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Playstation 2 : Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Reviews

Gas Gauge: 74
Gas Gauge 74
Below are user reviews of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.

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ReviewsScore
Game Spot 79
Game FAQs
IGN 90
GameSpy 70
GameZone 88
Game Revolution 45
1UP 75






User Reviews (21 - 31 of 123)

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A Noble Effort

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: December 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay--I'll admit that I just finished this game not twenty minutes ago and my perceptions may be colored, but I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in this title. It's not that it's not a solid console role playing game--it's just that I was expecting a lot more from this than I actually got.

To start off, I will say that this game is above average in most respects. The graphics are decent (though not great by any means, and particularly not by Square standards)--the world is colorful and the character models, which occasionally a little too sharp and angular, behave realistically in most cases. The FMV sequences and sound leave something to be desired, though. The FMV is very sparsely distributed through the game, and tends to be a little hard to follow, particularly the space sequences, as the ships designs are almost pointlessly complex and make it difficult to get your bearings. The sound is normally quite good, but for some inexplicable reason the developers left the voice work in mono in all the various speaker modes, mitigating the otherwise solid surround effects.

The game itself can be extremely entertaining, particularly for fans of classic style role playing games. There's a lot here to do, even after the end of the game (three dungeons rather than the customary singleton for Tri-Ace). Unfortunately, the game doesn't give you a choice about doing some of the things. I'll be honest--I don't like item creation. I find it boring and complex for little or no reason. I didn't like that I was forced to engage in it just to get by, and I think it detracts from the overall value of character development when a designer makes the strength of the items your characters are walking around with more important than their actual character statistics.

The story, like all the other aspects of the game, has its high points and its low points. To its credit, the plot is deeper than most video game stories and involving, particularly in the early bits. To its detriment, near the end it becomes pointlessly complicated, comes near to committing the common Final Fantasy sin (you never see the final boss until you fight him), recent games and movies render the story somewhat hackneyed, and ultimately the ending left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled. If I put in seventy hours of my life, the game should bloody well resolve some of the emotional baggage that it leaves you with, rather than dropping off like that. It's worth noting that there are fully ten different variations on the ending that you can see, but unfortunately the fact that the thing takes about an hour to play out (most of which is in-game cinematics) serves as a serious impediment to actually seeing all of those endings.

On the plus side, the game eliminates random encounters (long one of my least favorite elements of role playing games) and implements a very interesting, if crudely articulated combat engine.

On the whole, the game was certainly GOOD, as far as games go, but in the end I'm left wondering whether it was worth the time that I put in. It's a good game if you've got the time to play it and nothing better to do, but with all of the other top flight titles out this season, I find it hard to recommend this one ahead of them.

Wow!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I really...really...REALLY liked this game! I never actually play games for hours on end, but there was something special about this one. I can tell you, this game is worth buying! The effects of the game may not be the best, but what it may sometimes lack in graphics it makes up for in great characters and fantastic gameplay.
What I like most about this game is that it diversifies itself- I mean, one boss may be hard and the next boss may be easy, you never really know. The characters are so colorful and they don't have the bland attitudes of some RPG characters. This game keeps you hooked because you really don't know what is coming next, and it's EXCITING. Not to mention the scenery itself is so interesting and everything, from the fighting to the people to the actual plot, fits together wonderfully. You will be HOOKED the minute you play it!
I think if you are a fan of the Final Fantasy games, you will love this game. Buy, buy, BUY! ^_^

It's not the great who are strong

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It's the strong who are great
Pros:
-Excellent graphics
-good voice acting
-pretty good cinematics
-Nice story(The plot twist hits ya 3/5 of the in the game)
-Characters I like(The only one I hate is Audry, cuz he has no point in the game, whatsoever. I'm serious in the cutseenes in after the big plot twist, he's not in any of em, and he's in my party)
-bounus chain is cool(Once you get it, Just don't die, get criticly hit or escape)
-addictive battle system(and it's 2 players for co-op mayhem!)
-Good thing most save points have healing spas beside them(In dungens)
-Anti Aura is nice.(Especially regeneration! it heals)
-Synthising weapons is awsome, if you have the time, items, and money
-Specifying plans are cool to upgrade the stuff you created
-The battle coloseum is pretty fun(But on ranking mode, the top 2 are ultra freakin' hard!)
-Chaning names is cool(But it doesn't change what the voice actors say)
-Alternative costumes, sweet!
-A nice 60 hour epic
-9 multiple endings, replay value up
-A pretty good game that should definitly suit RPG fans
Cons:
-Slow diolage make's the story pace slow and tired(The first 3 hours I only got into 4 fights, man ain't that exciting? Ultra rememinise of Xenosaga in a bad way)
-Why are dungens SO HUGE?!(I end up running around for quite a while till I find my way)
-In FMVs characters look the same in gameplay graphics(Which wasn't how Final Fantasy X looked like, but oh wait, this game is really enix's game, but still!!)
-Charging up fury leaves you vulnerable, and open for a hit
-How long, how long till I reach a save point!?(Really there like 30-45 minutes away!)
-If this is a Futuristic RPG how come 70% of the game is basicly on the surfaces of underdeveloped planets(16-17th centry style underdeveloped planets, nearly the whole first disc is like this)
-VS mode is kinda dull
-Near the end enemies just become HARD!!(I'm talking almost each of them have an attack that disables gaurd, it's a wide radius attack and it's reappid, doing up to 2000 HP a pop! That pisses me off!!)
-Alt costumes only work in battle(C'mon, Tales of Symphoina had all alt cosumes on characters during cutseenes, and most of the costumes look better than originals)
-The game stalls TOO much! Even at points it freezes on me(This is hard to believe{even me} but San Andreas never did this to me)
-Creating items takes a while nad costs cash
-When you run out of MP you DIE [...] This is the first game I ever really had to give a dang about MP. It's new, but it won't be used by other games(Hopefully) Cuz this is a pain in the [...]
-Bunny races are annoying! You can't tell which one will win, not even a hint, only a guess!!(I only did it so I could get a good inventor on my hands, and believe me it was a pain)
-Everytime I get a bonus gauge it seems to want to break everytime I get triple EXP(WHY!!? I mean it's hard enough to level up!)
-Man I definitly do not like the music! What is this, 1950s happy-go-joy crap? C'mon SqureEnix!
-How come characters don't level up along in the game(I have Fayt up to level 80 while Sophia is still at level 1!! [...]!?)
-Why do special moves take away HP(I be hackin and slashin, that at the end of the battle wonder whty do I have less than half of my HP)
Neutral:
-Lot's of sleepless nights. I'm still in school, but sometimes I don't care(I'm a game addict)
-If you want everything, you NEED the guide, which was a pain coughing up $15 for a lot of page turning, but it was ultra helpful.

A lot of cons, but the Pros outweigh them, and this game wins over my fun factor. Right when I got in my first fight(After like an hour of wandering around and listening to slow diologe) I fell in love with this game. And I like a lot of the characters. The plot may be slow, but the battle system saves the game from being a total tedius bore. If you love games like Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy X, and Xenosaga, you have to add this to your collection. The reason it took a while to finish was cuz Sony sent me a demo disc the earased all the data from my memory card. That was screwed up!! I've been a PS fan since 96, and I felt betrayed beyond trust. Well I gotta game Sly 2, but that doesn't even come close to filling the holes they put! Oh well, anyway RPG fans, give Star Ocean TTEOT a shot.

peace

Epic, engaging, and fun.....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off first by saying that this game gets undue criticism. Across the internet alot of people rip this game. And I will tell you that its a great game. People like RPG's for different reasons, but i think that there is alot of reasons to like Star Ocean 3. Let me get the main reason of why people don't like this game, and thats the story. Without spoiling anything, about 30-35 hours into the game, a BIG twist comes down on you, and a number of people find it ridiculous, and I can see their point. It is cheesy, but it honestly didn't bother me in the slightest, and when it happens I was kind of like wth? I don't know about you, but i like wth moments in games. Anyways, its not that bad, and the story does get a number of things right.

With that out of the way, let me tell you what Star Ocean gets right. First off, the battle system is quite simply amazing. It is challenging, yet not frustrating, and its very deep. For a RPG this is important, and I find this to be one of the strong aspects of the game. Secondly, the characters are all very good imo. They are not the most deep characters you'll ever find, but they are certainly likable, and thats important. Thirdly, the story has some good moments. It has a Star Trek'esqe setting, in that you get stuck on a medievel planet, and while your not supposed to interfere with whats going on there, you do. I find that aspect and story section to be most engaging, and it takes up a good portion of the game. Aesthetically, the game is very good. The character designs, art style, environments, and graphics all seemed very good. Its the quality you would expect from Square-Enix. The only other downside, is some poor voice acting, some of it gets annoying, but its not so bad as to ruin your experience with the game.

Another thing about this game, is that is feels huge. Its very long, without doing any sidequests or extra ttuff, it took me about 50 hours to beat the game. In RPG fashion, there is a number of things you can do if want to play longer. Anyways, I found this game to be quite enjoyable. I played it quite awhile ago and I still look back on it with good memories. Hopefully you will too.

This game is extremely addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Wow! This game is awesome from the moment you boot it up. You see an awesome CG showing the history of space from the first satillite launch to where the story takes place in a very futuristic world where we have met aliens and have found other solar systems even. You play as a young man named Fayt, who is getting nagged at by his friend, Sophia, because he was playing video games while she was waiting for him (does this sound like you, because it sure fits me). But in the future gaming is almost like a sport, you can actually get stronger from it (take that people who think gamers can't stay healthy).

After convincing her to join you in a game, your resort is attacked by an unknown enemy and must evacuate immediately.

It is an exciting start and it kept me hooked, so far I'm only about a couple hours into the game, but it is more addictive than anything I have ever played. The storyline is one of the best that I have ever witnessed (even though I'm only a couple hours into the game ^_^) and it makes you want to stay longer and longer.

Okay I could go on and on about how the story's great but then that be no fun for those who are reading this. Your combat is similar to the GC game 'Tales of Symphonia' where you enter a battle but are forced to play it like a third person action game. You can have partners that can watch their own hide, which is a good thing because I don't like escort missions. Another unique feature is the bonus meter which feels up when you attack the enemies. Once full, you battle and get different rewards, for instance triple EXP or increasing the % of getting a better item.

Pick this game up if you loved Tales of Symphonia or if you like any action game. Personally, I like this game better than the any of the games in the FF series, but that's because this game has an awesome storyline that isn't predictable and it has an awesome battle system.

Pros

- Awesome storyline

- Multiple endings

- Beautiful CG scenes

- Cool Battle system

- The way you communicate with your partners will determine how they think of you in the future

- Music is awesome, although it is weird listening to rock music in some ruins.

It's got me!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When I was shopping with my mum for Christmas presents, she asked me to pick something out for myself for Christmas that was relatively cheap and inexpensive. I had always had my eye on Star Ocean 3 (aka "Til the End of Time"), but I was always unsure of whether or not to buy it. I finally decided I would get it, even if the graphics looked fair and I heard that it was an okay game.

The minute I got it on Christmas morning, I popped it into the PS2 and played all day. I became hooked the moment I pressed the button to close the little disk-thing. And wow, I'm still addicted to this very moment. It's become some sort of life support for me.

The game follows one character through the course of the universe. Fayt Leingod is just a normal, average, run-of-the-mill college student studying Symbology (magic with symbols) to follow in his father's footsteps. While he and his parents and his childhood friend Sophia Esteed (who is annoying) are on Hyda IV, everything goes wrong, and it's just this whole series of misfortunes. And thus, Fayt is sent on his adventure into SPACE (as it is SD 314, or something to that effect because I can't remember the exact date). You meet other characters on other planets like Elicoor II and such, and form a party of seven to eight people (assuming you're playing the director's cut version).

Not only do you travel through TWO DISKS WORTH OF GAMING fighting your way through dungeons, bosses and other planets, you can also visit workshops on the planet Elicoor II and invent things to get rated, which adds an entire subquest to the game, thus making it ten more times the fun. That and it's rather hilarious watching Albel Nox try to cook stew or write a book.

Pros: This game is addicting, especially to those with addictive personalities. The cinematics are wonderful, though there aren't that many, and the battle system is quite fun once you get the hang of it! The inventing is fun, and if you look through your inventory, you can actually look at the item, which provides endless hours of amusement, because they don't all look the same. Also, of the characters are actually quite lovable.

I could go on and on about the pros, but it's time to move to the cons.

Cons: There aren't many, but the voice acting is quite horrible sometimes. After playing it for a good amount of time, their voices aren't as annoying, but Sophia's will always be. At the beginning, Fayt Leingod is the only one with a decent dubbed voice, but that changes over time. Sometimes, the background music gets so loud that you can barely hear the other characters over the sound, but there are text boxes for the words, though sometime's it's annoying. Sometimes the bosses can be pains in the BUM and other times, the background music is rather annoying.

So, in conclusion, BUY IT! Though it lacks in some areas, it makes up for it in other areas, like plot and gameplay. I rather enjoyed this game (or well, enjoy because I'm still playing) and want to spread the love to everyone else!!

A Swirling Black Hole of Awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 17
Date: May 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There is in no arguing that Star Ocean: Til the End of time is a large, long game. In playing it from start to finish, you will definitely get your money's worth as you traverse two disks packed full of content. The question is do you really want to spend time on this game? The third is a cult console RPG series, Star Ocean 3 isn't a broken game, but in almost every aspect of the game is suffers from serious flaws that, like a big black hole, sucks whatever enjoyment might be had far away into its mysterious depths. It all builds up to make this one of the most awful games I've played this console generation.

In a fifty+ hour long RPG, story is a major element. Star Ocean's is bad, very bad. It takes about three hours until you really get going. It begins with a whiny young man named Fayt and his irritating friend Sophia on vacation on some resort planet. Suddenly, an intergalatic army of invaders storm the place looking for Fayt and his father, a famous scientist. Fayt escapes to find himself alone on a backwards planet. He is rescued by a group called Quark, but then the space invaders show up again and Fayt and his new allies are marooned on another backwaters planet, this time involved in a war. The plot is not that interesting, but when you get to disk two along comes a plot twist that is so horrible it just sinks the rest of the story. This plot twist is like something M Night Shamalan would come up with while drunk. On top of the bad plot, there are tons of poorly directed cut scenes. The dialogue is circular and meandering. The game is almost entirely voice acted. Only a few of the voices are really bad, but mostly it sounds uninspired. It all comes together to create an atmosphere that watching Star Ocean is like watching a bad community play.

And then we come to the battle system, the other major aspect of Star Ocean 3. The main problem with Star Ocean's system is that the ally AI is abominal. Your two computer controlled allies will be little help to you at all as they almost always attack by uncontrollably kamikazing the enemies. They don't dodge at all, so when the big bad monster gets ready to attack, they rush right into its waiting claws. Also, you have a life bar and a magic bar and if one of them reaches zero, the character will die. You have magic attacks and special physical attacks that deplete these bars. Your allies will use them indiscriminately, so its a constant struggle to keep them alive. When you realize that this is actually the directors cut version of the game, it is inexcusable that the programmers could add in alternate costumes for a fighting mini-game but couldn't fix the deplorable AI. Besides the deadweight allies, the difficulty curve for this game is broken. Instead, of getting just a little harder in each new area, Star Ocean 3 throws out any kind of natural progression. Enemies that are simple to defeat will be replaced with enemies that are about five times harder. You'll need to spend hours leveling to stand a decent chance.

Another really awful of the game is its main side quest: item inventing. This thing is trap. It's an impenatrable, costly system meant to seperate you from your money. I tried desperately to figure this system out. I spent tons of game money only to be able to have success inventing the most useless, low grade items around, and then find myself unable to buy more useful items readily available in stores.

If its an RPG you crave, you can find a much better game out there. Star Ocean: Til the End of Time isn't worth your time.

One of the best RPG game is coming out soon.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 14
Date: January 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you remember the old Star Ocean, people will say that it had some fantastic graphic and music. Beware, fans of Star Ocean. The sequel to the game, Star Ocean 3, will be coming out with full 3-D graphic.

The battle system has changed a lot compared to the old Star Ocean. The characters that go into battle has been reduced to 3 characters from 4 characters. The reason they reduced it was because they wanted to make the battle system simple and to make the game hard. Some people complained about the old Star
Ocean because it was hard to find out where the characters were in the map, but Enix has fixed that problem.

*Sorry that the name of the characters are misspelled.

The background of the game is space, just like the old Star Ocean. The main character(human), Pait, goes on vacation to the planet Hida with his parents and his beautiful(you'll find out what I mean)sister. Unfortunately, Pait gets separated from his sister and parents because someone invades the planet Hida. After this, the main story begins.(Which I don't know)

?= I don't know how to spell it.

There are 6 main characters in this game and 5 races. The races are human, ?(an angel looking like race), ?(a race of a planet which I don't know how to spell. They are able to travel space), Fox Tail(a race that has fox ears and tails), and Blue Dolphin.

This game is going to be for gamers who love action RPG games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Thank you!

Largely Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Probably one of the biggest surprises I've ever enjoyed during my years in front of a video game console came when I first tried my hand at an unsuspecting little package dubbed Star Ocean: The Second Story. This old, overlooked two-disc pack for the PSone had been literally gathering dust on my shelf for years before I bothered to even test it out, and I suppose that complete lack of any kind of previous expectation was a big part of why I was so totally impressed and engulfed by what I found within the game itself. Unfortunately, by overwhelming me so effectively in its first American offering, my expectations for the future of the Star Ocean franchise went through the roof. In a way, it's funny; I loved the precursor because I expected nothing of it and received everything I ever could've wanted, and then subconsciously built up the sequel to the point that nothing it could muster would ever be enough to appease me.

To start with, the story is beyond terrible and the characters are even worse. When I first met Fayt and Sophia, the two leads, I couldn't help but grimace. They're so paper-thin, so incredibly dull and intelligence-insultingly bland, I initially mistook them for a heavy-handed satire of the role playing genre in general. This is, honest to god, the most uninspiring cast I've seen since console RPGs were just gaining their footing in Final Fantasy I back on the NES. They'll say and do things that'll just make you stare blankly for a few seconds and then explode into unrelenting laughter. Fayt, in particular, is the very epitome of a stereotype. He has no flaws, and as a result he makes an incredibly boring leader. The characters seem so out of touch with reality that nothing ever seems to carry the kind of magnitude you'd hope for, even when entire worlds are exploding and individual races are being completely wiped from existence. By the time the third act comes around, bringing with it the one really interesting revelation in the storyline, you're forty hours in and have cemented your opinion of the game as a whole. Before that, it's cliche after cliche, with absolutely no originality thrown in to keep things halfway interesting.

Like its predicessor, TtEoT's gameplay is its greatest triumph. The battles have remained every bit as enjoyable and strategically brilliant as I remembered, and the controls are incredibly easy to comprehend. You'll have, at most, three characters in your party at any one time (which is a major gripe I've had with the RPG genre in general for years now... why would six people stand by and watch their three buddies struggle in a fight with monsters, rather than joining in and cleaning house?) and they're all performing individual actions at the same time, to say nothing of the monsters on the other side of the battlefield. At a glance it would appear to be mildly organized chaos, but in action it's really pretty simple. Before, after and during the battle, you can set a specific attack style for the characters you won't be directly controlling, so they aren't wasting all of their strength on a meaningless enemy while a tough boss fight is just around the corner. If you want your weakest character to avoid physical confrontations and concentrate on healing, it's as easy as changing a setting. Usually, two members of your party will be following these instructions at any time, while you'll be directly in control of the third. Yet, despite the seemingly-obvious directions, the computer AI will occasionally find a way to screw up. Whether they're running headfirst into an explosion with low HP or repeatedly casting heal on a teammate who doesn't need it, your comrades will generally leave a lot to be desired. I even ran into a few instances where I'd found myself single-handedly taking on half a dozen enemies while my two teammates stood off in a corner somewhere and cheered me on.

Aside from the cutscenes, this is generally a visually uninspiring game. The characters look about as stale and unexciting as they act, and the environments and spells are nothing that hasn't already been done better by a previous title. To be frank, the Sega Dreamcast could have more than likely produced graphics equal to the ones seen here, and that's a tremendous knock at this stage in the PS2's life cycle. With the PS3 peeking over the horizon, this should be the point in time when game developers are really starting to stretch Sony's aging console to the limits with amazing graphical effects, not leaning back and kicking out weak, flat displays such as this. Occasionally you'll run into an enemy or dungeon that's up to par visually with its contemporaries, but on the large I wasn't impressed. The graphical direction and wardrobe designs are solid enough, but it looks like a lot of the charm was lost in the translation from pen and paper to fully interactive three-dimensionality. As I alluded to earlier, the cutscenes are outstanding, but you'd expect that from a Square-Enix RPG.

This current-gen revisiting of developer tri-Ace's shining star feels like a hollow, emotionless shell more than it does a sequel five and a half years in the making. Rarely have I been more disappointed in a big follow-up title than I was with this one. It's strictly average, with passable graphics, weak voice acting, horrible characters and a mind-numbingly slow story killing any forward progress made by the battle system, which is still quite a blast. I feel dirty for considering this as a contemporary to The Second Story, although I'm beginning to question if even the PSone rendition was actually as good as I remember it. I don't think the ultimate goal of a sequel should be to force its fans to re-evaluate their feelings about the original.

A short literary analysis of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: February 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It is convention to review a game by various criteria, such as "gameplay", "sound", and "graphics". I can only assume this is done to allow otherwise unimaginative games which do not concern themselves with neither art nor artistry to garner a positive rating, such as that of the "sports" genre. In the following analysis of "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" I will not review as one conventionally does, and instead will give an approach similar to the manner in which one writes an analysis of a novel. Although what I have written can and will be considered short given the voluminous amounts of text that critics have written about works in the western canon, I feel it contributes to the analysis of games as a literary medium, for a video game is no less a novel than a film is a play.

"Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" has been accused of copying the premise of many popular science-fiction works, such as "The Matrix". This can be so only superficially, for "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" concerns itself not with the meaning of humanity, as "The Matrix" does, but with the meaning of existence. It is a thoroughly religious concern - bringing to mind "Who designed the designer?" Throughout the work, many layers of context are used, which supplement the work's greater concern. The beginning of context begins with the story itself - on a resort planet known as Hyda IV.

Those of a literary persuasion do not take a part of a novel for granted; likewise, no elements of "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" should be taken for granted. This is because Hyda IV is the backdrop for layered contexts - as a resort planet, Fayt metaphorically ignores what should concern him. The resort planet itself is a metaphor for the nature of a resort - a place where one goes to avoid concerns. The Vendeeni attack emphasizes this dreamlike state, for afterwards Fayt faces a harsh reality with no relief at all.

The planets Fayt encounters later expand the aforementioned layering. Vanguard III is emphasized for an extremely short amount of time, which is done to provide a contrast between a life of Luddism and the ultramodern life in which Fayt is accustomed. Elicoor II, however, ultimately sets the context for "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time". It is utilized for so long a period to allow the player to forget what the primary objective is. The player becomes used to seeing himself as a sort of god. After the Vendeeni attack - which reminds one of the attack on Hyda IV, for both were done after the player is particularly settled in a state of mind - Fayt soon learns of the universe's origins and, in a state of utter irony, his situation becomes no different than the situation of those on Elicoor II.

The help of those at the Sphere company is comparable to Fayt's helping of those on Elicoor II, and the wrath of the 4D beings to that of Norton on Vanguard III. This foreshadowing, if not deliberate, is coincidental. It lessens the surprise of the 4D beings, and provides a context for the layering in the game.

One of the strongest arguments against intelligent design, and indeed of any argument advocating a designer, is the question of "who designed the designer?" and "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" provides context for that question with its layering. If the 4D beings designed the universe, then who designed the 4D beings? Did 6D beings design the 5D beings that designed the 4D beings that designed our universe? The game answers itself with a Descartean response ("I think, therefor I am), but it is not the answer that is important, it is the question - and "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" raises that question better than no game before it.


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