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Star Ocean: The Divine Force |OT| Encounters in Space

Roxkis_ii

Banned
aagh .. this game has some real infuriating QoL things that should not happen in a game from 2022.

Every time there is a cut-scene or I go to town and the party disbands .. when I go to the field again, all accessories from all party members barring the main character get removed.

This is the kind of thing QA should have notified ..
Yo, I thought I was going crazy!! I completely agree, super annoying bug.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yo, I thought I was going crazy!! I completely agree, super annoying bug.

Yeah. I get it, this game was developed mostly in the heyday of the pandemic lockdowns. But it's doing a lot of ass backward things that make it less fun to play.
 

Metnut

Member
I have the PS5 disc version and I’m having a real hard time getting the game to start. When I attempt to start it, it goes to the title screen but freezes. I tried reinstalling the game and had the same issue. I did get it to load one time after leaving at the screen for like 25 minutes.

Anyone else have this issue and any ideas how to help? First time I’ve ever had a game that I can’t even play.

I got it to work. Seems like i need to wait 10-15 minutes to load the game each time I boot it. Annoying but not the end of the world since I just suspend/resume 90% of the time.

Does anyone know if there’s a storyline reason (explained either in this game, or somewhere else in the series) as to why the characters from different planets are able to understand each other? Seems a bit odd that a character from space would be able to understand the language of a character from an isolated undeveloped world.
 

WoJ

Member
I haven't played a star ocean game since 3, but this one looked intriguing. One of my biggest issues with the series (the games I played) was that they usually ended up being more like a medieval fantasy game than a sci-fi space game. How is this one in that department? Is it actually a space/sci fi RPG or does it end up being more fantasy/medieval?
 

Roxkis_ii

Banned
I got it to work. Seems like i need to wait 10-15 minutes to load the game each time I boot it. Annoying but not the end of the world since I just suspend/resume 90% of the time.

Does anyone know if there’s a storyline reason (explained either in this game, or somewhere else in the series) as to why the characters from different planets are able to understand each other? Seems a bit odd that a character from space would be able to understand the language of a character from an isolated undeveloped world.
That seems like an odd issue to have. Do you have your game installed or an ssd or just the regular drive?
 

howitis3

Member
I got it to work. Seems like i need to wait 10-15 minutes to load the game each time I boot it. Annoying but not the end of the world since I just suspend/resume 90% of the time.

Does anyone know if there’s a storyline reason (explained either in this game, or somewhere else in the series) as to why the characters from different planets are able to understand each other? Seems a bit odd that a character from space would be able to understand the language of a character from an isolated undeveloped world.
You learn in part 3 that all the games take place inside a video game.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Finished.

I'm left very underwhelmed by this game. The combat was fun but everything else about the game was thoroughly mediocre.

Low production values, only one planet for a game called STAR OCEAN .. and technically very incompetent.

Hell, even the combat is very easy to cheese.

5/10
 

Labadal

Member
Finished.

I'm left very underwhelmed by this game. The combat was fun but everything else about the game was thoroughly mediocre.

Low production values, only one planet for a game called STAR OCEAN .. and technically very incompetent.

Hell, even the combat is very easy to cheese.

5/10
I suspected this could be the case. They said in an interview that it was developed on a minimal budget, and they're not even sure if they'll be around much longer.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Update 1.03 coming 12/8:

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Finished.

I'm left very underwhelmed by this game. The combat was fun but everything else about the game was thoroughly mediocre.

Low production values, only one planet for a game called STAR OCEAN .. and technically very incompetent.

Hell, even the combat is very easy to cheese.

5/10

I could not have summed up the game better myself because I 100% agree with that (PC version by the way).

The game looks dated outside of some nice cutscenes with lots of pop in and runs poorly on PC unless you compile the shaders multiple times (which can take 20-60 minutes on my machine) and this process is required every time I update the graphics drivers!!! The game does not even use DirectX 12 either as it uses DirectX 11 so quite why it requires the shaders to be pre-compiled (or else endure #StutterStruggle) is anyone's guess. All this would not have been so bad if the game itself was amazing but it isn't. The story is banal and the gameplay is very derivative and uninspired. It feels like just another generic JRPG really with little to make it stand out from the dozens of others I have played over the years. Even the characters are dull.

At least I know now that Star Ocean is not a franchise for me...
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Glad to see them continuing to improve the game- especially missing equipment on party members that leave and come back.
 
Well I get their choice with the accessory thing, in way way too many games I have screwed myself having items equipped on characters that leave the party, so the conservative choice is understandable. The problem is characters come and go a freaking ton in this, and there is no way to quickly re-equip what they had. (And the menu UI is awful to deal with)

It also never happened to me for normal PA party breaks, only when they actually left the party.
 

anthony2690

Member
Got my rental delivered today, started in prioritize performance mode and pleasantly surprised how silky smooth it is. The facial animations leave a lot to be desired tho, this is some very late gen PS3 quality JRPG running at a higher resolution/frame rate.

I think we played very very different games.

Oh boy, Star Ocean would constantly slow down or drop frames, VRR was not saving this game for me, it ran like 💩
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I think we played very very different games.

Oh boy, Star Ocean would constantly slow down or drop frames, VRR was not saving this game for me, it ran like 💩

Yeah I made that post in the first zone, the later game, especially there is one town you visit, which looks incredibly barren, but the frame rate is almost constantly tanking there.
 
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anthony2690

Member
Yeah I made that post in the first zone, the later game, especially there is one town you visit, which looks incredibly barren, but the frame rate is almost constantly tanking there.
& Oh god the pop in, it makes sonic frontiers look quite a few generations ahead in that regard. 👀

You literally rotate your camera and some dude pops in a second or two later right next to you 😂
 

Doom85

Member
So as a total newbie to the series, I’ve been playing this one over the last month or so.

My thoughts:

- the first half of this game is really well paced. Lots to explore, new places to go, it was great. Unfortunately the second half suffers somewhat. The plan to stop the wedding, as well as when the gang initially go up into space finally, is littered with tons of “go to this spot, cutscene, go to this spot, cutscene, go to this spot, you get the gist” with few battles to be seen. Thankfully once you get to the Scorpium world things do get back on track. And I get that Tri Ace had been doing roughly lately, so I’m not holding it against them that the game had to take a few cost saving measures like this, though according to gamefaqs seems they’re hiring recently so hopefully that indicates this game did well for them.

-the cast is pretty likable. Nobody really stands out as exceptional, but nobody got on my nerves, and they had pretty good chemistry together. Even J.J., who joins way late, managed to fit in nicely

-the conflict on Laeticia’s planet is pretty interesting between the nations and such. When they go to space, the concept of Scorpium is cool, though I did find the final villain kind of not that interesting.

-battles are fun, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spam the same two moves and did just fine. Honestly, most of the game is pretty easy once you get both self-healing passive skills on all your party and max the skill levels. Only really tough fight is against
Remmington
which is funny as he’s not even the main villain.

-music was fine, nothing really stood out, but it got the job done. That opening video, though, now that’s a banger.




Overall, I had a pretty good time. I may check out some other SO entries in the future. Not sure on the general reception towards 1 and 2, but I know 3 is really well liked, 4 is a bit divisive but is generally liked, and 5 is considered meh by most.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
I started up a new game last night since I never did a second playthrough with the other main character and I wanted to recruit and try out JJ this time. I had forgotten about the shader stutter and crashes though. Not even 2 hours in I got my first crash to desktop. It's disappointing that they still haven't fixed it after all this time but I guess it's just a quirk of their engine at this point.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I started up a new game last night since I never did a second playthrough with the other main character and I wanted to recruit and try out JJ this time. I had forgotten about the shader stutter and crashes though. Not even 2 hours in I got my first crash to desktop. It's disappointing that they still haven't fixed it after all this time but I guess it's just a quirk of their engine at this point.

Did you force it to precompile shaders? This fixed the issue for me. You have to redo this any time you install a new graphics driver.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member

Did you force it to precompile shaders? This fixed the issue for me. You have to redo this any time you install a new graphics driver.
When I first launched it then it did a long mandatory shader compile. The stutter isn't really that bad but it's mainly the crashing that annoys me.
 

Zuzu

Member
I finished this game a few days ago. I give it a 5 or 6/10. The combat was decent but the presentation and production quality is very lacking and makes the story and characters less interesting than they could have been. The story was fine but the main villain was boring. The characters were fine but I didn’t love any of them or find any of them very interesting.

This might be controversial but unless they pump a lot more money into this series then I think the next one (if there is a next one) should abandon full 3D and adopt the 2D/HD graphics of Star Ocean 2R and Octopath Traveller. By doing that the low production values won’t be as stark and will allow the developers to focus on writing a good story and script and make a world with a nice graphical artstyle (Star Ocean’s graphics are fine but the world and characters look quite ‘fake’ and plastic-like). In a world with cinematic action rpgs like Final Fantasy 7R & Final Fantasy 16 the low production values and basically non-existent cinematic direction of Star Ocean doesn’t cut it. The story and characters become boring when it’s just 3D models standing in a line yapping at each other with mouths that move up and down like ventriloquist dolls. 2D/HD would remove this jarring and unappealing aspect of the game and maybe even lower the cost of making it.
 
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Celcius

°Temp. member
Started back on the 2nd playthrough today (I had given up earlier due to the crashes). Today alone I've had AT LEAST 3 crashes. It's a shame that they still haven't fixed this.
This time around I'm playing as Ray so I'm really looking forward to finally getting JJ in my party...

edit: I forgot to post an update. I did indeed get JJ in my party and beat the game again.
 
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I bought this near launch, played for a few hours and quit. It was “okay”, but I didn’t really get the combat. I actually thought I had sold off my copy, but I found it in my closet.

Well, playing through Ys VIII a few months ago really got the action JRPG juices flowing. It was a great primer into this genre. I’m currently playing Tales of Arise, but plan on making this the next game on the list. Both games have brain dead party AI that is KO’d constantly, so I guess I have come to accept that.

I remember playing as the man in the demo, but the woman in the full game. I think I’ll go back to the man this time.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I am on the verge of beating the game. Its better than V for sure, but its sadly still not as good as I hoped.

It starts promising, I liked the early areas and villages. You are traveling this underdeveloped planet as per Star Ocean games, and it seems its a rather okay if not a bit unremarkable effort. Gameplay is okay, not great, but it works. But the game falls apart after the halfway point. At some points even approaching V in quality. The game suddenly funnels you to constantly boring cutscenes and dialogues with not much gameplay inbetween. And what there is in terms of set pieces is very badly done, take for example the execution scene, there is a dialogue by a madman but there are no spectators. Meanwhile the party tries to sneak in and discuss how to interfere.. but all I see is about 3 soldiers on the plaza. It looks barren and cheap. There are more scenes like this. The game becomes boring in general and its clear it used all its ammo by then, the gameplay doesn't evolve further too and apparently I have all the skills already.

The story takes another typical Star Ocean nosedive as well. I didn't care for the Scorpium at all, and the bad guys constantly running away after being beaten sort of becomes a meme.

The menus are awful and the text is small. The crafting is awful too. Its probably the most stupid crafting in the franchise. The crafting comes down to maxing out Alchemy and just RNG the highest level stones you can buy to get a better one until you get the top tier. This involves either rebuying countless stones, or save scumming it to hell because the chance you get what you want is always very low. Its completely RNG. On the other hand it seems you can break this game extremely quick if you want to. You just need the cash. But breaking the game is part of the SO charm, however I prefered the systems in 2, 3 etc.

Ofcourse SO2 remake kills this one. But its not a terrible game. Divine Force is I guess as good as it could be, budget wise. And if it did well, then perhaps we might get a better SO7 because all in all Divine Force is a step up from SO V. I won't say I like it more than Last Hope. As terrible as the cast and dialogue in that game were, it at least felt like a grand adventure and I loved the combat.
 
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