STAR OCEAN THE DIVINE FORCE

[h1]Story (7/10)[/h1] It's good. Some references to older games are there. You can choose between two main charaacters and by doing so, there are minor differences. The group splits up a few times where you experience the story with the main character you choose at the beginning. I do not like this gimmick. [h1]Graphics (6/10)[/h1] Battle animations look flashy. Environment (outside of citys) look a bit bland and looks out of focus (in the sense of not sharp). It feels like there are only a few character animations which are used over and over again. Not bad per se, but noticable. [h1]Gameplay (5/10)[/h1] Fun action-driven battle. Crafting etc. islocked behind a certain character, which I somehow missed. Hence, I didn't have access to that feature until late game. Crafting etc. is too RNG-dependent. Mini-game is fun. Exploring is meh. [h1]Sound (7/10)[/h1] Music is better than I expected to be honest. Sound Effects remind me of earlier installments. [h1]Performance/Configuration/Settings (5/10)[/h1] First start up took ~20 minutes, because shaders need to be pre-compiled first. After that subsequent start ups doesn't need to to do it again. However, if graphics card drivers are updated, then you need to it again. Couple of crashes. The last one was bitter, because I nearly beat a post-game boss when the game crashed. I got salty and I de-installed the game afterwards. [h1]Verdict[/h1] Mixed rating with a lean to a positive one.

it is a gem in the rough. very rough though indeed. horrible optimization and lots of freezing (which alone should warrant a permanent price drop). the overarching story however was surprisingly good and complex. sadly this is only shown in the last 1,5 chapters. it tackles themes such as evolution, consciousness, ai consciousness, the consequences of these things and much more which i sadly can't state since it would spoil it. it is very obvious the development was rushed and underfunded. combat is fun, the narrations are excellent, some side characters could have just been scrapped imo. healers are not necessary just max out your 2 auto recovery skills and use malkya for difficult fights.

enjoy playing