Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Reviews
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.
While Star Ocean started as an innovative series full of fun, bold ideas, its current form amounts to the most middle-of-the-road RPG experience you could possibly have. It's not particularly awful, but in a reality full of RPGs, so many better options exist.
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.
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.
The things the game does well are worth an experience, but only at a budget price. Until then, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for your JRPG fix, and spare yourself the disappointment.
This latest installment of the Star Ocean series leaves a blemish on its otherwise good track record.
Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness is a sub-par JRPG that has a list of problems as long as its name.
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to a fault, the worst thing about this Japanese role-player is it doesn’t seem to have any idea just how clichéd and outdated it really is.
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.
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.
A painfully undercooked Japanese RPG that shows how far the genre has fallen behind its western rivals.
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.
fanatics might forgive its sins, but Integrity And Faithlessness doesn’t offer much to anyone else.