The newest installment of “Star Ocean” opens up with an absolutely stunning cinema CG. Squaresoft, and now Square Enix, has always done an excellent job of portraying its games’ storylines with wonderful cutscenes and a general cinematic feel to all of the scripted story events.

“Star Ocean” is no exception to this; even the character dialogue scenes, done with the game’s graphic engine, seem like a film.

The story also held up to Square Enix’s high standard for role-playing games. The main character, Fayt, his family and Sophia, his love interest, are relaxing on Hyda, a world used solely as a vacation spot, when there is an attack from an unknown force on the planet. Fayt and Sophia separate from his parents, the attack escalates, and Fayt finds himself stranded with his escape pod on a planet with a technology level of medieval Europe.

A lot of the story is conveyed through you playing the character of Fayt, talking to a varied assortment of other characters (including the surfing “Male Blue Dolphin”) that were on Hyda. A significant part of the story is lengthy voice-acted dialogue. The voice-acting is up to par with other video games, which is to say that it is annoying and pretty horrible. But, then again, it would be pretty hard to describe “Symbological Genetics” without sounding dorky and annoying. The voice-acting can be turned off, but the absence of it might detract from the playing experience as well.

Despite this, the soundtrack and sound effects seem particularly well done, again with the exception of the voice-acted repetitive battle taunts, which can also be turned off. The music is upbeat despite sounding like a soundtrack to a teenage action movie. The sound effects are clear and add a lot to the environment, absorbing the player into the setting.

The game mechanics are similar to most other role-playing games but have a unique twist on them because of how skills are implemented during battle. Battle is done in real time, with the player controlling one of the three characters that can be in the party at once. “Battle Skills” you gain as you increase in level and are assigned to one of four attacks — two for short range and two for long range, or as one of your two slots for support skills.

Magic in “Star Ocean” is called “Symbology” and is controlled through selecting skills through a pause menu. For big turn-based battle fans, the combat will take a lot of getting used to, but it adds a degree of excitement. The only drawback is that the AI for the uncontrolled two players often gets into tight spots, requiring you to switch characters.

“Star Ocean” has very few drawbacks. It is a must-buy for big role-playing game fans, and an absolute must-have for Square Enix fanboys. It might even make up for the “Final Fantasy X-2” popgirl horror show.

The real question, though, is this: Why can the blue dolphins’ skin withstand the relative pressure vacuum in space?