Hoo boy where to begin. I waited many years for this game. Many many long years. In fact I never thought I would see this game after Star Ocean 4 so you can imagine how excited I was when they announced it and my thoughts on the game are kind of mixed.
So I guess we will start with the positives. I’ve never been much of a writer so bare with me.
First, I really enjoyed the characters. Their designs were mostly enjoyable ( albeit dangerously colorful) and their personalities were great to match. There wasn’t a single main character that I disliked and even the majority (if not all) of the side characters I also enjoyed.
The story wasn’t anything too spectacular but it never really has been in Star Ocean that said I don’t think it was bad. It was enjoyable but I didn’t really find myself NEEDING to see what was happening in the story. I enjoyed going from A to B but didn’t love it.
I heard many negative things about the combat in the days leading up to the release of this game however I enjoyed it greatly. It is a pretty basic system but the moves look very flashy and it’s fun to watch them and it never got stale.
Graphically I really enjoyed this game. I think the game looks great. Of course I think Miki’s model could have used some work. The world also looks beautiful in my opinion however I do wish it was a little bigger.
The music was also spectacular as expected. The voice acting was also stellar especially when compared to the previous entry in the series.
I very much enjoyed the PA system the game has.
Now on to some of the more negative things.
I really have almost nothing to say in regards to the actual playing of the game. The combat while I said is enjoyable to watch isn’t particularly complex or challenging. In fact I don’t even know why the game has a defense stat because a lot of enemies even with defense roles destroyed my characters. Most fights were me BLASTING the boss for a ton of damage and him eventually doing a giant AOE and killing 3 party members then me spending time resurrecting them. Rinse and repeat. Not challenging just time consuming really. It could have been worse though.
They decided to make most cutscenes in this game not actually cutscenes but just scenes where you can move around while everyone is talking and I feel like the game would be more emotionally investing if there were just regular cutscenes.
Also, why can’t I run around as any character in my party? It is very annoying getting into a battle as Fidel, swapping to Anne who is far away and after swapping back.
I also wish the quests were more then just talk to the board, kill 5 bad guys, talk to the board.
I also think not getting skills through leveling but instead finding books to teach you things is not the best method.
Seamless battles are still a cool concept but I feel they are still being executed poorly as they were in Tales of Zestiria.
There is probably more but I have so many thoughts I am probably missing something.
Overall the game has solid voice acting, cast characters, story, and music but the mechanics of the game feel kind of clunky and hinder my enjoyment of the rest of the game but not enough to make me feel like the game is bad. The game is playable and enjoyable but I felt with a little more time, effort and care, this game could be better.
Overall I would give this game a 7.5/10.
But let me know what you think. I am always down to talk about one of my favorite JRPG series.
Since March Square Enix’s YouTube channel has been hosting ‘Star Logs’ for the upcoming Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. They’ve used these logs to introduce various elements of the game such as the cast (log 1), the battle system (log 2), and gameplay (log 3). The 4th and final log was hosted by Tessa Netting (Relia in the…
