Good
No Fayt But What We Make
For unlikely hero stories, Till the End of Time handles the plot better than most. Teenaged main character Fayt (get it?) just seems like a bright kid at the beginning, who ends up in an unfortunate situation. It turns out the events that unfold aren't coincidental, and there may be more to this boy than meets the eye.
Finding out you're an important piece in the galactic war can overwhelm anyone, and Fayt has his share of whiny moments of insecurity. However, like Tidus in Final Fantasy X, he's got a strong supporting cast to compensate for his shortcomings. I prefer a combination of everyday folks overcoming adversity with superhuman heroes, so I was satisfied with the cast.
Some of the game's cutscenes are longer than gamers should be expected to sit through, however. If you were bored with the cinemas in Xenosaga, you haven't seen anything yet. Imagine the same length, but with less-exciting backdrops and dialogue. Still, the camera angles make some nice cinematic shifts, and what voiceovers there are did the job. You're also given choices of what to say/do every so often. I like these instances, and would've enjoyed seeing more.
For still more monotony, you'll often have to talk to everyone in your proximity in order to trigger the next cutscene. It could be going into a certain room on the resort planet, or speaking with a key villager in a massive town. I must give props to the localization team for giving most commoners two different lines of text dialogue. I hate speaking to one person twice and seeing them repeat themselves.
The real-time battles are fast and brutal.
No Taking Turns
Star Ocean's battle system is refreshingly original. Once you enter into a fight, you control a member of your party, which can consist of up to two other AI-controlled characters. The action is real-time, meaning you can run around the area and swing at will with the two attack buttons. It's not meaningless hack 'n slash, mind you, as attack efficiency goes down the more you flail.
I really respect the targeting, which is simple enough to not bog you down. There isn't much negative one can say about the battle mechanic as a whole, except that it takes a while to understand all of its nuances, which can also be viewed as a compliment.
Special attacks are assigned to certain buttons so you don't have to wade through menus to dish out some real damage. Switching characters is done at the tap of a button, but the AI is surprisingly good at holding its own. This is partly thanks to a handful of in-battle tactical options you can assign NPCs. You may have to keep bad guys from invading your weaker allies' personal space, but that's the way it should be. You'll look forward to tackling enemies instead of seeing it as a necessary means to leveling up.
As if the combat system itself isn't enough, the game throws Battle Trophies at you. These are little awards you get for mastering certain parameters in a battle. Say your crew kills two enemies at the same time -- that's a trophy. Taking someone out in a single blow? Another trophy. You'll also be rewarded for ending a battle in under 30, 20, and 10 seconds, taking no damage, and winning solo. With 300 Battle Trophies to collect, it'll take you a while to unlock them all.
