• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Star Ocean 5 : Integrity and Faithlessness - Import Impressions

Rpgmonkey

Member
A little over 1:30 in and I'm liking it so far. While the look of it is closer to 3 and 4, the overall vibe of the game actually feels more like 1 and 2 to me.

I don't like that they seem to have designed the camera so it's always perpendicular to the ground you're on. Or least, they shouldn't have made it so sensitive to basically any slight change in elevation. I've gotten used to it but it's a little annoying.

I also wish they made the harder difficulties available from the beginning. So far Normal has been too easy and it undermines some of the fairly interesting mechanics in place.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
A little over 1:30 in and I'm liking it so far. While the look of it is closer to 3 and 4, the overall vibe of the game actually feels more like 1 and 2 to me.

I don't like that they seem to have designed the camera so it's always perpendicular to the ground you're on. Or least, they shouldn't have made it so sensitive to basically any slight change in elevation. I've gotten used to it but it's a little annoying.

I also wish they made the harder difficulties available from the beginning. So far Normal has been too easy and it undermines some of the fairly interesting mechanics in place.

Trust me when you get to the halfway point you will be glad that there is no higher difficulty from the get go. Also just you wait till 10 hours later and you realize nothing has changed with the battle system for the most part. :)
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Just saw the start of your stream. You're on Galaxy difficulty (2 stars), Earth was one star.
Ah, maybe. It feels as if it was ages ago.

Finished playing for today. Despite what Parakeetman said, I'm enjoying the battle system way more than I was at the beginning, mainly because I have so many roles for all my party members that I can change their strategy as I want. That, plus everyone has a ton of skills now, so enemies are getting hit with negative statuses all around (by the way, be sure to get the purple "Stun" role, it's OP.

By the way, the "Ocarina" party skill is amazing for leveling - it respawns all enemy groups, which is great if you've found a group that gives good xp. It costs 2000 sp and you unlock it through a board sidequest.
 

Wanchan

Member
According to that wiki, I'm at the last area before the end (end of phase 11, 28 hours~) so I backtracked and I will farm/complete the board/welch a bit since I'm missing some party skills and I want to see all the cute stamps.

If you rush, you can probably clear the game in 20 hours or so I think, so yeah not that long for a JRPG.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
According to that wiki, I'm at the last area before the end (end of phase 11, 28 hours~) so I backtracked and I will farm/complete the board/welch a bit since I'm missing some party skills and I want to see all the cute stamps.

If you rush, you can probably clear the game in 20 hours or so I think, so yeah not that long for a JRPG.
I'm at the same spot. What level are you? The highest one in my pt is 73 I think. I'm pretty sure I did all Welch'es quests unless some unlock later. That said, I'm not planning to get out of my way to finish more sidequests, so I just cleared the ones I could and am currently a bit above 40% of all sidequests cleared (that said I have 3 pages of unfinished ones and 5 pages of finished ones).
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Ah, maybe. It feels as if it was ages ago.

Finished playing for today. Despite what Parakeetman said, I'm enjoying the battle system way more than I was at the beginning, mainly because I have so many roles for all my party members that I can change their strategy as I want. That, plus everyone has a ton of skills now, so enemies are getting hit with negative statuses all around (by the way, be sure to get the purple "Stun" role, it's OP.

By the way, the "Ocarina" party skill is amazing for leveling - it respawns all enemy groups, which is great if you've found a group that gives good xp. It costs 2000 sp and you unlock it through a board sidequest.

Did you only got Ocarina recently or something?

The roles are not as special as you may think. Since it honestly doesnt matter much and just turns into a cluster fuck of skills getting spammed all over the place till whatever it is you are fighting dies. Even if you make some sort of "special setup" it does not change the fact that there is little to no thought with the combat system in general.
 

Wanchan

Member
I'm at the same spot. What level are you? The highest one in my pt is 73 I think. I'm pretty sure I did all Welch'es quests unless some unlock later. That said, I'm not planning to get out of my way to finish more sidequests, so I just cleared the ones I could and am currently a bit above 40% of all sidequests cleared (that said I have 3 pages of unfinished ones and 5 pages of finished ones).

73~77 (Fidel/Miki being the highest, Anne/Lilia the lowest)
 
How does the battle system compare with a Tales game. Just to get a good range if someone could answer how it compares to Xillia, Graces and Zestiria that would be helpful. When comparing this game to recent Tales of's, it seemed like it had a larger budget and more effort poured into it than them, but it sounds like this project may have been made on as small of a budget as possible to get it done. I'm wondering whether people who've played this think Berseria will be a better game.

Still going to get this regardless because I'm still interested despite its problems and it sounds like it's at least better than 4. This'd be my first Star Ocean too, so that's another reason I'll try it out despite flaws. Wondering/hoping Star Ocean 2's port gets localized too so I can play what seems to be considered the best in the series.
 

Quonny

Member
How does the battle system compare with a Tales game. Just to get a good range if someone could answer how it compares to Xillia, Graces and Zestiria that would be helpful. When comparing this game to recent Tales of's, it seemed like it had a larger budget and more effort poured into it than them, but it sounds like this project may have been made on as small of a budget as possible to get it done. I'm wondering whether people who've played this think Berseria will be a better game.

Still going to get this regardless because I'm still interested despite its problems and it sounds like it's at least better than 4. This'd be my first Star Ocean too, so that's another reason I'll try it out despite flaws. Wondering/hoping Star Ocean 2's port gets localized too so I can play what seems to be considered the best in the series.

I personally find the combat to be Graces f style > all Star Ocean > rest of Tales.

It's the systems around the combat that make it better than Tales. On many levels, they're similar, but the crafting and meta experiences in Star Ocean lift the combat up. Crafting that perfect weapon with the perfect character skills to see the combo wreck face in Star Ocean is a joy. Tales just doesn't have that.

But in terms of pure combat, they're pretty similar.
 

Atlantis

Member
Since it honestly doesnt matter much and just turns into a cluster fuck of skills getting spammed all over the place till whatever it is you are fighting dies. Even if you make some sort of "special setup" it does not change the fact that there is little to no thought with the combat system in general.

Sounds like every Star Ocean.
 

Some Nobody

Junior Member
According to that wiki, I'm at the last area before the end (end of phase 11, 28 hours~) so I backtracked and I will farm/complete the board/welch a bit since I'm missing some party skills and I want to see all the cute stamps.

If you rush, you can probably clear the game in 20 hours or so I think, so yeah not that long for a JRPG.

Holy shit that's absurd. Yeah, this is definitely a budget game, and not in a good way. :( How can you hang the future of a franchise on something and then tie their hands like this? >_<
 

Aeana

Member
I'm not following the criticisms about the battle system provided you liked SO3 and 4. No, it doesn't have AAA or blindsides, but blindsides especially were basically just crutches for more flashier battles in the first place. The rest of the ingredients are there. My main criticism is actually that cancel bonuses are too easy to do, to the point where I sometimes find myself doing the wrong one (either with a special attack when I meant to do a regular cancel, or vice-versa), but that's minor. The new reserve gauge is definitely the best iteration of the bonus board these games have had in terms of fun factor. In SO4, it was too frustrating if you accidentally picked up a gem of the wrong color and broke your chain and wanted to revert back without breaking the entire board. The only thing it's missing is the recovery rate aspect, which would definitely be welcome. Guard counter is a super fun feature, as timed guarding systems always are, but I'm sure SO3 fans would rather have AAA. I like having the button-press/timing aspect, personally.

Criticisms of things like the four skill/long-short setting are certainly fair, but it's the fifth game in the series to have that. It's just part of the series at this point.
 

aravuus

Member
I'm not following the criticisms about the battle system provided you liked SO3 and 4.

That's good to hear. The only thing (battle-wise) I disliked about SO4 was the massive damage sponge bosses. Are they any better in this or are we in for stupid long fights this time around, too?
 
I personally find the combat to be Graces f style > all Star Ocean > rest of Tales.

It's the systems around the combat that make it better than Tales. On many levels, they're similar, but the crafting and meta experiences in Star Ocean lift the combat up. Crafting that perfect weapon with the perfect character skills to see the combo wreck face in Star Ocean is a joy. Tales just doesn't have that.

But in terms of pure combat, they're pretty similar.

Hmm. I guess since I have no experience with Star Ocean's crafting system I have no reference for the satisfaction of crafting a good weapon combined with the combat. Personally, whenever I see Star Ocean gameplay, I have to wonder how different moves/skills/Arte's are pulled off without the LMBS of the Tales series.

Apparently Berseria is moving away from it somehow anyways, but without system to lock-in a perspective, how are different moves executed? Tales of has always had a "hold direction and click" way of choosing a specific arte, but if there is free movement all of the time it seems like it couldn't be done in this way.

I guess since you consider the combat to be better, how do the story/characters and "character actions" (?) compare to Tales of's story/characters and skits?
 

Aeana

Member
Also, I think the main reason why some people are finding the dialog/scenes to be less awful than SO4 is because of the presentation. Since they aren't these over-dramatic motion captured scenes, but generally more understated for normal interactions, it feels more like an earlier RPG than something from this era. Not that this era is bad, but tri-Ace has already proven that they can't handle those kinds of cutscenes several times. Actually, there's been a lot of criticism about the way regular scenes are portrayed in this game, and I was certainly among those voices at first, but the more I play, the more I appreciate it. Especially when we're having a short conversation with everybody standing around, and someone says "well, let's go!" and there's no transition, nobody moves into some weird position or appears out of nowhere. They're already there, and I just move the stick and we all start moving together as a group.

That's good to hear. The only thing (battle-wise) I disliked about SO4 was the massive damage sponge bosses. Are they any better in this or are we in for stupid long fights this time around, too?

I haven't encountered much of that so far, but I won't say that it doesn't exist since I'm not quite as far in as some.
 

Datschge

Member
this project seems to more have the issues of attempting western game design and falling straight on their asses with it.
What aside the open world-ish seamless design makes you think so? The producer went on record multiple times that SO4 was unlike previous SO entries and failed because they tried too much to design the game for the West. SO5 in contrast looks more like a marriage of SO and Infinite Undiscovery as both use the open world-ish seamless approach and were headed by the same director Hiroshi Ogawa.
 

Aeana

Member
What aside the open world-ish seamless design makes you think so? The producer went on record multiple times that SO4 was unlike previous SO entries and failed because they tried too much to design the game for the West. SO5 in contrast looks more like a marriage of SO and Infinite Undiscovery as both use the open world-ish seamless approach and were headed by the same director Hiroshi Ogawa.

Well, the game does have gearswalking in it (forced walking segments while people drone on and on), but as I mentioned in my last post, I'm warming to it a little bit because it doesn't feel as restrictive as cutscenes.
 

Shouta

Member
SO4's cutscenes were pretty bad done and extremely poorly written as well. I was just showing a friend of mine stuff from SO4 because he hadn't played it and I'm pretty sure he'll never play it after those.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I love the SO series, so if this is much of the same, I'm fine with it.

Is this game loaded with sidequests like the others?
 

Datschge

Member
Well, the game does have gearswalking in it (forced walking segments while people drone on and on), but as I mentioned in my last post, I'm warming to it a little bit because it doesn't feel as restrictive as cutscenes.
*notes the term* So that's what it's called nowadays, thanks. ^^ As you wrote yourself before they are not unlike talkative cutscenes in classic 2D rpgs so I honestly never thought of them as "western game design" to begin with, failed or not. So I thought Parakeetman was referring to something else there.
 

Datschge

Member
There's been a couple of other musical callbacks but up until this point, nothing that was just a straight up copy from a previous game that I could tell. Like one of the battle themes had a motif from an earlier game in it.
If the soundtrack track list is any indication, there are
72 themes, 27-29 recycled and around 43-45 new ones
.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
If the soundtrack track list is any indication, there are
72 themes, 27-29 recycled and around 43-45 new ones
.

I wonder if Sakuraba is spreading himself too thin these days.

I mean between his work between Tales of Beseria, Exist Archive, Dark Souls III, and Star Ocean 5.

I figure something had to give sooner or later. It simply amazes me how he manages to do so much all at the same time. So if it comes at the cost of him reusing a few tracks from his previous SO work, I don't see that as a bad thing.

Probably makes his work load easier, while I do agree entirely new tracks might be preferable to some.
 
The theme that plays when you start the game reminds me of Shining Force III.

Also, I think the main reason why some people are finding the dialog/scenes to be less awful than SO4 is because of the presentation. Since they aren't these over-dramatic motion captured scenes, but generally more understated for normal interactions, it feels more like an earlier RPG than something from this era. Not that this era is bad, but tri-Ace has already proven that they can't handle those kinds of cutscenes several times. Actually, there's been a lot of criticism about the way regular scenes are portrayed in this game, and I was certainly among those voices at first, but the more I play, the more I appreciate it. Especially when we're having a short conversation with everybody standing around, and someone says "well, let's go!" and there's no transition, nobody moves into some weird position or appears out of nowhere. They're already there, and I just move the stick and we all start moving together as a group.



I haven't encountered much of that so far, but I won't say that it doesn't exist since I'm not quite as far in as some.

It feels a lot like a more natural continuation of the text boxes and short conversations that littered RPGs on the SFC, Playstation, etc. I personally think the cutscenes that the PS2 era brought were welcome, but I think this kind of mixture is what the genre should move towards in the future. Albeit each game should have its own ratio.

As for the game, I'm enjoying it despite the fact that it gives me the impression it's been truncated. More than budget, I'm guessing the issues with this game relate more to time. It probably could have used another full year of development.
 

Taruranto

Member
Reading the "helpful" Amazon reviews: no volume, disappointing story, failed battle system, horrible camera, cheap cut-scenes... Tri-Ace, what happened to you? :( :( :(

How does one get disappointed by SO story.

Like, isn't disappointment brought by expectations?
 

Aeana

Member
My current annoyance with the game is how, if you choose a character who tends to lag behind the group in field exploration as your battle-controlled character, if you initiate battle, they start outside of the battlefield a lot of the time. This results in a nearly instant automatic flee from battle, unless you're fast enough to get in within a short time. Why.
 

theofficefan99

Junior Member
What were people expecting? I had a feeling from the very beginning that this game was given a super small budget. Still buying it, though.
 

Atlantis

Member
That's good to hear. The only thing (battle-wise) I disliked about SO4 was the massive damage sponge bosses. Are they any better in this or are we in for stupid long fights this time around, too?

There aren't really any bosses like that in SO4. The Grigori bosses, which I assuming you're talking about, die in seconds once you expose their weakpoint.

I'm curious about your criticism of Blindsides being a flasy crutch Aeana. After replaying the game I found the interaction between Blindsides and Rush Mode quite fun, at least until broken skills like X-Claw show up.
 

Aeana

Member
I don't really feel that it has a low budget, just a smaller scope. What's here doesn't feel janky or cheap, it just feels scaled down. I think it works. I've been describing this to people as like "what if SO3 and 4 weren't made, and this game came after SO2" because that's what it feels like to me. Although scope-wise, so far, it feels more like SO1 (the SNES version, mind) than SO2. It all feels very homey to me. Kind of hard to articulate at this point. I'll try to do a better job once I finish it.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
How many planets can you travel to in this game? Afaik SO4 has the most interplanetary travels while SO1 had the least.

One thing I liked about SO4 is that it had many planets you can travel to.
 
I don't really feel that it has a low budget, just a smaller scope. What's here doesn't feel janky or cheap, it just feels scaled down. I think it works. I've been describing this to people as like "what if SO3 and 4 weren't made, and this game came after SO2" because that's what it feels like to me. Although scope-wise, so far, it feels more like SO1 (the SNES version, mind) than SO2. It all feels very homey to me. Kind of hard to articulate at this point. I'll try to do a better job once I finish it.

I don't know, I haven't completed the game, but I think it's still going to feel like a much smaller game than SO2. But it does feel a lot like SO1, which I played for the first time last year. We'll see if it's even as big as SO1 in terms of scope.

I'd say there's evidence of a lower budget in certain cutscenes.
When the ship laser hits the castle and the explosion isn't shown, or the pitiful one shown on the monitor after you explore the desert facility.

Maybe I should put my reservations aside and pick up SO3, silly plot aside.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
This title is a bit beyond scaled down, when you are just running back and forth through the same areas for most of the time with little to no feeling of adventure and such. Then there is an obvious lack of any sort of real effort with the amount of palette swap enemies that just adds to it.

If it wasnt for the characters, voice acting and story I most def would have shelved this title already.

In short the game totally feels like its lacking any sort of effort put into it gameplay wise. Which is a damned shame as while there were some irritating things here and there the game still seemed to be ok early on. Then everything falls apart once you get far enough to see just how lacking it is overall. Game does have good music though that most def keeps the SO feel.

At least this should be cleared by today and can shelve it.
 
Interesting impressions. How self-composed is this game's story? I've never played a prior Star Ocean but I haven't played a JRPG in awhile and this looks fairly interesting. Would I just miss a few minor things or would the story make absolutely zero sense?
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
How many planets can you travel to in this game? Afaik SO4 has the most interplanetary travels while SO1 had the least.

One thing I liked about SO4 is that it had many planets you can travel to.
So far
it seems to be the starting planet plus a few spaceships
. Not done with the game yet.
 
I don't really feel that it has a low budget, just a smaller scope. What's here doesn't feel janky or cheap, it just feels scaled down. I think it works. I've been describing this to people as like "what if SO3 and 4 weren't made, and this game came after SO2" because that's what it feels like to me. Although scope-wise, so far, it feels more like SO1 (the SNES version, mind) than SO2. It all feels very homey to me. Kind of hard to articulate at this point. I'll try to do a better job once I finish it.

I'm super getting an SO1 vibe from it in terms of scale and even the way the characters come together.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Interesting impressions. How self-composed is this game's story? I've never played a prior Star Ocean but I haven't played a JRPG in awhile and this looks fairly interesting. Would I just miss a few minor things or would the story make absolutely zero sense?

You should be able to play it and enjoy the story for what it is. As it follows the other titles more in setting rather than like doing a ton of references / characters that were attached to previous titles.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
This title is a bit beyond scaled down, when you are just running back and forth through the same areas for most of the time with little to no feeling of adventure and such.
Have to agree with this part though. While at the beginning it's not so jarring, at one point I was just thinking "don't tell me I have to go from A to B AGAIN...".
 
You should be able to play it and enjoy the story for what it is. As it follows the other titles more in setting rather than like doing a ton of references / characters that were attached to previous titles.

Okay cool, thank you. The length of it doesn't bother me as much either if it is shorter, I just don't really have the time/fortitude to put in for a long RPG anyway right now (until Persona 5 lol).
 
I progressed a bit further. You can tell the story is definitely scaled back when a (minor spoiler)
ship battle
is told entirely through text.
They even blocked off the windows to the bridge to avoid having to show anything.
Also, the advent of non pausable cutscenes. lol This game is beginning to feel a bit rough. I think it's dropped well below the trails series.
Have to agree with this part though. While at the beginning it's not so jarring, at one point I was just thinking "don't tell me I have to go from A to B AGAIN...".

I had a feeling it might be this way when you visited the first three towns in such short succession.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Have to agree with this part though. While at the beginning it's not so jarring, at one point I was just thinking "don't tell me I have to go from A to B AGAIN...".

I really would not have minded it being scaled down, if it did not have this constant back and forth type of design. What makes it worse is some areas are just poorly designed map wise with long sections of nothing in it. Mainly anything having to do with mountains. As there is a multiple long S curve paths that lead into the main areas themselves which gets old quick after the second time.
 

komorebi

Member
I don't really feel that it has a low budget, just a smaller scope. What's here doesn't feel janky or cheap, it just feels scaled down. I think it works. I've been describing this to people as like "what if SO3 and 4 weren't made, and this game came after SO2" because that's what it feels like to me. Although scope-wise, so far, it feels more like SO1 (the SNES version, mind) than SO2.

This is actually good news to me. I loved the SFC version of SO1 and SO2 of course is a classic. Somewhere around 80 points iirc. SO3 was great up until the big plot twist, that really killed my interest after that (I personally thought it was ridiculous and I got burned out). I skipped SO4 but I can't remember why, probably just lack of time.

I've been watching random gameplay footage and I think I can get used to the camera but its still very jarring to watch. The music sounds amazing though. All in all the game seems like a worthy successor.
 

TheChits

Member
My current annoyance with the game is how, if you choose a character who tends to lag behind the group in field exploration as your battle-controlled character, if you initiate battle, they start outside of the battlefield a lot of the time. This results in a nearly instant automatic flee from battle, unless you're fast enough to get in within a short time. Why.

Well that certainly sounds really silly.
 

Aeana

Member
This title is a bit beyond scaled down, when you are just running back and forth through the same areas for most of the time with little to no feeling of adventure and such. Then there is an obvious lack of any sort of real effort with the amount of palette swap enemies that just adds to it.

If it wasnt for the characters, voice acting and story I most def would have shelved this title already.

In short the game totally feels like its lacking any sort of effort put into it gameplay wise. Which is a damned shame as while there were some irritating things here and there the game still seemed to be ok early on. Then everything falls apart once you get far enough to see just how lacking it is overall. Game does have good music though that most def keeps the SO feel.

At least this should be cleared by today and can shelve it.

Some of your complaints are basically complaints about Star Ocean in general. Like the combat system stuff, and the enemy stuff. Yes, it's all fair criticisms, but tri-Ace is also putting out a game in an established franchise with fans who want certain things to be like they are in other games. A Star Ocean game is always going to have the funny thief enemy, the witch on the crescent moon, the bunny with the boxing glove, the slime with the weird metal stuff sticking out of its face, and so on and so forth. And then it's probably going to have each of the colored versions of those that are even in SO1. The yellow thief, the blue thief, the gray thief, the blue slime, the green slime, etc. It's always going to have the long/short range skill system, because it's been a staple for four games now. Bringing Star Ocean out of retirement to make a game that feels like something completely different wouldn't have gone over well with the fans.

As far as the small scope goes, I understand completely. But Star Ocean 1 is my favorite SO, so the fact that it reminds me of it so much is a good thing. I seem to be enjoying the game a lot more than most of you. Part of it might be because it comes at a time in my gaming life where I'm tired of traversing gigantic empty fields for a while. The novelty of that has worn off. I could do with some more unique areas, no doubt about it, but for now I'm content.

At any rate, yes, they clearly didn't have a big budget for the game, but from what I can tell, they made the best of it. It doesn't feel like a buggy/janky game. What's there is polished, which isn't something one could say about SO4. *shrug*
 
Ughhh I really want to play this. As a big fan of SO1 and 2, aeana's impressions are really making me want it. Oh well, will be a good summer game when there's not much else to play.
 
I watched my friends play through most of this over the past week, and I think the budget does make sense, unfortunately. The last game was closer to a decade ago, and it was never a big brand at all. They also got bought out by that mobile company, and they probably didn't want to give them tons of funds for a franchise that's been on life support since 2009. On the bright side, if they had pulled out all the stops for this game and it ended up underperforming, the franchise would be certainly dead for good.

I haven't played the game, but the combat does seem pretty boring. Lots of hitstop, slow cancels, and bosses that don't stagger to anything. I feel like they made the bosses have permanent hyper armor to facilitate having the whole party on the field at once, but it clashes with the long animations that some moves have. This was a problem in Tales of Xillia 1, but at least the bosses had a few hits worth of staggering before their super armor came back. Star Ocean 3 seemed to have a better flow to it, at least from my memory.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
So far
it seems to be the starting planet plus a few spaceships
. Not done with the game yet.

Wow. That's a lot less than SO1 and SO2. I hope there are more planets later on. SO3 had 4-5 different worlds, was hoping it would have something like that.
 
Top Bottom