Star Ocean Universe

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time	Star Ocean: TtEoT: Director's Cut
Genre: Action/RPG	Genre: Action/RPG
Developer/Publisher: tri-Ace/Enix	Developer/Publisher: tri-Ace/Square-Enix
Platform: PS2	Platform: PS2
Players: 1	Players: 1/(2)
Japan Release Date: 27 Feb 2003	Japan Release Date: 22 Jan 2004
US (NTSC) Release Date: N/A	US (NTSC) Release Date: 31 Aug 2004
EU (PAL) Release Date: N/A	EU (PAL) Release Date: 1 Oct 2004
Official Sites: Japan	Official Sites: Japan | NA | Europe

400 Years have passed since the events of Second Story, here you play as Fayt Leingod, a human teenager who is on vacation with friends and family, but not too long into your vacation the location Hyda IV is attacked by another entity. This causes Fayt and the others to escape...but things go wrong and he is separated from his family, will Fayt be re-united with his friends and family again?

 

  

 

Battles take place in a live environment with fast paced action and emphasis on attack timing and combination's as opposed to a simple button mashing affair more common in prior Star Ocean titles. Another unique factor of the actions battles is the ability to have your AI allies attack automatically or all await your commands when set as "Manual", you also have the ability to control every character with a quick character swap. However unlike the Star Ocean titles before it this time you have just the three characters in battle at once, pick your balance of characters wisely!

Unlike the main Star Ocean titles before this (not including Blue Sphere) the battles are no longer random and you can see your opponents before you, this can be quite useful in evading an excess of pointless random battles, particularly when you are under pressure or wish to avoid easy battles. However you will have to be good enough to outsmart your allies and sneak past them stealthily, this adds to the action presentation of the game and gives you the player more control.

 

  

 

All other typical Star Ocean elements have also returned in some form, including affection levels between characters, optional characters, item creation, multiple endings and many more of the traits the make Star Ocean what it is today.

Note that Star Ocean: Till the End of Time effectively has two releases, the original was released in Japan only before the Square Enix merger. The Director's Cut however was released internationally after the Square Enix merger (while for Europe it was published by Ubisoft), while the same game to the core a few changes had been made. Most notably the change from a one disk game to a two disk game which added in features originally cut from the initial release of the game, such as adding two new playable characters Mirage & Adray. The Director's Cut version boasts two player ability, although it's very limited and only available once certain requirements are met throughout the game. 2 Players is only available in a vs. battle arena, you cannot play the story or regular battles as co-op.