Well, here I am. Known where I live as one of the hardest videogame critics around, I, "the Blackwind", got hooked by Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

How it came to this, I am yet to know.

This thread here, if it is given the privilege of not being locked, is meant to be a discussion place of this game. Although I fear the feedback won't be much, it's worth trying. I mean, who on earth played this long enough to have more than a "ZOMG CRAPPY, LAME, SUCKZZZZ!!!" opinion on it?

The game has many more things going for it than I expected, and even more things than can spell doom for it.

IMHO:
Pros:
- Albel Nox, Cliff Fittir, Roger S. Huxley;
- Anime-style characters;
- Quite good graphics, not the best around, but still impressive at times;
- Real time battles, no turns;
- OPTIONAL BATTLES!, no more random combats like in the FF world. You can see monsters in the field, going up to them or not is most of the time your choice. When it's not, you're just chased around until you give up and fight.
- Straightforward storyline, but touches very modern dilemmas and controversial matters of today's society, such as genetic engineering and related ethic problems (oh, screw the spoiler.)
- Battle Trophies (rewards for doing stuff as odd as "walk a total of 49200 km in battle", or "defeat *boss name* in under 1 minute")
- Personal actions (PA's, i.e, interaction with other party members, affecting their affection level torwards you), resulting in multiple endings;
- Workshops;
- Welch Vineyard (she is funny . I mean, capable of leading to uncontrollable laughter)
- Easter Eggs, here's an example: I was playing SO3 on the 1st January, and Welch says "Wow! I'm so happy seeing you play in New Year's Day! Perhaps you'll earn some extra spending for your efforts, hehe!" Only game I know of that goes to your PS2's clock for more than to create save files...
- Soundtrack. Absolutely awesome, and Motoi Sakuraba may well be looked at as a worthy rival of Uematsu's. Rock in an rpg is always nice to hear, and this game has some of the most powerful and enjoyable tracks I've heard in any game.

Cons:
- Sophia Esteed ("We have to believe in what's in our hearts! Let's choose to believe, Fayt!" o_O), Fayt Leingod (you are forgiven for your sins, Tidus...)
- Difficulty rises to quickly, while your levels rise waaaaaay too slowly
- Most voice actors are obviously just there to get payed. No emotion whatsoever, except for welch, cliff and the maniacal laughter of Albel.
- Rather forced storyline, at times. Sometimes utterly awful.
- Huge dungeons, which you frequently have to walk twice, both to get in and out.......
- Too few save points and recovery points, and overall high difficulty;
- SLOW beginning, and sickeningly boring, too. If you're not an expert in rpg's, you'll be dropping SO3 when you see its beginning... but persevere, my friends. It'll be worth it later on. But MAN, the beginning is awful...

So you see, it's all about a pretty trivial rpg. And yet, I am addicted to it. I have lost my pride... or have I?

The only way you'll be helping me is to express your own thoughts about the game. I hope I'm not the only one who played it though... if I am, use this post as a simple review, in case you're thinking of buyng it while FF 12 is in the making.

Well I have gone through the game 3 times and every time I'm always happy to play it. First one of the only things I thought were bad about it was that there were a lot of talking that got boring some of the time.I loved the freestyle battle system that let's you grip the characters and use all of there abilites. I really like the bastard of all bastards Albel Knox. Even though he dresses wierd I still like him espesiallly when you get to use him. I like the Versus mode on the game it is real fun going against your friends being one of the characters. One of the best things I thought were good about the game was the story line, how they end up having to go to a Middle age type worlds and go back to present. Overall though I like the weapons. That is one of the best games I have ever played no matter what anyone says and it will always be on my all time game list.(not that I really have one .)