quare Enix, as a company, is kind of like veteran character actors. Throughout the years they hone their trade to a near perfect art form. They know what they’re good at and they know how to make it work. Despite the fact that the company is beginning to branch out in new directions with non-RPG related titles, it’s still clear that Final Fantasy is their bread and butter franchise. They’ve molded the series into a veritable money machine, as well as one that has the ability to instantly grab the attention of millions of gamers around the world. Taking this into account it’s interesting to sit down with a game like Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time, a title that is an RPG but also the near opposite of what you’d expect to find in a Final Fantasy game. While the game isn’t perfect, it does succeed on a number of levels thanks to an engaging storyline, unique battle system, and characters that exhibit a surprising amount of emotion and chemistry.
Fayt is just an average college student from Earth vacationing in space with his parents and friend Sophia. The year is S.D. 772, and Earth and its surrounding worlds have banded together to form the Pangalactic Federation. The Federation is far from perfect but manages to keep the peace between a number of races and species, although there are worlds which have chosen to stay unattached to the collective group. All of this, however, doesn’t mean much to Fayt. He’s more concerned with getting good grades and playing virtual battle simulator games. His attitude takes a sudden 180 when the ship he’s vacationing on is attacked by a mysterious enemy known as the Vendeeni. Rushing to an escape pod, Fayt ends up separated from his parents and Sophia, and he also becomes marooned on a distant underdeveloped planet. What begins with Fayt simply waiting to be rescued soon escalates into much, much more.
As I mentioned before, Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time is not Final Fantasy, and you’ll discover this fact almost immediately. Characters in the game are strongly anime-inspired and feature misshaped bodies and large eyes (not to mention multicolored hair). If anything, character models are more reminiscent of what you would find in a Xenosaga title. While a bit unfamiliar for those who have grown accustomed to the ultra realistic characters from Final Fantasy, the new character models give the title a nice dose of originality.
Another element that will snap you out of your Final Fantasy haze is the unique battle system. Even though the game is an RPG, don’t expect to find any semblance of a turn-based system of fighting. All action takes place in real-time and you have the ability to switch to any character in your party (up to three) simply with a push of a button. Instead of featuring the standard RPG system of picking your actions through a menu to attack, you’ll take much greater control in your combat tactics. Attacks are mapped to the Square and Circle buttons on the controller, one being designated as a minor attack while the other is classified as a major one. Pressing the buttons in certain combinations will make your characters string together combo attacks. Combat also takes on a new twist considering that, when fighting, you can freely move your characters around the boundaries of the screen at your leisure. In fact, some characters are more attuned towards attacking from a distance while others are more skilled at melee combat.
If you hate random combat, Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time will save you many a grey hair. All enemy encounters are visible on-screen and most of the time you’ll have the choice to run into the enemy and initiate combat or run away and save some valuable hit points. As you progress further in the game, enemies do speed up in their pursuit of you, making combat quite a bit harder to avoid, but there is always the chance that you’ll be able to run by unscathed.
Combat does have its limitations, however. You’ll still use a standard RPG system of having a hit point counter as well as a mental point indicator (much like magic points from other RPG games). While regular attacks can be used as much as you want, you’ll eventually begin to unlock special skill move and attacks as you level up your characters. While powerful, these skills actually cost your player hit points to perform. The system is pretty neat and really forces you to carefully weigh your options when fighting. For example, using Fayt’s Blade Of Fury attack will result in you dealing an enemy considerable damage, it may not be the wisest of moves if you’re really low on hit points.
The system of fighting is also bound by a special Fury Meter that dictates how often you can perform any given action during combat. Moving, attacking, using items, and pulling off skill moves all consume your Fury Meter. Once it reaches a certain level, you’ll lose the ability to perform any more moves until it fills back up. Thankfully this is pretty easy to accomplish, as leaving your character idle for a second or two will automatically refill the gauge. But the Fury Meter also comes into play when using special Tactical moves. Tactical ability focuses on using special “Auras” that can be used to deflect enemy attacks and special moves. Early on in the game you’ll run across a special item that allows you to use the Anti-Attack Aura. If you have a full Fury Meter and an enemy unleashes a minor attack at you, you’ll not only deflect it but also dizzy your foe which leaves him vulnerable to counter attacks. During the game you’ll also run into a variety of other Tactical skills to use.
Despite the fact that you do have the option of simply pressing the same attack button over and over again when engaged in melee combat, attacks encompass features outside of the realm of swinging a sword around your head. Characters differ when it comes to their battle skills and you’ll eventually enlist the help of some of that are more attuned to using magical attacks. All characters possess a certain amount of mental points which can be used in conjunction with the Symbology ability. Essentially Symbology is just a fancy word for magic, and using it grants you the ability to cast both defensive and offensive spells. Being able to carefully balance your cast of characters is essential considering that Symbology-focused individuals tend to be physically weaker than those adept at combat.
Despite the fact that during combat you have the ability to switch to any of your party members with a push of a button, there are times when you’ll simply want your teammates to take care of themselves. Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time features a pretty extensive system of modifying character AI to react to a number of different circumstances. Options include making a character put forth an all out attack, attack in a more conservative manner, conserve their Fury Meter, focus their attack on a single enemy, as well as not to use their hit point depleting skill abilities. Overall the AI setting system works pretty well, although the selection to choose from is a bit thin when compared to a title like Namco’s Tales Of Symphonia which has an extremely robust and deep mechanism of setting character actions.
Visually the game is very impressive and features not only well rendered character models but also engaging environments. Characters feature a high number of polygons but never come across as too realistic or life-like. Each of the characters also sport a high degree of fine-tuned animation, especially during combat. If you find yourself yawning away at the RPG norm of watching your character step forward, swing their sword, and then step back, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the game. Characters will flip around and jump into the air as they unleash their devastating moves, complete with impressive particle effects. Also, don’t expect to sit through 20 minute FMV sequences. While Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time does make use of FMV occasionally most are very short and clock in at around 15 seconds or so. However, do expect to sit through hours of in-game rendered cutscenes a la Xenosaga. Just as in that title, Star Ocean relies heavily on using in-game cinematics to tell its story, which is either a good or bad thing depending on your patience.
Square Enix has always been known for including great sound in their titles and Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time is no exception…to a degree. Most scenarios in the game features full voice-over work for the characters, most of which is delivered with gusto and emotion. But while the game does sport some impressive tunes now and then, I find myself shaking my head in absolute bewilderment at most of the tracks offered up. Ranging from cheesy 80’s guitar riffs to bizarre J-pop sounding love songs, many of the more prominent songs just didn’t seem to fit into the overall scheme of the title.
While Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time offers up an incredibly deep and engaging RPG experience, there are a few annoyances that need to be addressed. First of all the game features a mind-boggling amount of backtracking. True, true, backtracking is nothing new to the RPG genre but the game takes it to almost frustrating levels at certain points in the game. Once particular part has you actually backtracking through about 8 different areas that you’ve previously trekked through, which not only proves to be boring but also frustrating since you’ll often be forced into fights by quick moving enemies. Another drawback lies in the fact that the game doesn’t put forth much effort in guiding you to where you may need to go next. Final Fantasy titles often featured large red arrows or other indicators in your on-screen map which pointed you out towards objectives. Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time has no such features and you’ll often find yourself running around mindlessly trying to figure out what to do. It doesn’t help matters either that many scenarios require you to talk to certain characters a number of times or talk to every character in an area before you can trigger an event that will set you on your way.
Overall Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time is an admirable RPG from Square Enix and a great title for those RPG fanatics that are looking for something other than your typical Final Fantasy experience. Great art and great combat makes for an enjoyable play and the story nudges you along at just the right pace to keep things interesting. The backtracking and confusing objectives are a downer but easily overlooked in regards to the overall experience that Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time has to offer.