Star Ocean: The Divine Force guide - 5 tips for beginners

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the latest Square Enix RPG, which began its life under the tri-Ace banner. A series celebrating its 25th anniversary, it combines science-fiction with fantasy elements in a way that few franchises can hope to achieve. However, even this game differs significantly from previous entries into the franchise.

Several things may confuse or frustrate players going in, so these tips will aid players without a doubt. As a bonus, when considering your primary protagonist, it is all about which storyline you prefer. If you prefer a story with more science fiction, go with Raymond. If you want a more fantasy-driven story, choose Laeticia. They meet early, but eventually, they will go their separate ways.

Note: This article reflects the writer's opinion.

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Star Ocean: The Divine Force tips to aid newcomers and returning players

1) Star Ocean: The Divine Force doesn’t have a singular attack button

Many other RPGs, including the Star Ocean franchise, have specified buttons for attack and skill usage. However, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has deviated from this system in a huge way. This game has no Attack button! Instead, three of your face buttons (Circle, Triangle, Square, or their equivalents) can map several skills to them.

Under the “Party” menu, you can set each character’s Chain combos for each button. Once you learn how each attack works, you can start setting up awesome combos this way and have a different one for each of those buttons. You can also set a “Hold” attack this way. That way, if you hold Square, it does something else.

That, in particular, is a great way to queue up for lengthy cast time abilities.

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2) Item Crafting is important - don’t skip out on it

Like any good Star Ocean game, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has a crafting system. Once players reach Delryk, they can unlock this by talking to Welch Vineyard. She will unlock the secrets of item crafting through a brief quest. More crafting options will be unlocked by continuing to fulfill her requests throughout the game.

It’s optional, but it’s definitely worth it. Some seriously powerful pieces of gear can come from crafting. It’s worth unlocking early, but you won’t really get a lot out of it until later in the game.

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3) Blindsiding is an incredibly important facet of combat

Blindside every single opponent you possibly can. The game will teach you how almost as soon as you acquire D.U.M.A. While it won’t work on every enemy in the game - particularly enemies without eyes - you gain major benefits from Blindsiding. You catch an opponent off-guard and gain more VA for that battle.

That, in essence, means you can use more attacks in that particular battle. It’s going to seem hard to do at first because your movement speed is so high during dashing. I suggest just trying it and not over-analyzing it too hard. It will come naturally, and it will make combat so much easier.

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4) Es’owa is more than just a Chess-like mini-game

Early on in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, you will see a quest to unlock the mini-game Es’owa. It’s essentially a version of Chess or Go. Again, it takes practice, but that’s not the important thing. While neat, the game isn’t the great part of this particular attraction.

You unlock some pretty awesome figures from this, starring a number of popular Star Ocean characters, but that’s not even the best part. While incredible to look at, you can equip these pawns that you unlock by beating other players!

Some of these equipable pawns have some intense, powerful abilities too. The launch edition of the game comes with several of these pawns as well. Spend some time playing Es’owa. You’ll be glad you did.

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5) Side Quests are in a weird place - the Map Screen

Something that genuinely frustrated me in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, the Side Quests were not on the main menu with your current main story quests. Instead, you can find them on the map screen. You’ll unlock a number of side quests if you talk to NPCs with yellow circles on the map throughout your adventures.

To see your progress in these endeavors, open up the full map, and then press Triangle (or its Xbox equivalent), and you will see all of your quest options. Even better, completing them will allow you to fast-travel to the quest giver and turn in the rewards.

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Star Ocean: The Divine Force has many secrets and unforgettable moments to discover, but that’s up to the player to find them. The new tri-Ace/Square Enix RPG is now available to play on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms.