Revisiting my Childhood with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
I’ve had many different gaming experiences over the years. Within this library, I have special memories for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. This PlayStation 2 title was the third big JRPG I got into, only being beat out by Final Fantasy VIII and X. And well, I suppose most of us think fondly upon our early gaming experiences. I first remember seeing a tv commercial for it and being completely enamored.
I also remember seeing a review for it on X-Play, a show that aired on the gaming and technology network G4TechTV back in the day. I felt so excited after seeing their glowing review. Apparently, I talked about it enough for my parents to surprise me and rent the game from Hollywood Video for me. During my childhood, I could only play video games on weekends. Therefore, I would usually end up slowly completing a game over three or so months. It definitely led me to really savor my gaming experiences and play a game inside and out. Things were no different for my time with Till the End of Time.
Even though it has been nearly fifteen years, I still remember Motoi Sakuraba’s excellent soundtrack, exploring every nook and cranny of each map to collect bunny statues, and chuckling at the jankiness of the cutscenes (even in 2004 it looked a bit rough to my eyes). I remember being in glee when I learned cool new skills for my party members, and so much more that I really can’t fit into the span of one normal sized Medium post. The experiences I had with this game cemented my love for JRPGs. The influence it had in informing me of my gaming tastes and providing me with an adventure full of many gaming “firsts” (huge post game, dialogue choices, multiple endings) cannot be overstated.
I want to re-experience that, or at least compare 2004 Alex’s experiences of the game with the experiences of 2019 Alex. What I’ll be doing in my next several posts is chronicling a new playthrough of Till the End of Time from beginning to end. My goal is to play through at least the main story with some side quests sprinkled in. I will be using the Prima Strategy Guide that I bought for the original game (and never used) in order to discover new parts of the game and gain a better understanding of aspects I did not pay much attention to.
My goal is to have this all done before the release of Star Ocean: First Departure R ( a remake of the very first Star Ocean title) on December 5th of this year. Thanks for reading and please look forward to my next post!
