Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (スターオーシャン ティルジエンドオブタイム,)

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (スターオーシャン ティルジエンドオブタイム, Sutā Ōshan Tiru ji Endo obu Taimu^?) is the third main game in the Star Ocean series. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console system. It was released in Japan, North America, and the PAL territories. The original Japanese release date was in February of 2003 by Enix, shortly before its merger to become Square Enix. It was re-released in 2004 as a two disc Director's Cut version with bonus features such as new characters and dungeons. The North American and European version are based on the Director's Cut version. Till the End of Time takes place four hundred years after the events of Star Ocean: The Second Story.

THE STORY

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time begins on the planet Hyda IV where a young man, Fayt Leingod, and his childhood friend, Sophia Esteed, are on vacation with Fayt's family. Fayt is the son of a famous scientist in the field of symbological genetics. For an unknown reason, the Vendeen Empire — an alien civilization with highly advanced technology that spans only a single planet — attacks Hyda IV unprovoked, thus initiating a war with the Pangalactic Federation. Fayt and Sophia escape on the starship Helre, but are separated from Fayt's parents, Robert and Ryoko Leingod. The Helre is also attacked by the Vendeeni, and the two are separated.
Fayt's escape pod lands on the "underdeveloped planet" Vanguard III, a planet with technology equivalent to 16th Century Earth, and discovers an off-world criminal, the exiled Rezerbian Norton, plotting to take it over. Cliff Fittir, a member of the anti-Federation organization Quark, then lands and helps Fayt defeat this criminal. Fayt learns that Quark's leader wishes to speak to him and plans on rescuing his father, though Cliff does not reveal the reason behind this interest. After getting off the planet with Cliff and meeting his assistant Mirage, the Vendeeni again attack them — but they escape and crash-land on another underdeveloped world, Elicoor II. Elicoor seems to be around 17th Century Earth in terms of technological advancement. Fayt, Cliff, and Mirage crash-land into the capital of the Kingdom of Airyglyph, who believe that their ship is a weapon developed by the country they are at war with, Aquaria. Fayt and Cliff are imprisoned as a result (Mirage escapes), though they are soon rescued by an assassin-like agent, Nel Zelpher, who believes they are engineers from the technologically advanced continent of Greeton. She rescues them under the condition that they aid her country, Aquaria, with their technological knowledge or that she will kill them to prevent them leaking secrets to Airyglyph. This leads the two directly into the war between the two kingdoms and eventually into a great final battle between them. Then a new — at least to the Elicoorians — foe appears in the skies above, a Vendeeni battleship that has found their quarry. However, Fayt destroys the battleship with a previously unknown power of his, though another battleship remains in orbit. During the distraction, the leader of Quark, Maria Traydor, manages to arrive on Elicoor. It seems that both Quark and the Vendeeni knew of Fayt's unusual abilities, and he had been their target the whole time. The party vies with the Vendeeni over control of an unusual "out of place artifact" and Fayt's father, who is killed before Maria can finish interrogating him over his "crimes."

Fayt finds himself space-borne once more, and the galaxy has not stood still. Shortly after the apparently unprovoked attack on Hyda IV, a threat of staggering magnitude emerges in the form of ultra-powerful space-borne beings calling themselves "Executioners." The best ships of the Federation and the Vendeeni are nearly powerless against these new beings, and are quickly being forced into full retreat. The party, acting on a hint from Fayt's father, venture to the Moonbase research station, and Fayt is reunited with Sophia. While on the station, they are confronted by an angelic-looking Executioner that calls itself Proclaimer. It launches itself to attack, telling them that they must be destroyed.

Investigation of the Moonbase records reveals the truth behind the Executioners and their appearance. During the charting of a planet called Styx, explorers encountered an extremely advanced and extremely old Time Gate. When activated, it informed them that their forays into the field of symbological genetics had angered the Creator, and that they were to be destroyed. Even if they were to abandon symbological genetics, the reins would be taken up by another soon enough, and that they were not being warned — they were being sentenced.

The explorers beat a hasty retreat and informed the Federation of what they had found. Studies soon suggested that the statement came from another plane of existence; an entirely new universe. Further study revealed that symbology might be used to access this universe. The scientists agreed to use their own offspring; the subjects were Fayt Leingod, Sophia Esteed, and Maria Traydor. Fayt was the son of Robert and Ryoko Leingod, while Sophia was the daughter of Clive Esteed. Maria was an orphan who was later adopted by the fourth member of the team, Jessie Traydor. The three were symbologically altered in such a way that if they worked together, they could gain entry through the Time Gate. Maria was given the power of Alteration, which would allow her and those with her to remain in physical forms in the new world. Fayt was given the power of Destruction, as it was assumed they would need to physically defend themselves. Two years later, the younger Sophia was given the power of Connection - the key ability needed to make contact with 4D space. (This process of creating humans with inherent symbological power is quite similar to Nede's creation of the Ten Wise Men in Star Ocean: The Second Story, though apparently that did not draw down the wrath of the Executioners.) The Vendeeni had been attacking in hopes of handing over Fayt to the Executioners and staying their wrath.

The party goes to Styx and finds the area flooded with Executioners. Escaping their ship in a small shuttle, they witness the mysterious beings and their awesome might first-hand as the Federation battleship Aquaelie which had escorted them is destroyed. Reaching the Time Gate, the party enters "4D space," a dimension higher than their own. According to the 4D beings, their universe is actually not real in relation to 4D space; rather, it is a computer simulation developed by Luther Lansfeld, the owner of the Sphere Company. Dubbed the "Time Gate", it is similar to a real-world massively multiplayer online game for the 4D inhabitants.

Fayt and his allies learn that the Executioners are anti-viruses sent to delete anomalies in the Milky Way section of the Eternal Sphere. With the help of Blair Lansfeld, programmer and sister to Luther, the party manages to find Luther. Blair and the group believe that the residents of the Eternal Sphere have managed to achieve a level of intelligence equal to that of 4D citizens; Luther, however, considers them "mere data." Luther then decides that the only way to delete them is to delete the entire universe (apparently ignoring that he is currently in the Eternal Sphere). The party fights and stops him, but fails to stop the deletion.

However, the world is not destroyed for not entirely clear reasons. Blair mentions an "Eternal Sphere backup" earlier, but there's no evidence that it was applied. The characters decide that even if they really are just programs, they have achieved "consciousness" and therefore cannot be deleted. Alternately, others suggest something to do with Maria's power of Alteration has something to do with it, perhaps even implying that their universe has truly become a reality unto itself and therefore not subject to deletion.

The ending slightly changes based on the "affection level" of the other characters for Fayt, derived from the player's choices during the game and in Private Actions. Fayt has an ending for each character if that character has the highest affection level with him, as well as an "alone" ending if no one has sufficient affection level with him.