Star Ocean 3 Till The End of Time

Another great PS2 RPG game developed by Tri-Ace, one which is soo addictive.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (スターオーシャン) is the third main game in the Star Ocean video game series. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console system. It was released in Japan, North America, and the PAL territories. The original Japanese release date was in February of 2003 by Enix, shortly before its merger to become Square Enix. It was re-released in 2004 as a two disc "Director's cut" version, which the North American and European ports are based on. The game takes place four hundred in-universe years after the first two Star Ocean games.

as usual, wiki-chan

I feels like making this review after watching some videos on Youtube. Developed by Tri-Ace, what can you expect then? Great interactive gameplay and massive sidequests.

The story mainly is about the world 4000 years in the future, where humanity scattered all around the universe, living coexisted with the aliens. Fayt Leingod, the main protagonist enjoying a vacation with his family and childhood friend Sophia Esteed on planet Hyda IV when the planet was attacked by unknown army forces which is later conformed to be Vandeeni fleet. Starting from that point, they have undergo various events which dramatically changed their lives and fortune. First, both Fayt and Sophia was separated while escaping, and Fayt got stranded on an somewhat uncivilized planet where he later met another character Cliff Fittir. More events occur after that, which saw them involved in Cliff organisation called Quark, meeting the leader Maria Traydor and Mirage Coast, stuck at planet Elicoor III and met Nel Zelpher, Albel Nox, Roger S Huxley and Adray Lasbird, and eventually learn the truth about their existence.

So what's so special about this game? The gameplay, for once, is unique. 4 modes are available; Earth, Galaxy, Universe and 4D mode. The latter 2 are only accessible my reaching certain percentage of battle trophies. The game features fast-paced, real time battle combat which involve the uses of normal attacks, special skills and magic (heraldry/symblogy). The field exploring style is similar to those in Chrono Cross or Magna Carta (the enemies are visible), and once engaging the enemies, the battle will begin at a battle field where the character can wander around freely. Fury (the gauge under hp and mp) is consumed when running, casting special skills and magic. 3 maximum characters involved in battle, with 1 being controlled by player while the other 2 is controlled by AI, which can be given set amount of orders. Character can attacks using the combination of both strong and weak attacks, long and short range, of which if successfully done, will create a bonus (Cancel Bonus) which grant up to 300% damage bonus.

Another impressive feature is the sidequest. The game offers a never ending sidequests to be accomplished. This including item creation, secret dungeon and bosses, battle arena and most importantly, the Battle Trophies where we're given 300 battle condition to be met (including winning alone, beat certain boss without taking damage etc), where rewards will be given if we accomplish certain percentages of them. Item creation enable us to create various item to be used in battle, and it is what makes the characters very strong, and helps a lot in secret bosses fights. Battle Arena, as the name implies, enable us to play against 2P in real battle, using any of the characters available. Secret Dungeon is what makes this games more challenging after the game ends, where we will be able to get characters ultimate weapon, greater special skills/magic, accomplish more battle trophies and maxed our character level to lvl255. And more importantly, this is where characters from other series makes their cameo, particularly from Valkyrie Profile Lenneth (Lenneth Valkyrie, Freya, Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen). And they're freaking hard to beat, especially on 4D mode.

Oh yeah, not to forget, the OST is nice. 2 of my favorite song: Cutting Edge of Notion and The Divine Spirit of Language. Great work from Sakuraba Motoi.

Simply put, this game is awesome. The only thing that disappoint me is the way the game end, even though there's a variety of ending available (depend on character affection lvl)

some battle sample of this game. [low quality]

more screenshots, artworks and video are available at IGN, gamespot, RPGgamer, youtube etc