History VideoGame / StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime

* PostEndGameContent: The Maze of Tribulations, the Ursa Cave Temple and the rest of Sphere 211.

-->'''''or'''''

-->'''''or'''''

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Up until the end of Disc 1, the Vendeeni were the oft-mentioned horrible threat to all existence which the main characters have spent the whole game either running or hiding from. When they finally show up for a proper fight, they get their asses handed to them and are never mentioned again after [[spoiler:the Executioners and their masters, the Sphere Corporation up in 4D space]] hit the stage, literally coming out of nowhere.

* GratuitousEnglish: All over the place in the Japanese version, particularly in the menu and in battles. All battle skills are in English (mostly unchanged, and even displayed in English letters), and if you try to use an item before the cooldown runs out, you get "An item can't be used!!" (whereas nothing shows up in the English release).

* MindScrew: Just try to understand how the ending works. Go ahead, just try.
** The characters themselves even [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] it, saying "look, we don't know ''how'' we won, but we won, right? Let's just go home."

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Nel Zelpher's a medieval ninja wizard special forces government agent.
* OddJobGods: [[spoiler: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed silly]] if you don't let the plot twist make you forget how ES views 4D, namely as the abode of the gods. 4D culture considers it chimeric for anyone to do anything they don't have the equivalent of a degree for, save for playing Sphere's games. This even extends to ''giving directions''--looser restrictions would trample on the jobs and pay of those who ''do'' have the proper degrees, after all. This has the unpleasant effect of making 4D a practical WorldOfSilence. Being an Odd Job God/4D citizen is ''not'' fun or fulfilling, not even with ES to distract them when not on the job. [[ItGetsWorse Then you remember]] that Odd Job Gods is how they're seen ''by ES's residents''. They can't even figure out how to do anything meaningful that isn't directly related to their job ''in their escapism!'' In other words, the reason gods so often play around with mortals is that, even in the ultimate escape fantasy, ''that's how bored they are, ''and 4D's idea of proper employment and behavior makes the pursuit of happiness IMPOSSIBLE.'' In this universe, the Buddha's point that the gods should be pitied is ''very'' much on the mark...]]

** This game has a particularly ridiculous example; Nel, whom you have in your party for almost the whole first disc, is an optional character... whereas Adray, who barely even shows up in any cutscenes and doesn't even show up in the original version, is ''not'' optional.

** The other two optional members are Peppita and Albel. Peppita reappears for the first time since the beginning of the game after being completely useless and annoying the whole 20 minutes she was on screen before that and takes a lot of grinding to get her up to a half-way useful level. Albel, on the other hand has to be sought out via a sidequest. If you complete this quest before leaving Elicoor, then Albel goes with you instead of Nel and you actually have to come back for her after you escape [[spoiler:4D space]]. The game suddenly gets a lot more interesting when the half-naked skirt-wearing CrazyAwesome HeroicSociopath [[{{McNinja}} Medieval Samurai]] with the 17th Century worldview is suddenly thrust into the high-technology ''Franchise/StarTrek''ey world of ''StarOcean'''s Pangalactic Federation. It's not so much a FishOutOfWater situation as it is a Land Shark one.

* PostEndGameContent: The Maze of Tribulations, the Ursa Cave BonusDungeon and the rest of Sphere 211.

* PropheticName: It's obvious someone with a name like "Fayt Leingod" was destined for greatness. Subverted with [[spoiler:Maria, who, despite her last name sounding suspiciously like "traitor" {Traydor} she doesn't turn out to be one.]]

** There's also the Lezard flask, also a reference to Lezard.
** Given the name and description of the Sunrise Dictionary, it may be a reference to the {{Sunrise}} company, well known for the {{Gundam}} [[{{humongous mecha}} mecha]] series.

** MagikarpPower: Mirage can be a pretty strong character if the player has enough patience to work with her. She gets Maria's Triple Kick attack, among other things, and she has higher MP than Cliff, making her somewhat less prone to MP-deaths.
*** Peppita/Souffle can also become almost as strong as (and perhaps even surpass in strength) some of the physical fighters like Fayt and Cliff, if leveled up sufficiently.

* CrapsackWorld: Believe it or not, [[spoiler:the "real" world that Fayt and co. venture into fits this trope. A world that's all play and no work is not as pleasant as it sounds. Especially when you consider that, as Maria points out, it's mostly a ''very'' effective ploy for Lucifer and his cohorts to essentially be the overlords of the 4D cities.]]

* DarkSkinnedBlond: Peppita Rossetti.

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-->'''''OR'''''

* {{Expy}}: Ameena, a young, [[InnocentFlowerGirl pretty flower girl]] whose [[ConvenientlyAnOrphan parents are dead]] and later [[spoiler: [[TearJerker in possibly one of the saddest moments of the game]], [[IllGirl dies as a result of overexertion and her illness]]]]. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sound familiar?]] Incidentally, the game was originally published in Japan by Enix just prior to the merger.

* GeniusBruiser: Cliff Fittir, probably. When he's not busy pulverizing Mooks with RapidFireFisticuffs and SphereOfDestruction, he's also [[spoiler:the very capable (former) leader of [[LaResistance Quark]]. In fact, he stepped down when he witnessed Maria's capacity for destruction surpassing his own...]]
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Up until the end of disc one, the Vendeeni were the oft-mentioned horrible threat to all existence which the main characters have spent the whole game either running or hiding from. When they finally show up for a proper fight, they get their asses handed to them and are never even mentioned again after [[spoiler:the Executioners and their masters, the Sphere Corporation up in 4D space]] hit the stage, literally coming out of nowhere.

** Despite being a PS2 release, walking (required for one very early puzzle) is not linked to small movements of the analog like ''every other game for a system with a joystick based controller'', but to holding the circle button. At least it's in the manual if you look for it.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Albel]]; starts out as more of an EnemyMine, but if you recruit him as one of your {{Optional Party Member}}s, he definitely becomes this.

** The other two [[OptionalPartyMember optional members]] are Peppita and Albel. Peppita reappears for the first time since the beginning of the game after being completely useless and annoying the whole 20 minutes she was on screen before that and takes a lot of grinding to get her up to a half-way useful level. Albel, on the other hand has to be sought out via a sidequest. If you complete this quest before leaving Elicoor, then Albel goes with you instead of Nel and you actually have to come back for her after you escape [[spoiler:4D space]]. The game suddenly gets a lot more interesting when the half-naked skirt-wearing CrazyAwesome HeroicSociopath [[{{McNinja}} Medieval Samurai]] with the 17th Century worldview is suddenly thrust into the high-technology ''Franchise/StarTrek''ey world of ''StarOcean'''s Pangalactic Federation. It's not so much a FishOutOfWater situation as it is a Land Shark one.

* UpdatedRerelease: Originally the game was formally titled Star Ocean 3, but the released version was incredibly buggy and didn't work at all on the original Playstation 2 models. Enix rereleased the game, fixing all the bugs and adding new features receiving a generally positive reception. The only version that escaped Japan was the Directors Cut, Till The End of Time. Oddly enough despite being the only actual English version of the game, it's still billed as the Director's Cut in the US.

The third game in the ''StarOcean'' series, '''''Star Ocean: Till the End of Time''''', is set 400 years after the events of ''StarOceanTheSecondStory''. Fayt Leingod, an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary college student]], is vacationing on a resort planet which suddenly gets attacked by aliens. A few escapes later, his escape pod crash lands on an undeveloped planet, he gets rescued by a member of LaResistance, they crash on ''another'' undeveloped planet, and they get caught up in local politics. The repercussions of the alien attack, and the reasons for it, are going to catch up with Fayt again....

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler:[[TomatoInTheMirror Just about everyone are actually unknowing]] {{NPC}}s [[InsideAComputerSystem Inside An]] {{MMORPG}}.]]

** It really depends though. For instance, Max Shockwave is one of the key skills of Cliff, as well as Maria's Energy Burst. Also, Fayt's Dimension Door attack was so overpowered in the original Japanese release that the designers nerfed it for the ''Director's Cut''/North American version; and it's ''still'' one of his more useful attacks.

* BrilliantButLazy: Fayt, arguably, since the guy does know a fair bit about machinery, as shown when he fixes a child's music box because of knowing the exact parts needed and knowing that the cannon needed a copper wire in order to properly work. However, he is shown at the beginning to be a bit of a slacker, playing video games instead of doing homework.
** It's possible that, as a college student, machinery was his specialty. Also, it's common knowledge that that iron is terrible to use as wire.

* OddJobGods: [[spoiler: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed silly]] if you don't let the plot twist make you forget how ES views 4D, namely as the abode of the gods. 4D culture considers it chimeric for anyone to do anything they don't have the equivalent of a degree for, save for playing Sphere's games. This even extends to ''giving directions''--looser restrictions would trample on the jobs and pay of those who ''do'' have the proper degrees, after all. This has the unpleasant effect of making 4D a practical WorldOfSilence. Being an Odd Job God/4D citizen is ''not'' fun or fulfilling, not even with ES to distract them when not on the job. [[ItGetsWorse Then you remember]] that Odd Job Gods is how they're seen ''by ES's residents''. They can't even figure out how to do anything meaningful that isn't directly related to their job ''in their escapism!'' In other words, the reason gods so often play around with mortals is that, even in the ultimate escape fantasy, ''that's how bored they are, '''and 4D's idea of proper employment and behavior makes the pursuit of happiness IMPOSSIBLE.''''' In this universe, the Buddha's point that the gods should be pitied is ''very'' much on the mark...]]

** A bookshelf in the mansion at Arias has music pieces called "Go To The Light" and "Heart to Heart" which reference the opening and ending themes of the ''Star Ocean EX'' anime.

* TakeThat: A very subtle one. ''Till the End of Time'' was published by Enix before their merger in 2003. The game's BigBad and his GoldFishPoopGang of flunkies are all part of a video game company, a company known by the shorthand "Sphere". What's that remind you of?
* TeaserEquipment: When you first arrive in Airyglyph City, several powerful weapons and items are sold for 20,000 FOL or more when you'll have barely a tenth of that. Purchasing this gear early is a godsend on the higher difficulties.

The third game in the ''StarOcean'' series, '''''Star Ocean: Till the End of Time''''', is set 400 years after the events of StarOceanTheSecondStory''. Fayt Leingod, an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary college student]], is vacationing on a resort planet which suddenly gets attacked by aliens. A few escapes later, his escape pod crash lands on an undeveloped planet, he gets rescued by a member of LaResistance, they crash on ''another'' undeveloped planet, and they get caught up in local politics. The repercussions of the alien attack, and the reasons for it, are going to catch up with Fayt again....

The third game in the ''StarOcean'' series, ''Star Ocean: Till the End of Time'', is set hundreds of years after the previous installments. Fayt Leingod, an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Ordinary College Student]], is vacationing on a resort planet which suddenly gets attacked by aliens. A few escapes later, his escape pod crash lands on an undeveloped planet, he gets rescued by a member of LaResistance, they crash on ''another'' undeveloped planet, and they get caught up in local politics. The repercussions of the alien attack - and the reasons for it - are going to catch up with Fayt again....

It's possibly most famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) for the '''huge''' plot twist that comes about halfway through the story that completely changes the scope of not just the game, but the entire series itself.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: [[spoiler: The respected scientists researching a device that travels through time, study magic for a living and have the event '''recorded on video''', think people won't believe them the device warned them of extra-dimensional beings coming to destroy them.]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: Many of the most damaging Battle Skills have an overly long startup time, and said moves also tend to have high Capacity Point costs that limit what other moves can be used alongside them.
** It really depends though. For instance, Max Shockwave is one of the key skills of Cliff, as well as Maria's Energy Burst. Also, Fayt's "Dimension Door" attack was so overpowered in the original Japanese release that the designers nerfed it for the US-release/Directors-cut; and it's ''still'' one of his more useful attacks.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Fayt Leingod. Imagine people calling him that with a straight face when he was just an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Ordinary College Student]].

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler:Lenneth and Freya from ValkyrieProfile]], along with the usual Gabriel Celeste and the Ethereal Queen. Also, optional NintendoHard palette swaps of the main party and [[spoiler:Luther]].

* BonusFeatureFailure: The two bonus characters in the Director's Cut may count. Adray is really just a less capable wizard (a spot already filled by Sophia) with a weapon set nearly identical to Albel's, while Mirage uses effectively the same attack set and play-style as Cliff (with a couple of Maria's moves thrown in) but is 40-50 levels lower. The player has the option to gain Adray early into the game when he would be at a similar level to the party, but if you opt to gain him at the next opportunity (much later near the end of the game), he'll still be at that level (Level 19 when the party is roughly 55-70).

* BoringButPractical: Fayt's "Side Kick" skill. It's one of the first abilities he learns, and is pretty much exactly as it sounds like. However, it's cheap to cast in terms of both Guts and HP, has low Capacity Point requirements, grants invincibilty during its animation, and chains into itself easily for a sustained 200% damage boost. Chances are that this is going to go into both of Fayt's close-range killer move slots as soon as you get it, and will stay there through the {{Bonus Dungeon}}s.
* BoyfriendBluff: Interestingly inverted when [[BrilliantButLazy Fayt]], in order to get away from an unwanted admirer, claims that [[LikeBrotherandSister Sophia]] is actually his girlfriend. She immediately begins to [[InaneBlabbering babble in embarrassment]], but Fayt begs her to play along with it, which she does. Afterward she reassures him that she didn't exactly mind since she doesn't totally despise him.

** You can level her up (along with Peppita) easily by grinding in a different location, and, since they're at level 1, they can make the bonus battle gauge fill up faster, thus making you earn EXP easier. There's even a battle trophy for gaining 20 levels in a single battle!

* CrapsackWorld: Believe it or not, [[spoiler:the "real" world that Fayt and co. venture into fits this trope. Let's face facts: a world that's all play and no work is not as pleasant as it sounds. Especially when you consider that, as Maria points out, it's mostly a ''very'' effective ploy for Lucifer and his cohorts to essentially be the overlords of the 4D cities.]]

** A '''major''' one is using Alchemy to make Orichalcum and Synthesis to augment your weapons with it. It's a huge GuideDangIt, but with enough money and perhaps an hour of effort, you can end up with a character doing ''dozens of times'' as much damage and turning otherwise hard bosses into {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s that end so quickly that the death animation takes longer than the fight itself.

* {{Expy}}: Ameena, a young, [[InnocentFlowerGirl pretty flower girl]] whose [[ConvenientlyAnOrphan parents are dead]] and later [[spoiler: [[TearJerker in possibly one of the saddest moments of the game]], [[IllGirl dies as a result of overexertion and her illness]]]]. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sound familiar?]] Incidentally, while the game was published by SquareEnix, it was published in Japan by Enix prior to the merger.

* InterspeciesRomance: Though almost any of the intelligent species in the Star Ocean universe could be considered to be sub-species of the same species (especially since they can interbreed), the game considers each to be different. As such, examples of {{interspecies romance}} can potentially include (depending on the paired endings): Fayt x Nel (Human x Elicoorian), Fayt x Mirage (Human x Klausian), and Maria x Lieber (Human x Klausian, this is the default pairing for Maria if you do not get the Fayt x Maria ending).

* MeaningfulName: Fayt Leingod and Maria Traydor. It should be noted, though, that Maria's surname (literally spelt "Traitor" on the Japanese official site) [[spoiler:is actually a misnomer, since she never behaves traitorously in any way at all.]] Sophia gets in on the act too, if you know anything about Gnosticism (or played VideoGame/{{Xenogears}} or VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero [[spoiler:You piss off Luther enough for him to start ''deleting the universe.'' Good thing it doesn't actually work, [[MindScrew or something]].]]

* OddJobGods: [[spoiler: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed silly]] if you don't let the infamous plot twist make you forget how ES views 4D, namely as the abode of the gods. 4D culture considers it chimeric for anyone to do anything they don't have the equivalent of a degree for, save for playing Sphere's games. This even extends to ''giving directions''--looser restrictions would trample on the jobs and pay of those who ''do'' have the proper degrees, after all. This has the unpleasant effect of making 4D a practical WorldOfSilence. Being an Odd Job God/4D citizen is ''not'' fun or fulfilling, not even with ES to distract them when not on the job. [[ItGetsWorse Then you remember]] that Odd Job Gods is how they're seen ''by ES's residents''. They can't even figure out how to do anything meaningful that isn't directly related to their job ''in their escapism!'' In other words, the reason gods so often play around with mortals is that, even in the ultimate escape fantasy, ''that's how bored they are, '''and 4D's idea of proper employment and behavior makes the pursuit of happiness IMPOSSIBLE.''''' In this universe, the Buddha's point that the gods should be pitied is ''very'' much on the mark...]]

* PantyShot: Nel and Sophia, ''constantly''. Maria gets some with her third and fourth alternate costumes, too. And for the ladies, '''[[{{Bishonen}} Albel]]''' gets some of these, most obviously if you use him to create items through smithery. (They're purple.)

* PrideBeforeAFall: Albel comes off as having a MASSIVE ego when it comes to fighting both times you meet him before you actually get to fight him. And when you beat him, Fayt invokes this trope as he knows it will hurt him more by letting him go then just finishing him off.

* ShoutOut: You meet two brothers named Lucien and Lezard in Lost City of Surferio. For those who don't know, Lucian is also the name of Lenneth's love interest in {{Valkyrie Profile}} and Lezard is the name of her [[{{LoveMakesYouCrazy}} insane]] {{stalker with a crush}}. Also, the kid Lezard seems to be just as conniving as his counterpart, who knows what he'll grow up to be.

* TakeThat: A very subtle upwardly-aimed one. ''Till the End of Time'' was one of the first games SquareEnix published after their merger back in 2003. The game's BigBad and his GoldFishPoopGang of flunkies are all part of a videogame company, a company known by the shorthand "Sphere". What's that remind you of?

** A bookshelf in the mansion at Arias has music pieces called Go To The Light and Heart to Heart which reference the opening and ending themes of Star Ocean EX anime.

** Given the name and description of the Sunrise Dictionary, it may be a reference to the {{Sunrise}} company, well known for the

{{Gundam}} [[{{humongous mecha}} mecha]] series.

** Given the name and description of the Sunrise Dictionary, it may be a reference to the {{Sunrise}} company, well known for the {{Gundam}} [[{{humongous mecha}} mecha]] series.

** The other two [[OptionalPartyMember optional members]] are Peppita and Albel. Peppita reappears for the first time since the beginning of the game after being completely useless and annoying the whole 20 minutes she was on screen before that and takes a lot of grinding to get her up to a half-way useful level. Albel, on the other hand has to be sought out via a sidequest. If you complete this quest before leaving Elicoor, then Albel goes with you instead of Nel and you actually have to come back for her after you escape [[spoiler:4D space]]. The game suddenly gets a lot more interesting when the half-naked skirt-wearing CrazyAwesome HeroicSociopath [[{{McNinja}} Medieval Samurai]] with the 17th Century worldview is suddenly thrust into the high-technology ''StarTrek''ey world of ''StarOcean'''s Pangalactic Federation. It's not so much a FishOutOfWater situation as it is a Land Shark one.

** The InfinityPlusOneSword from the [[StarOcean2 previous game]]?

** The InfinityPlusOne sword from the [[StarOcean2 previous game]]?

* ButtMonkey Cliff is this in the manga.

Its possibly most famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) for the '''huge''' plot twist that comes about halfway through the story that completely changes the scope of not just the game, but the entire series itself.

* MeaningfulName: Fayt Leingod and Maria Traydor. It should be noted, though, that Maria's surname (literally spelt "Traitor" on the Japanese official site) [[spoiler:is actually a misnomer, since she never behaves traitorously in any way at all.]] Sophia gets in on the act too, if you know anything about Gnosticism (or played {{Xenogears}} or VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}).

* BlackMagicianGirl / StaffChick: Sophia somehow seems to fit both tropes at once.

* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Cliff, Fayt, and Albel.

* AIIsACrapshoot: In a truly bizarre subversion, [[spoiler: you and your entire party. You and the entire universe are just [[InstantAIJustAddWater data]] from the perspective of the Fourth Dimensional beings that created you.]]