Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PlayStation 2, 2004)

It was labeled the best role-play game of the year when it first came out and I have to say that I completely agree with it. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a great game for serious role-players. You become Fayt, a mysterious youth who gets separated from his family and thrown into a world where he meets new friends, enemies and must learn about his past in order to save his future.

The game play is absolutely excellent! The graphics are vivid and fresh with the all famous anime style. There are many decisions you make during the course of your game that will determine the ending of the game ultimately. The plot is complexed, so much that you end up having to do 3 or 4 other things before you can get back to the main plot you started out with. With so much complexity the game begs the question: What happens next? with every level you pass. And it all leads up to an ending that leaves you breathless, emotional, and wondering.

The fighting is done in real time and you can fight by yourself or choose two other people to help you. You get a massive list of skills and abilities including hardcore full out fist fighting, sword style, or symbology (magic). You can customize your characters, level them up and even unlock codes to change their clothes. You can choose your group that will follow you into battle and dictate how they will battle. You can even switch characters during battle mode so that you don't have to play one character all the time.

There are lots of bonus and secret levels in this game, including one that unlocks an item that allows you to go into a versus mode against the computer or another player. It even gives you a team mode where you can battle with another player against the computer. You can also backtrack through the game and play in other cities, go to other places, etc so that you are never really tied down to one certain place.

Downsides to this game? There are a lot of puzzles and mazes that you have to solve in order to progress through the story. This can get annoying if you are trying to progress quickly. The story is long and sometimes exhausting requiring you to either talk to EVERYONE is a single town or level up before you can move on. The beginning is rather boring in that the game has to establish who you are, who the people are around you and why you are where you are. And on a side note: why can't we get to Greeton!?!

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a definate buy for any gamer. Even if you have never played the first one, you will fall in love with this game and it's characters in a heartbeat. Definately a 5 out of 5.