2016 seems to be a fairly significant year for the games industry so far, with many a much-loved franchise celebrating various milestone birthdays. Pokemon celebrates it's twentieth year with some legendary Pokemon giveaways, just the other day we talked about Harvest Moon's 20th anniversary game, and now it's the turn of the lesser known Japanese role-playing game, Star Ocean. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is not only a bit of a mouthful, but it also marks the series' twentieth anniversary since its Japanese debut, way back in the days of the SNES - and it looks like it's shaping up to be another epic space-spanning adventure too.
Instagram group selfie take #1478 - and still no-one manages to look the right way...
With five games under its belt so far, the Star Ocean series is set in a sprawling sci-fi universe, with each game containing its own self-contained story and set of characters, each taking place in a different point in time within the same world. With more than a few similarities to the Tales of series of Japanese role-playing games, the original Star Ocean was one of the first to make the switch to real-time battles, rather than the more traditional 'turn-based' of the older role-playing games - so you and your party members attack, cast spells and dodge enemy attacks in a more button mashing way, as and when they happen, relying more on your reactions than forward-planning and strategy. Star Ocean was also one of the first games to bring in branching storylines, and a relationship system between your characters, known as 'Private Action'. Essentially, by spending time with your party members, picking certain conversation options and the like, you can increase your affinity with the character in question, putting you on track for different character-specific endings, netting you rare items or recruiting a particular character to your cause.
Integrity and Faithlessness meanwhile, is set between the events of the second and third Star Ocean games - Star Ocean: The Second Story and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - although there's no need to have played either to understand the story, thankfully. Set on the planet of Faykreed, some 6,000 light years away from Earth, the embers of a new conflict begin to stir, despite the Pangalactic Federation's best efforts for peace. Cursed beasts roam the Resulia kingdom and a fiendish group of bandits, the Eitalon, are causing trouble - and it's these problems that our blue-haired protagonist, Fidel, wants to get to the bottom of. But, together with his companions, which include his childhood friend Miki and a mysterious amnesiac girl Relia, he soon finds there's a lot more to the troubles than meets the eye…
In terms of battles, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness sticks largely to it's tried and tested real-time formula, which challenges you to think on your feet and make split-second strategic decisions during combat. As this is the 'next generation' of Star Ocean though, the fights break out without a single loading screen or pause in the action, presumably taking you straight from exploring the wilderness to brawling with the local beasties, there and then. The new game also boasts a whopping seven allies in battle at once, which you can switch between at the tap of a button, whilst also making it much more straightforward to execute flashy combo attacks on your enemies too.
What better way to take down a whatever-it-is than with a swift kick to the face?
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness will be soaring onto the Playstation 4 in just a few months time, on the 1st July in Europe, and in the US slightly earlier, on the 28th June. Having not really had much chance to dabble in the Star Ocean series ourselves, we're pretty excited too, especially considering the PlayStation 4's relatively limited selection of Japanese role-playing games at the moment. In the meantime why not check out the latest story trailer below:
