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Three years. Three entire years. That�s how long it took Enix, now Square-Enix, to localize the third console iteration of its� Star Ocean series, subtitled Till the End of Time, into English. And it took another year for the game to be marked down in price and enter the Greatest Hits lineup. All of this waiting would test the patience of even the most die-hard RPG fan, but lucky for them (and us), it was well worth the wait. Rewarding our patience and reversing the usual trend, Square-Enix has given North American gamers the Director�s Cut edition of Star Ocean 3, with added goodies such as a robust multiplayer battle mode and extra side quests.
An intriguing storyline is absolutely crucial in an RPG, as a crappy plot chock full of generic characters and bad clich�s can cause one to disown the game in question. In this regard, Enix both succeeds and falls short. The plot places you as Fayt Leingod, a blue-haired Earth teen with a horribly spelled name (thanks, localization�) whom is vacationing on the planet Hyda with his parents and cousin Sophia. While in the luscious resort the group is staying at, the planet is attacked by an alien race called the Vendeeni. Everyone at the resort is ordered to retreat to a safe haven shelter, where they will be picked up by an escape ship and transported to a nearby planet. However, on the way to the escape area, Fayt�s parents are captured and possibly killed by Vendeeni troops. Oh no! Who would have guessed! After the initial sequence of events, the escape shelter is attacked and everyone has to leave on escape pods bound for nearby planets, Fayt included.
So, referencing the Big Book of RPG Plot Devices, we have Smart Young Teen, Teen�s Female Companion, family members captured after lagging behind, and then Teen trying to go back and save his family before being carried away by another member of the clich� circus, Big, Strong Guy with Soft Heart. In all honesty, I�m being too harsh on the game here. Once this is all said and done, Fayt�s escape pod crash-lands on a backwater planet with 16th century technology, a big step backwards from Fayt�s circa-2400 techno babble. He travels through the initial forest region (clich�!) and finds a village, passes out from exhaustion (clich�!) and is rescued by the native elf kids (another clich�!), who nurse him back to health, get themselves captured (make the clich�s stop!) by the Evil Rouge Menace brewing an evil scheme on the planet (clich�s times three). Wait, didn�t I say I wouldn�t be so harsh on the story? I guess I did, sorry.
After all of this standard RPG exposition, the epic storyline explodes into a grand adventure spanning multiple worlds, with tons of intriguing characters, and containing a very nice amount of unexpected plot twists that serve to shake up the pace of the story just when it starts to get complacent with RPG standards. While the first hour of the game�s story is rife with the same-old, same-old, those who stick through it will be treated to an excellent weaving of storylines and action.
Backing up the grandiose of the story is one of the most natural and well-executed voiceovers I�ve seen in an RPG. What makes this all the more surprising is the fact that SO3 is coming from Square-Enix, home of the wooden-voiced Yuna from FFX. But all of that ear-splitting stilted acting is rarely found in Till the End of Time. Actually, save for a few characters that sound like helium-filled chipmunks, the voiceovers are delivered very realistically, thanks in part to a very well done translation of the text and the use of many recognizable voice actors from other big-name RPGs. A far cry from many overly wordy or wit-free localizations in RPG history, Star Ocean isn�t afraid to sprinkle exaggerated humor or everyday chatter sequences amidst all the drama and action, something I was appreciative of during seemingly pointless stretches of uneventful-ness.
As beneficial as a great story and competent localization are to an RPG, if the gameplay isn�t fun, then none of that will matter. Lucky for us, the combat system in Till the End of Time is fairly robust and very fun to use. Similar to games like Namco�s Tales series, battles take place in real time after encountering an enemy on the field map. Once in battle mode, players control one member of your three-person party while the other two are set to AI attack patterns. At any time, you can change which character you control directly, and AI tactics, set to one of six strategies, can be modified at will, too. This allows a bit of flexibility to party control, so that you aren�t always one character the whole span of the game. Once engaged in battle, players use the X and Circle buttons to attack foes, with programmable special attacks able to be set for when you hold down a button. Complete 3D freedom of movement is also here, although most of the time you�ll be focused on beating the crap out of the enemy creatures.
Therein lies the main issue I have with the battle system. While the abilities to change AI tactics, use a variety of symbology spells (a fancy name for magic), and customize special attacks and characters are there, I found that, more often that not, battles just degenerated into a frenzy of button mashing. Most of the time, you don�t even have to heal because provided you equip your characters right, they�ll recuperate lost HP at the end of a fight. Now, the difficulty does ramp up about 1/3 of the way through the game, and pausing to heal or cure an ally of damage does become essential, but after you do this, one can go right back into smacking opponents who have only become tougher because they deal more damage. All the complexities and tricks that the game teaches you early on are for naught, and this drains the fun from combat after the 5,032nd time you pound on the X button. And yet, despite the battle system�s inherent flaws, it can still be fun to just run up and button mash away if you feel particularly stressed one day. This saves the battle system from being completely flawed, though it does not excuse the flaws themselves.
Aside from all the battles and dungeon traversing that Star Ocean 3 has in common with most role-playing games, one particular aspect of its dungeons that captured me was the map exploration. In all dungeon areas, and some intermittent fields, the radar that always shows your surroundings will need to be explored. That means running around the maps uncovering all the little nooks and crannies you can in hopes of the little percentage icon in the lower corner of the screen will top out at 99% and complete the map. For those curious gamers (or just ones with a lot of time on their hands), total exploration of an area can yield prizes, so it is usually to your benefit to do so. While it may seem tedious to some, I saw this little gimmick as slightly addicting, forcing repeat walkovers of the land in hopes of complete and total exploration.
Other side quests are included in Till the End of Time, as well, such as a multiplayer versus mode for two players, various extra missions to be completed, and the major mini-game of the quest, the Invention System. Fayt can open up his own network of shops after a certain point in the game and recruit locals abroad to help in the creative process. Be it in dungeons or in cities, inventing requires a boatload of time, money, and, yes, patience. I won�t go into the details here, lest you fall asleep reading the paragraphs it would take to do so. Just know that a robust system awaits those who embrace it, and nifty items can be created for the party if enough time is invested in the Invention system.
Rounding out the overly stuffed package of Star Ocean 3 are the stylized 3D anime-resembling graphics. Clean textures and minimal clipping compliment the modestly-detailed-but-highly-colorful models throughout. Lip-syncing is a little stilted, as are the movements of the characters, but for a game that originally came out in Japan in 2001, it�s pretty damn impressive. Adding to the fact, the vast majority of cut scenes are rendered in real time, showing that a Square-Enix RPG can fare just fine without every other scene being CG-rendered. There are moments that this is the case here, but it is far more infrequent than in an average Final Fantasy romp.
So this is what three years bring, is it? Well, I must say, for a game with as ambitious a story as this, it pulled it off quite nicely, making it a stellar (no pun intended) space age RPG, second only to Xenosaga in the sci-fi field. And much like that game, despite the years of delay, the pseudo-anime designs still appear to have aged well and present themselves above the usual muddy crop of graphical standards. While the game starts off with a clich�-ridden rocky start, the plot explodes into something more grandiose, and enjoyable, than I expected. Aided by the strong localization and rather unique, if occasionally monotonous, combat system, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time proves itself to be a worthy addition to any RPG aficionado�s collection, especially now that the title has been re-released as a PS2 Greatest Hit. You may not end up playing it "till the end of time" but, at the very least, you�ll play it until the end of the game, smile, and remember all the fun you had while the journey lasted. If you don�t remember the painful lack of save points first, anyways.
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