Loved star ocean: Till the end of time and this definitely meets my expectations and more.
Pros:
* Great storyline, intices you in and the cut scenes are great, it feels like your watching a movie that you can play. They also give you the chance to skip scenes but then you can read what just happened in the scene.
* Characters are fun and all have different emotions and personalities. You start to feel attached to them in some way as you progress and events start happening.
* Graphics are crisp, a fair amount of detail has been added in. Different surroundings make for a colourful game not just dull or over pretty.
* Camera angles are hard to start off with but then it just feels natural, also invert the camera angle so its like your usual fps.
* The gameplay is delightful in everyway. I just love entering every battle i get in because it is fun, fluent and bucking brilliant. You can really pull of some neat combos and with the new blindside feature it really adds a nice effect. With around 8 characters and many skills, combos, chain links to pull off it is quite overwhleming but in a good way.
* Music is great, motoi sakuraba always pulls of the best. The music fits the mood, location and the events of what is happening.
* Other things you can do in this game which is great are side quests, item creation, symphasis to make more powerful weapons, mine, harvest and so much more i can't even think right now.
The variety of monsters in this is great, they vary in size, speed, looks and what type of habitat they belong to. Unlike games where you wonder around and get randomly attacked in this you can see all the monsters on screen and have the chance to dodge them or fight them. There is also a database for them.
Cons:
* Voice acting can vary from bad to very bad, 2 characters especially and that is meracle and lymlie. They really drag on the scene.
* Backtracking can get tedious sometimes as can changing disc just to do maybe one thing.
* Save points can be a long distance away from you when your in a dungeon or just walking around which can make for some tough battles in between.
* Dungeons are really big and mixed with puzzles and monsters can really bring out a challenge which is good but sometimes you just wanna get to the end and beat the boss. That leads me to another thing. After fighting your way through a hard dungeon there is normally an epic battle with a boss and if there is no recovery sphere and you have run out of items you are pretty much screwed. Good thing is there is a save point.
* Some boss battles can go on for around 10 mins plus if you dont really know what you are doing and not sure how to max out your stats and capabilities. Good thing is once you have defeated the boss you get that sense of achievment and feel great.
Overally i thouroughly reccomend this game and the fact you can get the game for around £25 is a complete bargain. I also reccomend the guide. This is an awesome game and if you have a lot of time on your hands this will last you the summer and more. Thats guarenteed. A definite game for challenging players and there are difficulty levels.
9.5/10