An old return
One of these titles is definitely Star Ocean: Till the End of Time , the third chapter of the Square Enix saga, released on Playstation 2 and reproduced in a digital version for Playstation 4 as a porting.
It is not a “remastered” version, which aims at making this title current, but on an occasion to discover or re-discover one of the masterpieces of its kind in its era, albeit at times underestimated by the public.
The support for trophies is also well-liked, a feature of the next generation of consoles, because already in the time there were unlockable and salvable “battle trophies” within their own memory card.
At the confines of space
However, it will not be long before you realize that this is a product of your own time, omitting the obvious graphic limits: we will notice immediately that in order to control and move the camera you can not use the right analogue key as we are used to doing years, but necessarily need to use the dorsal keys; it will take some time to get used to this setting, especially for younger players.Even dubbing was not very convincing at the time, and now its limits are more noticeable than in the past, but fortunately, if it would bother you could disable it at will.
History will begin when our planet is attacked by a hostile alien faction, and the succession of events will push us to have no other choice than to retreat to a planet with technology still at mediocre levels; So we must try to survive without affecting their development, as envisaged by the laws: in this case, clear references to Star Trek, confirming the inevitable inspiration of the pop materials of those years.
Beyond the stars
The story is still very enjoyable even nowadays and the incredible longevity of the game will satisfy the enthusiasts of the genre, with a duration of about 50 hours if you focus exclusively on the main storyline. Also the soundtrack, composed by Motoi Sakuraba (among his works we recall those of the Tales Of series), enriches the experience, giving you really enjoyable music to listen to and that will help to bring up adrenaline and involvement during the battles.
The most important thing to point out is, however, that the gameplay itself is not quite dated, as it often happens to some games dating to these years, but indeed absolutely current thanks to the innovations made: Everything will take place around the rage meter, which at its maximum capacity will also allow for standard shots.
This bar will also be available for enemies, from there the importance of understanding when it is the case to launch powerful strikes to inflict damage and when instead to stand still and recover the forces. The battles take place entirely on three-dimensional fields with the ability to move up to 3 characters freely, similar to what is happening in the Tales Of series.
The difficulty is also quite high: there are few rescue points (we can not save it to our liking), the battles if not taken seriously will lead to any defeat, not only if our health reaches 0, but alternatively the magic points. The map will not be fully viewable, but it will be completed by us by exploring the different settings; on it will also display the enemies on screen, helping us avoid, or face further battles; succeeding in successfully completing several battles will reward us with various bonuses, and therefore try to encourage us to do our best on every occasion.
