It's dark times for the stalwart fan of role-playing video games. The era when you could go to the store on a whim and find a handful of quality titles in the genre to feed your need for turn-based battles and abundant cliches is over. This holiday season, there isn't even going to be a traditional Final Fantasy to kill time with during those post-family gathering lulls. However, SquareEnix hasn't decided to neglect this portion of the population. They're throwing their fans a bone with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

While there are some vibrant colors in the game, the true star is actually the combat system. Instead of the standard, turn based action that involves the constant mashing of the X button to win, actual attention needs to be paid to battles in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Of course, that's sometimes because the computer fumbles the commanding of your troops, turning them from a well-knit, cohesive unit to a disorganized collection of bodies.

However, when your entourage is actually doing your bidding, combat is a blast. You enter battle, select a target or just go after the computer assigned enemy, and start linking together your attacks. All characters have short and long ranged attacks and you can swap enemies on the fly, as well as combo your attacks to dish out more devastating blows.

In battle, how often you can attack is based on your Fury gauge. As you use it you'll whittle the meter away until you have 0% left. At that point in time you have to sit still and recharge. There's also a Bonus Battle meter, which bestows various benefits in combat if it is full, such as triple experience and better chances at getting items. It's a neat concept, but it's marred by cheap shots from the enemy, which is extremely frustrating during boss battles. The most peculiar aspect of combat is that depleting the character's magic points (MP) incapacitates them. It seems odd to penalize the character for attempting to allocate all available assets to defeating the enemy.

When you meet all of the characters, you can't help but think that you've journeyed with them before in prior adventures. The only consolation is knowing that we too feel the sting of playing through this extremely bland title, where the people and places are not just reminiscent of past games, but actually feel lifted from other titles.

The scenery shows the predominance of this apathetic development as well. When traveling throughout the universe, it feels like you're just being spun around on a merry-go-round. You keep moving forward with snazzy tunes playing, but never get anywhere other than right where you started. The towns are almost indistinguishable to the point where you'll find yourself wanting to say the name of that town with the castle in the snow, but odds are you will not remember its actually called Airyglyph.

This might sound harsh, but Star Ocean: Till the End of Time rarely does anything that distinguishes it from a bevy of other titles. Those who love role-playing games and can't get enough SquareEnix will eat this up. However, despite the average plot, Star Ocean has very enjoyable combat, and it even allows you to tinker with the ending couplings of the characters. Though it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, it's still a great start for beginners looking to dip their toes into the oftentimes intimidating RPG waters.