The world of Japanese console RPGs can be a pretty limited one, overly focused on what are more or less the same idealistic youths killing the same "Great Evils" and fighting for the same values in a variety of spins on the standard fantasy genre. But if the success of Namco's science-fiction epic Xenosaga is any indication, people are finally ready for something a little different. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the follow-up to Star Ocean: The Second Story, released here by Sony in 1999. There aren't too many studios that can match Square Enix's production staff, but after this game, developer Tri-Ace seems poised to join them at the top.

Star Trek certainly has its share of fans, and apparently many of them are hard at work in Japan at Tri-Ace. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time borrows a lot from the venerable science-fiction series and weaves it into its own thing: Early in the game our hero has a "quadscanner," is always considering his society's equivalent of the "Prime Directive," and often happens to land on planets rife with humanoid life and breathable air.

Each character can have two attacks.
As the story goes, Fayt Linegod is pretty much your typical teen -- moody, a little selfish, likes video games, and ... uh, has blue hair. While vacationing with his parents and cousin Sophia at a resort in the Hyde star system, Fayt's life is changed forever when a mysterious fleet begins attacking the planet. After narrowly escaping the mysterious invaders and being rescued by another ship, he is once again thrown into the winds of fate when that ship is attacked. His escape pod lands on planet Vanguard, inhabited by a race of primitive elf-like people, and then into the middle of a medieval society -- in both cases, Fayt can't just do anything, thanks to his respect for his world's version of the Prime Directive, which forbids polluting primitive cultures with knowledge of technology. Who was it that attacked Hyda and his rescuers, and what were they after? Fayt, Sophia, and a host of other characters begin a grand interstellar quest to find the answer to all of these questions … and many others.

Like Star Ocean: The Second Story, Till the End of Time is a huge and epic quest, with lots of nuanced RPG gameplay and frantic real-time battles. The battles are certainly a large part of the series' appeal, although they'll likely be confusing to newcomers as a result of their fever pitch and comparative lack of menus. During battle you directly control only one character at a time, while the A.I. takes control of the other two. While bad A.I. characters have ruined plenty of games, they seem to work rather well here, and you can give general commands like "Heal each other!" to influence their thinking processes. You can also commandeer the other characters on the fly to give specific spell commands for time-critical decisions, as well. Beyond the A.I., there's a lot of ways to customize your characters for battle. Each character can have a long- and short-range attack equipped for each of the two attack buttons, and over time you'll learn more. It's an interesting and hectic mix, ending up somewhere between an action RPG and more traditional turn-based fare. Additionally, you'll be able to equip skills that you learn to modify certain stats and actions, and spells will also figure prominently as you progress through the game. Magic in the game is known as "Crest Arts" or "Symbology," to use the game's awkward English term. It follows a pretty standard, MP-based system, which is more than acceptable given the complexity found in every other aspect of battle and the accompanying pace.