After years of silence and uncertainty, Square Enix has announced the continuation of its Star Ocean action-RPG franchise. Star Ocean has been around for over 20 years now, and it has built up a small but loyal following. The series is often discussed due to its wildly varying quality between entries, but there is a solid gameplay base there. The former Tales of Phantasia staff at tri-Ace that joined Square Enix to work on this series has done an impressive job of combining science fiction and fantasy, and classical RPG elements with more modern action trappings. That sort of game feels like a trend for Square Enix nowadays, so it makes sense that tri-Ace has been given the chance to make Star Ocean: The Divine Force.
And it's a darn good thing that Star Ocean is getting another shot, because after the disaster that was Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, fans were worried that Star Ocean hadn't performed well enough to merit any further entries. The main Star Ocean games since the third main entry, Till the End of Time, have all been controversial in some way. Whether it's due to unpopular story decisions, poor localization, screwing up systems that were once good, or just generally failing to live up to the second entry, Star Ocean has been a mire of disappointment for over a decade. Star Ocean: The Divine Force marks the chance to start again, and it seems that the game is designed with this in mind.
Star Ocean’s History of Troubles
It's good that Square Enix and tri-Ace are presenting The Divine Force as a new jumping-on point for fans. To be frank, most games in the series do not give the best impression of Star Ocean. The original Star Ocean was a fairly plain JRPG and fell further flat for North Americans thanks to its global release after the second game. Star Ocean: The Second Story is widely agreed to be the best installment overall, but it was only released on the original PlayStation and PSP in North America. The rest of the mainline Star Ocean games have been remastered and remade for PS4, but the most beloved entry is nowhere to be found outside of Japan.
It’s those remaining games that have caused all the damage to Star Ocean’s reputation. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is mostly a competent entry, but its disastrous ending was the talk of the RPG community until Mass Effect 3 came around to replace it. Suffice it to say that the games since then have taken place before it chronologically, and have not uttered a mention of its series-altering twist. The Last Hope was competently made, but its presentation was incredibly lackluster, and its localization is infamously awkward. Integrity and Faithlessness was a mess all around, featuring an imbalanced combat system and a bizarre approach to cutscenes that saw them take place mostly in the field with the player controlling the camera. The mobile gacha game Anamnesis’ one-year availability outside of Japan says all that needs to be said about it.
How The Divine Force Can Fix Star Ocean
The Divine Force is not a reboot, as it has already been firmly dated as taking place shortly after the events of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. However, it is rebooting the series in a spiritual sense, making it more of an action game than ever before. Where previous Star Ocean titles had maps designed like any old RPG, this entry takes after the sprawling vertical worlds of Xenoblade. What little has been shown so far seems to match Xenoblade's enormous areas, and players even get a jet pack of sorts to fly around them. This alone is a huge change and will add a lot of depth to the exploration and possibly even combat if players are encouraged to fight with flight in mind.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force also looks to more organically fuse the series' trademark science fiction and fantasy elements. The first four party members introduced in the State of Play reveal trailer are evenly split between a spacefaring duo and a pair of armored knights. With the setup for a stranded spacefaring crew on a technologically backward planet, The Divine Force will integrate Star Ocean’s core tenets of dual genres into its visuals and plot. This is a great idea to introduce a new generation of gamers to Star Ocean, and as long as Star Ocean: The Divine Force can keep itself composed, it should make progress on fixing the franchise’s reputation.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force releases for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022.