McMurphy
Apostate Against the Eloi
Fayt Leingod is your typical teenage gamer in the Star Date 772. He is more concerned with hanging out in futuristic arcades showing off his skills at holographic battle simulators to his childhood friend Sophia Esteed than pay attention to what the ever ominous Panagalactic Federation has up its power hungry sleeve. That is an adult concern, and, besides, how could that ever impact his life? Right?
Wrong. While Fayt, his parents, and Sophia are vacationing at a resort, a military force attacks the planet (Hyda), resulting in a mass evacuation and a war of the galaxies. Fayt is separated from his parents, but not before his father alludes to some secret knowledge as to why the military force has decided to place the resort within its cross hairs. Soon, Fayt is also separated from Sophia during the escape to the emergency shelter. What does his father know? Who is behind the military strike? How does this involve the Pengalactic Federation? Will Fayt ever have a chance to try out his hormones on his childhood yet blossoming friend? These are the questions posed by Square Enix's Playstation 2 game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time as players start their quest to unfold mysteries surrounding Fayt’s life and parentage.
These opening events are told largely through player controlled sequences. You can steer Fayt to talk to Sophia, explore the beach front, and interact with other guests of the resort before getting a taste of what to expect in the game’s battles via an arcade’s battle simulator scene. The game designers use the very brief period before the attacks to get players accustomed to the types of gameplay they will face throughout the rest of the game. Players will be expected to search rooms, engage in real time battles, and make choices when interacting with other characters that will impact the course of subplots. The battle simulator actually gives new players a few false worries because the sequence is far more cumbersome than the average fight they will encounter throughout the rest of the game.
While the script writers set up a story with many possibilities, they fail to execute a resolution to many of the subplots and even major plot threads by the end of the game, which is an awful shame considering players have a fair amount of control as the game progresses of who they wish have in their party. Players will meet up with characters such as Peppita Rossetti, Cliff Fittir, Nel Zelpher, and Roger S. Huxley. Most characters are of different races, and the game takes great care of creating and fleshing out details of various political and military angles, race specifications, and even economic relationships between planets in the galaxy. Admirable, but much of the items of this developed reality, which is broken down in lengthy descriptions for ready reference in a player’s top menu, is left unexplored and wholly disregarded as the story progresses. Because of this oversight, players need not become overly concerned with familiarizing themselves with the finer details of the world of Star Ocean.
They will also not need to worry about being familiar with the previous chapters of the Star Ocean saga (Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey on Super Nintendo, Star Ocean: The Second Story on Playstation, or even the side quest game Star Ocean: Blue Sphere released on the Game Boy Color system). The game may not completely disregard other chapters as the Final Fantasy series has done, but it is not necessary to know what happened in the other games to enjoy this one.
Before players even get to experience the often convoluted storyline of Star Ocean, the game will ask that you make some choices first. Most of the choices are typical system configuration options, such as voice level settings and aspect ratios, the game is intended to be revisited so players can choose to skip all sequence events if it is their second time through the game. Players can also choose the difficulty level, which is unique for this type of RPG. Choosing "Galaxy Level" (Normal setting) is recommended for most players. "Earth Level" may be easier, but you will not be able to enjoy some of the later options of the game. The characters’ names can be changed, but it isn’t recommended considering the voice acting will refer to the default name in dialog.
Gamers will find many reassuring characteristics familiar in the Square Enix’s approach to game design. They will find items by searching a room, locate glowing save points, be expected to collect a library of health, magic, and event items for travel, experience levels, and fury gauges.
Like Final Fantasy, Fayt is sucked into battles, but players are able to see the enemies appear onscreen, which lends a choice of whether or not they wish to fight the monster. This choice does make the random battles staple a little less annoying, but keep in mind that skipping too many battles will too quickly place Fayt in a position to get slaughtered during an event fight. As if the developers couldn’t live with the idea of relieving gamers with one annoyance without providing another one in its place, players will need to keep an eye on Fayt and his party’s magic meter as well as their health meter to stay alive. That’s right: a character will die if their MP reaches zero.
The battle engine of Star Ocean is otherwise a familiar and fairly enjoyable experience. When sucked into battle, Fayt and a party up to two other characters real-time fight within a small area. With either the analog stick or the directional pad, players can move a character around swiftly. Dodging an attack even becomes quicker by pressing L2 and the left direction. The characters are given two general categories of physical attacks: minor (which is executed with the "x" button) and major (which is executed with the "o" button). As a character’s experience level increases, new attacks are learned. Depending which of the two buttons a player has assigned a Battle Skill to, holding down that button will execute the option. Both buttons can have Battle Skills assigned at the same time. The triangle button opens up the Battle Camp menu, where players has several options. Beyond the typical equipment, items, and escape choices, there are a couple unique to Star Ocean. Symbology accounts for the magic use in the game, and Tactics chooses how the other two characters in your party acts. Because this involves real-time fighting, the console has to do some of the fighting for you. It is advised that you keep Fayt on the Manuel setting (hence, the player controls him with the analog stick), while the others are automated. At times, players will be expected to switch the setting by pressing the R2 button and exchange their focus on another character by pressing either L1 or R1. Depending on what you have picked in the Tactics menu, the other characters will either exclusively attack, act as a healer, or act in a well balanced manner. The battle mechanics may sound daunting at first, but the learning curve isn’t as steep as it initially appears. Aside from the occasional headache of getting a character to retreat from the action before he/she gets killed, the system works well.
During the battles, three meters are keeping track of how well a player does in battle. The Fury Meter can lead to harder hits and more successful guards against enemy attacks when full: a feat accomplished through enough fighting. There is a Battle Rate Meter located on the right side of the screen that keeps track of how well you alternate your attacks and avoid hits. When full, players are rewarded with double or triple the experience on future battles until the meter is broken through too much damage or poor performance. Bonus battles are also possible. Trophies, which are collected to unlock features within the game, are awarded to battles where the Fayt does not receive damage.
Battles are certainly the focus of this game despite the story that surrounds it. There is even a two player option where gamers can fight each other for status with the cast of Star Ocean. While an interesting feature, it fails to be truly engaging. Most players will stick to actual arena fighting games if that is what they are interested in.
Exploring also has an added feature like the battles. Players are awarded with items when they have explored 100% of the area. Sometimes this feat is not possible until later in the game.
Players also have the option of inventing weapons, which Star Ocean pimps heavily. Fayt can create and join inventors' guilds, recruit inventors, build workshops, and compete in contests of which guild is outputting the best items/weapons. This option is extensive and very involving. It is also time consuming. It is important to understand that inventing weapons is an option, and is as mandatory in the gameplay as Chocobo raising is in Final Fantasy VII (in other words, it isn’t at all). Sure, you can create some items and weapons that are not available in normal searching, but the game can be beat without inventing a single weapon.
The graphics are great in this game and is easily one of its best features. Even the battle graphics, which normally suffers in above camera set-ups, retain anime-like appeal. The textures are sometimes flat, but that is to be expected with large field areas. The color choices are good and stay j-punked in style without becoming too overbearing.
The music becomes overbearing, however. The choice of squealing electric guitar solos leaves gamers turning down their volume. The job of a musical score is to compliment the events of the game and keep players engaged in the sequences. Star Ocean’s music does the opposite. It often annoys and even distracts from what is taking place in the game.
The voice acting is smooth and believable. The choices fit the tone of the game without becoming overly melodramatic or cartoon-like. The fault is that only the dialog pieces that are not affected by whatever choices a player has made throughout the subplots are voiced. It is understandable that the developers felt it was too time consuming to voice every single possible event a player may or may not encounter, but, regardless, an uneven gaming experience occurs when one minute the characters’ exchanges are voiced and the next minute they are not.
As mentioned before, the game is meant to be replayed to earn more trophies. Also, upon completing the Galaxy Level of the game, certain mini quests are assigned if a player wishes to complete them for small prizes.
The payoff of spending a good chunk of time playing this game is sadly not present. The game has a rich and fully realized set-up. It promises a complex story that unveils plot twists with Fayt’s father, which plays homage to the parenting in the anime classic Evangelion, love triangles involving Fayt and Sophia, and a climatic resolution where all the storylines knot together. Instead, the story hangs itself. The love triangles are never resolved and largely are ignored later in the game. As does the relationships between the other characters. The storyline, rather than making the player feel more and more invested in what happens to the galaxy, forces him/her to care less and less about what happens. There are no spoilers in this review, but there is a plot twist late in the game that feels a little too Philip K Dick in nature to have any real respect for the reality of Star Ocean. The end sequence, which can be different depending on what a player has chosen in the game, is still a letdown and does not meet the high standards of Square Enix’s RPG endings.
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has a "Teen" rating due to violence without blood and older-than-child themes. The romantic end of the game is never overtly sexual, although older players will certainly be able to read between the lines (a great example is the unspoken relationships in the all female warrior race) to see some more adult story items hinted at.
In the end, the game promises so much at the beginning and lulls players with great graphics, decent battle modes, many choices, and above average voice acting but quickly unravels into an unfinished, unsatisfying gaming experience. It is a game one hates to hate because it is a failure, but a failure with a lot of hard work behind it.
It is not a game recommended at the current US price ($49.00); however, loyal fans of the Square Enix may wish to get it as a discount title in the future as long as they can overlook some serious pitfalls.
Overall Rating: C-
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