Great RPG (Star Ocean - Till The End Of Time (PS2))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Star Ocean - Till The End Of Time (PS2)
Date:	12/09/09 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gameplay

Disadvantages: Ending may jar some

I am quite picky when it comes to RPG games, but Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a very satisfying game that has a great deal of variety and an engrossing plot. Whether you want to just powerful through a breezy story or get immersed in sidemissions and subplots, there's something here for every hungry RPG nut.

You play a young boy who was created to team up with two other similarly created beings, to fight the nefarious big bad that's currently threatening to essentially un-do the Universe. After a brief training level, as you holiday with your parents, this idyllic utopia is destroyed, and you are quickly helped to safety by a resistance group who set you off on a journey of self discovery and adventure.

Visually, this is quite an impressive for its time - the visual effects of the various spells and incantations in particular are very good, and although they might pale in the face of newer games, the style is very together and consistent.

Despite there being 7 possible characters to collect, a battle only allows you to use three, so you have to be strategic with which you will choose. The battle system will be fairly familiar to anyone that's played an RPG before - you are face to face with the opposition, but unlike the earlier Final Fantasy games, it takes place in real time rather than using a turn-based system (although it will give a slight pause whilst you actually pick your spell). What impressed me most is the quality of the A.I. - it will remember how you played with a given character, so when the computer takes control of them, they will attack similarly.

There are two elements that take some getting used to - firstly, the controls are a bit different from some RPGs, but after about 20 minutes you should be fine with them. The other is that you'll probably never in a million years anticipate the way this game winds up - it's got some pretty jarring twists, but I appreciated the inventiveness. Other than this, it's a solid RPG that gives you tonnes to do and is visually quite accomplished.

Summary: Interesting experimental RPG