Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the sixth main entry in the Star Ocean series of Action Eastern RPGs. The game was released worldwide on October 27, 2022, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
The story is set in S.D. 583, 46 years after the previous game. Raymond is a captain of a merchant ship Ydas, originating from a nonfederated planet Verguld. One day, while carrying out a mundane transport mission, his ship is attacked by a Federation battleship Astoria, under the command of the famous Kenny family. Raymond orders his crew to abandon ship, but his escape pod is hit by a wave of mysterious energy from the surface of a primitive planet Aster IV. He manages to land, but soon finds himself separated from his crew. He is found by Princess Laeticia of the Kingdom of Aucerius, who offers to help search for his crew in exchange for his aid in saving her Kingdom from the Vey'l Empire.
The game was announced on October 27, 2021, at Sony's State of Play livestream conference. The official Western site can be found here
, and Japanese site - here. Trailers: Reveal, #1, #2, #3, TGS, #4, #5.
This game provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: We have the following party members: Raymond and Elena (who have commonplace names), Laeticia (unusual spelling of Leticia, an actual name, though rare amongst English-speakers) and Albaird (a straight-up fantasy name).
- Always Chaotic Evil: Completely averted. Every species found is capable of living in peace with each other - the Scorpium turns out to be a peaceful civilization with a nasty Renegade Splinter Faction.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Several examples for humanoid races. Party member Malkya (and her tribe in general) has slightly bluish skin, while the Vyrians all have light-grey skin.
- Another Side, Another Story: The player can choose to follow either Raymond's or Laeticia's story, a design choice that returns from The Second Story. The former puts the sci-fi part of the story in the spotlight, while the latter emphasizes its fantasy elements.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Back in full force. Everyone not in the main four-person party are "reserve", allowing less than a half of the party to fight.
- Assimilation Plot: The Centralist Scorpium strive to integrate all life in the universe into its collective, ruled by the Sovereign. This idea directly clashes with the ideology of the mainline Scorpium, who, while trying to integrate as much people as possible, will only integrate volunteers, do not suppress their will, and are outright disgusted by the idea of forced integration.
- Bird-Poop Gag: Deconstructed when the party arrives in the port of Rythal. While some fun is had with one of the gulls nailing Midas, Elena ends up reminding everyone that animal feces are a disease vector. The fact that the disease in question is artificially created is beside the point.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Trathen race is a notable departure from the Human Aliens favored in the setting. In addition to being a Mage Species and their Rubber Man capabilities, they have an organ called an osseus core that allows them to regenerate their own organs so they can donate them to others or even engage in asexual reproduction. Despite that, they are also capable of sexual reproduction and can choose their own sex at will.
- Call-Back: Remington namedrops Ronyx J. Kenny and Claude C. Kenny as examples of cases when breaking the UP3 was a good thing. And he wants to do the same. The person he's saying this to is Ronyx and Claude's direct descendent, who is outraged at the comparison.
- Continuity Nod:
- Es'owa, an in-universe board game, features pieces based on characters from previous games in the series. This includes characters from Till the End of Time, events of which are yet to happen.
- In the second bonus dungeon, Ultima Thule, the party, save the main character, is "possessed" by the tower's magic, and act like characters from previous games. For example, Nina copies Lymle, and Marielle channels Pericci.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Used in an unusual fashion. A couple of late-game bosses will shoot you down if you try to VA Charge on them, effectively countering the move and preventing you from ever Blindsiding them.
- Controllable Helplessness: Around the midpoint of Laeticia's route, she goes to Empire, pretending to agree to marry prince Ger'rard in order to buy some time. You can freely explore the location, and even use D.U.M.A., but can't leave the place. For the whole sequence there's literally nothing to do beyond talking with marked NPCs and returning to the bed to progress the story. The game hammers in the helplessness by counting days spent there, and making you do a bare minimum of actions on every one of them.
- The Coup: Around the midpoint of her route, Laeticia returns to the capital, and learns about an insurrection orchestrated by duke Lombert and Neyan, who both turn out to be spies for the Empire. Thanks to Empire's connections with Vyrians, they have the means to counteract both D.U.M.A. and Elena, and successfully capture the party and the king.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: At one point in the journey, the party arrives in a previously bustling port town to find it all but deserted. The characters arrive at the infirmary to figure out there has been an outbreak of some disease that has come to the port town by ship, and one character, who is immune to the disease by virtue of... well, not being human, strongly recommends that the others get the hell away from the sick patients at the infirmary immediately - and wear face masks while in town as an extra measure. This parallels the COVID-19 Pandemic, which this game was developed during.
- Equipment Spoiler: It's perfectly possible to create a piece of equipment that can't be used by anyone in your party, and yet is labeled as weapon by the game. Of course, it's not much of a spoiler, since all party members are shown on the box art in the first place.
- Fight Woosh: A notable aversion. As opposed to most Eastern RPGs in general, and the series itself up until Integrity and Faithlessness, all combat in the game takes place where it started. In non-scripted battles it's possible to break away from enemies just by running away from them far enough.
- Flash Step: Blindside, a mechanic that returns from The Last Hope, is used this way. A character can use D.U.M.A. to charge at the enemies, and change directions at the last moment so fast, the enemies lose sight of them. Blindsided foes are immobilized for a short time, opening themselves for attack.
- Floating Continent: Aster IV in general features a large number of floating islands, ranging from small shards to enormous rocks. Some of them are chained down to the ground, implying that they are used by people to some degree. One such island, seen in background, has a whole fortress built on it.
- Flower from the Mountaintop: In keeping with the series' tradition, that started back in Fantastic Space Odyssey, the party goes to find a rare herb that grows only on one specific mountain, to use it as an ingredient for a medicine. It turns out that it was specifically destroyed by the same group that spreads The Plague, with only one patch being preserved for research. Luckily, it turns out to be enough.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Played with. Playable characters include Raymond, Albaird, Midas, Theo and J.J. for men, and Laeticia, Nina, Elena, Malkya and Marielle for women; with equal number of both genders. However, Theo and J.J. are Mutually Exclusive, leaving the party dominated by women on both routes.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Raymond uses a two-handed BFS, while Laeticia fights with dual blades. Both of them can be chosen as the protagonist.
- Horned Humanoid: The Vyrians have large, bull-like horns on their heads.
- Human Aliens: Verguldians and Asterians are completely the same humans as ones from Earth, despite not sharing any actual ancestry. But then again, the series has a habit of outright calling species such as Expellians, Velbaysian, Lemurisians, or Faykreedians "humans", and specifying Earth humans as "Earthlings".
- Jet Pack: The party acquires a weird ball-shaped device called D.U.M.A., that functions as an even more hi-tech version of this. It attaches to character's back and allows them to fly. The player can traverse the world this way, and even use it in combat.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Some enemies have eyes all over them or, conversely, are blind to begin with. This makes it impossible to Blindside them.
- Long-Lived: The Trathen live much longer than humans.
- Mage Species: The Trathen can use Symbology/Semiomancy without Power Tattoos.
- Mini-Game: The game has Es'owa, a board game, played with pieces based on heroes of previous Star Ocean games. Players alternately place their pieces on the board, and damage the opponent's life meter with their pieces' combined attack value. Pieces surrounded by the opponent are removed from the board. Each piece has a special ability, such as wizards strengthening surrounding pieces or assassins removing a random adjacent enemy piece. Playing pieces can be equipped as accessories by the party.
- Multiple Endings: The game has two endings, dependent on whether Raymond or Laeticia is chosen as the main protagonist. There are also sixteen "Character Ending" scenes, all of which are dependent on both who your main protagonist is and also which of the eight other party members they have the highest Relationship Values with.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: J.J. can be recruited only if Raymond is chosen as the main protagonist, while Theo permanently joins the party only if Laeticia leads the party.
- Optional Party Member: J.J. and Theo require some legwork to be recruited permanently. J.J. asks you to assist with repairs in Parrapoeiam after the Centralist attack, and Theo has to be broken out of jail, as he is under arrest for his participation in The Coup.
- The Plague: The Helgar's disease is a very contagious and highly lethal illness, that strikes the Kingdom of Aucerius. It's said to eventually drain body fluids from one's body, causing it to crumble like ash. Nina aspires to invent a cure for it. Later it's revealed that the disease is being intentionally spread by a third party, which is why its infestation method seems to be different each time.
- Real-Time with Pause: "Stop Mode" halts the action, and allows the player to issue orders and change targets.
- Rubber Man: The Trathen tribe are extremely flexible and can stretch much farther than other races.
- Sex Shifter: Members of the Trathen tribe can change their sex at will.
- Shining City: Acendros and Paladurnia are medieval and sci-fi versions of this, respectively. Both are enormous, sprawling cities, full of tall towers and spires, that the player can traverse with the help of D.U.M.A..
- Subsystem Damage: Certain bosses and tough Mooks have destructible body parts, injuring which can stun the enemy, turn off some of their attacks, or net the player an item. Sometimes, it's necessary to use D.U.M.A. to access these weak points.
- Superboss: Akin to the previous Star Ocean games, both the Ethereal Queen and Gabriel Celeste can be fought in a post-game dungeon.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Hand Waved for D.U.M.A., which is said to resemble semiomancer's magic orb. The fact that it's clearly mechanical and enables the party to fly seemingly goes over people's heads.
- Urban Warfare: The party fights on the streets of a city multiple times:
- In Baldaar, after Empire attacks he citadel.
- In Acendros, during The Coup started by Imperial spies.
- In Parrapoeiam after the Scorpium Centralists invade it.
- In Paladurnia on Verguld, after the Federation's Centralist faction invades the planet.
