Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Reviews
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is an RPG that merely fulfills its obligations. It's not awful thanks to a cast of likeable characters and an interesting premise, but an abundance of clichés, uneven polish, and messy combat and AI make it less than memorable. And as its main story only provides around 20 hours of playtime instead of the 60 or more the series usually delivers, some of those obligations aren’t met in full. As for me, I can't say I regret my time with Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, but 20 hours was enough.
A painfully undercooked Japanese RPG that shows how far the genre has fallen behind its western rivals.
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.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness wants to be a grand sci-fi JRPG, but its mediocre production values undercut it at almost every opportunity.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is flat-out disappointing, from its bland cast and story to its problematic battle system and recycled content
Star Ocean's return is a bumpy ride, with slick combat and smart upgrade systems bogged down by a watery story and some frustrating technical designs.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has good ideas but never goes anywhere with them
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is essentially JRPG comfort food.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness isn’t a terrible game by any means, but is let down by some poor story-telling, dreadful delivery and a lack of originality. If you don’t mind the slightly repetitive nature of the combat, the poor camera and hammy acting then it’s well worth a look.
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 carries a weight of expectation that it is incapable of satisfying. A legacy JRPG franchise, published by Square Enix, should have some meaning, but here it translates to pure mediocrity. Series fans may find some brighter elements to latch onto, but for JRPG stalwarts there are far better examples of the genre.
Old school to a fault, the worst thing about this Japanese role-player is it doesn’t seem to have any idea just how clichéd and outdated it really is.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a weird game in that it's a by-the-books RPG one minute, and a completely new feeling the next. Any future iterations after this one will be a tough sell, but if this is where its journey ends, it had a good run.
Star Ocean returns with its fifth installment, but after 20 years its evolution has not been quite good. The AI is terrible, the mechanics are really repetitive and the story is pretty dull. Only the players that enjoy the classic JRPG games will have fun with this one.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A JRPG with great classic tones, but too "inflated" and formulaic to recover only through a discrete combat system.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
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 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.
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.