Star Ocean - Till The End Of Time(3): "BUT....!"

As a lover of The Last Hope, and since I'm going back through older RPGs, I figured I would give this game another shot. I regret that decision - but I had to at least try.

I have a funny story at the end. You've simply GOT to stick around for that.

What I Liked

Moving around the battle map is a lot more fluid and natural than other Star Ocean games. The control is highly responsive.

Some of the tracks are good. Not memorable, but good.

The character animations are very well done.

Welch. 'Nuff said.

What I Didn't Like

Geez, where do I start...

Unskippable cutscenes. You can bypass them without watching them, but you can't start watching it and speed it up or decide if it's worth watching.

That stupid shield all enemies have that forces you to use a strong attack and prevents you from going nuts with the battle engine.

All of the minigames are just straight up annoying. (Haulers...shudder)

Frequent times you shack up in an inn, you're told "eh, go out and explore" with no instructions to just burn time before you can trigger the next scene.

That ending. Just terrible.

The script. Here's where I tell my story, because the moment I heard Fayt speak it brought back memories.

You see, I used to be a big deal on GameFAQs, back when "C" Jay Veasey ran it and it wasn't a CNET castoff. I actually wrote many of the site's first FAQs (I later required they be deleted) for games like the Game Boy Color Dragon Warrior games, early Dynasty Warriors games, Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI and VII, etc.

At that time, someone posted asking for feedback and I remember calling out the script specifically as terrible, and told them it basically goes like this (because it does):

Fayt: "BUT....!!!!!"

Someone: "No buts. We need to do this if we're going to ____________________."

Fayt: "BUT.....!!!!"

Someone else: "Stop whining and come on!"

Fayt: "Mmmrph!!"

And someone responded and said "please tell me that's not dialog from the actual game, lol".

It's not exactly. But it's close. Because that's how the bulk of the dialog goes - Fayt getting interrupted and someone making a B out of him while he continues whining. It's terrible. Worst ever? No, but it's up there. The voice actors did the best they could but it's just a bad script.

I just don't see it. To this day, it feels like a lesser game than 4 or 5 by a wide margin, and yes, some of it is the timeframe when it was released, but it's just a slow, dull game to me.