Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time (PS2) Review

Freya's Reviews

Game: Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time
Platform(s): PS2
Publisher: Square Enix

 

Another one of those successful games created by Square Enix back in the old times, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was referred as Star Ocean 3 as it was the 3rd game in the series but the stories in the game's franchise are not linked somehow, it was also called SO3 for short.

GAMEPLAY
I like how this game works, you don't have to play the earlier games to understand what's happening in the Star Ocean series as the first two games were on older consoles like the Sega Saturn and PlayStation 1. Basically, this is an RPG like most other games by Square Enix, but it is not turned-based, you can decide which party members to put on the battlefield and their formations. But you can only bring 3 characters into battle, so that means you have to choose them wisely and you can try out different combinations are the same time. In the battlefield or action sequence, you will be controlling one member and the A.I. would control the other 2 for you. But in this game, the A.I. is somehow only good at controlling melee characters so that adds one bad point but overall, this is one of my favourite RPGs. The number of ch aracters aren't much but they may disappear too and you have to find ways to recruit them back, and these are linked to sub-quests which aren't related to the storyline. Speaking of sub-quests, you have to figure most of the puzzles yourself and this determines whether you make it through the chapter of the game or not, which can be quite a pain in the ass sometime. The skills for each character is amazing, and the number of skills you can equip on one character is limited, starting from support symbols (Healing etc.). And each time you advance more into the game, new features come out, like Inventing, which lets you invent items or even upgrade them which is just amazing. You can also recruit inventors along the way through money, or even items hidden in a map. Sometimes, in the game you have to interact in a different way, you will have to play a flute to open doors and the tune changes on how hard and long you press on a specific button. There is also new unlockables like the Battle Trophies and PVP Mode as you go ahead more in the game. Battle Trophies earn you costumes for your characters and PVP, well, it's just picking 2 characters from the game and fighting one another with them.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are nice, smooth and beautiful when played on a TV that supports HDMI. The character interactions and movements are pretty amazing and well done for a 2003 game. The props and stuffs which you have to open to find a key or something that is related to opening a door to advance in the game is always not highlighted and the colour of the props merges together with the background props. The skills graphics are also kinda cool too, explosions and others are just wow.

SOUNDS
The music in this game is nice, like all other Square Enix's games' music. Explosion sounds effects and sword fighting sound effects are nice. Voice acting for all characters are perfect, young girls have cute voices, the older girls have sexy voices and same goes for the males, young have premature voices and older men have matured voices. The music which happens to appear in the battles tempts you which makes you forgotten you have been hearing the same thing over and over again for 1000 battles if you did participated that much.

DIFFICULTY
This game is extremely hard and can keep you playing for hours trying to figure out puzzles and stuffs, overall, it can take one to complete in 40 hours in total just for the main campaign, let alone another 40 hours for the bonus dungeons and all those bonus bosses there. The Battle Trophies are fun and hard to earn too. But I can hardly stay still while playing cos I always have to check the guide for this game on my PC lol. But sometimes, the key to a place you have to go is hidden behind a statue or some crap, which can keep you wondering for hours till you suddenly found out that it was hidden there after you watch a walkthrough video.

RATING:
GAMEPLAY - 4.8/5
GRAPHICS - 4.6/5
SOUNDS - 4.4/5
DIFFICULTY - 4.9/5
TOTAL - 18.7/20
Overall - 93.5/100 [Perfect]