Star Ocean: The Divine Force Review
Six years after Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness disappointed fans of the sci-fi JRPG series like me, Star Ocean: The Divine Force feels like a long-awaited return to form in many ways. Its revamped combat is a lot of fun, breathing fresh life into a system that certainly benefits by evolving with the times a bit. Other areas do stagnate, unfortunately, like its lackluster visuals and horrid user interface. But a respectable story full of likable characters makes this a sequel I’m still very happy to have sailed through the stars of.
The Divine Force tells a standalone story that isn’t directly connected to any other Star Ocean games, but it does contain quite a few references to past events and characters that were rewarding to catch as a series veteran. This particular tale follows a reasonable young space merchant with a really bad haircut named Ray, who crashlands on the underdeveloped, medieval-like planet of Aster IV. There he meets Laeticia, the prim and proper princess of the Kingdom of Aucerius, and agrees to assist her in fending off a nearby empire in return for help finding his missing crewmates. I enjoyed that the story kicks off at a smaller scale than you might expect from a spacefaring adventure, but things only grow impressively from there, as the conflicts on this backwater planet end up having astronomical consequences that go beyond the stars.
One cool twist is that you’re actually given the choice between following Ray or Laeticia as your main character, with a handful of instances where they split up and you only see what happens with the side you picked. You’ll be able to follow the overall story just fine either way, but there are some smaller moments that won’t make much sense without
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