The Star Ocean series is a bit hard to discuss for me. On one hand, I consider Star Ocean: The 2nd Story one of the very best JRPGs that can be played, even today. On the other, starting with the The Last Hope (some would say since the “Till the End of Time“), the series has gone down the ‘mythical’ cliff that ESPN’s Max Kellerman used to think Tom Brady was free falling off from a few years ago (sports fans will understand).
The problem for the Star Ocean series is that, unlike Brady, it did fall off a cliff and it hasn’t gotten back up to the top in almost two decades.
Tales of Arise Will Raise Hopes For Star Ocean: The Divine Force
Tales of Arise’s ignition of what seemed to be a stale series in “Tales” bodes well for Star Ocean: The Divine Force, at least on the surface.
It can be argued that there has never been a “bad” Tales game, it is just that there are too many entries, and most of them feel like recycled rehashes of one another. That’s not a bad thing if you love Tales’ particular brand of JRPG gaming.
Star Ocean is different, though. The second game seemed geared towards the ‘Hardcore’ crowd with a tremendously complex item crafting system, and many extracurricular activities, including a massive optional dungeon for the truly hardcore.
That game also had a good plot line, and its story took place across two fully realized planets with towns, dungeons, NPCs, and fully explorable “over worlds”. There hasn’t been larger Star Ocean since. The Last Hope (my least favorite) was a segmented short experience that didn’t make the second game any sort of justice.
Truth be told, I have lesser expectations for Star Ocean as a series, than I did for Tales, at least Tales was consistently ‘good’.
Tales of Arise arrived off the heels of Tales of Berseria which actually holds an 80% Metacritic rating. By contrast, Star Ocean: The Divine Force follows the widely accepted as worst Star Ocean game in history “Integrity and Faithlessness” which holds a ….get ready….58% critic score, which is awful.
To make matters more complicated (for Star Ocean) Berseria didn’t do too bad commercially with 2 million units sold, but the weirdly titled Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness only moved about 500,000 units (VGchartz).
Needless to say, a big turn around is needed for this series, and Square Enix’s track record with it hasn’t been good.
The Plot is Already Familiar?
At first glance, it might look like Star Ocean: The Divine Force is shamelessly copying Tales of Arise’s own plot line with its plot description:
For existing fans, the game brings back the popular dual protagonist system from STAR OCEAN: The Second Story and puts you in the shoes of two very different protagonists: Raymond and Laeticia.
Raymond is from an advanced civilization, and the captain of the space trading ship Ydas. Laeticia, meanwhile, is a princess-knight from a kingdom on an underdeveloped planet. When they meet, the fate of the galaxy will change forever. – Square Enix Blog
But this premise is actually taken (commendably by its own official blog’s admission) from Claude and Rena’s 22 year old premise. So, Star Ocean is really taking cues from (what I think is the best) Star Ocean, which is fair game.
By the way, the Tales series, for the most part, has sounded, and played much like the Star Ocean series as its development team shares the same composer, and members of the original Tales of Phantasia game (who left for Tri-Ace). So. the spiritual connection between franchises has been present from the very beginning.
Still, the premise, and the cringe worthy dialog of the trailer (see above) does not lend itself well towards the game’s aspirations as a revival for this series. The game’s character design is also very odd, and I can’t quite pin point why this is.

The designs are being handled by ‘Akiman’ (Street Fighter) who also handled the character design of the previous game (an ill omen?). While not much is known, I would assume that the game is utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, and it does look the part.
There is a new “flying” mechanic which is shown all over the trailer, and apparently this will have big implications in world traversal. Combat seems to follow the standard Star Ocean action fare, but given how Arise raised the stakes a bit in its own combat system, I will be curious to see what advancements The Divine Force can make to keep up with Namco’s flagship JRPG series.
There is a LOT of Negativity in My Reaction…..
But bear with me. These are Metacritic’s and Gameranking’s (where it applies) score trends for the series so far:
- Star Ocean:Â 93% (Gamerankings)
- Star Ocean: The 2nd Story: 80% (Metacritic)
- Star Ocean: Till’ the End of Time: 80% (Metacritic)
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope: 74% (Metacritic)
- Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness: 58% (Metacritic)
Clearly, I have a reason to be a skeptic, and given the cringe worthy (that dialog!) nature of the trailer I have even more of a reason to keep my expectations extremely low.
That said, I truly hope the game is a surprise, and it that it does justice to the first three games in the legendary series. At least, I assume Motoi Sakuraba will continue his excellent work (coming from Tales of Arise) here, and deliver an unforgettable musical score.
For now, I am actually more excited about Final Fantasy XVI, and (especially) Forspoken, than anything else going on at Squares Enix right now.
But to answer the original question: Can Star Ocean make a comeback? Well, Square Enix has the money and resources to do it…but I have to assume that a change of direction (and maybe even some of the key staff) is needed for the series to get back to where it was in the 1990s. Maybe divine forces will be at play here, and we will get the best Star Ocean entry since its 1990s golden run.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force will not be a PlayStation Exclusive
Contrary to some rumors, the game is slated for a Xbox One/Series release (as well as a PS4/PS5 one). Xbox and PC JRPG gamers will not be left out in the cold as a result of a ‘timed launch’ or exclusivity deal between SE and Sony.
No release date has yet been given, but 2022 sounds like a good bet.
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As a big Star Ocean fan myself, you summed up exactly how I feel about the franchise. We have good reason to worry and little of what was shown will alieviate the fear fans justifiably have. I’m hoping for the best, but with heavy doubts.