Review

1960’s Japanese Dubbed Star Trek Adventure

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix. It is the sixth major instalment in the Star Ocean series and was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 27.

First, I will state that I am not too familiar with the Star Ocean series. I played one way back on the PSP. As the sixth major instalment, I was concerned that I might need to know about the previous games. I can safely say you do not. Starting the game, you choose between two characters, Raymond Lawrence, the captain of the ship Ydas and Laeticia Aucerius; she is the crown princess of the Kingdom of Aucerius. This is the first time in the series that it features dual protagonists.

I chose to be Raymond Lawrence, whose character design got spoiled to me by a fellow member of staff who said he looked like Garth from Wayne’s World. The game starts with a lengthy cut scene in space regarding the spaceship you are on coming into contact with another spaceship which is unresponsive but in battle stance. A battle ensues with a female voice-over talking about humanity’s desire to vogue into space and discover. It felt like it was out of place, but it was a JRPG, after all. That cut scene ends, and then you are introduced to your character Raymond and his fellow crew members. This sparks my first negative DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME WITH ENGLISH VOICE ACTING. To say that it is laughable is an understatement. If you read my heading, you will now understand what I am on about. The dubbing feels like those old karate movies I used to watch just because I loved Bruce Lee. Just turn on Japanese voice acting and English subtitles, and thank me later.

The character designs are what we come to expect from JRPGs. 3D anime models, but another problem I had was if I were told this was from the early PS4 era, I wouldn’t know the difference. I have been negative so far, but the game shines when you finally crash-land on an unknown planet. The graphics on the world design look impressive. I felt like I was on a planet ready to explore. The movement is fluid and smooth; a jump button helps traverse the map and jump to hidden areas. While getting used to the controls, you come across your first enemy. A giant frog, and at this point, you are introduced to the other protagonist Laeticia Aucerius and her companion Albaird Bergholm. They throw you a sword, and now we get a tutorial on the battle system. It is reminiscent of Final Fantasy 15 battle system in which you control one character at a time while your other party members do their own thing. It is action-orientated and fast-paced.

Think of a hack-and-slash game with combos and skills, but there is an energy bar called action points. When the action points are depleted, you must wait until it is refilled. A standard attack costs 1 AP (Action Point). After a few attacks, you will do a combo attack, a more potent, damage-dealing attack on an enemy. However, your AP will decrease rapidly if you press the button willingly. It feels perfectly balanced, and the transition from engaging in a battle and finishing the fight is smooth. All the text-like items collected and experience points are all shown in real time unless ending a fight that triggers a cutscene, and even then, it’s very smooth. I have done much better explaining the battle system than the tutorial did. Before I knew it, the battle was over. It was that quick, triggering a cutscene while you’re still trying to process it.

As you progress throughout the game, you will unlock a special ability called D.U.M.A. It is a robot that is very handy in and out of battle. In battle, it allows you to dash towards the enemies, and if you plan your attacks correctly, you can flank them. If you flank an enemy foe or surprise them, you will do extra damage or stun them known as a blindside attack. D.U.M.A. also acts as a shield which benefits the entire party. Each character has unique skills when attached to D.U.M.A., which operates a little like limit breaks with its separate power bar. Outside of battle, D.U.M.A. helps traverse the map very easily.

I am keeping on the subject of exploring the maps and the open worlds. I played the game in the Quality mode, which prioritizes the picture quality, rather than the Performance mode, which prioritizes FPS (frames per second). The world design looks excellent, especially the backgrounds. Some places got more love and care than others. The flora designs, grass, and some textures look outdated, though, as previously stated, if I were told this was an early PS4 game, I would believe them. Turning on HDR on my TV made the game look worse. I don’t think this game was genuinely made for the HDR to be turned on. The game looks off and very dark. While exploring the maps, they were not very dense. It felt more like enemies were just placed in some locations to try and fill it out rather than exploring a living, breathing world.