Other PS4 titles include Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, West of Dead, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and Contra: Rogue Corps (which are backwards compatible on PS5). The PS4 and PS5 titles include Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, Unpacking, Planet Coaster: Console Edition, Tails Noir, Cloudpunk, Call of the Sea and PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls.

The only PS5-exclusive title is This War of Mine: Final Cut. The above titles are a part of the Game Catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers. The latter gets access to three Star Ocean titles – Star Ocean First Departure R, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope – 4K and FHD Remaster – and Dragon’s Crown Pro, all on PS4.

Though this is only a week after Forspoken’s launch, president Yosuke Matsuda (who is stepping down in June) revealed that reviews “have been challenging.” “However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future.

“That said, its sales have been lackluster, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings.”

Matsuda also spoke about a decline in net sales year-on-year in the HD Games sub-segment. While the “release of major titles a year earlier had created a challenging” hurdle, he revealed that “many of the new small and mid-sized titles we launched this year did not perform as well as we had expected.” Though not specified, some titles that fall into that category include The DioField Chronicle, Valkyrie Elysium, Harvestella, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Dragon Quest Treasures, and more.

Octopath Traveler 2 and Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line were released last month, and it remains to be seen if they can balance out the underwhelming year-on-year performance.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (on PC)

When the remastered duo launched for PS5 in January, it debuted in fifth place on Gfk’s UK physical sales charts. Pretty good, even if it didn’t hit the top 20 for The NPD Group’s best-selling games for the month. Its PC version is a completely different story, though, hitting a peak concurrent player count of only 10,851 on Steam when it was released in October. Either because there wasn’t much hype around it, or other big titles took all the attention, the collection just didn’t resonate.

CrossfireX

With a whopping 38 out of 100 Metascore and lacklustre marketing, it was somewhat expected that CrossfireX wouldn’t do great. Lo and behold, it didn’t chart anywhere in The NPD Group’s February 2022 sales rankings, nor did it warrant a mention in Gfk’s physical charts for the UK. However, given how popular Crossfire’s multiplayer is in China and South Korea (with over $1 billion in revenue each year since 2014), this won’t hurt Smilegate’s bottom line one bit.

Monark

You could call Monark another victim of Elden Ring’s overwhelming presence, especially in Europe, where it launched on the same day as the Souls-like. That’s probably why it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in Gfk’s physical sales charts for the week. It also had only 177 peak concurrent players on Steam in the West. Then again, when released last year in Japan, it barely hit 16,000 units sold on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Couple that with poor critical reception, and its failure is understandable.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Tango Gameworks’ Ghostwire Tokyo was one of the premiere PS5 console exclusives this year and sadly didn’t perform up to par. It debuted in 12th place for The NPD Group’s March 2022 charts, and in 11thth place for Gfk’s UK physical game charts. Not only that, but it sold 80 percent less than The Evil Within 2 in the UK, which was considered to have performed poorly at launch. Though it managed sixth place in its debut in Japan, it only sold 10,144 units in its first week. Even the Steam numbers were nothing to write home about, with a peak concurrent total of 14,086 players in its lifetime.

Shadow Warrior 3

Shadow Warrior 3 was intriguing in how it not only went with a super-linear approach to its levels but also stuck to previous-gen consoles and PC. Blame it on the lack of marketing buzz, the shadows of Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West, or something else, but when released on March 1st, 2022, it was nowhere to be seen in Gfk’s UK physical sales charts or GSD’s digital sales charts. Even the peak concurrent player count on Steam was a mere 1,651 players.

GRID Legends

Another game which likely suffered due to releasing too close to Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West is Codemasters’ GRID Legends. It debuted in 18th place in Gfk’s UK physical sales charts and was pretty much never heard from again after that. Yes, not even in The NPD Group’s best-selling titles for February and March 2022. SteamDB reveals a peak concurrent player count of just 455, which is just a few days after it launched.

Roller Champions

Roller Champions’ success is a bit harder to measure since, well, it’s a free-to-play title. That being said, its digital revenue hasn’t warranted any mention this year. It launched to very little reaction on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, and the Switch release did nothing to help this either. Lest anyone thinks the recent Steam release would aid in a resurgence, it has had a peak concurrent player total of 141. Such was the response that reports quickly circulated of the game being sunset, which Ubisoft denied.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

One of the big three releases of December, Marvel’s Midnight Suns has a lot going for it with the XCOM team involved, strong critical acclaim, and some well-known Marvel heroes. It even had 15,500 peak concurrent players on Steam. Sales-wise, the story is less positive, as it debuted in a mortifying 26th place in the UK physical sales charts. Granted, Firaxis is known more for its PC player base (as seen with the Steam user count), and the digital sales could help, but the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 numbers can’t be entirely discounted. Maybe it was just the victim of too many big releases on the same day, as evidenced by The Callisto Protocol performing way better.

Need for Speed Unbound

Due to its release timing, we won’t know how Need for Speed Unbound performed in the US until next month. As for the UK, its launch week physical sales were down a staggering 64 percent compared to Need for Speed Heat, earning it only 17th place. This may seem expected, but it’s the tenth-biggest IP in the region’s history. Things hardly improved the next week when it slipped to 19th place following a 19 percent sales drop. Steam player numbers aren’t so great either, with a peak concurrent total of only 14,063.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force

Compared to Valkyrie Elysium, Star Ocean: The Divine Force performed decently when it launched in Japan, with over 44,000 units sold on PS4 and PS5. The problem? It’s the weakest game launch in the series. The first Star Ocean in June 1996 sold over 81,000 copies on the Super Famicom, for crying out loud. The Divine Force failed to crack Gfk’s top 10 in the UK and debuted in 14th place for the US, according to The NPD Group, before quietly fading away.

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Gungrave G.O.R.E. launched a few weeks after Sonic Frontiers and God of War Ragnarok, and days after Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Shock of shocks, it neither charted in the UK nor the US. On Steam, it has a peak concurrent player total of 138, which says it all.

Harvestella

This one hurts, simply because I loved Livewire’s Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. Sadly, Harvestella matched up in neither sales nor critical acclaim. It debuted in second place in Famitsu’s Japan sales charts with 26,644 units sold on Nintendo Switch, but only reached 38,704 sales before dropping out entirely. On PC, it had a measly 3,395 peak concurrent players via Steam.

The DioField Chronicle

Square Enix may have some heavy hitters coming in 2023, but this year has been rather disastrous for the publisher. It released a flurry of underwhelming titles and commercial flops, like The DioField Chronicle. The strategy RPG launched at 17th place in Gfk’s UK physical sales charts and sold about 12,068 units in its first week in Japan across Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. SteamDB notes 1,272 peak concurrent players over its lifetime, which is pretty sad.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PC)

Considering how valuable the PC market has been for Sony with Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War (2018), and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, it was expected that Sackboy would follow up on that success. Alas, it wasn’t to be. It recorded a meagre 610 peak concurrent players since launch, far less than even Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. Sony hasn’t revealed sales numbers, and maybe it’s unfair to expect much out of a lesser-known IP on PC. Nevertheless, it’s still disappointing.

New Tales from the Borderlands

Released on October 21st, 2022, you’d expect a new Borderlands title, much less the follow-up to Tales from the Borderlands, to get a decent response. But either due to the lack of marketing, Telltale not returning, the premise or a flurry of other releases, New Tales from the Borderlands came and went with very little response. It wasn’t mentioned by Gfk in its UK physical charts for the end of October and throughout November. Even worse, it didn’t even chart in The NPD Group’s US sales charts for October and November.

It was driven by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which secured the top spot for the month. Hardly surprising, given that it crossed $1 billion in revenue within ten days of launching. Despite a mixed critical reception, Gotham Knights ranked in second place and debuted as the 14th best-selling game of the year-to-date. Interestingly, October’s top 20 best-sellers were new titles, including NHL 23 in fifth place, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope in the sixth, Bayonetta 3 in ninth, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force in 14th.

Even Dragon Ball: The Breakers secured a spot in 16th place, with Take Two’s PGA Tour 2K23 in 17th. For more details, check out the top 20 best-selling video games for October 2022, based on dollar sales, below.

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The biggest new seller is Star Ocean: The Divine Force, which has sold a total of over 44,000 units upon its debut, with the game’s PS4 version coming in at No. 3 (over 27,000 units sold) and the PS5 version slotting in at No. 7 (over 17,000 units). Compared to its predecessors, however, it’s launch numbers are significantly low. The last mainline entry in the series, Integrity and Faithlessness, sold over 170,000 units at launch. The Divine Force is, in fact, the lowest launch for a mainline Star Ocean game in Japan to date.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was another big launch last week, and has sold over 42,000 units in total, with over 24,000 units sold on the PS4 (No. 4 in the charts) and over 17,000 on the PS5 (No. 6). Other than last year’s Vanguard, this is the lowest Japanese launch for a Call of Duty game to date. 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sold over 117,000 units at launch.

Another big release, Bayonetta 3, comes in at No. 2, with over 41,000 units sold upon release. When Bayonetta 2 launched for the Wii U in 2014, it sold over 38,000 units in Japan at launch. Meanwhile, PlatinumGames and Nintendo’s previous Nintendo Switch exclusive, 2019’s Astral Chain, sold over 32,000 units at launch.

On the hardware side of things, there have been some interesting developments. The PS5 has at long last managed to outsell the Nintendo Switch, even though the gap between the two is extremely narrow. Both systems sold over 38,000 units over the course of the week.

You can check out the full hardware and physical software sales charts for the week ending October 30 below.

Software sales (followed by lifetime sales):

1. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 51,547 (3,235,701)
2. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 41,285 (New)
3. [PS4] Star Ocean: The Divine Force – 27,001 (New)
4. [PS4] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 24,371 (New)
5. [NSW] Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits – 23,297 (New)
6. [PS5] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 17,710 (New)
7. [PS5] Star Ocean: The Divine Force – 17,177 (New)
8. [NSW] Aquarium. Limited Edition – 13,199 (New)
9. [NSW] Persona 5 Royal – 12,040 (58,038)
10. [NSW] Needy Streamer Overload – 11,693 (New)

Hardware sales (followed by last week’s sales):

• Nintendo Switch – 38,634 (54,637)
• PS5 – 38,866 (28,661)
• Xbox Series X/S – 3,674(4,158)

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is unique in that it allows you to pick who your primary protagonist is going to be for the rest of the story from two options: space merchant Raymond, or princess Laeticia. While this choice doesn’t have much of an effect for most of the story, there are moments throughout the game where the two characters are separated, having to solve their own problems and figure out their own path forward, and that’s when you’re only getting half of the story.

"Generally speaking, the story has its slow parts, but is generally quite a blast to get through, owing in large part to the great cast of characters. Even the three characters you play with in the opening—Raymond, Laeticia and Albaird—have a surprising level of chemistry between them, both in terms of banter, as well as just how genuinely sincere most of the dialogue between them sounds."

In this way, Star Ocean: The Divine Force encourages a second playthrough if you want to get the whole story, which can be a tough pill to swallow considering the sheer length of the game. Since it’s a JRPG, you can expect anywhere from 40 to 100 hours for a single playthrough, depending on how much of the side stuff you decide to end up doing.

The story itself starts off with a bang; as Laeticia and her retainer, Albaird, are traveling to a distant kingdom, they find a mysterious young man named Raymond who somehow fell from the sky. The duo are instantly impressed and confused by the impressive technology Raymond seems to have at his disposal. Interestingly, both Raymond and Laeticia have their own goals, and despite having little reason to trust each other—especially early on—they decide to team up and help each other out.

As the game’s name might imply, you’re not going to be spending the entirety of the game on one planet, and eventually, as is often the case with JRPGs, the plot escalates to celestial proportions.

Generally speaking, the story has its slow parts, but is generally quite a blast to get through, owing in large part to the great cast of characters. Even the three characters you play with in the opening—Raymond, Laeticia and Albaird—have a surprising level of chemistry between them, both in terms of banter, as well as just how genuinely sincere most of the dialogue between them sounds.

Despite its two protagonists, however, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has a rather different unique selling point. Using a mystical device called DUMA, Star Ocean: The Divine Force allows you to fly. Not only can you take flight in fights, allowing you to swoop in for extra damage against unwitting enemies, but even the game’s vast open world encourages buzzing around all over the place by using the flight mechanics.

While you’re not really going to be able to stay in the air indefinitely and just fly everywhere—even with all upgrades, the flight is far from permanent—you’re encouraged to try and figure out how to get to those hard-to-reach spots, often rewarded with DUMA points that can be used to upgrade the DUMA, new equipment, consumables like healing potions, or even just crafting resources. There is a large emphasis on exploring as much of the 3D spaces the open landscapes of Star Ocean: The Divine Force offers.

"Unfortunately, despite all characters using different kinds of weapons, the nature of the real-time combat mechanics of Star Ocean: The Divine Force is that they never really feel unique in any real, tangible way."

Speaking of gameplay, Star Ocean: The Divine Force features a real-time combat system that revolves around constantly switching between characters, using aerial attacks and defensive abilities of the DUMA, and most importantly, juggling your AP to be able to pull off any offensive abilities whatsoever. Each character starts out with access to three different attacks, all of which cost some amount of AP, and all of which can be combo-ed quite easily into each other, assuming of course that you’re still in range of the enemy.

Unfortunately, despite all characters using different kinds of weapons, the nature of the real-time combat mechanics of Star Ocean: The Divine Force is that they never really feel unique in any real, tangible way. Just about every fight boils down to mashing out attacks until you run out of AP, and occasionally dodging enemy attacks. It also doesn’t help that a lot of battles, especially the random fights that are bound to happen as you explore the game’s open world, feel like complete messes. Early battles were especially bad about this; around half of the fights I got through felt like I won them by complete accident.

Unfortunately, this means that even boss fights tend to be largely forgettable, and more often than not, just come down to dodging some obviously telegraphed attacks as you continue to mash out attacks of your own, waiting for your DUMA bar to fill up so you can use the hard-hitting aerial attacks, and in a pinch, maybe even the DUMA shield.

While a commendable attempt in its effort to be more modern in its approach to real-time combat, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a far cry from something like Final Fantasy 7 Remake—a game with some real weight to its combat and filled with memorable boss fights.

Despite all of this, however, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has a certain charm to it that just constantly kept me coming back. While the combat was lacking and there wasn’t much in the way of memorable boss fights, the game’s characters are the true stars here. Rather than relying on cliched anime tropes, every major character in the game feels fleshed out, and when you think about it, there’s little else that’s really needed for a 40-hour journey through magical kingdoms, and even space.

"Star Ocean: The Divine Force is far from one of the best looking games out there. In fact, it looks rather ancient, especially when you compare it to other AA-level anime-styled games, like Scarlet Nexus or even Code Vein. Despite its lack of fidelity, however, Star Ocean: The Divine Force certainly has its moments."

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is far from one of the best looking games out there. In fact, it looks rather ancient, especially when you compare it to other AA-level anime-styled games, like Scarlet Nexus or even Code Vein. Despite its lack of fidelity, however, Star Ocean: The Divine Force certainly has its moments. While polygon counts are alright and textures often look muddy, it’s hard to argue that there isn’t some level of competent art direction going on. The game’s locations often look quite cool, are designed in ways that feel logical to the game’s settings, and every character is instantly recognisable.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force may not look like the most impressive game out there, and while its combat may be passable at the best of times, something about the game keeps making me come back to it. It’s got an entertaining story, sure, but I think the best aspect of Star Ocean: The Divine Force is its cast of characters. Both Raymond and Laeticia make for compelling protagonists, and even if it were just one of them leading the show, they could’ve pulled it off quite well. The inter-character writing is also quite fun, giving the game some heart.

The lengthy story, especially if you take into account the possibility of needing two playthroughs that, while largely the same, will give you a more complete picture of the story, might sound like a tough pill to swallow, but with characters like this, the pill starts sounding quite sweet.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

There are two protagonists to choose from: Raymond Lawrence and Laeticia Aucerius. As captain of the merchant ship Ydas, Raymond ends up stranded on Aster IV after an attack by the Federation ship Astoria. Laeticia is the princess of the Kingdom of Aucerius on the planet, which is at war with the Vey’l Empire.

Despite having separate companions, their lives become intertwined due to the mysterious D.U.M.A. (which the shady Vyrians want for some unknown reason). Featuring new combat mechanics, an open world to explore via flight, and various mini-games, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a pretty large experience. A timed demo is currently to try on consoles – head here for more details.

As vice-captain of the Astoria, Marielle has a role in destroying Raymond’s ship, though for what purpose is unknown. Based on the last name, it’s clear that she’s a descendant of past Star Ocean characters like Ronyx J. Kenny. Malkya’s race is native to the planet, and she lends her aid in the fight against the Vyrians.

While Marielle utilizes guns, Malkya fights up close and can extend her limbs via shape-shifting for added range. The total number of party members is ten, which should provide a range of options in combat. Star Ocean: The Divine Force is out on October 27th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out the final Mission Report video to see some of the bosses.

The new party members in question are Theo Klemrath and JJ. The former is adept with an axe, while the latter can become temporarily invulnerable and uses Kendoka in combat. Other characters that players will encounter include King Aucerius Raimbaut, Neyan Keizaal, Emperor Bohld’or il Weill, and Bennett Maudsley.

The video also showcases some of the boss battles, as players dodge attacks and attack weak points to deal additional damage. There’s quite the variety, from mutant plants and giant robots to massive sandworms and a dragon.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is out on October 27th for Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. A demo is currently available on all consoles.

Why does she suddenly team up with Raymond and friends? It’s not completely clear, but she is a valuable party member, wielding guns in combat. Other features showcased in the video include Item Crafting, Smithery and Engineering, along with a chess-like mini-game. Players can set down Pawns based on actual characters, each having unique stats.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is out on October 27th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. A demo is currently available for consoles, which is set near the beginning of Raymond’s story and offers roughly two hours of gameplay.