As the newest entry in the Star Ocean series, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has plenty of news to share for fans of the series. Details about Star Ocean: The Divine Force's release date and the premise have already been revealed, and now more information about the game has been released.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force is being developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix, and recently a new video was released focusing on the game's combat. The video starts with a narrative introduction to the character called D.U.M.A., a robotic companion "imbued with superior intelligence and self-cognizance." Going by the video, D.U.M.A. will play a significant role in the story as much as the gameplay of Star Ocean: The Divine Force.
From there, the trailer proceeds to showcase the combat gameplay of Star Ocean: The Divine Force in a mission report showing how D.U.M.A. figures into everything. The mission report covers several things, most notably the combat of which D.U.M.A. is an integral part. According to the video, D.U.M.A. will impart special abilities to the party members, and the defining feature of D.U.M.A. in combat is access to the Vanguard Assault hardware or VA.
D.U.M.A.'s Vanguard Assault provides the travel party with a "wide range of abilities and utility" in the Star Ocean game, such as the Flight ability. It can be used for traversal in towns and the wilds and worked into combos. In combat, D.U.M.A. can deploy a variety of powerful VA attacks in the game. The video reveals some of the combat abilities, including Ally Recovery and Enemy Analysis, in the mission report.
A key aspect of combat is "Blindside," where players can move out of their enemies' range of vision and perform a VA attack to put them in a stunned state for a short time. In this state, enemies will take significantly more damage, and players can blindside multiple enemies at once. There's also the Aggression Radar which helps players plan and execute blindsides on enemies by displaying the direction of incoming enemy attacks while the player and enemies are kept still during combat.
The mission report goes into more aspects of the combat and states that what's covered in the video is only "the tip of the iceberg" of D.U.M.A.'s capabilities. The mission report provides some information regarding D.U.M.A.'s importance to the story as they join the protagonist Raymond Lawrence and his friends' adventure with "less-than-clear intentions." It ends by stating that the next mission report will focus on more of D.U.M.A.'s powers and the "shady characters" who seek to possess them for their own ends in the upcoming Star Ocean: The Divine Force.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force is scheduled to release on October 27, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.