Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

When I bought this game, I was looking forward to something that will keep me entertained for a long time. I mean, with two discs in the very shiny and seizure inducing case, this has to be a game that will keep you occupied for months, maybe even years! I thought that as well but let me tell you something, a long game is not always good. ?Star Ocean: Till the End of Time? is a remake of Star Ocean 3, developed by Tri-Ace. They added a plethora of things. Extra scenes, extra character, extra difficulty, the works. This game would've been great but there are a number of things that ruin it.

You are Fayt Leingod, a gaming college student and generic blue haired RPG hero in the year SD. 722 (Which is 1000s of years ahead of us I believe) having vacation with your parents and your cousin Sophia on the planet ?Hyda IV? Everything is calm and relaxing. As you're kicking back, enjoying a soda, staring at scantily clad woman when suddenly something attacks the planet you're on. In this game, you find yourself on various planets looking for your family that you lost in the devastating and quite predictable tragedy that occurred on Hyda IV. Of course, what would a RPG be without plot twists, predictable sections, and characters that seem to have unlimited amounts of hair dye. Star Ocean's story is like a earthquake detector well... during an earthquake. The story spikes as I see it. At one part, you're suspenseful and want to go on then at other parts, you just want to pass the story for the sake of completing this game. The good new is the story is predictable up the first part of disk two. Then the developers, for some sick and perverse reason, pulls a ultimate plot twist. This is when you find yourself interested in the game again. Of course, there are the moments where you want to find the developer of this game and smash his head into a television.



The cast of characters are unique but finds itself a bit generic. Of course, you're gonna have a girl gunner, of course, the main character uses a sword, of course you're going to find a body-builder using his fist, of course, you're going to find the female protangonist using a staff with healing magic. It's just, the characters are predictable. I knew, before even opening the game and playing it that at least one girl is going to specialize in healing magic. Now, here's the bad points about the story. The developers extend it to a nearly unbearable degree. With two discs, you know this isn't going to be a 5 hour game. More about 60-70 hours. Someone without the patience would probably use the game as coasters after finishing disk 1. Sure, this wouldn't be a problem if you got to visit a diverse number of planets but this is not the case. I wanted to grab a knife and stab my eyes out after staying on the same planet for nearly 30 hours. For a game with space travel, they sure like staying on a third-world planet for the whole first disk. In total, you get to visit 5 planets (3 of them don't even count considering how little you spend there.) One of the planets is a damn desert! For god sakes, I don't want to spent time in a desert planet aimlessly searching around for some gate that will allow me to travel through dimensions. Overall, the story is nothing to brag to your friends about but it's above average.

The graphics and the CG Cutscenes (There are barely any CG) are well done with that anime style but there were somethings they could've improved on. The environments could've been more detailed for one thing and the other thing is, a lot of the character models seemed really bad. If they could've shaped those up then the game would've been completely flawless.



This game's battle system isn't like most RPGs. The game allows you to run around dodging the enemy's constant and vicious attack and allows you to execute attacks of your own. That's right, it's real-time folks. The battle system works like this: the character has a meter called fury, use a attack and fury goes down, stand still, and fury goes up. If fury is depleted, then you can't do any attacks until the fury goes back up. The player is allowed to set skills to different buttons, mainly X (being normal attack) and O (being strong attack) and the power of the skill depends on what range you set it as. The farther you are from the enemy, the more efficient some skills become, and vice versa. Yes, for all you wizard lovers, there is a magic system but truthfully, it's nonexistent. In my 60 hours playing this, I haven't executed magic once, the only time I did, it was for healing. There are barely any spells and when you do hear a spell go off, it's probably from one of your allies. While we're on the topic of allies, lets go to the party system (PARTY?! DID SOMEONE SAY PARTY?) your party consists of 3 members, of your choice, all ran by AI (except you) You can switch between characters but usually, all your other characters are AI controlled. The AI system is actually quite good and certain characters work a bit better with certain characters. Of course, nothing would complete a Star Ocean game then the Item creation system. Yes, you too can be a inventor of things! From alchemy to smithing, you can make your very own longsword or a real doll and hire other inventors to do it for you. The Item creation system is fun and sometimes a lot of times, it's helpful and essential for your adventures in the Star Ocean world. At some point in the game, you get hammers and rings that can disintegrate certain walls. This adds to the optional quests and map completions (which I find is best part of this game.) After you beat the game, new dungeons, new challenges open that will have your head spinning. From 4,000,000 HP secret bosses to meeting Santa Claus (A scary variation of him but it's still SANTA CLAUS!), yes the optional questions are the redeeming qualities of this game. The game rewards you for doing certain things by giving you battle trophies. You never see these fabled trophies but as they gather over time, you can unlock new difficulties, art, and even the soundtrack.

No game would be complete without a great composer and a soundtrack. Star Ocean's soundtrack is average. With a tune to fit every moment and mood, the composer hit the bell on the head. Even with that, no song except for the ending song really stuck in my head. The sounds overall are excellent. The futuristic computers beep and the futuristic guns have that laser sound, you know like Boosh and Zzzz (Wow I sound like a total idiot trying to imitate the sound of a nonexistent gun) The character battle cries are bearable and they seem to have something to say for every battle situation. There is no complaint for the voice acting and it seems each voice fitted each character but what was with the dramatic pauses? I played different versions of this game because I thought it was the CD but each game had a dramatic pause. You know, a pause that lasts for 5-20 second without no one talking and just staring at each other? Talk about awkward silence!
Good job Tri-ace, your soundtrack wasn't total poop.



Well, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a good game with an above average story, good graphics that have some room for improvement, fun game play, awesome optional dungeons with loads to do after the game ends, and a great soundtrack. Star Ocean: Till the end of Time is a buy if you're ready to take the time to finish it. To tell you the truth, I found myself putting down the game then picking it up often. You cannot rent this game unless the spot you rent from lets you rent it as long as you want. If you rent it, it'll just take way too long to finish. So buy if you have the time to finish it, but don't buy it if you're a casual gamer. This very looooooong game gets 3.5 stars.

3.5 star(s) out of 5

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