Time mechanics can be some of the coolest features in games if implemented well. For example,Loop Herofinds players in a wasteland trying to rebuild the world one death at a time before everything reverts. Then there are games likeBraidwhich gives players direct control over time powers. They can rewind time in case they made a mistake which is also true for variousPrince of Persiagames.
What about games from Japan, specifically in the JRPG genre? There have been quite a few titles that have used time concepts well, so let’s get to a few examples. Some are classics while others may have flown under the radar initially. There are some spoilers.
Typically in games, choices made are final and to see new results, players have to replay the game or reload a save. The PSP version ofTactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, which is full of choices that branch out the timeline, added a new way to interact with time. When needed, players can go into a timeline that represents every major and minor choice made in the game and how that choice branches off. It’s not a time-traveling element that characters acknowledge in the story. It, however, is a nice quality-of-life feature for players to enjoy and to get away from replaying the game dozens of times.
Fire Emblem Awakeningdid a lot of great things in theFire Emblemserieslike adding a casual mode for Westerners for the first time, even though it had been done in Japan before. Relationships played a factor in the series up to this point but they got more extreme here. Two characters could conceive a child and there was no perfect pairing. That child would then pop out of a time hole all grown up and ready for battle. Lucina, for example, was the result of time manipulation. It’s one of the strangest time mechanics in games. While players cannot directly control the flow of time, it’s still a clever use of it.
Bravely Defaultfelt like a spiritual successor to theclassicFinal Fantasygamesfor the most part. There was a Job system, turn-based combat, elemental crystals, and so on. About a third of the way through, players would discover a twist: time distortion.
The game resets itself, forcing the characters to go through the events again this time with new knowledge. It’s another example wherein the time mechanic is not controllable but it is a vital part of the story as players will be stuck in this time loop several times and can affect changes depending on choices made. It was all because of Airy, the fairy companion, who tried to keep the party in this loop.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Timewas the second entry in thebrotherly RPG series. This time, an alien invasion causes time holes to open up, forcing Mario and Luigi through. They find their infant versions about to be destroyed, so they team up to fight back the alien invaders. Players will hop back and forth between the past and present, making little changes to move forward. It’s more of a story mechanic than anything else, but the ability to interact with all four characters helped put a spin on the active turn-based battles.
Final Fantasy 13-2was a direct sequel to the original which put Serah as the lead.Lightning is missing in a time rift and Serahmeets Noel, someone who helps keep peace of the flow of time, to aid in her search. A little Moogle accompanies him who can help facilitate time travel. Players will go through multiple eras trying to correct imbalances in time while seeking Lightning out. There aren’t many cases where doing one thing in the past will affect another, but completing a mission will fix the flow thus opening up new junctions to time travel into. The biggest twist to gameplay was the party members as Serah and Noel could add a monster to their third-party slot.
Radiant Historiahas a dark opening wherein the main character, Stocke, loses a battle and gets his patrol wiped out. He then gains the power of time travel via a magical grimoire. The first thing he does is scout out the ambush that killed his party, thus getting an advantage to save his comrades.
That’s one example, but there are a lot of puzzle-like scenarios like this that players need to solve to move forward. From changing the minds of characters to getting past monsters, there are some truly challenging setups inthis turn-based RPG. It’s the first real direct implementation of time travel as a usable mechanic on this list.
Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Pastis one of the most challenging in theDragon Questseriesthanks to its non-linearity. Players will find puzzle pieces in ruins and once all are connected they will take the party to a new place in time. Solving problems of the past will unlock more puzzle pieces but sometimes they can be hidden too. The overall goal is to put all puzzles together in this temple which is supposed to fix all of time and to stop an evil power from reawakening again. It’s a rewarding game overall to help put time back on track plus the class system, called Vocations, gives players a lot of reasons to enter battles.
Chrono Triggerwas one of the first JRPGs to implementtime travel as a story function and a gameplay mechanic. The game started simply with time rifts opening up around the world that connected to other eras. One may transport the party to the Middle Ages equivalent while another could take them to the future. Solving main quests and side quests would affect the world from erecting a bridge to reforesting a desert area. Eventually, players got to control a flying time-traveling airship called Epoch, giving them more opportunities to explore the various eras of time. Besides this cool gimmick, the turn-based combat system, music, and art style have helpedChrono Triggerremain a timeless classic.
