Current Events > Is SO: The Divine Force worth $30?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For reference, I've only really liked the first two games. The 3rd I hated the storyline, and 4 and 5 were just absolutely trash that turned me off to the series as a whole. But how is The Divine Force? Is is worth a purchase if it's $30? How does it play, especially in comparison to the other games?

If you didnt like 4 and 5 you wont like this one.

Combat is all free form. The game has a heavy emphasis on exploration. You run like the flash and can fly around the map.

The game is also a waifu collector, so there is that.

I personally loved it. There is a lot to do and the characters are all pretty unique.

Just play the demo.

I personally really liked SO6. It's probably by second favorite in the series behind SO2, so $30 sounds like a steal to me. But I'm also a big fan of the rest of the series in general, so maybe take that with a grain of salt?

I think the characters are great, the writing is pretty good by JRPG standards (still carries that JRPG cringe at times), and the story is probably the best since SO3. Yeah, I know a lot of people hate the big plot twist at the end of SO3 (I didn't hate it), but most people still seem to think the rest of the story was pretty good. SO6 is definitely a JRPG, so the story is understandably anime-esque and brings along many of the tropes and clichs associated with that. But if you're OK with the story from the previous Star Ocean games and other JRPGs in general, this one is still comfortably within that same kind of range and tells a pretty good tale.

The environments and other designs looks good in my opinion, but the character models have a tendency to have diminished expressions or even lack any sort of real emotion in their faces (which is a complaint that I have carried through pretty much every 3D Star Ocean game so far). This can be a bit of a downer since the voice work is pretty decent and the character interactions are usually a lot of fun.

The combat system is a little bit of a departure from the previous entries in some ways, but it feels a lot better and less restrictive compared to SO5 and could probably be seen as a pretty natural evolution of many systems from SO4 and SO5. However, I found that the combat can be a little on the easy side. That being said, I do think the combat system is fairly smooth and well-refined at least, and it looks suitably flashy.

If you liked the OST from previous Star Ocean games, then you'll still like this one as well. I really love the OST in these games, so this one was no different.

My ratings:
Story - 8/10
Characters - 8/10
Visuals - 7/10
Combat - 7/10
Soundtrack - 9/10

Overall - 8/10