Well done, Square Enix – another good RPG epic without a Final Fantasy title! Star Ocean is indeed an epic game which people who like more than 10 hours play time out of a game will love - In fact you can expect up to an impressive 80 hours gameplay out of this baby if you take on all the side quests.
The game begins on Planet Hyda IV, in the year 772 of the S.D. Calendar. You play Fayt Leingod, on holiday with his parents and his best friend Sophia Esteed.
The background story is that for four hundred years, humans and aliens have co-existed in peace. The influence of the Pangalactic Federation, which rules the planet, has continued to grow. But whilst you begin exploring your hotel and playing some VR battles, this peaceful planet suddenly comes under attack from an unknown space superpower.
The game has a very slow, annoying start, but patience has always been key to any Square-based game. Once the attack begins, things start to get a little more exciting as you have to go to an evacuation ship, and suddenly Fayt is separated from his parents, and not long after, Sophia. This is when the game really begins as you set of on your mission to survive, and find your loved ones.
There are many aspects of this game worth highlighting. Firstly, its scale. You’re not going to explore one planet with this game, but a universe! You get taken from planet to planet, meeting new people, exploring new worlds, fighting evil whatever it may be and in a very Quantum Leap manner; ‘trying to find a way home’. There’s no other way to describe it but huge! After you land your evacuation pod on a strange planet, you experience a couple of hour’s gameplay which surreally feels like an episode of Star Trek (play it and you’ll see what I mean). You then get whisked away and begin getting involved in this gigantic war. I don’t want to give much more of the plot away, but you can get a pretty good idea of the scale of this two DVD game.
As for gameplay, it’s much like any other decent RPG. To be honest, Till the End of Time is a good game, but it's nothing too amazing. Throughout the game you get to play as 10 different characters, and there are lots of little things RPG geeks will love (and I’m not being insulting, I’m one too!). For example, there's an original inventing option, and you can travel the worlds looking for inventors to enlist, and doing so will give you a much higher chance of inventing a high-quality item.
In addition, the game offers a Dictionary which fills the player in on both major and minor details about the game world, and is actually a really good read, which allows you to immerse yourself even further into the game.
On the downside, however, there are little annoying things too. You’ll be surprised at how little the game allows you to carry. They’ll be no 99 herbs here, as you can only carry 20 at a time. This can cause issues later in the game when things get tough as you may need to backtrack to town just to stock up on well needed supplies.
Also, the dungeons can be a tad confusing on the other hand user-friendly at times. One ruins-based dungeon for example, made you feel like you were in the Labyrinth and you could spend ages trying to find your way out. On another occasion an ice dungeon also made life awkward when it just came to exploring!
One of the game’s focuses is its Real-Time combat battling. Forget turned-based combat and hurray, no random encounters! Here you can get down and dirty with simple attacks to which you can create combos and do special moves. The AI really adds to the battle too as those monsters really keep you on your toes, and help you become the fighting master you are destined to be! There are some downsides to the battle system however. You can be killed off if your MP (Magic Points) reaches zero, and it can easily happen so it’s something you need to keep an eye on.
In addition to normal combat, there is the option to play two-player battles, which of course is always a blast.
Till the End of Time also offers you the option to attempt to collect battle trophies. These are earned when you fulfil a certain condition while battling. There are 300 conditions to be fulfilled, and once attaining a certain percentage of the 300 trophies, you will unlock costumes, higher difficulty modes and a music test. Most Star Ocean gamers will probably spend a lot of time collecting these trophies, as multiple playthroughs are needed to obtain all 300. This adds to its replay value.
Of course, I couldn’t go without mentioning the graphics. It offers Japanese anime style characters as per usual in many RPG’s these days, but the FMV looks beautiful. The average backgrounds in dungeons and towns etc. are well, average, which is a shame, but there are a few gameplay graphic highlights, such as when you pull off your special skills in battle.
Finally, the music and sound. The games sound affects are fine, nothing more, nothing less, and again the same for voiceovers, although the repetitive things people say during the battles can get very annoying very quick. Also, the battle music can be very grating at times.
For the rest of the time the music is very symphonic, and this is because it is by renowned Japanese composer Motoi Sakuraba. It adds to the epic feel of the game and can be very beautiful and this can make up for the majority of the annoying battle noises we have to endure.
So, Star Ocean Till the End of Time is a game that RPG fans will really enjoy, although it has its downsides. Overall, it’s a slightly above average game, but there are those little nuances that will draw the RPG fans in. On top of its size it also has good replay value as there is so much to do with its side quests and multiple endings. To conclude, a mixed bag, but with more good than bad. It’s not FF, but it’s more than playable…
Keri Allan
