Star Ocean 3: Til the End of Time

Check out our review of Square Enix latest RPG...

Till the End of Time tells the tale of Fayt, an Earther who's on vacation with his family on the resort planet of Hyda IV. After some initial exploration (and some cutscenes), players find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion and a struggle to make it safely off the planet. Without revealing too much of the game's plot, Fayt finds himself thrust into a journey that leads him to primitive planets, back to advanced societies and on the run from several evil forces that seem unconnected (but we all know that most bad guys tend to work together in these types of stories). But what he doesn't know is that he is somewhat of a special young man that several factions scattered throughout the universe are interested in; he is more interested in finding out the fate of his loved ones that (he hopes) have made their way off the resort planet unscathed and safe.

And it is from that point that we'll leave the plot to your imagination. The storyline is reminiscent, in some respects, to an episode of Star Trek in that the player is constantly avoiding impacting civilizations that aren't as advanced as where they comes from. This means that in some parts of the game players will be forced to use weapons and armor that is primitive. This changes after several hours into the game, but players looking for a full blown action experience with a sci-fi edge will have to be patient with the gameplay.

Unlike previous titles in this popular series, Till the End of Time changes the battle system to be completely real-time. In it players can control one character at a time while the AI controls the rest. For the most part the AI handles your companions well, allowing you to concentrate on keeping the character at hand alive. Characters can gain a variety of attack skills that can be used in combat as well as offensive and defensive magic, and certain attacks can be set up for close quarters combat or for slightly distanced attacks (mapped to the X and O buttons on the PS2 controller). The game serves up a lot of different special attacks unique to each character so figuring out who your favorite is will more than likely depend on your style of play. Fayt meets a lot of characters that will join permanently or simply stick around for a short time. Some can be kept on for the long haul depending on how you advance the plot. The battle system works pretty well, though the AI controlled characters sometime have a habit of jumping a little too deeply into the fray at times.

The creatures that players will battle are represented in the world you explore (you can see them on the screen), which means that you can pretty much avoid battles that you need to -- and running away is usually an option for those that mistakenly stumble into a battle they didn't want in the first place. While this is an advantage in some cases it can also be a weakness to players that decide to skip ahead to the deeper parts of an area - because a lot of times their party won't be strong enough to handle the battles. So while skipping ahead is an option, it's probably not a good choice to make. Players will need to put in the proper amount of effort to level up and be truly powerful, so fighting as many battles as possible is important to winning the bigger fights later on.

The game's inventory system also makes things a bit more challenging because it limits the number of each item that you can carry - if you don't prepare in advance for major treks into the tougher areas of the game. Players will need to battle monsters (for loot) and buy the supplies they need to survive in between the areas where they can and can't save. Luckily being able to avoid enemies to return to an area where goods are available is usually an option.

The game also serves up a pretty interesting invention system that can provide players with new items, gear, weapons etc. While traveling through certain towns your party will come in contact with members of the Craftsman's Guild, which then gives you access to workshops for NPCs to research and create items. Both NPCs and party members have select skills that arte useful in crafting items, though most times players will find that a variety of different craftsmen (which you'll have to hire) with a myriad of skills are useful when taking on the task of item invention. Once the player invents a new item it can be made available in shops. Players can also leave the inventing in the hands of hired craftsmen and keep track of their progress using a PDA. Using the system is a real good way to create all types of new items, weapons, armor, gear and more. It's a pretty entertaining side game for players that want to pursue it and works well within the framework of the game.

Till the End of Time is a pretty decent looking game, offering clean 3D characters, a decent "world map" view, interesting monster design and nice cutscenes that convey a great deal of the game's story. The worlds in the game are well done and offer a lot of variety as the main character hops from resort world, to primitive society, back to advanced civilizations. Tri-Ace had done a pretty decent job on the game's overall presentation, though some of the cutscenes are a bit too drawn out for my taste, and some of the characters' facial expressions could have been animated a little more deeply.

Till the End of Time does offer a lot of story, a lot of non-player character interaction and a lot of interesting personalities that sometimes come off as a bit over the top. Tri-Ace's Drakengard had a similar feel to its storyline and characters - sometimes you'll find them intriguing and other times you'll wonder if they are all just plain crazy. Till the End of Time isn't quite as over the top as Drakengard in the story department, but sometimes some of the story's cutscenes offer a little too much (or not enough) emotion.

Having said all that, the bottom line is that Square Enix has done a great service in bringing another of Tri-Ace's titles to Europe. Till the End of Time is a decent game with a lot of twitch style role-playing action that button masher fans are going to love –and a lot of hidden baubles and activities (like a versus fighting mode for two players) that role-playing fans can sink their teeth into. The storyline isn't your normal role-playing game fare, and the contrast between the primitive worlds and the sci-fi settings is unique enough to stand out in the rather crowded RPG scene on the PS2. Rent it first to see of it's your kind of game.