Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time, is quite simply one of the greatest JRPG's to ever grace a console.
Story & Characters
Star Ocean is a game that suceeds well in creating the universe it is set without having a particularly amazing story. Right from the get-go you are thrown into a believable sci-fi setting with great environments to explore but all held together in a fairly simple way. More complex than something like Dragon Quest for sure, but still the script writing itself is relatively simple and while the plot has "twists" throughout none should be particularly shocking on engaging. Our hero Fayt through a myriad of unfortunate events finds himself being helped by rebel fighters who crash land on a medieval planet torn apart by a 16th century style war with non advanced technologies. Soon after though, it becomes clear that Fayt is a bit more important than first seems and the plot blends the medieval feel of the planet they crash on with sci-fi as you leap from mdieval cities to futuristic planetscapes and back again.
With the plot ranking in only at "reasonable", how do I rate the game so highy? Well a lot of its strength comes from it's cast. The story may be simple building blocks. but these are building blocks for wonderful, entertaining and genuinally likeable characters to stand on. Characters such as Cliff, Nel, Maria and Albel in particular are all well differentiated and bring the world to life with even NPC's adding their own charm. Even Fayt our stereotypical JRPG hero isn't quite as irritating as the norm and my urge to kill didnt rise as much as it usually does when said sterotypical hero speaks.
Gameplay
The battles in SO are another aspect I love, they are quick yet still tactical and allow you to take control of your favourite cast members in real time instead of being lumbered with Fayt. Needless to say I played as Nel throughout all the battles in which two buttons and different distances and pressures put on the buttons spell an easy yet suprisingly deep way of fighting your opponents. Spells and healing items are easily accessed from a menu which pauses the real time combat once activated and everything works pretty well overall. My only gripe is that the AI can sometimes be awful with the characters that are being AI controlled while you use one sometimes just standing still and scratching their bums till you manually switch to them to get them to move. This can spell frustration if it happens in difficult fights or boss battles.
The rest of the game has you running around towns, solving puzzles and the general standard JRPG fair. Fortunately all is superbly executed.
Graphics and Sound
Visually SO dosent really cut it these days although at the time it was reasonable if a little chunky and poorly detailed from time to time (for example the "autograph" on Fayts clothes looks like a bird has relieved itself on him).
Soundwise its a mixed bag as is per usual from most games once more. Some great sound, some bad sound, some stupid sound. But the voice acting itself is extremely compotent and very well put together.
Lastability
Ive played this game to death and as per usual with JRPG's if you want to do everything theres huge amounts f things to do, if you dont your probably looking at around 35 hours or so for the main questline.
Overall
The cast and combat system of SO allow it to be one of the most "fun" roleplaying experiences out there on the PS2. You probably wont cry at cutscenes you probably wont be like "wow this plot twist was a good one", but you should have a stupid grin on your face and have a lot of fun. Fun once again is something games often neglect so thats a very good thing.