So, does Star Ocean 3 really live up to the development cycle? In some ways yes, and in some ways no.

User Rating: 7.9 | Star Ocean: Till the End of Time PS2
By Ryu | Review Date:
Star Ocean: Till the End of time is the third installment in the notably popular Star Ocean series developed by Square-Enix. The first Star Ocean was only released in Japan, and so North American gamers had to wait until the second installment, Star Ocean: The Second Story for the Playstation to get a taste of Enix's RPG franchise. Many gamers, including myself, were drawn to Star Ocean 2 due to it's spectacular battle system and very likable cast of characters. Now, after a number of years, Square-Enix has finally stamped another roman numeral onto the Star Ocean series with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for the Playstation 2. But just how is the game, really? Well, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a fundamentally solid and overall fun game...most of the time. You see, there are a couple of nuances that restrain Star Ocean from the "must-have" sticker that many gamers had hoped and even expected it would carry. I can say this -- the game starts off very, very promisingly, but somewhere along the way, it really falters. But let's start with the high points. The battle system was where Star Ocean 2 really shined, so how does this carry over in the third installment? I'm glad you asked. The battles are fun and furious, though very much toned down from the frantic pacing found in Star Ocean 2. As a whole, the system just makes sense and it’s all very well balanced. Each character has a "fury" meter, as do your opponents, and when this meter is at 100%, all minor attacks (executed with the X button) are deflected automatically by a sort of energy shield. You can only destroy this shield by executing a major attack (executed by pressing the O button). The shield will shatter, and the attack will connect. The recipient of the attack, be it you or an enemy, will find that their fury meter will drop drastically when broken. When the meter is not at 100%, you cannot deflect minor attacks (the fury meter is recharged simply by standing still), and furthermore, the fury meter is directly tied to special and magic attacks. By using a special attack, the fury meter will fall a certain amount depending upon the power of the special move (this effectively prevents you from using too many special moves in a row). Special moves are assigned to the X and O buttons as well, and as with basic attacks, their strength and ability to penetrate the fury shield is determined to the button you assign them to. A special attack assigned to the O button (major attack button) will make it through an enemy's fury shield and be slightly more powerful, but will cost more HP/MP to use/cast (yes, special moves consume HP). On the other hand, moves assigned to the X button will deflect off of a fully charged fury shield and will be slightly less powerful, but on the other hand, they will require less HP/MP to use/cast. It's also worth mentioning that, oddly, you die when you run out of MP. This can be very frustrating if you don't realize it beforehand and suddenly die from running out of MP (I'd know). Now you might be wondering how you use special moves being that they're assigned to the same buttons as basic attacks. It’s simple: you just hold down the button rather than tapping it. You can assign up to four special moves per character, with two usable at short range from your enemies (one X and one O), and two usable at long range (one X and one O). Furthermore, some attacks can only be assigned to the O button, and some can only be assigned to the X button, though most combinations are possible. By pressing the triangle button, you pause the action within the 3D, free-roaming, real-time battle system and access the battle menu. In the menu, you can select AI commands for your computer-controlled comrades, use items, select magical spells for any of your characters, and escape from battle. It’s also worth noting that changing characters is as easy as tapping one of the top buttons on the controller, so changing between party members as needed isn’t too difficult, though you won’t really need to most of the time. Looking back on the length of this explanation of the battle system, it may seem a bit intimidating, but trust me when I say it’s easy to learn. Once you understand how major and minor attacks work and how you want to work your fury meter for yourself, anyone with prior RPG experience should pick it up just like that. As far as the story goes, it’s all pretty generic sci-fi fare with few if any spectacular twists and turns. They have a thing or two that might take you by surprise and make you say, “oh...okay,” but that’s about the extent of it. Put quite simply, Star Ocean isn’t a game to play for the story. It's much like its predecessor in that respect, so fans of the series won't be put off by this. To its credit, the characters are quite varied and all bring a little something different to the table, which is made more worthwhile by the return of private actions. For those unfamiliar with the series, private actions are basically scenes within certain towns between your main character and another character you speak to, whereupon you often have a choice of how to respond to their comments. These comments almost always have an effect on how much that particular character grows to either like, or if you so desire, detest you. But the problem with private actions this game is that there’s no indicator that they even exist. To be quite honest, I didn’t know they existed until just a few dungeons before the very final stand. By then, I’d missed almost all of them. In Star Ocean 2, by pressing square next to a town on the world map, you’d initiate a private action. There is no world map in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and so private actions are available right when you enter a town. Without a word, your other characters seperate from the main character, Fayt, and you can talk to them to see if any of them happen to grant you a private action or just some boring one box dialogue. But private actions are rare, which is why I never even knew they'd returned until only a bit before the end of the game. I feel there should have been some indication that they existed, but I digress. Graphically, Star Ocean is nothing really special, but it also isn’t ugly by any stretch of the imagination. The mouths on the characters are often dormant as characters speak, and the characters have very few facial expressions, making for some bizarre looking situations when disaster is occurring all around and Fayt looks largely indifferent, while Sophia smiles away. But the quirkiness aside, character models are all colorful, and have much more inspiration than say, Suikoden 3 (oh why has the great series fallen?). Many will also appreciate the anime influence behind the characters, as well as the dramatic camera angles. These camera shifts are odd and misplaced a good bit, but it's far better than them not being there at all. That being said, backgrounds are what really shine in Star Ocean 3. Most of the time, you’re not actually in space as you might guess from the title, but instead you spend most of your time on various planets. The planets that you’re placed upon are very atmospheric, conveying the feel that each planet or location is meant to deliver. If a section of the planet is flourishing, you'll be able to tell at a glance, and the same goes should it be a barren wasteland. All things said, the visuals are solid and do what they should without ever really taking your breath away (though the CG sequences may tickle your fancy). As far as the sound goes, I have to say that it’s very average. There’s not one track that stands out in my mind as I sit here, not having played it for well over a month. It’s all quite generic and forgettable, though it all does get the job done. Everything from the action-oriented, panicky tracks to the soft, melancholic music that every RPG simply must have is here and accounted for. The sounds of battle are also crisp and satisfying for the most part, though you will occasionally hit an attack and the sound simply won’t come. This only occurs when the battles are chaotic and tons of other sounds are already overlapping it though, so it isn’t a large complaint. As far as the voice acting goes, I can only tell you not to get your hopes up. Make no mistake, this is no Metal Gear (though to it’s credit, the voices are far better than SO2’s). The voice acting, to be quite frank, is pretty bad for the most part. Many of the lines are overdelivered, and one or two of the voices are just plain annoying. Oh, and you will get tired of the battle comments. There's no escaping it. I’m still so sick of hearing Cliff say, “moron; know your enemy before you strike the first blow,” that I could scream. So, even with all that said, Star Ocean still sounds like a fine game, right? After all, Star Ocean 2 didn’t have many great musical tracks, the voice acting was horrid, the graphics were hardly stellar, and the story was basic. That sounds a lot like this one, right? Well, where this one falls short is in the technicalities. Hear this: Star Ocean 3 is tedious. No, not because of random battles, as your enemies are represented on-screen so that you can dodge them if your hands and eyes are quick enough. But that hardly matters. Why? Because you have to level up in Star Ocean 3. A lot. No, I don’t think you understand. A LOT. I usually don’t mind leveling up in RPGs, but to level up this much and still just barely squeeze by on bosses and some of the more difficult normal enemy encounters is just crazy. Oh, and I’m only playing the standard difficulty. There is an easy mode, but in playing it, many of the game's extras are disabled. That’s hardly attractive to most gamers. Thus we innocently choose the standard difficulty, and are instead cast into “level up” mode instead. Even with the leveling aside, you must eventually do more than buy your equipment. The best purchased equipment in the game simply won’t stand against the trials you'll face in the late parts of the game. So what do you do? You must delve into the Hell that is item creation. Those familiar with Star Ocean 2 will recall item creation, but no. This is completely different. You see, now your party members are apparently all clumsy goobers in all craft-related skills. As inept as the party is, you must hire and recruit inventors to create items for you instead. These inventors don’t suck like your party members do, you see (though ironically, a few suck just as bad or more). But make no mistake -- inventing is annoying. Every item that can be created has a price range that the item will fall within when you are considering creating an item. The item that you are trying to create is unknown, and the price and selected category is your only hint as to what you might create. Since there are many, many items in some categories, and the prices will be the same or similar for many items, you’ll never know what you’re even trying to create without a strategy guide or a FAQ. It’s an incredibly flawed system since you’ll simply need to use this late in the game. I hope you have a lot of time to kill or a lot of patience. But luckily, synthesizing items’ characteristics to your weapons (for instance, +500 attack from Orichalum) is much simpler than item creation itself, and synthesizing is what you’ll be doing with the most things you develop from item creation anyway. So, does Star Ocean 3 really live up to the development cycle? In some ways yes, and in some ways no. The ridiculous amount of levelling you must endure and the sheer annoyance that is item creation combine to make the game (or at least the later parts) incredibly slow and tedious. Yet the game is very solid and fun in almost every other aspect. In the end, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a great game for an RPG purist who likes to level up (a lot), yet can appreciate the nontraditional battle system and unique sci-fi theme of the game. However, it is only average for the more casual gamer who just likes to stick in an RPG every now and then and immerse themself in an enjoyably unique world.

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