Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Reviews
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is essentially JRPG comfort food.
Star Ocean is perhaps more accurately described as Star Pond, or Star Singular Drop In An Unseen, Unexplored Ocean. Limited and lacklustre.
Woefully inadequate AI makes boring combat frustrating.
This game tries to hitch a ride on the nostalgia train without paying the due fees first. For hardcore Star Ocean fans only.
The fifth entry into the series suffers from old habits, but long time fans may still find something special in the mix.
One small step forward from Star Ocean 4, one giant leap from being a compelling experience. Integrity and Faithlessness is, much like Fiore's outfit, a case of the Emperor's New Clothes.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a beautiful game that is well crafted in some areas, especially in the menu and combat systems. Sadly, the game trips on its own inconsistent difficulty and poor or incomplete feel of the gameplay design.
In the end, I’ve enjoyed Star Ocean 5, despite its shortcomings and any old school tendencies. I hope it sells well here, because the last thing I want is for Tri-Ace’s brand of JRPG to stop coming west. There’s promise in Integrity and Faithlessness that Star Ocean’s next incarnation could be really something special. Right now, it’s just not quite there in this edition.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a lot of RPG gaming for your money. It will take upwards of 40 hours to run through the game’s campaign, and perhaps up to even 100 hours to fully complete the game and find everything that it has to offer. However, the game’s presentation feels very dated, graphics performance fluctuates, players new to the franchise may feel left out in the cold, and the story is somewhat predictable. Yet, despite these issues, the game is ultimately very fun for RPG fans, both Japanese and Western, thanks to the meaty campaign, countless strategy options, and numerous unlockable and upgradeable skills and roles. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a perfect time-sink to game away those lazy summer afternoons on.
The return of Star Ocean could have certainly been better, but if you love the genre (and you’re used to its quirks) and the series, you’ll most probably find plenty to enjoy in Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a microcosm of everything wrong with modern JRPGs, from its slapdash presentation to its trope-filled narrative. Worst of all, it's seen fit to cram in everything that genre aficionados hate: unskippable cutscenes, greyed-out save points and painfully poor AI are just a few of the hurdles you'll face on your way to fun.
While it’s understandable that Square Enix wanted to create a Star Ocean more like the fondly remembered early titles of the series, they seem to have forgotten what made those titles great. Whatever it was, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has none of it.
Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness is a sub-par JRPG that has a list of problems as long as its name.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a 20 hour game, and some are pointing that out as a negative given that the series usually clocks in at about 60. I’m calling it a mercy killing though as I did not want to spend another minute with it after writing this review. It’s the worst kind of pacing: too fast to not let players catch their breath bask in the story and slow enough to where one hour of gameplay can stretch to seem like four.
Integrity and Faithlessness is a much faster game than previous Star Ocean entries, but it sacrifices narrative and contextual depth for it. There are a few interesting but unsuccessful design choices here which let the game down, but it mostly makes up for its shortcomings with a frenetic battle system, excellent character design, and a standout soundtrack. It's a little bit vague, and it's a little bit shallow, but there's still plenty of fun to be had in tri-Ace's latest, and for newcomers, it's by far the most approachable entry in the series.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness excels in areas like combat and crafting but not in narrative or characterization. It has enough gameplay options to bring any JRPG fan to the table, but not everyone will leave content.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness can be loads of fun, but also doesn't offer anything new. Fans of action JRPGs such as the Tales series will find something to enjoy, but definitely not everyone.
Even with all of its shortcomings the game kept me interested to its end. It just doesn’t feel like a full-priced title.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has some good ideas, but they don't jive with the messy camera, the short campaign, and the shallow combat. Fans of the series might be willing to put up with these shortcomings, but with games like Odin Sphere Leifthraser out there, it's hard to recommend it.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a clunky, sometimes beautiful mess, navigating between some exciting highs and many disappointing lows to fall short of its promise.