Will 'Star Ocean: The Divine Force' Have Romance Options and Will there Still Be Pairings?

Star Ocean is back with Star Ocean: The Divine Force, which fans hope will bring the series back to its former greatness. The one question resting on Star Ocean fans' minds is whether or not Star Ocean: The Divine Force will have romance options.

For those who don't know, Star Ocean is one of Square Enix's premier RPG series that typically focus on action-centric combat, intricate storytelling, and multiple protagonists to deliver various vantages on the story and different gameplay avenues.

While the Star Ocean series had its heyday back on the Super Nintendo and later the PS1 and PS2, the series has been somewhat dormant in recent years. A big part of this has been due to the lack of a mainline entry into the series since Star Ocean: The Last Hope, which came out all the way back in 2009.

While fans of the series have been kept waiting with another rerelease of the first game, Star Ocean: First Departure R, on the Nintendo Switch and the widely panned prequel game Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessnes, Square Enix and tri-Ace have hopefully been putting something worthwhile together with Star Ocean: The Divine Force. But will the game have what it takes to reinvigorate fans' excitement for the series?

Announced during the 2021 PlayStation State of Play event, Star Ocean: The Divine Force has at least had some air of promise for the series since it initial unveiling. Being the first mainline entry in the series for quite sometime, Star Ocean: The Divine Force will hopefully be able to recapture some of the magic that the series had lost and reinvigorate the series for future installments.

Part of reinvigorating the Star Ocean series, of course, is updating the games to what's expected of a contemporary JRPG. Luckily it seems like Star Ocean: The Divine Force will do just that with its new set of open environments, snappy combat, and multifaceted narrative. But what fans really want to know is rather or not Star Ocean: The Divine Force will have romance options.

While nothing is confirmed about how romances work in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, it's basically expected that there will be something there. One key aspect of this is that it has been confirmed that players will be able to choose from multiple protagonist each with their own sets of companions that they'll have their own relationships with.

Another element adding to that precedent is how previous Star Ocean games have handled romance and relationships. Specifically, Star Ocean: The Second Story and other entries in the series have relied on a character points scale where the more the player interacts with certain characters, the more points they'll earn; whoever they've interacted with the most will have a special pairing ending at the end of the game, which can be romantic.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is coming to Xbox One, Series X, Series S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC on October 27.