Topic: Star Ocean: The Divine Force

I know right now everyone else is probably busy with GoW: Ragnarok, but I've been playing this the past few weeks and having a fun time.

Definitely a bit of a "B Game" (though I love living in an era where even a game such as this can still manage to impress graphically or in scale, at least at times) that's a little rough around the edges, but it's pure JRPG comfort food.

I love that, like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it wears it's love for the quirkier aspects of the genre on it's sleeve too. Midas looks like he stepped right out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Elana's design would be right at home next to Pyra & Mythra in XC2 (maybe Nina's too), & one of the game's collectables seems to be vibrantly colored little bunnies that run around the overworld (one per area), though I'm not sure what to do with these yet. I also really like the board game mini game, which is worth playing as the pieces that you win (based on characters from past games) double as accessories that can be equipped by your party, & some seem to have very good effects.

I'm at the capital city now (last main boss I fought was a big blue bird), & am getting ready to leave for my next destination.

@HallowMoonshadow, yeah, it's my first in the series. I like the sci-fi twist to it with some party members being from a more technologically advanced civilization marooned on a typical medieval fantasy world. Would have liked to have seen more blatant sci-fi locations, but I'm not even halfway through yet so that could change.

Just finished this up today.

It's not GOTY material or anything, but it's nice JRPG comfort food.

Notable Pros:

• I felt the sort of Star Trek-ish world building gave it a unique feel in comparison to it's contemporaries.
• flying around with "D.U.M.A." made exploration & combat really fun.
• The board game mini-game, E'sowa, is actually really fun (the pieces are based on characters from past games too, so there's a bit of that kinda fan service for established series fans too), and it's worth it to play as the pieces you earn double as accessories you can equip to your party members, some of which have really useful effects.
• Very unrepentantly Japanese/embraces the sillier elements of the genre. It's too bad this'll likely go under the radar as it kinda runs counter to those who fear Japanese games are being westernized too much (for example, on the topic of "fan service", Elana & Marielle have the most active "jiggle physics" I've seen in a big-ish JRPG since certain Blades in XC2).

Notable Cons:

• It's apparently not optimized very well. TBH I played it on "fidelity mode" so it was probably capped at 30 FPS or some such in order to push the graphics and I didn't have many issues, however there were times it obviously fell below that (luckily they were usually cut scenes for some reason, so it really had no impact on gameplay). Apparently "performance mode" is worse, as while it targets 60 FPS, it has a harder time hitting it consistently than it does hitting 30 FPS in "fidelity mode". Of course last gen versions apparently perform even worse & the PC release isn't well optimized either.
• I can't help but feel it's lowish budget limited it's scope. It still feels like a complete game (took me between 30-40 hours to complete & I didn't do all side quests), but without getting into spoilers, it feels like there could have been more to later game areas compared to the environment(s) you're in for the first half of the game.
• Any time someone leaves the party all their equipment is removed and re-added to your inventory. This would normally a good thing (so you don't lose anything good), but the game has a bad habit (particularly in the early hours) of officially removing characters from your party for really small amounts of time (like for 5 or 10 minute periods), so you constantly have to refit them out. It becomes less prevalent as the game goes on though.