Star Ocean: Till the End of Time review

After Star Ocean 2 for the PS1, the trilogy in the Star Ocean series is developed. You have came to read the review of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

The Story:

Fayt Leingod, a young man who's with the young girl named Sophia at a spaceship. Suddenly, Sophia was gone and Fayt's on a job to find her and bring her back directly right after the violent crash landing to Vanguard III. However, there's a war going on on each country until Apris is revived. Apris is a spirit to stop wars and Fayt and Co. must bring it back to life.

The Gameplay:

On the first battle, Fayt and Sophia battle together in the battle simulator. The battle simulator is a training to know how to play the game. Let's start talking about the points. The red gauge is HP. HP consumes when you're taking damage. You can regain HP by using items capable of healing or using healing Symbology. Next is the blue gauge or MP. MP is a gauge that is consumed by using Special Attacks or Symbologies. Special Attacks are types of attacks. In order to use a Special Attack, hold down the X or the circle button to unleash and you can assign them to a slot. Symbology is a magic attack. They can't be assigned on slots, but you can use it via the battle menu. Notice the Tales series has all that features? That's how Star Ocean has features since they are directly related, but in SO3, it only has 3 people in party and 5 in reserved.

Finally the green gauge or the Fury Gauge. The Fury Gauge allows you to attack until it reaches 0. It works like the CC system (Combo Counter) from Graces and the AC system (Assault Counter) from Xillia. If the Fury gauge reaches 0, it refills almost instantly. But it won't stop you from attacking already and stopping combos, so always keep an eye on the hit combo. If you stand there with a full Fury, you'll guard and stun enemies.

Every time you level up, you earn Battle Capacity Points and Skills Points. Battle Capacity Points are types of points that limits the uses depending on the Special Attack capacity. Skills Points are points that are capable of expanding the party's HP, MP, defense and attacks. You need enough SP to reach the next level for the parameters in the Status menu. Notice the part in Tales of Xillia that every time you level up, you earn GP to spend at the Lilium Orb? It has that feature from the Star Ocean series, but completely different. However, you still earn max HP, MP, Atk. and Def.

Next up is the gauge in the middle right of the battle screen is the Bonus Battle Gauge. The Bonus Battle Gauge increases depending on the rate. If it's full, the Bonus Battle starts. There are 4 types of bonuses, such as Triple EXP, Double Fol, Increase Recovery Rate Upon Win and Boost Chance of an Item. After taking certain damage, the Bonus Battle Gauge will be broken all the way, so take good care of it or you'll fill the gauge over. Fol is money from the Star Ocean series. It's needed to buy weapons, armor, items and food.

Pros:

Awesome combat experience, Bonus Battle Gauge is very interesting, interesting battle system like the Tales series.

Cons:

The increase rate of the Bonus Battle Gauge decreases and no way to increase it.

Since it's coming to PlayStation Network soon, I'll give Star Ocean: Till the End of Time a perfect 10 for prime.

P.S.: It has a combination of Vesperia, Graces and Xillia.