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ABOUT THE GAME: Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is the fifth main game in the Star Ocean series, and was release in 2016 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan, and as a PlayStation 4 exclusive outside of Japan. The game was primarily developed for PlayStation 3, and ported to PlayStation 4. REVIEW: Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness takes place between Star Ocean: The Second Story and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. The eight main characters are Fidel Camuze, Miki Sauvester, Victor Oakville, Fiore Brunelli, Emmerson T. Kenny, Anne, and Relia. All of which are playable in battle with the exception of Relia. The game starts out on planet Faykreed, which is 6000 light years from Earth. I had been playing this game since release, and finished the main story yesterday. My main story playthrough clocked at just over 25 hours without rushing. The game seems to have about 70 hours of playtime for completionists like myself! I can say this game does a lot right, and a few things wrong. The game definitely embodies the old-school feel that's been a staple to the Star Ocean series. If you get a game over, you get booted back to the main menu, and you have to continue from your last save point. That's right, no retry, no autosave, no continue. Just Game Over like the olden days. The items are the same as always too. Blueberries, blackberries, fresh sage, etc. The Characters are no exception either. No matter how you look at any of them (anime eyes, unnatural hair colors), it's very obvious they are from a Star Ocean game. How's the gameplay? Combat is definitely this game's strong point. Each character has different abilities and can be useful in certain situations. The two characters I used most were Fidel because he is one of the strongest out of the bunch and has great battle skills, and Miki because she is useful for long-distance combat and has extremely useful healing commands. None of them are the best one for the job 100% of the time. Different battles will urge you to use different characters. Players get to assign attacks (Battle Skills) to the X and Circle buttons. Battle Skills set to the Circle button will receive an extra boost of power. Simply tapping X or Circle will trigger a normal attack, but holding down on X or Circle for a short time will trigger Battle Skills. You can also change which attack is set on each button at any time, even during battle. I really loved this system. It's very action packed and allows you to beat down those bosses your own way. Frame rate never drops regardless of the attack you are using. The game is quite balanced. I played on Galaxy mode and found that game wasn't extremely hard, but not boringly easy either. It's just right! Players get another secret weapon in battle, it's called the Rush Gauge. The Rush Gauge holds up to five points, and can trigger a special attack from each character except for Relia. Players can choose how many points they wish to expend for each attack, and the more points you expend, the more powerful your attack will be. This is useful for tough bosses with lots of HP. I found myself storing up three or four Rush Gauge bars before entering those tougher battles. You can lose Rush Gauge points after being hit by certain attacks. Outside of combat players can only control Fidel, except for one short instance where players control Relia. Exploration can at times be tedious. The game will sometimes leave you with no clear objective, leaving you to figure what to do next. Thankfully, it's usually very easy to figure it out. For the majority of the game there will be no means of fast travel. You'll be left to explore the entire map on foot until you acquire access to the Charles D. Goale later in the game. I didn't mind this much, as it helped give me more incentive to fight monsters along the way and level up my characters more. Well, what about the story? While the story does have great potential, it feels very hollow. Cutscenes focus heavily on being interactive and happening live. This is a poorly executed, but potentially great ideal. The cutscenes happening during gameplay allow players to move Fidel, or open their menu and change equipment, battle skills, or anything else during cutscenes. The cost of this was the loss of a deep story. Sure there was plenty of story presence there, but the lack of overall cinematic scenes made it much less impacting. However, the extremely important cutscenes are shown in a cinematic way. These are rare throughout the game, but are carried out decently unlike the majority of in-gameplay cutscenes. Despite the hollow feel to it all, the story is still a pretty interesting one to follow. I found myself feeling anxious wondering what would happen next multiple times throughout the story. I found the ending to be a little lackluster, sadly. I won't say much more because I do not wish to spoil, but Star Ocean: The Last Hope definitely had a better ending. The characters, although interesting never really get much of a chance in the spotlight. They are right for the game, but we never really get to know them. A follow up anime or game could do them justice if it was carried out correctly. I was disappointed by the lack of space. Star Ocean is supposed to be very focused on outer space exploration. This game doesn't see any space travel until much later in the story. Once it's happens, it's there for the rest of the game, but it doesn't happen until quite late in the game except for the first instance. Hmmm, and the music? The game contains a decent soundtrack, however I noticed some of it was reused from Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The game (like all Star Ocean games) uses a lot of synth instruments. In the end, even though it's good, it's not extremely special or anything. Okay then, what about the graphics? The graphics are heavily anime focused, especially in the eight main characters. The environments are the most beautiful the Star Ocean series has seen thus far. Many monsters that we have seen in past games make a return and look better than ever. The water in the game is especially pretty. OVERVIEW: Pros: Great gameplay Beautiful graphics Great Characters High level caps Good Soundtrack Cons: Lack of cinematic scenes Not enough emphasis on characters Lack of Space Travel Lackluster ending Overall Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a good game. It may not have the production value of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, but it is definitely worth the time of any Star Ocean fan or lover of JRPG's in general. 8/10

As you can see, she is quite artistic!