Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Launches 1st July on PS4

Yes, it’s a mere three months away! This year actually marks the 20th anniversary since the release of the very first Star Ocean, so it’s a very special time for us at the office. We’re celebrating our fifth dive into a universe we all know and love, and we can’t wait for you to experience it with us.

New to Star Ocean? Well here are a couple of things you should know:

All the titles in the series share a rich history and universe, but you should know that you don’t have to play the previous games to enjoy the story of this one. It’s not like watching the third movie in a trilogy without watching the first two, you won’t get lost.

Apart from the story, the battle system is really a driving factor in why players return to the series. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness will actually boast the ability to have up to seven ally characters on-screen and battling simultaneously. *Clears throat* SEVEN! To give you some perspective on that, imagine seven characters from your favourite fighting game banding together using their flashy abilities all on one screen simultaneously and obliterating enemies. Excited much?

 
A veteran to the series?

Well as you know, it’s been five years since the release of the last Star Ocean game. So there’s been an itch to bring the franchise back to the top of the JRPG echelon. This was producer Shuichi Kobayashi’s mission from the start, and that passion has been contagious between our offices in Japan, U.S, and here in Europe.

He asked me to deliver this special message to Western fans:

It has been quite long since the last instalment was released and the time has now come for us to share another “tale of the sea of stars” with you. I personally adore this franchise and have been excited to be involved in the process of its resurrection. There are fewer JRPGs for consoles on the market these days and I believe that this makes the release of this new game particularly significant. The franchise has always featured exhilarating action battles and with the new game, we deliver an evolved combat system which can involve a party of up to seven characters and it is easier to execute combo attacks.
There are also many new and additional game items and content that we hope may encourage you to replay the game for added value, and I sincerely hope you will give this game a try. We would really like to get your support so that we can continue to tell more “tales of the sea of stars”.

A few things we’re excited to share:

• The game will have dual audio options, meaning you can switch between English and Japanese voice-over. If you prefer Japanese voice-over, you can select to have English subtitles.
• The characters were designed by “akiman” (Street Fighter series).
• The score was composed by Motoi Sakuraba (Tales of series, Dark Souls series).

To give you a bit of background on the story, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness revolves around a blue-haired swordsman named Fidel. Look at that hair. Can we all please live in a galaxy where our hair looks that good all the time? Anyway… Fidel and his crew, which includes the pink-haired healer named Miki, embark on an adventure that will transcend space to protect a mysterious girl, Relia, from dark forces.

We sincerely hope you’re all as excited as we are for the release of the game, but until then, be sure to keep up to date with all of the new Star Ocean content through our “Star Log” live streams, which air on the Square Enix Twitch and YouTube channels.

The TLDR message of it all is, Star Ocean is BACK.

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