More twists and turns than you can poke a stick at. Will turn some RPG fans off, but attract others.
User Rating: 8.1 | Star Ocean: Till the End of Time PS2
Star Ocean. It feels like an inventors mixture of Final Fantasy, Star Trek and assorted components from other places. At times, this will annoy you; at others, the narrative will surprise you at how well it pulls you in. After all, most people by RPGs for two reasons: Their company made it (in this case Squeenix), or they know the series and it's plot directions. Gameplay: Truly an improvement on Final Fantasy. If they took the battle engine and optional encounters from here and put them in a Final Fantasy (preferably with co-op, but meh), that would be awesome. The best way to describe it is Kingdom Hearts, but more intuitive and with the ability to switch between the party characters. Graphics: Still great for a game that is apparently quite old - it took ages to get a European and US conversion. The look is a little more anime than Final Fantasy (blue hair, people - I know, I hate it, but keep going) but still highly realistic. Sound: Sweeping scores, which do become repetitive like everything does. Some characters, like Farleen and Peppita have very annoying voices too. This costs a few points. Value: Up to you. If you want 100%, sign your life away. If you want to just beat the game, don't panic. There are up to 4 difficulty settings, from Easy (Earth Level) to Medium (Galaxy) Hard (Universe) and Crazy Hard (4-Dimensional Space). 4-D is important to the story, but you'll find out why if you play the game. Plot: Inconsistent. Really amazing scripting at times, ruined by occasional lapses in narrative and/or translation difficulties.
