this game, 20mins of grinding in the previous area can get you 5-10 levels

[@Janfey]

I know one, Dark Souls 3, well balanced game.

[@bouhallouskarim5628]

For the players who want to lvl up quickly, there is a little trick : Laeticia has a skill who cost only few points, it cut by half his constitution and her health.....but it raise the gained exp by 125 % !!

[@EllipsesMusicc]

it's 200 percent if you upgrade it all the way. and i think its just guts/def that go down to 0. i was so confused because i would buy new armor and equiping it did nothing. until i realized i still had that skill on lol

[@behlial]

Really enjoying my play through of this so far. I haven't had issues with Framerate/graphics on the PS5. I know there were others who have issues on PS4

[@highlycaffeinated998]

The insane difficulty spikes on some of the bosses were a pain. I ended up cheesing it for the most part by boosting the defense of the esterly cage, and stacking first aid and auto healing so that I could stay topped off at all times.

[@tcc5750]

I like Elena’s writing too.

[@Taikaru]

Glad to hear you liked it! I really enjoyed it too, aside from the Denuvo and horrible performance on PC. The backgrounds are just beautiful, and everything else about it is solid.

[@ThomasJeff1898]

Edit (21/04/2023): Good news, as of now, Denuvo has been removed from the Steam/PC version of Star Ocean: The Divine Force. If any of you reading this are still hesitant in buying that release due to the DRM, now is the perfect time to do so. For me though, I'll have to wait until next month as my budget for this month is not enough. I think Denuvo will be removed once April comes along. We are already near the end of the seven months period. Besides, it seems to be a common strategy by Square Enix.

[@theoaremevano3227]

I've been playing on Universe from the start, and as someone who re-tries stuff a lot until I get it right, I have found a few ways to take some of the kinks out of the difficulty. -Party members can use items on their own and do it faster than you using items on them. Just set the items in a chain combo. I just reserved the R trigger to have common healing on normal and Fresh Sage on hold, and set that for each character. Sure enough while I DO make an effort to reduce item use consistently, if they needed them, they'd take care of it. -Party members also follow your chain combos. Whatever you set for them, they'll actually use it. This does mean they can do stuff VERY wrong if you have, say, melee attacks set up for a ranged target, however it also means you can make pretty fine adjustments to what they do and when. For the blue birdy there, I set Midas to use Wind Blade first, and then Tornado as it was effective at damaging the boss's headpiece, but was best when the boss was still, so I wanted Tornado to hit right after the boss attacked, not when it was moving. -AP and VA gauges can be hard to manage, but can do more than you might expect. Against that same boss, I found out I could fly up and wack it in the head, then because it always tries to knock you down, activate VA again and hold it to block, then launch further midair attacks. DUMA's upgrades can help out a lot too, if you feel like you need more VA gauge from attacks, dodging or for it to last longer when you use the barrier.

[@PLAYDIMITRI]

I'm glad you posted this. The bird boss was hard but not as hard as people are making it seem. As soon as I changed my strategy around I won the 2nd or 3rd time and it was easy

[@EllipsesMusicc]

I've been playing in universe mode. the beginning was quite challenging, had to grind and go back to the fire pits a lot. until i got all my characters the auto heal technique fully upgraded. now the challenge is very doable but yeah that bird boss was crazy. all i needed to do however was grind more, and you can level up pretty quickly with leticias technique that doubles exp gain.

[@samuraireflection]

i want/need this game, i told myself this would be my favorite star ocean with till the end of time and it looks and feels really awesome, cant wait!

[@LazyTallGuy]

My main issue with the demo was the font! I can't believe no one who play tested this mentioned that the font was that small. I will get this on sale but not at full price, I am glad its solid.

[@gremlinn7]

I saw one person guess that it was fully developed/tested on PC monitors, with eyes very close to the screens.

[@bervirus]

I hate it that most modern day developers assumes that every players use 75+ inches monitor and put very small font/texts/UI in the game

[@somedude8791]

But it looks so good on a large screen. I use a 65" OLED and it's tight and crisp.

[@kbzonmarko]

I really like your enthusiasm towards JRpgs, you made me play some really great games that I ended up loving!

[@MJ-pg8fs]

Excellent video as always! The font size bit killed me xD

[@Arkngthunchsturdumz]

Loved the cameo from Radiata Stories, it was such a gem from Tri Ace!

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

I think the bird boss is a reference to Star Ocean 2, that game had a really hard/cheap giant bird enemy as well that even rarely appeared as a regular enemy in the final dungeon.

[@heavylifter315]

I know the exact one you're talking about. Dude could petrify your whole party pretty easily.

[@Capothekid]

Was it the damn cockatrice?

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

@@Capothekid don't remember the name just that it took like half the screen and yeah it could Stone you so probably. I think in the last dungeon you could even get 2 at once. Remember getting screwed à few time while grinding to beat the final boss lol.

[@Capothekid]

@@jonathanabgrall6075 you’re better than me. I barely made it past the halfway point of the game. Once I met a mob of enemies in the real world with guns that could shoot me non-stop, that was the end of the game for me. The random difficulty spike was the nail in the coffin

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

@@Capothekid oh you're talking about Star Ocean 3. Yeah that one had pretty big spikes too.

[@andysauruss]

I didn’t have performance issues on the PS5. I did have some with the demo but final game was much smoother. Besides a couple boss battles, combat felt easy. I had to play on Universe mode. If it’s hard you can turn Estery Cage with DUMA to reduce damage. I had to take control of Nina and revive my party several times.

[@michaeloconnor1281]

I'm near the end. This might overtake the second story as my favourite Star Ocean game. Finally. Great game Tri-ace!

[@theoaremevano3227]

That's so cool to hear! :)

[@Ryan-kg7hu]

Just finished my first playthrough on Universe, was an absolute blast! Will be honest, I didn't notice the difficulty spikes but I was utilizing synthesis and I.C. the whole playthrough...that one fight...you know the one...definitely comes out swinging though haha. I also played this on the ps4 and though I can understand the gripes with graphics, I daresay this is contending with The Second Story for top spot.

[@FlavorsomeMusic]

5:20 About the graphics, you can actually have the best possible graphics with 60 fps on pc, the blurriness issue remains tho, there's also a weird issue where DOF kinda dissolves the textures of things close to the camera ? not sure how to explain it, the game is beautiful but the artistic effects are not really well implemented. I used a sharpening and a raytracing filter on the game myself to make it look more palatable. It's a shame that the beauty of the environments is sometimes marred by those issues. The difficult spikes can be easily countered with a little bit of grinding and dumping SP into your stats. Besides that, this review is pretty based and spot on. o7 My own favorite characters to play are Marielle and Nina. Yes, the healer is amazing to play in this game, ya can hardcore carry your party through anything with her. :P Tip for some of the harder bosses, like the birb or sovereign: Nina's Come Together! skill can pull your party out of dangerous situations, and makes these fights much more bearable.

[@phickhater]

surprised you didnt mention the accessories issue where characters will leave the party and auto remove the items you have equipped. Its super annoying too since there only gone for a short period of time and happens way to frequently

[@Llortnerof]

Well, in the past such issues were usually that characters left with your stuff and didn't bring it back. I'd rather they unequip for a short hike then steal my gear.

[@theoaremevano3227]

Oh yeah, that's an old fashioned issue I haven't seen come up in a while. Probably easiest to add loadouts to the game I think, since SO accessories and equips can be NUTS and potentially warrant changing setups between fights. Likewise I think it'd be cool as hell to have arte/chain loadouts to swap between A.I. control sets and player controlled ones too, since the characters actually follow your combos.

[@kevingraham4736]

Wouldnt be so bad if the game remembered the sorting i set

[@MrKing-qd7gi]

FF7 Remake nailed this issue and it would be nice if it became standard.

[@zetsushoren]

i agree with Llort i don't see that as a problem as much as party members leaving with the good shit on them

[@metawanderer]

Playing the game now and near the end. Almost agree 💯 on your opinions of it. I wish the font was larger and some of the later bosses were better balanced but is overall a solid entry and underrated title

[@ForsakenUnderling]

This dude always wearing NIN tees and playing videogames I love. One of the best channels on KZbin for us gamers.

[@ifrit1937]

About halfway through the game (at the 3rd time when Laeticia leaves the party in Ray's story on her own along with 1 npc character after coming back from the southern continent (should be enough for anyone that played the game to know what I'm talking about and not really be too much of a spoiler)) and ya the games good so far...probably leaning towards an 8/10 for me. Combat is definitely the best in this game for the series as it actually feels like Tri Ace tried to match Tales with a more building up combos focused combat system (past games the special attacks just feel like super moves you use to wipe out enemies quickly as they generally had too long of a windup half the time or didn't combo that well into each other...4 and 5 may be the closest to it but 1 thru 3's combat systems didn't encourage combos much due to no passive way to regen SP naturally without gear (as in normal attacks or overtime like most Tales games did with TP)). Only real weakness to the combat system imo is when knocked down/launched into the air you can't recover immediately by pressing a button such as the dodge/guard/attack button like in Tales (you can't do the backflip when launched like in Tales or a wake up attack when knocked on the ground and have to wait to land/get back up off the ground). Difficulty would also be a weakness too for me personally as even on the most highest difficulty option available on a first run the game's been a cakewalk for all story side quests and the only honest to god dangers were delmore delve bosses and the golem family tree or other optional enemies if they were 15 to 20+ levels higher than you. Story, characters, and PAs have been solid as well up to this point though I will say the lack of lore building side quests and the more quest board style is a trend in jrpgs I'm really starting to hate (they're just as bad as Tales of Arise...no honestly worse as Arise still had a handful of lore driven side quests even if only about 3 to 5 while SO6 has none so far...throw in Arise's optional boss side quests were more fun than SO6's as well that gives it another plus). Sub systems are also good with the skill tree, skill strengthening system, and Item creation systems...granted having to use the same SP resource for all 3 was kinda bullshit tbh. And as for item creation (which definitely would've helped with your boss difficulty problem as even on the highest difficulty all bosses are a cakewalk and I don't even have a particularly broken build...mainly just HP absorb/restoration over time skills or item drop up skills and at best damage increase skills that don't go above 20 to 40% max when certain coniditions are met) it's very reminiscent of Star Ocean 1 and 2 with how you can craft broken gear almost instantly the moment alchemy becomes available and if you max alchemy, crafting, and smithing skills and have the money (probably the only thing that will stop you from abusing it is if you have cash for it but you can likely get said cash using item creation by selling the right items that are cheap enough to make but make a profit enough times) to use alchemy to craft low level ores to higher levels well before finding monsters/green shinies/shops that give it to you with the only real addition to 6's system over 1 and 2's being the addition of swapping in factors from one item to the next which allows you to make even more broken items than even SO 1 and 2...only other real limitation to the system is like 1 and 2 what items you get when crafting is random based off the material used so right now trying to aim for something specific would be hard (once someone makes a faq with the item pool for each ore, cloth, engineering material, etc per item crafting type though abusing it to make BS stuff by the 1/3rd mark of the game will be easy as hell). Playing on PS4 like you and graphics are fine enough imo, art style is kinda trash in regards to the character models still looking like dolls rather than going full realistic or full anime (they gotta drop this BS art style if Tri Ace survives their current economic issues), frame rate has mostly been stable with the only notable exception being when I used Vatting with Albaird so far (he creates a lot of drones and I don't think the game/console can handle it well as he's the only one I've had an issue with this so far when using someone's attacks...granted still haven't used the last 3 characters yet so maybe one of them will have issues too), and music is fine. Font sucks though like you/many other people have said. Will say it's a solid jrpg for the most part and easily likely gonna be the best Star Ocean game imo as far as the game has been up to this point in the story tbh (1 and 2 probably could beat it with a remake that reworks the dialogue and writing to be more modern and make the optional characters a bit more relevant to the main story and have less SNES era stiff writing/dialogue and expanding greatly in the villains of the game's last half/arc as in both games that part felt like things got rushed too much imo...throw in updated battle systems where spell pause isn't a thing would help both games greatly (they have the worst battle systems solely due to the spell pause tbh). Hopefully the more positive than negative reviews/opinions of the game helps the sales a bit more as based off Japanese physical sales it looks bad for the series (granted only applies to PS4 and PS5 sales and not Steam or Xbox sales so it may only show about half sales right now (44K across the 2 Playstation titles)...personally I'll wait and see what the end of month sales look lie to get an idea of if the series/Tri Ace survives past this year after world of mouth comes into play and people start Christmas shopping as well (which this could be pushed back to for many people)...if Tri Ace survives though they really need to re-think how the company works as they definitely need to put more than 1 new console game out every 6 years to survive (last new console game from them was SO6 in 2016...after that only remasters and the axed mobile game kept the company afloat...they need to aim for at least 1 game, even if it's a small scale project, every 2 to 3 years bare minimum even if it means going to companies besides SE). Also Erick I will correct you on 1 more or less false thing you said in this video: SO6 is NOT a AAA product...it's a A tier project at best and more likely a B/B+ tier more tightly budgeted project tbh. AAA is when you have a massive budget and many team members to work on the game and this was obviously a mid sized team working a modest budget at best.

[@colebuschle]

Duma crystals do respawn over time. The only real problem I had with thus game is when your characters are talking on the field you can't duma scan check your map or open your menu.

[@enkidu52]

Great Review! I'm having a blast with divine force so far

[@PsyrenZero]

Oden Sphere in the background speaks volumes about your reviews.

[@CrowQuark]

this Star Ocean much like 2nd Story and its remaster 2nd evolution is very easy to "Break" using item creation, possible to have end game weapons and armor very early if you are willing to grind out enemies for Fol. While some people will say that ruins the fun and spirit of the game I say do what you want and enjoy how you want, either way the post game bosses will wreck you if you're not prepared for them.

[@solidwisdom8749]

Great game i would rate it a 8/10 . story is kinda hard to understand but definitely has great gameplay so far

[@gamerundertherainbow]

I'm currently playing through the last hope and having such a time because i hold till the end of time a special place in my heart 🙏💞

[@jacobburch6052]

I'm really enjoying the game but I can definitely say you'll enjoy it more if you don't try to compare it to the Star Ocean entry that hooked you on the series, almost nothing will ever compare to that. If you look at it as a part of the Star Ocean universe from a lore perspective but can also go in treating it as it's own game you'll have a blast but if you expect it to compare to your favorite Star Ocean installment you will likely be disappointed. If you are into mini games like myself you'll probably enjoy the mini game Es'owa, it feels like an odd mix of chess and Hearthstone and I enjoy playing. I also heard that Tri Ace has had some budget issues in recent years so assuming that is true I feel very impressed by the game, it turned out amazing! All in all I'm glad I purchased the game and I hope everyone enjoys it enough to give opportunity for a 7th installment down the road. Would recommend for sure!

[@MugenLord]

Just uploaded my review and I must say I loved this game from beginning to end. Definitely a return to form with this entry.

[@tomfrost6049]

I preordered this game for the ps5, when playing I prioritised image quality and there was no blur and barely any load times. The text size was a pain in a bum especially when I was harvesting items and not knowing what I picked up. That floating debris room got me as well but I was annoyed when so many puzzles were easy and pointed out before I was allowed to fail. The difficulty spike on galaxy is strange, but I'm a grinder at heart and no boss or mini boss were tough. Loved the combat but my only gripe was the targeting system, it keeps getting muddled up when I want to hit one guy and I end up swinging at the air. Overall this is my favourite star ocean game, love the cast and love the story. Thanks for the review, it was great.

[@GothamiteYT]

This is amazing. I watched this review, am playing this game and the exact thing just happened to me at 7:33. I kept pushing the boulder thinking it would move and remembered this video

[@TuxedoMagnum]

I'm only a few hours into the game so far (Just met Nina), and I love it. Waiting to wrap up work so I can get back to it! Thanks for the review, Erick!

[@ltb1345]

This game looks awesome. I didn't like Star Ocean 1, but this one looks right up my alley.

[@notyozuka7348]

About the font size: I've heard a lot of people critizise Tri-Ace for this, but I really don't understand it. I've played the Steam version on my 27" monitor, and the font size felt really, really nice. As if it was optimized for that screen size from about 30" away. I didn't pay it much attention at first, but as soon as I changed to another game, every UI suddenly felt gigantic and overwhelming. For me, SO6 hit just the right spot with that.

[@milletmongoose]

I'm glad you mentioned this is like Star Ocean: The Second Story. It's the only other Star Ocean game I played and liked. Maybe I'll like this one too?

[@HaveButOneLife]

The artists did a fantastic job with this game compared to the previous ones, seems like they finally found their footing.

[@lrd233]

happy that you amwk reviews of new titles .I was not planning to get the game but I think I changed my mind , most probably I will get it for the steam deck .. Thanks Erick

[@tymothyl]

Flying enemy always is pain in the ass for Action RPG. That's why I always Main Long Range characters in those game.

[@BacklogBattle]

Great video man! I think user interface/user experience design is going to be important in the next few years. The font in this game is just terrible. And I agree - some of the bosses are crazy! I had to grind for some of them, but man, the difficulty spikes can be insane.

[@IKilledYourDude]

Sole reason I’m not buying this game is the font size. Unacceptable to not allow for UI/font sizing in 2022

[@tolkienblack]

@@IKilledYourDude I’m not gonna lie to you unless your vision is bad that is a horrible reason to skip this. Especially if you are a fan of the series

[@IKilledYourDude]

@@tolkienblack why should I reward poor design with my money? Especially when there are tons of other games out there?

[@tolkienblack]

@@IKilledYourDude do what you wanna do. I’m just saying you’d miss a good experience.

[@blobeyeordie]

@@IKilledYourDude Yeah that is a terrible reason not to get the game lol. If anything the AP gauge obstructing your characters in battle is more frustrating imo. The worse thing about the game I feel is the lack of NPC interaction, there is no talking to NPCs unless theyre playing the minigame or just side quest dispensers. There is some background chatter from them but youll soon find that this chatter is limited to maybe 5 different dialogues and worseover every towns NPCs mutter the exact same things. Maybe Im weird, but I enjoy talking to NPCs, it adds to the immersion and helps build the world and whats going in it.

[@lezardex6335]

Agree, it's pretty good game, at first i didn't expect much but i was pleasantly surprised, the characters and story is pretty nice, that's when i realize i need more Tri ace games in my life, i hope this game will be a success for them. Support them and buy this game! it's worth it. For a comparaison i enjoyed Star Ocean 6 Waaaay more than Tales of Arise.

[@stuartcid6992]

I wish I could play it nowadays. I love second story and enjoy last hope. Reymond being a merchant, represent me a lot!

[@Highlaw]

Oh man, I can understand the frustration with the resolution and framerate. I played the PS5 version (performance mode) and even looking at this compressed youtube video I instantly notice some textures took a major hit on 8th gen - similarly with the bluriness, the version I played actually looks crispy (and I'm only ~2m away from a 48" OLED, I never bothered to even try the graphics mode once because it looked so neat in performance already) with the only exception being intentional stuff like hair and fluffy stuff (bunnies, etc) and the HDR usage is amazing. The framerate was 60fps most of the time with only a few exceptions, usually villages with dungeons attached like the one you show at 5:46, not the other way around where it's mostly bad with some good moments. My guess is that they prioritized 9th gen consoles and PC, then tried their best to fit the game into last gen systems. It's a shame that this was a distracting element :( As for the BS difficulty bosses I also employed my BS tactics :p For instance to rapidly max out the AP bar I get the healer, use the "pull everyone together" move and spam the cheapest buffs, thus restoring 3+ AP at once without needing to try to blindsight the boss (all the while healing and buffing the team). Or just let everyone else die and use that one super OP move a couple melee characters have, and spam healing items though chain moves until the boss dies. I'm with you though, the less of them there are the better it would be.

[@theoaremevano3227]

Gotta watch audio only. I'm slow. XD But man, I'm glad you got a kick out of the story and cast. :) I have a hard time sticking to one character because they're so good in combat too. Elena's skill tree is very straightforward (which is also neat because she's and android, so she has a very direct upgrade path), and it makes her potentially incredibly brutal because of how you can dump her starting SP into just crushing one stat or the other and just melt enemies. I'm happy to see it ended up hitting high and mainly just having technical drawbacks. I have a few comments on easing up the difficulty with some tweaks, but I think I might separate that comment. Also, I love the minigame it has Es'owa, or in simple terms: Yugioh Chess. Was always fun searching towns for new opponents. :D

[@eliotwildermann]

I got a 46 inch TV hopefully text won't be a problem

[@Fuad199rpg]

Hmmm, while i agree with most of what was said, i think you really missed a big point that is a staple of the series, item creation, usually spending a bit of skill points in that will unlock very strong and borderline broken factors for weapons, armor and accesories that make most enemies (including bosses) a lot easier to handle. Not to mention you seemed to have focused a lot on dealing damage, which i dont blame you for, most players would, but if you spend more on your defensive attributes the fights while still tough, are a lot more fun and manageable, in other words, its not about hitting hard, its about not being hit THAT hard.

[@MisterMonsterMan]

The text on the map is laughably small. I literally have to get up and walk to within 3 ft of the screen to see it.

[@plasticdeity5340]

are you using a base ps4?? or pro?

[@paskwawi2007]

Even if the game is average, I'm going to buy it to support tri-ace and get a remastered Star Ocean 2 out on console...hopefully

[@abetterfuture4787]

To anybody who owns the PC version, can you confirm/deny whether or not you can set stuff like the screen resolution and FPS? I usually have to lower those so my laptop doesn't overheat. Been a SO fan since childhood so would definitely like to try this game as long as it doesn't melt my computer haha. "Why would you put the tutorial here?" Valid point. I can see how that cause a lot of confusion. Also, like the other games does this game have a Colosseum/Arena you can battle in? That's always my favorite part.

[@triniking1234]

You can.

[@ballandpaddle]

Loved this game! I also played as Raymond to get to see the offworlder perspective, since the only other Star Ocean game I played was the SFC original, and in that game you start as the "undeveloped planet" native inhabitants, and I wanted to be the person who came *from offworld*. I disagree that the graphics are a negative: sure, a lot of the time, this could be a PS2 game. But if you play on "prioritize quality" (on Xbox Series X) and can live the 30 fps (or lower) frame rate, the graphics can often look truly next-gen. Sure, there's some jank in some animations and controls, but for someone who likes 8- and 16-bit jRPGs, this is fine. I also loved the in-game collectible board game Es'owa, I wish someone would make that into its whole own game.

[@marklion250]

Thank you for this review. I'm glad the game is a step in the right direction. I wanted to get early on PS4, but later decided wait until I'm able to get PS5. It is soo good at 60 FPS

[@eliotwildermann]

I'm playing on the pro for now most likely will replay it on the ps5 when I get it for the holidays

[@Napoleon_4pcs]

Great review Erick. I quite enjoyed the last Star Ocean gamr, although I understand the criticism many had of it. This looks really nice and will definately pick it up when the price drops a bit. The font size felt like a lazy Switch port. Image this being ported witout addressing that.

[@RomanJr316]

Great video as always, brother. Erick, I have Star Ocean the second story on PSP but I haven’t played it yet so the comparison of the two main characters goes over my head. Based on your description is it safe to say that the differences between the two main characters is similar like the differences between Milla and Jude in Tales of Xillia? Xillia is another great game by the way lol

[@Massiveillusion14]

I know I'm not Erick but to answer your question, certain parts of Xillia are like SO2 and 6, but most aren't. For most of the game, you are seeing cutscenes and gameplay from the same perspective while in Xillia, they took pains to make sure you only see what Jude and Millia see respectively. The trade off is that while Xillia basically has Jude and Millia go through the exact same things as each other and never deviating very much if at all, there are long parts of SO that have the two characters on completely different courses of action. I think someone said about 20% of the game is different based on what character you choose which I think is about correct.

[@RomanJr316]

@@Massiveillusion14 Thank you for the details. I look forward to playing it soon or maybe not so soon because Xenoblade 3 is HUGE lol and I’m only in chapter 5.

[@Massiveillusion14]

@@RomanJr316 Better than me. I got both parties together and just saw the amount of customization and strategic thinking lay in store for the next 50 hours and put it on a shelf for now.

[@RomanJr316]

@@Massiveillusion14 It’s a GREAT game but it can be intimidating with its size. Especially in chapter 5 when you get to the map where there is a lot of water. My description is vague to avoid spoilers but you will know what I’m talking about when you see how TINY you are in that map lol

[@Castapher]

Not sure if anyone has said it: For PC, turn off the Bloom effects in the config, and the graphics will become less blurry if it bothers you.

[@Brahmsonite]

For me it wasn't the frame rate that sunk it, it was the terrible pop in in towns. Also that almost no one had anything to say to me. And if they had things to say to each other it was usually too quiet to listen in.

[@Massiveillusion14]

It was Tri Ace's way of refocusing in my opinion. They focused on what was important and let some stuff fall by the wayside. I missed being able to talk to a random npc and see how their day was going too, but I believe that in exchange, we got a very solid story. I know Tri-Ace had to make this game on a shoestring budget as well thanks to the disaster that was I&F so I am just grateful the series continued.

[@midnightshade32]

Cant' wait to get my ps5 copy tomorrow. Nice video.

[@EtherealRune]

Nice review! I, personally, think it's definitely one of the best StarOcean games. While the story and it's presentation is rather mediocre it's the combat that really gets me. There's a lot of combo-variation you can do and a lot of mechanics that are, unfortunately, not outright explained very well. Which brings me to the point you were complaining about against those 3 bosses you mentioned, but mainly the giant bird on the top of the mountain-side because a lot of people were complaining about that one. The very first time I got my butt handed to me as well, because I simply tried to approach the bird directly without pause. It was then when I used the ability to guard and counter with DUMA that made the fight trivial in combination with multihitting attacks, since both mechanics add to the "stagger" of the enemy which brings the bird down so the other crew-members can wail on it. So I wouldn't really blame a sudden change in difficulty but rather the fact that I weren't using the mechanics the game has given me properly and I'm extremely certain the same goes for a lot of other people as well. In addition to that there is the crafting system you can play around with if you take things slow (which you wanna do on Universe-mode) but that's a different topic alltogether. Anyways, I think SO6 was a good success, it's actually a RPG I would recommend to other people. Not sure if it's my favorite SO-title, because I think it's hard to beat Cliff and the rest of the gang in terms of entertainment-value but it's definitely close enough.

[@MaajidM]

Till the End of Time cast definitely takes it for me

[@megasoniczxx]

I knew I was doing something wrong with that bird lol. I beat it first try but it was only because I sort of just brute forced it just to see if I could still pull out a win despite how badly it was going. I didn't initially get vatting at first but once I realized everyone doesn't just get a super attack with different animations tied to it (I kept using Elena's without realizing what it was actually doing) I switched to Raymond and broke the mask of it with his which made the rest of the fight a lot easier. Battle system wise, I think this is the first Star Ocean i've played after 3 where i'm not it had 3's battle system since this one's is pretty good on it's own already.

[@Mangomesh]

The reviews are very mixed for The Divine Force, but I just can't get over how it reminds me of Star Ocean 2.

[@megakoni1]

I'm hyped. Gonna play this game in my christmas holidays. Just played SO3 for the first time this year. I'm really glad that SO6 is surprisingly good. After the 5th game i thought the series will be dead. This makes hope for a comeback though. Future Star Ocean Games could get even better

[@sorayat2333]

Tri-ace, the Developer ist broke.

[@michaeloconnor1281]

That had nothing to do with what he said. That said, this game is a success. So hopefully, the sales match that in time.

[@TheOmegaDragon]

I didn't like the aerial combat very much and I wish the lock on feature focused the camera on the enemy it locks into. Sidequest can be confusing as well since there is no quest markers (if there is tell me how) for the quest. How AP is handled makes fighting quite difficult because if your knocked down to 5 AP then it's very hard to chain combos together and using VA takes up AP which makes aerial combat extremely difficult to fight. The thing that annoys me the most is that when a team member leaves the party then comes back, you have to reassign accessories. What I do like is that if you have enough AP the combos flow together well. The overworld exploration is fun with DUMA being able to launch you in areas you normally wouldn't be able to get to. Item crafting is easier to do and for the most part I like the cast of characters. The main character can sprint really fast too, and you can pretty much fast travel anywhere.

[@fiskburk2908]

Im planing to purchase this game later, as now I have some priorities, but I have been so hyped for it

[@thelegendaryjanitor2008]

I think u not using barrier and eastery cage enough on those boss from your footage , Item creation also 🫣 passive and gears , accessory really help

[@updaterequired1173]

Might check the game out on a massive sale... This month is all about Ragnarok and tactics ogre reborn which should hold me over for a bit.

[@Evanz111]

Hey Erick! I’ve watched 3 reviews on this game today, but can I just check that you don’t have any spoilers in this video before I watch the rest of it? I’m in the last 20% of the game and I don’t want to risk spoiling anything!

[@armorvil]

no spoilers

[@jaybee4288]

The performance mode is common now. Most PS5 games have the option of a low framerate better graphics mode or 60fps. The game performs decently on the PS5 but this is yet another game being held back by having to run on last gen hardware.

[@TheDarkEnigma]

To my knowledge, the last hope Technically had a new game +. I say technically cause its more the bare minimum. You could transfer record and the like from a cleared save to a new one and it let you keep the green elf boy (ive heard, not verified) instead of getting Arumat if you wanted. its not much but i guess its technically not a proper ng+. But theres that. never really finished integrity and faithlessness since the game kept crashing after the final boss but before the credits so i never really got to see. Im playing the older star oceans now. mainly the switch remake of first departure and also the ps4 version of til the end of time. Heck of a different style. first departure almost feels like an early Tales game to me. My first game was last hope on 360 and im genuinely enjoying most of the games ive tried so far.

[@gremlinn7]

I was hoping the game would be at least as good as SO4, and it was only about on par early on, but it got better. So my personal ranking (didn't play the first game long enough for a good opinion) is now SO3 > SO2 > SO6 > SO4 > SO5. And not really that far behind 2 and 3, really. A solid entry.

[@aaroncls727]

Thanks, dude! Getting this soon.

[@lordjosh9000]

Just finished it on a Series X(Galaxy). As of last night I am at the end of the second post game dungeon where the Ethereal Queen has been kicking my ass. She definitely requires max level and item creation gear to beat. Graphics were sharp on either setting for me. Frame rate would dip in some places but never in combat. Worst thing about the graphics is how much pop in there is for NPCs. The game doesn't load NPCs till you are right on top of them. I didn't notice any sharp difficulty spikes anywhere except the few enemies you are obviously supposed to come back and fight later. Most trouble I had in combat was in the Integration Facility for the last 2 security passes. Beating the fights in time and still getting to the panel took me a bit. By the time I was done there everyone was over level 60 which didn't take long. Combat is the weakest part of this game because of the party AI and how there are no controls to adjust their behavior individually. Everyone is attacking your target, attacking different targets, or doing what their default AI says. Spells suck in this game too. Magic takes way to long to cast and does too little damage to be useful. I never used Midas or Malkya. My party looked just like yours as often as it could. Ray, Laeticia, Elena, Nina. Nina is the only healer and the other 3 are the best damage dealers in 99% of circumstances. I didn't really use item creation at all till late game. Where I pretty much just made a ring with 4 bonuses to XP and a light armor with 4 bonuses to accessory factors for leveling. For the first post game dungeon I made Ray his best weapon. At level 181 he was able to solo all of the first post game dungeon and every floor of the second except the Ethereal Queen. I am also the Es'owa Grand Champion, and unless I missed something there is no real reason to do that unless you really like the mini game. Overall I think the game is a 7/10. The killer move system from previous games is better in my opinion and Item Creation is too random and takes too long to level up, but the graphics, story, characters and music are all A+. If not for the massive short comings with the combat and the huge lack of quality of life features in the menus it would be a 10. The combat from TLH or IAF would fix this game for me.

[@matthewtryon7452]

Enjoying it for sure. I don’t think Star Ocean has always had the best quality, but this is much better than the last two installments imo. Wish each character had a couple more skills, story delivery is not the best and there needs to be more bosses. Also most of the character models are not great imo. Balance is not great even in the highest difficulty. Overall the game is much better than the past two so I’m happy. Hopefully they continue to improve

[@johns783]

Got a like from me in the first second of the video for the tshirt alone, that said I could never choose the dude over Leticia. There's just no way.

[@luizfib]

I get a lot of pixelated graphics, especially in Towns (the Village of Eda looks like a low res snes game) and that is really unfortunate, but its still a great game.

[@His0ka]

i play the game on PC with Reshade, game is beautiful runs well and iam having a blast. star ocean is known for very fun battlemodes. better than tales

[@mathewhosier9739]

Yes its 2022 but your playing on a 10 year old console, kind of a weird complaint, most AAA games nowadays have multiple performance profiles, ppl like me bought the ps5 mostly because of the higher frame rates, with 90% of ps5 games running at 60fps and nearly 50% having 120hz performance modes, time for an upgrade or just switch to PC

[@yaloue]

glad the game is good, after the fiasco of SO5 i tought will never see the license again, but they did it !! hope will get lot of other star ocean game, i love the franchise. who is not AAA by the way.

[@Queenofthesevenseas]

Cool, nice review of the game really appreciated the video. Wonder if theirs any chance this game will come to the Nintendo switch down the line?🤔🤔🤔 Otherwise I may be inclined to get a different system just so I can play myself as it looks really fun❤ Any recommendations for the better version of the game?

[@asilver50]

That font is ridiculous. Hopefully they give you an option to increase it in an update.

[@MrBlitzer55]

I just finished the game. At 32 hours of completion having done 70-80% of everything, I felt like the game was missing an opportunity to go deeper on everything. The skill tree system was really bad imo, and the skills Raymond used were lacking. I miss StarOcean "till the end of time" move set and skills. The stupid bird boss was nearly impossible to kill and finishing the game at level 75 my entire team would get one shot from the last few bosses every 10 seconds or so. I was on a PS5 using frame rate mode and would have the frames drop to 30 or less often mainly around buildings or in caves. Overall I think I gave this a 5.5/10 I truly wanted to like it more but it just wasn't on the same level as a final fantasy game or "till the end of time" PS2 version. 😓

[@oggregster]

The only thing i miss from star ocean was the whole planet hoping where we get to uncover different species with there own cultural background that would join the party now you are always stuck mainly on one planet and visit at most another one. Other than that game was solid much better then the previous one and i think the star ocean series is back.

[@tsuikagura]

An honestly important question from me... should I get the PS4 or PS5 version? :O Does it help with the frame rate or anything if I go for the PS5 one? (I know the upgrade is free ... I think). Thanks!

[@DKarkarov]

On a 1-10 scale it is like a 6 or a 7 at best. In the series of Star Ocean it is one of the best ones. I wouldn't put it on any top 10 jrpg list though, probably not a top 20 either.

[@dontbothertoreply9755]

I like that they are fast and you can travel from place to place in a relative short period of time, handling the attacks is tricky because you will ran out of AP however, graphics are kind of fine, the frame rate sometimes fails but it is kinda of fine, same problem on PC btw, they may patch It late I hope and yes I was checking the vid from my phone. On the boss did you have to attack that bird from the front? I had the same issue with the worm for example the second big boss, the problem is that I can deal with his bs but I cannot keep all of my characters safe, that was weird I found a strategy putting the mage away playing Raymond and putting Laeticia behind a stone but still they both died in a few moments, so, yes I haven't continued the game from there I actually took another venue but that battle kept me thinking and made me ran from the fight even after spending points on upgrades.

[@Baratinha]

Love your videos Erick. For some reason I watched a lot of your content but wasnt subscribed, keep up the good work and incredible content. Cheers from brazil, if you ever get to visit here lets hang out

[@Shigazane]

I'm shocked the ps4 varies so much from the ps5. Nothing is blurry, haven't seen a frame drop yet and I'm 8 hours in, and the list goes on. I guess it was specifically designed for one console

[@jeremywilliamsrc8797]

Hey guys recently picked up this game for ps4. Has anyone had constant blue screen error messages? Every time I play I literally get an error message, sometimes happens right away, sometimes happens 15 minutes in. Haven’t even got passed the first area due to the crashing. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks

[@Jake-po4sp]

Any difficulty can be overcome pretty easily with crafting. It seems pretty easy to break it. (Haven’t beaten it yet, though)

[@bsmit208]

Synthing good factors too. I did my factor farming before the final boss and ended up killing him in 3-5 seconds.

[@bukojoetheslapsoils8273]

I'm going to buy this for Christmas. I just don't have enough funds right now because of Pokémon and God of War. T-T