Time And Eternity Review

[gameinfo title=”Game Info” game_name=”Time and Eternity” developers=”Imageepoch/Satelight” publishers=”Namco Bandai Games” platforms=”PS3″ genres=”JRPG” release_date=”Out Now” version_played=”PS3″]

Originally released in Japan around October of 2012 as “Toki to Eien ~Toki Towa~ and now having been translated for an English spoken audience. Does the western audience appreciate it as much? Let us at Press-Start answer that question for you.

TAESTORY
Just as Princess Toki and valiant knight Zack are moments away from officially tying the knot, a mystery group of assassins interrupt the proceedings. Zack is mortally wounded in the conflict attempting to protect Toki. Zack eventually dies in Toki arms but not before seeing a secret side of his bride to be. Toki is sharing her body with another soul known as Towa, being of royal blood both have the ability to control and manipulate time. Toki decides to go back in time to uncover who these mysterious assassins are and why they set out to destroy her dream day. Unwittingly however after traveling back through time Zack’s soul has been shifted into Princess Toki’s most loyal pet Drake a mini dragon.

TAEPRESENTATION
If you are a fan of Japanese anime you might find the take of Time and Eternity interesting. All characters and still based backgrounds have been drawn in a 2-D style, which works well enough for what it is. However upon saying that all of the playable environments are rendered in 3-D. which is an interesting concept and if done correctly possibly could have been a game changer but with the very bland detailing of the environment it just doesn’t gel. This also produces a lot of awkward camera issues and at times frame rate problems. Expect to see a lot of recycled goods throughout the game ranging from environments to enemies. Most only receiving a palette swap for a failed attempt at diversity.

Characters offer very little development throughout the game. I’m even going so far as to say that Toki’s friends are stereotypical of the anime genre. The same can be said for a lot of the minor characters that try to progress the story but provided me with irritation.

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Without a shadow of a doubt music is this games saving grace with performances from Yuzo Koshiro, who has worked on the Streets of Rage series, had a word on Super Smash Bros Brawl and even on 1991’s Sonic the Hedgehog.

TAEGAMEPLAY
After what seemed to me like a very dull and ineffective start. I was hoping that the gameplay would be the saving grace for Time and Eternity. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. All the traits of a classic RPG are present, identify the task, travel to said task’s location, and complete the task which will then usually reward you with a little more information to what the story is about. A mixture of side missions are thrown in which basically follow the same formula unfortunately to little reward.

TAESCREEN
Combat adds a little bit of diversity (minus the colour swapping enemies) to an extent. With our lead character being a time controlling, alter-egoed princess you would be right to assume some form of interesting game play but it all boils down to being extremely repetitive again. Attacks are available from both egos but generally only after a level up. At times even mini dragon Drake (Zack) gets involved in the action. Stances will be spaced over long ranged and short ranged attacks both with their own pros and cons which also apply to the enemy you are facing off against. All which scream dull repetition. As you progress in game some combo attack opportunities are made available from all characters, Toki, Towa and Zack.

TAECONCLUSION
I’ve never been a big fan of the RPG genre and unfortunately Time and Eternity wasn’t the game to convert me. This game boasts amazing potential with a lot of great ideas but you can’t make a great game all off potential, there are things you have to get done to succeed and have to be done very well. in this games case. Unfortunately I don’t think the developers could live up to their own high hopes.

TAE REVIEW CONCLUSION copy