Note: This review was written October 6, 2016.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (Star Ocean 5) release was a welcome surprise. Developer tri-Ace was just bought by mobile company Nepro Japan and many were certain that would mean a nearly definite removal from the console market. That did not happen though, and tri-Ace showed us a promising new Star Ocean game to reach the new generation consoles as well as past generation ones.

Unfortunately, Star Ocean 5 is not everything we wanted. It does offer a solid gameplay and can satisfy the franchise fans with its signature elements and technical quality, but it also suffers a lot with the shackles of the past decade, here presented by some dubious, clumsy, and annoying design choices.

Prequel, Sequel, Whatever

Star Ocean 3 was the end, the final chapter of a grand space saga involving dozens of races, undeveloped planets, doomsday, virtual reality, and stellar combat. Some people were angry, other blown away by the unexpected twist, but what it matters from that episode was its somewhat conclusive epic tale. Star Ocean 4 came to tell us the very beginning of the world presented in the previous three games, narrating events about how humanity went to space and met alien races and faced their first intergalactic challenges.

So, where the hell Star Ocean 5 sits? If we have the beginning, the end, and two chapters somewhere in the middle, how can a new game make a true contribution to the franchise as a whole? Well… it simply doesn’t. Star Ocean 5 narrates the events of an undeveloped planet used as a laboratory ground by anti-federation extremists. Fidel, the protagonist, unknowningly leads his party amidst this confrontation, searching for the truth behind the mysterious Relia while learning about the involvement of the Galactic Federation and the Kronos faction in this world. In resume, it tells a random story of a random guy in a random planet in a random situation. It doesn’t work to give us additional information about the setting because it never touches the big names of the Federation, it doesn’t refer to other games aside from one or two very subtle moments, and the resolution of this issue between Federation and Kronos does nothing to develop the setting started way back by the first Star Ocean.

The plot progression is also absurdly rigid and timid. It lacks twists and, more importantly, the characters have little to no effect on it. Remember how Edge made terrible decisions in Star Ocean 4 that led to problems after problems? Well, forget that here. Fidel’s actions will rarely interfere with a plot that seems written in stone from the very start. This leads not only a somewhat boring adventure, but also to a group of heroes who can never explore their own charisma and personalities.

Graphic and Visual Experience

Star Ocean 5 is a pretty game. The characters are awesome, very detailed, with exquisite designs such as Fiore’s yes-no swimsuit and gothic wizard style and traditional and detailed traveling clothes from Anne and Emmerson. They are sharply modeled, expressive, and have a personal style that can leave its mark and give the game a good identity amidst the horde of similar-looking JRPGs and animes.

Scenario is also decent, if not a bit lacking for the new console generation. The vast landscapes are quite simple, the ships are dungeon-shaped more for the sake of looking like an RPG than looking like a ship, and the cities are small but decently packed to feel alive. The special effects, lightning, and movement are beautiful and fluid, making combat still the king-aspect of the franchise yet also giving a few scenes a bit more of quality.

Sound-wise there is a vast improvement over the last Star Ocean. Voice-acting is finally decent. Miki’s english voice-actor, for example, managed to turn her character into one of the most funny and natural of the bunch while the japanese voice-actor makes her feel the most annoying and stereotypical of all. Join that a group of decent actors doing a good job and we finally have a non-Final Fantasy JRPG with top-quality english voice-acting. Music-wise there is little say because Star Ocean uses the same soundtrack and similar themes since the very first game. It does the job though.

This could all lead to an awesome JRPG. We have an boring tale, yes, but the cast is charming even if underused, the graphical experience has its style, and the sound manages to achieve a higher quality. Yet…

Remember the 90’s games? tri-Ace remembers, and not in a good way.

I’ll try to list the nonsensical design choices in this game.

Running with circle button. Yes. Instead of using shoulder buttons, which are far more comfortable pressing for dozens of hours, the game opts for the circle button. Be prepared to keep it pressed for dozens of hours. Seriously, something as basic as this is unacceptable these days. Even the low-budged Trails of Cold Steel makes use of shoulder buttons for this funcionality.

No skippable ANYTHING. Yup. You got a game over and need to face the boss again? Enjoy the scenes once more. Replaying the game on another difficulty? No skipping my friend, watch these scenes again. Want to see all endings? Let’s take 30 minutes of scenes and credits while you go cook or watch TV. You can’t skip anything in this game. Nothing. Nada.

Random-based craft System. Star Ocean 5’s synthesis is the dumbest piece of sh*t ever developed in recent years. You gather up to six items, merge them and… bang! Random result! Want that piece of armor you can get by using a rare material? Well, you get a 10% chance… or you can just save and reload. Yup. Save and reload. You will be doing that A LOT if you wish to use the synthesis in this game. Damn. If a game forces you to reload until you get it, why not make it a 100% chance anyway? It just makes you waste time and patience.

Best equipment only AFTER the Ethereal Queen. Well… remember previous Star Ocean games where you crafted super-powerful ultimate gear in order to get ready to face Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen? Remember crafting those weapons with max attack, preparing tri-Emblems and so on? Remember? Well, you won’t be doing that here. Basically because you can only start crafting similar pieces of ultimate equipment AFTER you’ve already killed Ethereal Queen thrice. When you finally craft the ultimate equipment your only challenge in the game is… I don’t know, time-attacking Ethereal Queen? Damn. That’s a waste of a crafting system if I can tell you

Fidel. Only Fidel. You got seven party members here. They all look quite nice, eh? It would be a pity if you could only control Fidel while exploring… Yeah, a pity. Star Ocean still lacks a simple option to change who you are controlling. Such a basic and simple thing to do, something many PS2 JRPGs already did and yet… here we are fifteen years later and Star Ocean still making you look at the boring protagonist without an option to change to Miki, Fiore, Emmerson, and the other people.

Combat Saves… However…

Well, fortunately, the combat system is the same old champ from previous entry. It is chaotic, entrancing, and does a remarkable job at being fun despite being exactly the same since the birth of the franchise. Seriously, it got some graphical change from Star Ocean 2 to Star Ocean 3, but since then the evolution of the combat system is zero. ZERO. It’s still fun, and that’s what matters, But when I think about how tri-Ace never ever tried to make a simple twist in the formula I can’t help but feel frustrated.

The role system occuring in the background, however, is a nice change. It works in a similar way as the gambits from Final Fantasy XII or tactics slots from Dragon Age: Origins, but with a less detailed functionality. You can tweak with it though, find some nice combos and even break the game if you like. If there is an oldschool element from this game that I support in keeping, it is certainly something like this. You see, today games are so rigidly balanced they can get boring and infuriating, never allowing you to truly enjoy the game as you prefer. This doesn’t happen here. If you want to breeze through enemies and become seemingly immortal, it just takes a bit a tweaking and understanding of the role mechanics and you are game. If you want a tough challenge, you can simply use the role system without much  care and you will find yourself a truly relentless combat system.

Final Score

Well, in the end Star Ocean 5 is a lesser kind of Star Ocean. It offers a negligible plot with characters that look interesting but are never deeply explored, yet it still has fuel to burn with its thrilling combat system, especially when accompanied by an interesting role system with a lot of experimentation to be done. It could be more though. High-budget JRPGs are as rare as diamonds these days, and seeing Star Ocean 5 taking a step back in production quality from its predecessor is a sad thing.

You should still give it a shot though. It is still a Star Ocean game at its heart.