Star Ocean 5

[fearme504]

Re: Star Ocean 5

Awesome, I'm waiting to get it. I've never played the series but am interested anyway.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean 5

Some reviews:


Polygon - 5

I hate being so harsh on Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, because I love the series, and I’m excited by the potential for greatness within its conceits. For the first fourth of the game, I believed it might realize that potential. By its end, Integrity and Faithlessness feels like a black hole, its good ideas never able to escape the pull of an underwhelming, underdeveloped game.

Gamespot - 5

In the end, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness' payoff was not worth the time I put into it. The story feels bloated and empty, with no worthwhile emotional payoff in character development or narrative. Combat and its subsequent upgrade systems are genuinely fun, but the overall experience is held back from being great by issues elsewhere. As a fan of Japanese role-playing games, it's heartbreaking to not be in love with Star Ocean 5, but it holds too tightly onto outdated character tropes and concepts--like the unfair save point system--that make it feel dated and out of touch. If you came to this game seeking the epic sci-fi glory of the series' early years, this is not the Star Ocean you are looking for.

Game Informer - 5

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness makes too many missteps to forgive. Recycled content, excessive grinding, boring fetch quests, and bad save points are just some of its smaller shortcomings. What's more concerning is its inability to give you reason to care about the characters or the journey. In a generation where RPGs are pushing the boundaries with better storytelling and unique worlds, this just isn't going to cut it. It's sad to see a franchise that once captivated me continue to fall from grace.

Gamesradar - 2.5/5

Playing Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is like staring out into the infinite reaches of space and realizing it's all made out of cardboard, like some creator discovered they ran out of money and supplies while building the universe and decided to cut a few corners to get the job done. That's not to say the latest Star Ocean is bad, but its ambitions push up against its own limitations, and the result is a wholly average JPRG that feels like it could have been so much better had it received a little more love and attention.

[The JareBear]

Re: Star Ocean 5

I am recently falling back in love with RPGs, have had my eye on this. Never played a Star Ocean game before....

[fearme504]

Re: Star Ocean 5

Ouch on the reviews. I read one earlier that said about the same. Still thinking of picking it up though.// Jare me too!

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[bcruise]

Re: Star Ocean 5

Some reviews:


Polygon - 5



Gamespot - 5



Game Informer - 5



Gamesradar - 2.5/5

That's not entirely surprising - I don't know if a Star Ocean game has ever received critical acclaim. Didn't stop me from liking every game in the series though (even 4 which I know was something of a black sheep).

Reading those summaries...two of them ding it for grinding and fixed save points? As if saving anywhere is some kind of requirement for games now?

As usual I'll be more than happy to judge for myself.

[Flawless]

Re: Star Ocean 5

2 and 3 reviewed pretty well.

The criticisms western reviewers have with SO5 are the same ones I saw being said by players in Japan and those that imported it. The common sentiments seem to be, small and empty feeling world, limited variety in environments, recycled content like simple color swaps for enemies, static cutscenes and the times you have to sit through them again if you die because you can't skip them. The majority seem to like the combat, and say the story, characters, and voice acting is much better than SO4.

Despite its lukewarm reception, I liked SO4 too, mainly because of the fun battle system and the Bonus Board. Also, to me not every RPG needs to be some grand-epic journey filled with tons of content. Looking forward to impressions.

[bcruise]

Re: Star Ocean 5

Well, let's get this out of the way first. Not having played Episode Duscae or any other FF15 demo, this is the prettiest JRPG I've ever seen, full stop. Kind of goes without saying because of the rather small choice of these games on current-gen. Not so much just for the character art (which is good and really pops out at you), but the incredible backdrops on some of these areas:



And for the fact that it's running at a smooth 60 FPS while looking like this (save for some minor hiccups in the second town I ran across). If I panned that grasslands shot up a bit you'd see probably my only graphical gripe thus far - there is a limit to the draw distance and in an area as big as that particular one (think FFX Calm Lands size), you're going to hit it and see texture pop in - mostly the detailed grass.

That's a gameplay shot, and the detail is pretty much that level all the time. There's not a whole lot of distinction between cut scenes and normal gameplay - a lot of them so far (not all) just happen in real-time. I'm finding myself swiveling the camera around the party to center on whoever's talking. It works, and at least I can catch their animations.

Speaking of the camera...yes I see why people are griping about it, and no it doesn't bother me personally. That's for two reasons - one, I'm just not as sensitive to sudden camera movements at 60 FPS as some are, and 2, Clicking down R3 will center the camera right behind Fidel, no matter what direction you're facing. With R3 you can make it rotate much more gradually to where it's not too jarring if you can't feather the right stick for whatever reason. There is a sensitivity slider but I've seen people say it doesn't do enough.

I'm still working my way through learning the battle system, but as a veteran of the series it feels very familiar. Fidel's normal moves are basically a clone of Fayt's from SO3 (right down to the long-range upward sweep) so I picked up that part right away. One thing that seems different is that you can apparently cancel special attacks repeatedly as long as you've got the MP for it - I could make short work of just about anything in the first few areas by chaining a few battle skills together. I hope that's not something I'll be able to just lean on all throughout the game.

It seems like the AI-controlled party members operate on "Factors" which are attached to the different roles you can give each character (up to 4). One rather hilarious and obvious example of the is the "Scavenger" role, which increases the amount of money you receive after battle, at the cost of the character more or less ignoring their role and just trying to stay safe. I tried putting it on the healer once and while she did heal me and herself occasionally, she also more or less ignored me other times and almost got us both killed. Not such a good idea to use that with only two party members. When the "Healer" role is on though, she'll do her job and do it well. Just make sure you have MP recovery items on hand - all item usage is up to the player. This ain't Tales.

LOVE the seamless battle transitions. Into battle and back out to the field with no load times. Even if there is grinding necessary later, that's going to make it so much more easy to deal with.

I've done no extra grinding save for fighting everything I've run across normally and have had little to no difficulty with anything when I was playing seriously. I'm playing on Galaxy which is the "Normal" level and also the highest you can pick at first - I guarantee there's at least one and maybe 2 levels higher than that that will probably unlock once I beat the game.

Music is - well, it's Motoi Sakuraba so I don't think I need to say much more there.

Not much to comment on with the plot and characters thus far since I've only had 3 in the party at a given time - and they seem to drop in and out a lot. Was happy to see that Welch is still around and just as insane as ever.

So far at least, a few hours in, I'm loving this. I'm aware of the issues people are having with it, but most of this stuff just doesn't bother me in the least - and not just because this is a favorite series of mine.

Oh btw, Collectors edition is nice. Flashy steelbook case, 80-page artbook with stuff from the entire series (the primary reason I got it), some DLC bonuses like selectable battle music from the series and from Valkyrie Profile, and a few other goodies.

[bcruise]

Re: Star Ocean 5

I'm a little further in now and have a few more things to say.

I have noticed some framerate issues cropping up that are more severe than the minor one that I mentioned before. I say "issues" but what it really is is the rate dropping out of 60 fps while there's a lot of activity. One battle scene in particular seemed to be locked at 30 FPS. The thing is, the changes in between 60 and 30 FPS are drastic to the human eye (or mine, at least) and it gives off the impression that it looks choppy at times.

For the most part the game still moves at 60, which is quite an achievement with perhaps a maximum of SEVEN active party members (it was for a short time, currently I have six). Battles have been chaotic but fun. I've had few complaints with the AI's so far. There was one - I'll call it an "optional" boss fight - when the AI's would be unable to avoid a beam and just get melted, but I had plenty of recovery items on hand to deal with that problem. The game gives you more than enough money for the recovery items like Fresh Sage (revive) that you should be able to stock up when reaching a town and still have enough for new equipment as long as you're not running from battle all the time - at least that's how it's been for me so far.

I was starting to worry about the amount of backtracking as the game was starting to feel a bit like SO3 in that regard, but that worry disappeared when the "grander scale" of the game opened up (I won't spoil, but any SO fan should know what I'm talking about as it happens in all the games with this kind of setting). I hit a point about 8 hours in where, among other things - I get the ability to "fast travel" to some preset locations near areas I've already visited. There's also a "hub" of sorts with its own save point that I can access just by using a pause menu item - so, again, I don't get the "fixed save point" complaint unless people just blew through tutorials without reading what they could actually do. Well....that's probably EXACTLY what they did.

There are a lot of quests to undertake for extra gold, XP, and items - but by no means do you have to try to complete them all. In fact, until you reach the point I mentioned you'd probably be better off not worrying about any of them that you can't immediately complete with your items on hand.

I miss the old days of item creation not being a 100% constant or guaranteed thing, but that died out with SO4 and it doesn't look like it's coming back. You still won't know what you're making until you gather ingredients and make it, but after that you can make as many as you want as long as you have the ingredients and never fail.

Story is what I've come to expect from Star Ocean games. Doesn't feel like a rehash or anything, but there are definitely some very familiar plot elements here as they feature in all of the games.

Still enjoying. I'm taking this at a very deliberate pace so I expect this to last longer than it is for most people.

[fearme504]

Re: Star Ocean 5

I jumped into it last night. I had fun, I love these types of games art styles. I'm really getting into the jrpg games and I'm happy I bought this one...although I need a new controller...sometimes I'll be running and my character just stops but that's a controller issue not the game it's self

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[SEGA_LOYAL_FAN]

Re: Star Ocean 5

As much as i wanted this game initially, i'm going to skip and buy it when i see it for under $30. Thanks for the updated review bcruise . I just dont see the "jump" that i was hoping the game would have. I played and enjoyed SO1, 2, & 3 because the stories were well done. Based on a lot of good and bad reviews thats were everyone dislikes the most outside of the camera(not an issue to me).

[bcruise]

Re: Star Ocean 5

As much as i wanted this game initially, i'm going to skip and buy it when i see it for under $30. Thanks for the updated review bcruise . I just dont see the "jump" that i was hoping the game would have. I played and enjoyed SO1, 2, & 3 because the stories were well done. Based on a lot of good and bad reviews thats were everyone dislikes the most outside of the camera(not an issue to me).

I can see that, and I can see why it might be that way for some. Other than the graphics which I feel got a huge improvement from 4, people who expected tremendous leaps and changes were probably going to be disappointed regardless. Star Ocean doesn't try to re-invent itself every game like, say, Final Fantasy - it sticks to a familiar formula, just making gradual improvements as the better technology comes around (the seamless combat is an example of that progression). I think that's why there's only been one game of the series (at most) on a system - because they really would feel the same, even to me, if there were more than one.

Also, I don't want to sound disingenous so I do want to point out something about that "hub" I was talking about. Plotline dictates that you lose that ability very soon after getting it - it's very temporary. That said, I doubt that it's gone completely and I'm sure it'll be an option again later.

Battles are getting a bit tougher around the 10-11 hour mark.