On Time Travel

AWDMANOUT

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Jan 4, 2010
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I thought the way they used short-term time travel in God of War was rather interesting, if just a way to make the plot go further.


And just imagine if all master debaters were like this Chris E. How interesting the world would be, eh?
 

ReverseEngineered

Raving Lunatic
Apr 30, 2008
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Count me in for Braid. Not only was the time-travel mechanic central to the gameplay, but it included several interesting variations and it even tied into the overall story and theme. Unlike most other games where time-travel is turned into a convenient "bullet time" excuse (just to make the game easier for those unskilled at FPSes), time travel was essential to completing the puzzles in Braid. It was sublime.

Chrono Trigger was good too. Each time period was considerably different, with different environments, characters, and the like. What happened in what period affected other periods in a logical sequence, without resorting to the "butterfly effect" cliche (only important changes had lasting effects).
 

LostTimeLady

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Dec 17, 2009
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Interesting article as always from Yahzee.

Time travel done well in a video game is great, in fact, the best ones are when you forget you end up time travelling at all, like in Majora's Mask. You stop thinking, 'ok, I'm now three days in the past, first things first, slow down time...' instead it just becomes part of the game play machanics.

It's interesting how many video games do feature time travel... hmmm... must be a Doctor Who thing (joke, well, semi-joke, DW came before video games).
 

Serenegoose

Faerie girl in hiding
Mar 17, 2009
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Hey, what was wrong with Majora's mask? It was one of the few Zelda games that actually tried something different, and it was massively creepy and surreal. I actually liked how it embraced metagaming, and several of the plots required you to use information you'd gained later to solve things earlier.

Plus the Anju/Kafei quest arc is amazingly sweet. I actually got a little annoyed when I had to leave the city and go do the main plot because I really enjoyed going around fixing things for people.
 

nothri

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Mar 10, 2010
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Legacy of Kain was one of the most elegantly told stories, masterfully voiced and cleverly written despite the inclusion of time travel (which has caused more than one narrative to get bogged down in the temporal illogic). Soul Reaver and Defiance are excellent examples of the sort of game you want to play despite the clunky gameplay and often frustrating puzzles. It really is my prime example of a game that works mostly because of the story and the actors rather than the gameplay, to the point where you are willing to soldier on past the most frustrating parts to get to the next piece in the narrative.
 

Kooler

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May 31, 2008
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Now that I think about it the only game that I've ever played that had time travel, and wasn't mentioned in this article, was Chrono Trigger. Although, Chrono Trigger used time travel as more of a plot device than an actual gameplay mechanic.
 

Slinker07

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Jan 14, 2009
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My favorit time travel game is probably The Darkness. It feels like that game is the only thing in the world who came with an accrute view how world war 1 was.
 

Supp

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Nov 17, 2009
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I'd say Chrono Trigger, but time travel didn't really affect much except how good the items you found were.

But I'm Still Hungry...
 

Judgement101

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Mar 29, 2010
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I think Chris E. should not mail people anymore or bad things might happen to their...............yea I don't know where I was going with that.

OT: I honestly didn't notice many games had time manipualtion stuff (OTHER than bullet time)
 

Feylynn

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Feb 16, 2010
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I indeed will take that suggestion and say that Majora's Mask is probably my very favorite time travel involving game ever. Even without the aid of Time as a theme it qualifies to beat out most other games in many many categories.
Though Chris.E can keep his approval I just need to wave the Majora's Mask banner all shiny with pride. =L

Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Warrior Within both qualify for second on their merits of narrative and game play respectively.

Ocarina of Time would probably make third.
 

Schadenfreude

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Dec 4, 2007
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I have a huge deal of respect for Majora's Mask --Not for the game itself, mind, I actually couldn't give a rat's ass about it; but for inspiring this timeless piece of journalism clusterfuckery:

"To live life is to don a mask each and every day. Our true selves are seldom exposed to the world at large; to show everything to the people we must share our existences with would be to risk the ultimate rejection. We are what we think others want to see, and we live our lives doing this each and every day until it's impossible to tell where the mask ends and we begin. A mere decoration becomes a metaphor for humanity's hard time on planet Earth. We are the masks we wear."

WE ARE THE MASKS WE WEAR, YOU HEAR ME? TT___TT

Ah, it never gets old.

And of course the subsequent Old Man Murray artical [http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/753.html].
 

dee_dubs

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Nov 8, 2007
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My favourite time travel premise for a game is probably Original War. America has discovered a time machine, and Russia has discovered a super-rare mineral that allows cold fusion. America sends people back in time to when it was all one giant super-continent, to dig up this mineral from what will be Russia and bury it in what will be America. However, on arriving in the past you discover that your actions there create a timeline where Russia found the time machine and America had the mineral, so Russia sent people back in time for pretty much the same reason as the Americans did. This then creates another timeline where a third party gets the time machine and gets involved, and you end up with a massive war between relatively small groups of people millions of years into the past. It's an awesome game. Go try it.
 

pearcinator

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Apr 8, 2009
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Wait Yahtzee...you mentioned Majoras Mask at the end there...but in a way that sounds like you didnt like it.

If that is true then you can go jump off a fucking cliff! Majoras Mask is fantastic! I urge you to play that game again to see why its such an amazing game and why it is the most mature Zelda game ever made.
 

Gilfareth

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Jul 12, 2010
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As I asked with the Mario Galaxy 2 thread, what is the point of this? I played Timeshift, and considered it alright in story, though gameplay was at times adequate, and at others fucking confusing. Level design wasn't the best, either.

But the thing is, instead of discussing which games with time travel involved we prefer, why don't we discuss the actual gameplay mechanics for time travel/manipulation that truly worked? After all, it would fit a bit better with the subject matter than 'i think chorno Cross was the berst game evar!!!!', and might even be useful to whatever aspiring developers (LIKE ME) decide to look at this thread.

To me, Yahtzee has always been a source of at least two things: a good laugh, and good ideas. From the design and commentary on the Chzo Mythos, to his reviews of games with Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee has always made something that I could look at and extrapolate good information or ideas from. So why not help, people, instead of turning this into just another opinion thread?

Second thoughts: Besides, although time travel isn't really a gameplay mechanic, I still think the Chzo Mythos are the best games to actually incorporate time travel. Storywise, at least; some puzzles were an absolute ***** to get through.
 

ZetaAnime

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Jul 21, 2010
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Well I guess I'll join the band wagon and say hands down for a time traveling game is Chrono Trigger. But then again The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Season had a sort of time traveling mechanics to it if you count changing the season when necessary. oh and just because its probably hasn't been mentioned yet but ape escape did a alright job with time travel as well.
TIMBAP_AJR
 

adam5396

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Feb 12, 2010
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Time travel games, That's something I haven't thought about. Although the newest Ratchet & Clank (Crack in Time) Had some pretty interesting ways of using time manipulation. Even if I can't think of examples at this time.

Personally, I love slo-mo powers. Especially in First Person Shooters.