| Them's Fightin'
Words |
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Timestream Saga1: (Opens its eyes, and sits up in a large capsule) Huh?
Fenrir-Lunaris: (Against a backdrop of blinding white light, a labcoat flowing in the wind, with wild hair crowning his head) My masterpiece…
Timestream Saga1: Huh? Who are you?
Fenrir-Lunaris: (A side view of a silhouetted wolf’s muzzle) After them! They are my nemesis! Defeating the other OHR games in terms of plot, gameplay, and length is what gives me motivation in life! Now go! Destroy them! That’s an order!
Timestream Saga1: Wha… Waaa-aait!! AAARRRGG!!! (Clenches head and cries out in pain, scenes of violence, visions of the unheard of success of FFH, and George Bush in spandex flood the screen)
Kyle, a man with the most absurd hair of any major RPG character to ever walk the face of the earth, is stranded on a distant world when his ship crashes unexpectedly. Alone, lost, and in search of civilization, he wanders into a seemingly peaceful village where he is drawn unwillingly into events beyond his control, and in time with the friends he makes, fights back against those very forces for the safety of his loved ones and their freedom against the minions of an evil Sorcerer. Meanwhile, over 1000 years in the past, the leader of a resistance movement discovers a cold, unfeeling character that hails by the name of Cale. Uncertain of his origins, or purpose, the rebellion continues, unaware of the dark power behind their guest. At what point Kyle and Cale’s paths cross is uncertain, but they will inevitably crash into eachother. From these two stories, originally chronicled in the Legend of Cale series of games was conceived a fusion of the two. The stories would cross, characters would interact, and the reputation of Fenrir-Lunaris would begin to grow from unheard of beginnings.
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| Graphics |
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Graphics do not make a game, let’s skip to the next section….
No, it has to be mentioned, unfortunately. Timestream Saga ripped graphics so heavily, that any reconstruction or substitution of them would be in vain. Originally, I wanted to use my own, but my maptiles were pathetic, the backdrops were unpleasant to look at, and every enemy graphic I made until then was a sham. However, my hero sprites at the time had something to them, potential. Most of them were taken straight from my previous game, LoC2, and since these were the same characters, nothing needed to be changed significantly in their design. From a mere glance, their occupation, and personality could be slightly made clear. Velius, clothed in dark robes was mysterious and virtually unknown. Delvire, the Thief, with an “I’d rather be fishing” look in his weakened sprite. From these came personalities that are among some of the most complex in the OHR community.
Virtually everything else though, is taken from Final Fantasy 5 and 6 for the Super Nintendo, with a few areas in particular standing out from Romancing SaGa 3 on the same system. However this wide amount of ripping, the tiles all fit, and make the game appear somewhat professionally done. Very rarely was any sprite-doctoring done, except in some of the bosses, for which nothing similar could be found. Everything though looks like it was carefully lifted from one game, and placed in another with care and respect. That being said let me clarify one thing. Credit was given for every instance in which a sprite or tile or backdrop was doctored, placed, imported, or ripped. And there are some unique graphics here and there, though they are few and far between. The point was, graphics were unimportant, so long as they helped the game along and didn’t detract from the gameplay.
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| Storyline |
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This was what Timestream Saga’s strong point was going to be, rather than graphics or gameplay. The characters, their relationships to one another, even how the various NPCs came into the game was all important. Like a well-scripted play, if someone appears, they have a part, and once their turn is over their presence had lasting effects on the other characters, but it all started in the beginning.
As was said in the intro, Kyle wandered into a village and his destiny caught him. Kyle’s personality had to be likable, convincing, and his reactions to those around him appropriate. Most importantly, the game had to show HOW Kyle’s character gradually changed throughout, from joking at the beginning, to more serious near the end, when the story became darker and more insidious. The more evil the villain, the more Kyle’s character would adapt to that villain, to give him the strength of character needed to continue resisting them. But before any of this, the player had to identify with Kyle’s plight in some form or another, and so Kyle’s quest to eventually go home was developed.
It’s not a new one, but effective. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Kyle is transported against his will to a place that is mysterious, overwhelming, and totally alien to what he knows. Though he at first doesn’t realize it, Kyle will forever be unable to leave, and until he understands that, he’ll be blind to the problems around him. When his ship is deemed unsalvageable, he loses a bit of hope. When he’s separated from his friends, his heart sinks further. Finally, when he’s told that no matter what, he can never return, Kyle finally accepts his plight and grows up a little. From the point when he realizes he’s stuck forever, Kyle starts to care more about the friendships he’s made, and decides to help them in their problems. It’s nowhere near what Cloud Strife went through, but Kyle is a complex, evolving character that responds to those around him like a real person.
Other characters are equally important, though most echo different themes throughout the game. One such theme is that of enemies working together to overcome different obstacles. Nevok, the leader of a resistance long past, hates his mortal enemy Malhavok with such passion that he’s blind to anything else, so long as it helps him kill Malhavok. While it’s never said in the story, there is definitely some bad blood between the two. Quite frankly, Malhavok doesn’t care. He’s got more important things to do than worry about than some rebellion, at least in his mind. So Nevok’s wife is a werefox (and Bisexual, but name one that isn’t?). So his henchmen patronize him because their goals are similar. For Nevok, there is a common goal: Removal of the dictator, and they are the world’s hope for freedom, in whatever form it will take. To this end, others will follow him out of his charisma, and his ability to lead. His associates are varied, complex, and dedicated to his cause. Later, when he is forced to join forces with his archenemy, Nevok grudgingly accepts, not because he’s forgiven Malhavok, but because a greater threat appears that requires both their abilities to defeat. Together, they can form the most powerful attack in this game, testament to another theme in the game; that mutual enemies can put aside their differences to fight a greater evil.
This was also a game with more than one major villain. The dragon-queen Tiamat, seeking revenge against Bahamut for some past infraction. Malhavok, of course, also is a significant enemy. Fenrisulfr, the fusion of one character’s parents, is thoroughly insane. The most influential one though, is the Sorceror Kezef. Kezef is the one with the plans of world conquest. Kezef is the one who manipulates governments by controlling its leaders. Kezef is the villain who created Fenrisulfr, encourages Tiamat’s vanity, scares Malhavok into committing atrocities, and eventually destroys most
of the game-world’s civilizations. His motivations are also made perfectly clear. Kezef is slowly dying from within, so to keep his death from coming, he will enslave the world and become its god to live forever. Of course he fails, but the damage he causes is so final that major NPCs are STILL talking about it in Final Fantasy H, and serves as the backdrop of the story in TSSE and potentially Silver Eclipse. His theme, Kuja’s from Final Fantasy IX, helps to reinforce this perception of him as humanity at it’s worst.
From this destruction comes the theme of Timestream Saga: Genocide. Kyle’s ultimate attack is ironically called the Genocide Blade, primarily because it outright destroys everything it touches. Kezef’s and Fenrisulfr’s goals involve genocide. The war waged against the Zyran race later in the game is primarily for their complete destruction. Only at the end, when everyone involved realizes their mistakes, does the killing and destruction stop, and the final battle ends with a bit of a phyric victory. Yes, the characters save the world, but there’s not much for them left to enjoy. It’s an ending that’s left open-ended. What of the disease that Kezef carried? How did the people of the world carry on? Where did the Zyran race flee to? It’s too many questions that have to answered in one of two ways, thus different endings. In one, the heroes perish in the Final Battle, and the supporting cast of NPCs are left with the decision to use time-travel to fix the destruction. Wishful thinking indeed, but it’s the plot vehicle for one of the most anticipated future OHR games. The other ending states that the victors left, to prevent future destruction on other worlds. Both endings tie into so many other games currently existing, or in the works, that owe much of their story to this one. If that is not reason enough to credit Timestream Saga with having one of the best stories ever conceived in the OHR community, then by all means, write a better one, and take the due credit you deserve. :)
There are a few glaring criticisms though. For one, TS1 is filled to the brim with over used Cliches. Elemental Fiends show up about halfway through the game. The standard Fire cave, Ice cave, Earth Cave, Technological Fortress, Meaningless cave with icky things in it, Military complex, and the Void all appear as locations accessible throughout the game. There's also absolutely no point whatsoever to the Entire Bishounen Empire location 98% of the way through the game. My advice to other game designers is to forbid anyone else on contributing apparently random sidequest type things to the game itself.
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| Gameplay |
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Final Fantasy 6, more or less. Every character has a basic set of commands that they all learn through leveling up. Everyone gets Defend, Jump, various skills to raise their attack power, attributes, etc. The uniqueness of each character partially lies in the order they receive these attacks. Fighting characters get skills pertinent to their class. A fighter simply does not get a healing ability before a mage, likewise a mage does not get a Jump attack before a fighting character. While this detract from some of the uniqueness of each character, it provides the player with the most basic set of skills needed to successfully beat the game, while using their favorite characters, who would not otherwise have access to those skills.
Further specialization of each character is in their unique abilities. Kyle, master of the Genocide blade receives attacks that do more damage against certain enemy types and elemental weaknesses. Sasha, the healer, gets the defensive white magic, while the reclusive Velius gets Black magic. Among the remainder of the party are: A dragoon, a Berserker, a thief (always a thief in RPGs), the ever required Summoner since FF4, A samurai that tosses gold to damage the enemy, a Blue Mage, a Red Mage, a Paladin, a ninja, and finally two different incarnations of a Chronomancer (time mage). It’s easy to say that given the variety of characters involved, there are dozens of combinations of characters to choose from depending on the player’s playing style. Prefer magic? Like to hack and slash? Choose the characters best suited for these tasks and away you go. Of course you’re stuck with Kyle no matter what, but everyone else may be swapped in and out of your party depending on your tastes.
There are limitations involved. For example, a character’s Max HP NEVER increases except when equipping Armor and accessories (the rest of the stats increase independently of armor). For much of the game, your strengths are limited by the availability of high-powered weapons and armor. Mages, for example, may only wear robes, light fighters like Kyle and Delvire may wear mail and most of the equipment mages use, but the Heavy fighters like Gralcus must rely on expensive armor. In general, a ready stock of the most powerful equipment, of several of each type is needed to complete the game safely.
Weapons also can randomly to “critical hits” or limit breaks. One weapon’s special attack does an amount of damage equal to the HP the character has lost in battle. Many of the staffs and canes cast powerful spells. Swords link to critical attacks, and so on. While not a crucial aspect of the gameplay, these critical attacks weigh the game somewhat more in the player’s favor.
A variety of useful items are also readily available to the player. In general, the Phoenix Down is the most vital, being able to also heal injured but still living party members back to full health. There are also a small variety of status effects, but these do not factor into the game as much.
Herein enters the complexity of the gameplay involved. Certain story events REQUIRE specific characters to be swapped in or swapped out, or forces the player to have certain characters against their own choice. If some characters aren’t sufficiently leveled up, or they don’t have the proper equipment, you’re literally screwed.
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Battle |
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Like most OHR games, this one requires a serious mashing of the space bar, especially when some of the more powerful weapons become available. For the most part though, minor enemy battles are quick and easy, while Boss battles require a significant build up of defenses and recovery while whittling away at an enemy’s HP. Attacks that compromise an enemy’s ability to inflict damage are so important that some bosses cannot be beaten without them. Further spells and skills that increase your own fighting capabilities (accuracy, strength, # of attacks) are also so important that the game itself cannot be beaten until they are mastered. The most important attacks of all though are the summon spells, which alone are capable of defeating any enemy, ignore defenses, but are expensive to cast and require a large amount of subquests to obtain.
Although the original intent of Timestream Saga was to produce a game with a good story, the Battles did not suffer in any way. There was, of course, the inevitability that the 32767-damage limit would eventually be broken and cause the game to crash. Several attacks, especially the summons, do THOUSANDS of points of damage. I’ve seen Bahamut alone to do close to 20,000 points. Part of trying to balance out the stats, AND yet get the actual limit of HP at 9999 was an effort of itself. The added totals of all the best armor HAD to match up, and every enemy up until then had to have a difficulty appropriate to what you were capable of having at that point. This required so much planning on the fly, as when you reached a certain area, things suddenly got that much harder, and the player had to quickly adapt to the ever changing situation.
For instance, there comes two points in the game where you’re given characters that use radically different equipment from what you were using, at about the 1/8 mark and about 1/3 of the way into the game. At these points, you’re required to quickly upgrade all of your equipment or the regular enemies can be strong enough to SLAUGHTER you. The second requires a lot of “Heavy Armor”, since your party mostly then consists of characters who use only heavy equipment. As a result, it is only recommended that you sell equipment very rarely.
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Map Design |
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Three overworld maps. At some point, you get the ability to cross from one world to another. Changes in the past affect those in the present, etc. Taken from Chrono Trigger, but… it’s vital to the story and not used that much. Having to cleverly use these “warps” from one world to another is vital, especially when you need an airship to get to an island from one world to another. Generally these warps do not show up until the plot calls for them.
Cities and towns were somewhat large, with plenty of normal townsfolk going about their business. The dungeons and caves though, got ridiculously long, especially towards the end of the game. Stocking up on potions, healing, and fighting random enemies quickly depletes your stock of recovery items. For the most part though, there was a major problem in the overall design of each area. Lyngvi (formerly Zyra) did not look like the technological city it was supposed to be. Crosis, capital of the Empire, was simply too small. In many cases of the Inns, the plotscripting was not sufficient to correct for several glaring errors in the heroes’ walking through things/not walking to their positions correctly.
The other glaring criticism is that the same graphics were used, but simply different colors. Each cave is virtually indentical to the last gave (except for some lava or what not).
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Balance |
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Again, with the majority of the emphasis in the game placed with the story, some leeway in the game’s overall balance is given. It’s expected that this game is NOT the player’s first RPG, and it’s expected that a few basics of RPG familiarity are at least understood. As a result, the learning curve is steep, with sudden jumps in difficulty to continue to challenge the player. Of course, with enemies that have several thousand HP, and the last series of bosses fought with no break in between them, there’s a bit of a challenge in store for those unprepared for it. Save points are common, Gold is not too difficult to get a hold of, and skills are learned fairly easily. The most important may be bought at stores for a reasonable price, ensuring that even quick players may have Curative spells at the very least.
Again, a major problem exists in the game’s balance, primarily because some portions of the game may be too hard because of a lack of sufficiently strong armor when it’s needed. This has slightly changed since the updating of the OHRRPGCE to factor in elemental bitsets for armor in battles. In short, weapons and armor that are intended to protect against some elements now actually work, rather than doing nothing. Delvire’s stealing ability at first only applied to a few rare battles near the end of the game. That effect has now dramatically increased as well when the engine updated. As a result, when the engine itself was modified, Timestream Saga had to be constantly reengineered for every change, every time.
The other major problem was in the status effect type attacks. While not revolutionary by OHR standards, Timestream Saga did in fact possess a few of the more common Status effects like Blind, Poison, Regen, etc., though without any of the new bitsets. When Velius or Kitsue cast Poison, they had to continue to cast it to inflict damage, likewise with Regen and similar spells, simply because the new “Poison” type bitset in the newer OHR engine had not yet been developed. Likewise, the cures for these status effects, the Remedy and the Esuna, did not work period. To remove the effect, you had to cast the skill from your abilities that would raise the stat to counter the effect. Fortunately, this meant that if you managed to get an attack to work on an enemy, it stayed that way since no enemy could raise their own stats in battle.
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| Music |
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Part of creating a good story is setting the mood, and music helps accomplish this in several ways. Every character has their own theme song, including the villains. The caves have a dark feel, the battle theme uplifting, everything about the music fitting with each scene and character’s personality was intended to be as appropriate as it could get. Velius has a harpsichord playing for his theme, hinting at the Renaissance man type personality he has. Gralcus’s music is “Bydlo Cart”, which literally oozes “chubby fat dwarf guy”. Taking into count that more than half of the songs are ripped from various Squaresoft games, it should come as no surprise that they’re of consistently better quality than most original OHR games’ music. Still, I CAN’T compose music, and most people can’t either. When this is the case, it’s important to make sure what you have FITS, and try to be happy with it.
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| Enjoyment |
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While it may likely never surpass its predecessor in popularity, Timestream Saga does have TWO major advantages. Its story, and its length. Whopping in at an impressive 24+ hours (closer to 40 for some people), the original goals of its conception have been finally realized. With few drawn cutscenes, it also manages to conserve much-needed filespace for the final package. Final Fantasy H may be the bigger package, but Timestream Saga is much like Black Mage’s description of Ultima: “Ten gallons of kick-ass in a five gallon jug”.
But it could have been better. Waiting roughtly ten minutes to get through line after line of text causes a player to suddenly lose interest. Would that the characters had moved around (or the text be more concise), the game's long dialogue sequences would have gone through much faster.
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| Final Blows |
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One last glaring criticism. The story was not consistent by any means. Another party did the whole deal about the Bishounen Empire entirely. The parts about Fiends, Crystals, and so on was another person’s idea as well. So the end story managed to mash together the suggestions of a think-tank of people as best as it could. When you’re combining two stories into one, it’s hard enough, but when several different totally independent mini-quests pop up, it spells trouble. For this reason, I only reluctantly agree to help others with their own creations, for fear that like what happened to me, their end result was NOT what they envisioned.
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Final Scores
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Graphics: 6/10.0 |
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Like a few other OHR games, this one proves that the recycling of graphics can be used effectively it the sources they are from are ripped well.
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Storyline: 9/10.0
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Quite literally, the stuff that sequals and spinoffs are made of. If only it made sense. |
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Gameplay: 7.5/10.0 |
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While not as revolutionary as some, this game isn't a "kiddie pool" in terms of its depth and strategy.
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Music: 8.5/10.0
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If it fits, wear it. |
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Enjoyment: 8.5/10.0
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A must play if you didn't understand SQUAT about what some NPCs in later games are referring to. Besides, like Xenosaga, it's more like a book or movie, rather than a game. If you MUST have Timestream Saga, but want some original graphcs, a more thought out story, and a greater focus on gameplay, wait for the sequel in 2004-5. |
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Overall Grade:
B+ |
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| Final Thoughts |
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The OHRRPGCE needs a built-in spellchecker... heh... |
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