Time and Eternity Review

Recently (well I say recently… more like over the past year) I’ve taken a big liking into anime. Yes judge me how you may but anime is thoroughly enjoyable to watch and has some great worlds and stories. Though there was one side to anime I had overlooked; the JRPG’s or animated role playing games as they are known by some. Time and Eternity seemed like a great animated role playing game to venture into, so let’s quit the chatting and take a look at the game!

Time and Eternity is an animated role playing game released recently for the Playstation 3, which uses a mix of anime style cutscenes and 2D sprites on top of 3D modelled backgrounds for gameplay. So what is Time and Eternity all about? The game starts with Toki and her fiancée ‘Zack’ (whom you can change the name of when starting the game) with their friends talking on the day before their marriage. After a nice opening where the characters are introduced the clock ticks to the next day; Toki and Zack’s wedding day. OH NO! Zack is assassinated just as they have finished saying their vows! Toki’s meaner ego ‘Towa’ is bought out, and after a set of events (which I will not spoil) Toki travels back in time to try and stop the assassination on her fiancée.

So Time and Eternity as mentioned focuses on the ‘Time’ aspect pretty heavily with Toki travelling through time to save her dear fiancée. Though before I go into detail on the gameplay mechanics I feel like it is worth talking about a few of the characters briefly.

• Toki is a princess and is only sixteen years old, she is about to get married to Zack before their wedding turns into a disaster.
• Zack is 18 and is the player’s character whom is assassinated at his wedding to Toki.

The final two characters I will talk about are Reijo and Wedi whom are Toki’s close friends. These four are the main characters at the start of the game, though there are several more you will meet on your adventure as you try to find out who assassinated Zack and why.

Whilst the characters are voiced well and have great stories attached to them, some of them seemed a little bland to me. I’ll admit maybe this was just my look on the game, though I did feel as if characters could have been a bit deeper than they are portrayed within the game.

Gameplay focuses on battles and exploration. Exploration is probably the simplest and easiest to start with. The player simply uses the analog stick to control the character and can interact with objects by hitting the ‘X’ button. As you explore the world you are sometimes taken into battles, similar to how Pokemon works, where a new battle screen will load. Personally I didn’t really enjoy the exploration segments as they felt dull. Though I also feel it is worth mentioning here that the 2D sprites on a 3D background was a somewhat strange decision for the game developers to go with, but it isn’t bad.

Battles are the other big gameplay mechanic. As you progress through the game you will learn different ‘skills’ which you can perform when in the battle mode. During battles you are able to perform Long-Ranged or Short-Ranged attacks, Toki is more skilled with long-ranged whereas Towa is better at the close-ranged fighting. This was great that they made Toki and Towa have different skills as it makes using them during battle an enjoyable experience, as well as mixing up the gameplay.

Personally the gameplay felt repetitive and as if it didn’t really offer too much. Whilst the mix between Toki and Towa in abilities was an interesting concept it didn’t really spice the gameplay up enough to stop it from feeling repetitive.

The soundtrack for Time and Eternity is honestly one of my favourite things about the game. Both the games score and theme song are brilliant and it is definitely a soundtrack I intend to pickup as soon as possible. The score was written by Yuzo Koshiro whom has worked on games such as Streets of Rage, Kid Icarus: Uprising and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. As you can tell by this list of games he has been on some big titles with brilliant and beautifully written scores. The great theme tune was sung by May J a Japanese singer and is called “Rewind”, it is definitely worth listening to!

So what is Time and Eternity like? Sadly it is not what I was expecting, though do not get me wrong it is still an alright game. Whilst it lacks in deep gameplay and has a somewhat poor story, Time and Eternity does have gorgeous visual graphics and a great cutscene style which bought the world to life. The score and theme are also both another great reason to check out Time and Eternity.

Time and Eternity is a good game, though it isn’t as good as it could have been. Gameplay feels like it is lacking too much and the dull characters could have been much deeper than they are. Whilst I personally would say to give it a go, I would recommend maybe renting it or waiting for the price to go down before delving into Time and Eternity.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.