Is Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Really The End Of The Series’ Timeline?

With the release of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, we learned more about what happens in the timeline of tri-Ace’s sci-fi RPG series. However, since Star Ocean: Till the End of Time fans have wondered if that was the end of everything or if it’s possible that one day we’ll learn more beyond the events of the third installment. Siliconera recently got to talk about Star Ocean’s timeline in an interview with tri-Ace director Hiroshi Ogawa.

It goes without saying that the following will have some major spoilers on Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, so here’s a warning to those of you who wish to play it without being spoiled.

In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time we learn the characters are in a computer simulation. That was a big revelation, but the two proceeding Star Ocean games go back in the timeline instead of continuing from the reveal from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Why haven’t future Star Ocean games continued from this point?

Hiroshi Ogawa, Director at tri-Ace: In Japan, we had a 20th anniversary interview with Gotanda-san, the creator of the Star Ocean series. He mentioned that wasn’t the correct way to interpret the story. The game does say the world is a simulation, but Gotanda-san has in mind that this world, the world we live in, is probably a simulation too and that is where the idea comes from. God is allowed to create this kind of world, so why can’t humans create a simulated world? Since Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is a game it has a lot of different interpretations and misinterpretations. I wanted to make this clear first.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope went back in the timeline and now there is Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness. The natural progression would be to come after the storyline from Till the End of Time, but since it has been seven years we are trying to get new users to try the series. If we did something after Till the End of Time it would alienate new players. They wouldn’t understand. Gotanda-san actually selected this part we have in Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness so new users can come in. He actually has the storyline thought up after Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, but these haven’t been realized yet.

For long time fans of the Star Ocean series, can you give us any hints about Gotanda-san’s ideas for what happens after Star Ocean: Till the End of Time?

HO: Actually, I don’t know either. [Laughs] It’s all in Gotanda-san’s mind. I guess he gets that question asked a lot, but we don’t know ourselves.

Shuichi Kobayashi, Producer at Square Enix: When I asked Gotanda-san what you are thinking about after Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness he elaborated on what he would like to do, but it wasn’t the storyline after Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. [Laughs]