It’s been over six years since we’ve seen an entry in the Star Ocean series and it seemed the franchise was destined for development limbo. Recent comments from Square Enix teased the debut of a new RPG for consoles but there wasn’t any indication given of just what that game would be. Now it appears we may have an answer. Famitsu broke the story of a new entry in the Star Ocean series set to debut on the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 consoles some time in the near future and the news has been emerging sporadically ever since.
Star Ocean 5: Integrity And Faithlessness has a number of industry veterans working on it, some in familiar territory and some taking on new roles. Shuchi Kobayashi, a marketing representative and publicist for franchises such as Valkyrie Proifle, Grandia, Star Ocean and Lufia will be the producer. Hiroshi Ogawa, who has worked as a game designer for the Valkyrie Profile, Tales of, and Sakura Wars series will be directing. Yoshiharu Gotanda, long time design veteran of the Star Ocean series will be the lead programmer. Finally, legendary artist and character designer Akira Yasuda (known as Akiman to most) will be handling the character designs.
Set between the events of Star Ocean 3 and Star Ocean 4, little is known of the actual plot other than the basic roles of the two protagonists and a young amnesiac that falls into their care on their homewold of Feycreed thousands of light years from earth. Fedel Camus is a young swordsman with a family legacy defending his homeland,Miki Sorvesta is his best friend and takes on a healing/support role and the young Lilia suffers memory loss.
In an interview in Famitsu, the staff discussed some of the elements of the game. They were coy on the reason for the subtitle Integrity And Faithlessness but assured the fans that by playing the game they would come to understand but it’s also likely that as more details emerge we’ll learn more about it. They also said that they hoped to make sure the loyal fans of the series would feel rewarded for keeping Star Ocean close to their hearts by doing their best to recreate the sentiment of earlier entries in the series.
As it regards the battle system, it’s been announced that the game will transition directly into the fights, character switching will be available and it will have active combat with different abilities based on enemy distance and positioning and the implementation of combo strings.
Kotaku has posted a lot of screenshots and scans from the Famitsu article, which can be viewed here. Additionally, they provided a translation of the prologue text for the game, which is as follows:
Do the depths of space forbid peace for mankind—
Centuries after leaving Earth, after a multitude of trials, with the creation and spread of the ‘Galactic Federation’, humanity was on the verge of unified order and peace.
But the embers of conflict have begun to burn again.
Over 6,000 light years from Earth, on the unsettled planet, ‘Faicreed.’
Just as so many times before, the waves of history begin from a remote planet.
Star Ocean 5: Integrity And Faithlessness is currently in development by Tri-Ace and will be published by Square Enix for the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 entertainment systems. No release date has been confirmed yet.
