Review: Cut through layers of quality in STAR OCEAN: THE FORCE OF GODS

Fantasy? Science fiction? verbose RPG? Star Ocean as a series has never strayed from these core concepts and The Divine Force is no different. It’s an experience that pays off quite directly with the amount of time and attention you put into it.

What I mean by this is that some games require very little time to enjoy all aspects of them, like Mario Kart, Fall Guys and stuff like that. But on the other hand, there are games that require an incredible amount of investment to only scratch the surface of the depths of the game like Monster Hunter, Elden Ring and Destiny. Stars Ocean: The Divine Force can really seem pretty shallow and insignificant if you barely pay attention and just push buttons. But if you take the time to get to know the story, the characters and the depths of the combat systems, there’s a lot of good content beneath the surface.

The overall presentation of the game is passable at best. The animations of the characters, the textures of the areas and the quality of the voice acting are reminiscent of the very good PlayStation 3 games. The fact that this game was released this year by a well-known company and it seems that it blows my mind. Yes, graphics aren’t everything, but sometimes the game is almost unpleasant to look at because it’s graphically very sloppy. The lighting is muted, the sound quality is skippable, and many of the systems are really, really unintuitive and small. While that sounds like a lot of downsides, the character designs, great environments, and soundtrack are actually quite enjoyable. It’s really a shame that The Divine Force is so good in certain areas and so bad in others. It’s never unplayable, but neither is it a visual or audible treat.

The actual gameplay and combat is probably its best trait. The battles can feel hectic even though most of them are quite easy. I had to check to see if I was on normal mode and not easy mode once or twice during my play time because the enemies were so easy to demolish. However, some bosses and encounters were far more difficult than any group of enemies I’ve faced before, leaving me to rely on constant revives, or abandon battle and level up. Having to grind for levels is a pretty normal thing for JRPGs. It just fell out of place when the rest of my battles were a breeze and a ton of fun.

As for the actual combat, players can swap between other characters in the party, who have a wide variety of utility, combat, action, and weapon skills. This helps keep the game very fresh. But the real strategy comes in the character menus when players literally program their own fighting combos, stringing together various moves, actions, items, and other things to customize each character’s playstyle and pace. I could see a lot of time spent customizing and re-customizing the programmable characters and actions.

While this review definitely sounds much more negative, it more than saddens me that so many poor choices were made in the making of this game. I feel like we’ve come a long way technologically and mechanically from the gameplay to iron out a lot of these bumps. The game itself is not bad, but it does not give the player any joyful reason to play it. If you like JRPGs and want a deep combat system to sync your teeth with, this game can demand many hours well spent, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t ready to use the most mediocrity to enjoy it to the fullest.