Time and Eternity - Playstation 3

This game can be fun when you learn how it the battle system works, although the battle system could use some polish (more fluidity). Music ranges from silly to addicting (Towa's battle theme is an example of one of the good tracks in this game). The game never becomes serious at all; so the plot and characters are silly altogether. It is lighthearted, silly and stupid fun. Of course there are a lot of things that could have been improved. Every characters are hand-drawn, which looks gorgeous, however, the frames in animation during gameplay are rather limited; it could have been more fluid. Gameplay can get repetitive and drawn out. I give praise to some tracks in the OST, but there are some unbearable ones as well and the audio engineering in some places does not help either. Voice acting is fine in English, but you could always change it to Japanese if English dubs are not your preference. All in all though, the game overall was actually fun.

Really it should be easy to tell from reading the product description that Time and Eternity is not the next groundbreaking title. I think it should go without saying this game is intended for a specific audience that enjoys anime and manga books and movies. The humor can be campy but it is part and parcel for the medium.Gameplay is simple and easy to master. Role playing game (RPG) veterans will have absolutely no issue picking up this title and running through it. Gamers not fond of RPG titles, or dialogue heavy games, should avoid this title.Graphics are good and the art layer style is unique but definitely not an earth-shattering experience.I like this game, but I would not include it on a list of my favorites.

I bought this game after watching some reviews on youtube and I can tell you I am amazed at the graphics! Previously, I have played games with an animesque style but 3D gameplay and the results are usually not great. This game, however, shocked me at the gorgeous animation-- the gameplay is just like watching an anime!Comparatively, the character movements in conversation are sometimes repetitive (since there is a limited set of movements to choose from) but it is way better than anything else I've played. Also, the lip syncing is localized, so if you choose to listen to the Japanese voices the lips will not match. Luckily, this doesn't matter much because the English voice actors are great.I haven't played too far into the game, but I will update this review once I've had time to analyze the combat mechanics.

I pre-ordered this game, the Collector's Edition, back in March. I generally love NIS titles, and the beautiful artwork and screen grabs lured me in. After waiting months for it to arrive, I held it in my hands, studying the beautifully-drawn case art and debating whether I wanted to rip the soundtrack. Setting the music aside for the moment, I loaded the disc into my PS3 and sat back, Six Axis in-hand, and prepared to play...Oh wait, that's right, the game has to install stuff first to my system. Not a system update (which sometimes happens when you buy new games, as any PS3 owner can tell you), but stuff that the game needs installed before you can play it. This surprised me a bit, but after about ten minutes (give or take, I occupied myself with getting a drink), the game finally loaded. I started a New Game, created a save file... and then waited again for more crap to install. Finally, the game!Graphics/SoundLets get this part out of the way. I would imagine that if you are considering this game for purchase that you have already scrolled through the various screenshots, videos, and pictures of the game case. There are neither tricks nor rendering aspects that are modified for selling purposes. The sprites in the game are 2D and hand-drawn, with each character having a unique look. The characters are drawn in an anime style, meaning big eyes, big, uh... assets, and very curvaceous bodies. Your typical exaggerated wardrobe and crazy hair colors are present. The neat part is when you are controlling your character and walking across the map; the artists drew each angle of the character, and while the sprites are 2D, if you rotate your joystick to turn the character the animation corresponds in such a way that you see her hip, her side profile, and then a quarter profile. When you turn back, it is your standard over-the-shoulder 3rd person view of the rear of your character. Thus, you get a 2D rotation in a 3D (background) environment. Pretty spiffy!In terms of the game's environments, there are several different aspects. One is when you are chatting with other characters (AKA expanding the story, developing character personalities; typical RPG stuff that happens frequently and for semi-long periods of time), another is the world map, and finally the map of each zone where you run. There is a mini-map present in the upper corner (it goes out of its way to hold your hand, but more on that later) that shows you where the save and warp point locations, the direction that you need to travel in order to complete a quest objective, places marked ? to explore, and where you can find treasure chests. Each zone is relatively small, also, and is easily explored within a short amount of time. Encounters on the map are random and you cannot see the monster(s) as you run. The sad part is the texturing and design of these areas. They are almost bland and desolate, and aside from grasses, flowers, and the typical topography of hills and creeks and a smattering of trees, the zones that you explore while on your quest look like they were rendered for a PS2. The ground has no texture; the grass is largely a greenish color that is mottled to simulate the irregularities in an area of land. Everything is also a faint shade of pastel, not really helping to bring the world of the game to life. Thus the contrast between the character sprites, backgrounds for story sections, and what you explore to complete your quest is almost jarring. This game would have been so much better if they put the amount of time that they did into the sprites as they did with the environment.The music for the game is standard RPG fare, not offensive but not overly-noticeable. It complements the gameplay well, though, and while not particularly memorable, it does add to the world of Time and Eternity (henceforth referred to as T&E). The voice acting is spot-on; each character has their own voice and the animations of their speeches usually syncs up very well. In conclusion, the music is basically an ambient background to the game; while you may not notice it during your gaming session, you would notice if it was missing. In the same vein the voices of the characters are clear and easily understood. Even when a character attempts to take on a silly accent you can still get the gist of what is going on.Story and GameplayI wanted to like this game. I really did. The story and narration is a mix-up of classic Playstation One titles Star Ocean, the Second Story and Thousand Arms. Your goal is to find out the answer to a mystery while simultaneously wooing your girlfriend to earning affection points (gained in combat, through cutscene dialogue, and so forth). It is very beautiful, and aside from the flaws that I indicated above, definitely showcased a team who spent a lot of time on the details. That being said, it is the details that killed the game for me.***Potential Spoiler: the impetus for your quest that plays at the beginning of the game, so not a huge deal.***The story begins with a conversation between you, Zack, the protagonist of the game, and your fiancée, Toki. As the game opens they discuss their impending marriage the following day while sitting in the living area of their newly-acquired home. Both are talking about how excited they are, but Toki mentions that she is worried due to a fortune she was told a few weeks prior wherein a tragedy would occur at her wedding. After reassuring her, four of her gal-pals show up, scolding you for seeing Toki before the wedding.Fast forward: the wedding goes as planned, but during the ceremony an assassin emerges and kills Zack. Distraught, Toki suddenly disappears, and you wake up to find yourself in the past. Thus the primary focus of the story is exposed: Toki is a royal princess whose family has the ability to manipulate time. Toki (who you now control) went back into the past to find the fortune-teller who gave her the reading that described the tragedy. Zack is still there, however, as a blue dragon that Toki has for a pet! While lamenting his fate of being shapeshifted, he acts as a narrator for the tale, acting as a subtle method of breaking the fourth wall by fleshing out aspects of the storyline. Oh, and he is a raging pervert and tries his best to see Toki naked (praying that she will bathe him, for example); Toki, for her part, cannot understand Zack due to his new form.So far, T&E is a classic RPG: something bad happened and you, as the hero(-ine) must use your ability to control time to figure out who and why the tragedy occurred. This is where Time and Eternity differentiates itself from other RPG titles out there, not always in a positive way. As I mentioned above, there is an almost overkill amount of detail in the map functions. Not to mention there is the other side: both the inventory and combat systems. First, the map function... T&E has three different maps, not including the background renderings for cutscenes. There is an overworld map that you use to travel to new locations (no running!), a location map, which is similar to the overworld map in that it displays the entire area from a birds-eye view and is displayed before you go into a zone, and then there is the mini-map.The mini-map is in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. If you play World of Warcraft it is very similar. It overlays the map and shows exit and save points, warp crystals (a nice touch, once all of them are activated you can zip around the zone), quest locations/givers, and treasure chests. While having a small map to reference as you explore an area is great, the game sucks a lot of fun of exploration by showing you everywhere to go! In addition, as the characters roam the landscape they will make random comments that sometimes tell you where to go for a quest and what to do. I really wish the developers had removed this aspect; I enjoy finding out things on my own, and holding my hand along the journey is just not fun.Encounters in this game are random and when you engage in battle, the number of monsters that you will fight is displayed just above the current monster's health bar in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The combat system is real-time, similar to the Tales franchise of games. Each button press corresponds to an instantaneous action, making combat nonstop. You cannot get up and get a drink while you wait for a turn; both you and the monster(s) that you face can attack whenever. With this dynamic, it becomes especially critical that you employ not only every attack in your arsenal, but also manage your blocks and dodges. In most cases the damage that you sustain from an attack far outweighs what you dish out. That being said, monsters attack much slower than Toki, giving you ample time to deal out damage while waiting for the monster to react. In addition you can choose whether to remain at a distance to use your ranged weapon (a gun) or run in to melee.Be careful, however! Just as your attacks change based upon your range, so too can the monster's! Thus, each battle cannot be won by mashing buttons. You need to watch, react, and plan accordingly. Different monsters use different strategies and it is up to you to know how to attack them. Since you only fight monsters one-on-one it can be tedious to battle, especially if you have a tough monster and have to take down four of them in one encounter. Battle is not only a method to gain experience for your character, but also helps earn affection points with your fiancée. The better that you do in combat, the happier Toki will be! Consequently, while I am not a huge fan of the fight-and-kill-one-baddie-at-a-time method, having to step back and actively use all of my skills of attacks and dodging definitely bumps the combat to one of the best systems I have encountered in a long time.OverallWith the beautiful sprites and lovely music, this game could very easily have become a top-notch RPG. While the story is somewhat cliché, the ability to manipulate time is a nice touch but not enough to save Time & Eternity from becoming a forgettable RPG experience. The combat system is definitely the high point of the title, requiring the gamer to actually think about how to attack and pay attention to each monster, the lackluster environments and the way that the game holds your hand (mini-map, character dialogue explaining plot points) is a complete contradiction. I wanted T&E to be a title that was fun, engaging, and a great time-killer until Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 comes out. In the end I just popped in Last of Us and helped Joel kill infected.In short: if you can rent the game, do that. Or wait until the price drops down into the Greatest Hits range. Paying $60 for this title is just not worth it.

I gave this game a fair shot. I played it roughly for 20 hours. The acting is poor, the story line is LAME! The story circulates around Toki a princess who is getting married to a immature sex crazed knight. Your wedding is ALWAYS interrupted at the same time by someone who ends up killing you both.. but just before you die you use your mystical powers to travel back in time to find out why your wedding was attacked. You also learn that Toki shares her body with another soul called Toya... Have no clue why and after 20 some odd hours of playing this I lost interest and didnt care to know why, as the story seemed to focus on Toki and her fiance getting married.The only positive thing I can say about this game is that the graphics are really beautifully rendered. The game had a good concept but was a total EPIC failure due to a lack of an actual story. This would be right up their with Atelier Iris: Meruru. I ended up taking this game to gamestop and trading it in.. got $7 for it.. I was screwed twice.. once for buying this and secondly for the trade in value.