Star Ocean: The Divine Force (for PC) Review | Biden News

The Star Ocean series has struggled to stand out among its Japanese RPG contemporaries since its Super Famicom debut. Although the space opera has a moderate following and several successful titles under its belt, the sci-fi breakouts are more niche than they are mainstream. With the $59.99 Star Ocean: The Divine Force, developer Tri-Ace cleans up legacy gameplay systems to smooth out some rough spots with fresh new movement options and balanced combat mechanics. That said, some issues remain: the realistic anime aesthetic lacks artistic flourishes, and the characters possess a strange, doll-like appearance that is exacerbated by stilted animations. Plus, it doesn’t take much strategy to fight your way through the main storyline. The result is an energetic PC game with snappy action, satisfying movement and exploration systems, a pleasant (but clichéd) story and blurry visuals.

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(Credit: Square Enix, Tri-Ace)

Choose Your Own Adventure

The Divine Force reintroduces the dual-protagonist story of Star Ocean: The Second Story, so you choose a hero at the start of the game. The plot unfolds the same regardless of the chosen hero, but The Divine Force includes some unique scenarios and an exclusive party member for the protagonist you choose. It’s a nice way to spice up replays, which may seem like a tall order considering the 30+ hour length of the campaign. However, Star Ocean has always been a series with extensive replay value thanks to its extensive post-game dungeon content and difficulty modes that raise enemy stats.

The game centers on an underdeveloped planet in the Aster star system. Raymond Lawrence, captain of the merchant starship Ydas, is shot down without warning by a Pangalactic Federation warship. He crash-lands on Aster IV, where he sets out to find the rest of his crew. Here he meets Laeticia Aucerius, a native and ruler of the kingdom of Aucerius, who drags a reluctant Raymond into the politics of the nation as it rushes into war.

Star Ocean operates on Star Trek’s Prime Directive principle, meaning that Raymond is supposed to be incognito while stranded on Aster IV. This is dropped the moment Raymond and Laeticia meet. Once your Aster-native party gets its hands on the high-tech Dynamic Universal Maneuvering Assistant (DUMA), any thought of stealth is thrown out the window as it races through fields and cities with over-the-top, sci-fi powers.

Story has never been Star Ocean’s strength. That said, The Divine Force’s playable cast is surprisingly likable. They have a good degree of chemistry, the English voice acting is excellent, and there are no obnoxious caricatures to deal with this time (except maybe Welch, the recurring craft NPC). Even the post-game dungeon scenes now feature voice work, which is a series first. So maybe it’s for the best that Star Ocean doesn’t lean too much into its plot; it’s a silly story about a spaceman who crashes on an alien planet filled with medieval people, and hijinks ensue. You simply whip out your DUMA, fly around each zone grabbing collectibles, and beat up monsters that get in your way.

In fact, The Divine Force does research surprisingly well. Every zone and city you visit is covered in collectibles. These can be healing items, figures of characters from previous games, or purple crystals to improve DUMA. Exploration is almost its own minigame, and discovering new platforms and secrets is its own reward.

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(Credit: Square Enix, Tri-Ace)

Taking Arms

The Divine Force nails its fundamental combat mechanics from the jump, solving a problem the series has struggled with since its inception. Star Ocean has always had action-focused combat, but how that action plays out is radically different from game to game. The Divine Force feels like a significantly improved version of the evasion-focused combat of Star Ocean 4. All characters have access to an evasive action, as well as melee and ranged attacks. A well-timed dodge rewards you with a special slow effect that makes it easier to counter enemy attacks. Your moves have a variety of effects, including juggles and knockouts, and you can customize the attacks to chain into each other in satisfying combos.

After you complete the game’s first dungeon, you gain access to DUMA, a spherical drone that greatly boosts your movement and defense. DUMA’s actions are mapped to a dedicated button. When held, it creates a barrier around your character that deflects attacks, similar to the shield in Star Ocean 3 and 5. When used in conjunction with directional input, you perform a long-range dash. If your dash pulls you out of an enemy’s line of sight, you trigger Blindside. Enemies hit by Blindside enter a stunned state, and cannot attack for a few moments. DUMA actions are tied to a meter that fills up as you land hits and dodge attacks. This prevents you from abusing the shield or Blindside functions.

Attacks use Action Points (AP) which determine the length of your combos. AP is essentially a stamina meter; you have five AP by default, which limits how many consecutive abilities you can get. AP regenerates after a second or two, as long as you don’t initiate any more attacks or dodges. This forces you to play more methodically because you have to take proper breaks. Successful Blindsides add more AP to your gauge (it maxes out at 15), and allows you to unleash longer combos and offensive actions. However, taking too much damage or getting KOed reduces your AP total. You can never have less than 5 AP, but it pays to be liberal with dodging whenever possible to keep your AP stock high. All in all, Star Ocean’s combat is simple, yet fun.

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(Credit: Square Enix, Tri-Ace)

Combat Deficiencies

Allied party members are controlled by the game’s AI when not under your direct control. Unfortunately, they’re limited by the same AP limitations and aren’t particularly smart, so they can’t attack for long before pausing. You can adjust their AI parameters to make them attack a single target, play defensively, or spread out to attack multiple enemies. The AI ​​is not good and tends to get killed in any encounter that involves a powerful enemy or boss.

You can lock onto an enemy hard by clicking the right stick, but the aiming often breaks when dealing with highly mobile enemies. Likewise, moving between targets is inconvenient and rarely works. It forces you to break the lock, and try to select the target again. It is often easier to fight manually by pointing your character in the right direction.

Combat is sometimes too simplistic, with no real need to strategize or rethink your attack. Just unleash a combo, defend or dodge accordingly, unleash another combo, ad infinitum. It lacks the complexity and variety found in Final Fantasy VII Remake and other action RPGs.

The Divine Force makes good use of its many systems, especially compared to previous games in the series. Unfortunately, melee characters lack distinction, and ranged characters are clunky. For example, mages never feel fun to play because of their long casting times which make them prone to disruption. However, what it offers is not bad, just bland.

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Can Your PC Run Star Ocean: The Divine Force?

To play Star Ocean: The Divine Force, your computer needs at least AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or Intel i7-7700 CPU, AMD Radeon RX 580 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, 70GB of space, and the 64-bit. Windows 10 operating system. These specs should enable you to play the game at 720p resolution and over 50 frames per second. The recommended specifications raise the processor requirement to either AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel i7-8700k CPU, and the graphics card to AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070. With this hardware, you can play Star Ocean at 1080p resolution. at 60fps.

On a desktop computer with a Ryzen 5 3600 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, and 16GB of RAM, Star Ocean The Divine Force ran well at 1440p resolution. The game ran at a fairly consistent 60fps, with its graphics settings up to max. The game supports Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Steam Trading Cards and controllers. Unfortunately, The Divine Force is not currently Steam Deck verified and performs poorly on a Deck without some tweaking.

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Visual Highs and Lows

Visually, The Divine Force uses realistic lighting and assets, as well as cartoonish, anime-style character models. The character illustrations were created by Akira “Akiman” Yasuda, of Final Fight and Street Fighter fame, although the models don’t quite match the artwork 1:1. In fact, this is a recurring series theme. The God Force is an improvement on the flashy models of Star Ocean 4 and 5, but the realistic visual direction, coupled with the doll-like characters, is sometimes unsettling.

Compounding which are the stiff, emotional animations exhibited while characters speak, which makes interactions look like they were lifted from Star Ocean 3 on the PlayStation 2. On the other hand, story scenes unfold with dynamic camera shots, which is an improvement over the. a static, lifeless camera used for dialogue and exposition in most scenes of Star Ocean 5.

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Should You Buy Star Ocean: The Divine Force?

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a step in the right direction for the troubled series. Engaging combat, great exploration, and great replay value make it an RPG worth considering, especially if you’re a fan of action-heavy adventures like Bandai Namco’s Tales of Arise. That said, you have to put up with weird character designs, stiff animation, and a pretty terrible aiming system. If you can stomach those missteps, you’ll find Star Ocean The Divine Force a good way to explore distant worlds.

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