It has been nearly twenty years since tri-Ace debuted their premiere franchise Star Ocean to the masses. It’s what started the Japanese developer down the path to greatness, eventually creating games such as Valkyrie Profile, Radiata Stories and the over-the-top Resonance of Fate. It was peculiar when Nepro Japan purchased the studio for an undisclosed amount last year, as tri-Ace seemed to be the complete opposite from the mobile scene, developing high octane, sprawling role playing games. Fortunately, Nepro didn’t limit tri-Ace strictly to the mobile market as once more the developer is diving back into the console space, bringing the next adventure in the Star Ocean universe. While it was released in Japan just recently, we in the west won’t have to wait too long to get our hands on the next major installment into the beloved space opera.

Despite recognizing the twist that came in Till the End of Time, tri-Ace seems to be avoiding it all together, not unlike Capcom’s Devil May Cry 2 conundrum. The Last Hope took place basically at the beginning of the Star Ocean timeline, showing the first (teenage) explorers going off into the abyss that is space, and now Integrity and Faithlessness is set between Second Story and Till the End of Time. Here, the story revolves around protagonist Fidel Camuze and childhood friend Miki Sauvester while on the underdeveloped planet of Faycreed, located roughly 6000 light years away from Earth. Once more players will get to traverse open landscapes, fight vicious monsters, unveil a looming mystery and collect a wide variety of characters.

The battle system follows what we’ve roughly come to expect from the long running series, although there have been a few new additions that streamline the experience. As per usual, Integrity and Faithlessness features vast locations to adventure, allowing for a fair amount of exploration while in the world. What tri-Ace has done is integrated the combat system straight into the open world environment, very similar to something like Final Fantasy XII. There will be enemies going on their own paths, and to start a battle sequence with them, all the player needs to do is get their attention by walking up to them. At that point, instead of going into a short load screen, the battle will initiate immediately, going from exploration mode straight into combat. This streamlines the experience greatly, moving more towards more modern RPGs such as Xenoblade Chronicles where entering and exiting combat is seamless, not bogging things down with menus or load times.

Best yet, instead of only having four characters in battle, Integrity and Faithlessness features up to seven at a time. This can look incredibly chaotic, but could theoretically lead to some strategic situations, especially considering players can swap between each individual on the fly. Outside of Fidel and Miki, there’s Relia, a mysterious young girl with enormous hidden potential, the sword wielding Victor, the busty mage Fiore, the gun-toting Emmerson, and finally the ever agile Anne. Players will have full control of each party member, moving around in a 3D environment with traditional actions such as strong & light attacks, and guarding. The Battle Skills have also made a return, allowing for special moves, unique to each individual of the party, to be assigned to the O and X buttons, all of which is based on the distance from an enemy.

It’s fantastic to see Star Ocean back into the mix once more, and now even more breathtaking than ever before. While The Last Hope was still a strong entry into the futuristic RPG, it was the characters and melodramatic story that dragged it down. While we’ll have to wait a couple of months to find out whether or not tri-Ace has improved the formula, all signs are pointing to positivity. Greatly streamlining the gameplay mixed with an intriguing cast of characters and vast worlds to explore, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is shaping up to be one of the must-own RPGs of 2016 when it becomes available June 28, exclusively for PlayStation 4.