"A very unique RPG"

Time Stalkers has some very original ideas behind it that have made many people dislike it, but it is not a bad RPG. Some have complained that the game is too short, but while you can beat the game in a few days, you can play for over a month and still not find all of its secrets. Others have said that character interaction is too low, but that's not true, either. Unlike most other RPGs, you have to go out of your way to talk to other characters and NPCs to get these interactions which are normally automatic. This gives Time Stalkers a sense of realism you don't typically find.

As for gameplay, either you love it or you hate it. You run around in randomly generated dungeons fighting monsters in classic adventure RPG style (turn based combat with menus), finding random weapons and items. There are a huge number of weapons to be found in this game, so if you want them all, you're going to have to explore these dungeons many, many times. As you fight monsters, you gain experience points and increase in level, as usual in RPGs. You may also capture monsters in a dungeon and have one or two of them fighting along with you. In combat, most monsters are defeated with one attack. At first I found that a bit odd, but then I realized that it made sense. Of course a monster with nothing but skin to defend itself isn't going to survive being run through with a sword! Similarly, if you keep leveling up by fighting monsters, most monsters will only be able to inflict one point damage on you. This is because the monsters are too weak to penetrate your armor. That's another aspect of realism here. Not that the game is made too easy because of it; there are still many monsters and traps waiting to inflict much more than one point damage on you.

As for weapons, they don't just increase or decrease your attack power. Different weapons enable different types of attacks and use different amounts of Vitality. Vitality is how much energy a character has for attacking. If you have a light weight weapon and execute a weak attack, you won't use up too much Vitality. If you have a heavy weapon and execute a strong attack, you can use up all your Vitality at once! When a character runs out of Vitality, he or she loses the ability to perform the most powerful attacks of a weapon, and the weaker attacks are only half as strong as normal. Not to worry, though. Vitality is naturally restored when time passes, or restored by various items.

One of the major gripes with this game is that every time you exit a dungeon, your level of experience is reset back to 1. While you can gain classes in the dungeons, making characters more powerful, your level 1 stats are always the same. When you gain a class, your stats do not increase, but you gain more spells and skills and can register more of them, but, more on that later. The system of going back to level 1 is necessary for this game to work. You can capture any monster, and these monsters also have levels. On the first floor of a dungeon, monsters are usually on level 2. Now, if you could keep gaining levels without losing any of them, the monsters would have to have to keep gaining levels too so that the game wouldn't be too easy. What's the difference between going into a dungeon on level 1 and fighting level 2 monsters or going in on level 50 and fighting level 55 monsters? Eventually, you'd get to the maximum level and the game would become completely monotonous. Also, there are six different characters you can use in this game, so what if you were to level one of them up to level 99, capture some level 99 monsters, and give them to the other characters? The game would be ridiculously easy, that's what! Sure, it is sort of annoying to lose all your experience, but since the enemy does too, what does it matter? I have also come to the conclusion that losing experience points is more realistic. Are you instantly awake and at 100% energy as soon as you wake up? I know I'm not, I have to do some things first. As you fight monsters, you become more used to fighting those monsters and you increase in energy, gaining more Hit Points, Magic Points, Vitality, Attack Power, and Defense. Then, after you leave the dungeon, you go back to a resting state, and all your stats go back to normal.

Concerning registration of skills and spells, you will have more skills and spells available than you can take into a dungeon. For instance, a character may know 3 magic spells, but you must choose which 2 magic spells you want that character to be able to use. You ''register'' the spells you really want and leave the other behind. This adds a degree of customization to the game beyond just choosing a weapon. Your ''skills'' are your characters natural abilities, and you will gain more of these as you increase in class. The first skill you will learn is ''Capture'', which allows you to capture monsters. Other skills have more of an effect on your character, such as increasing his or her attack power. As you get more skills, it becomes necessary to ''seal'' them before entering a dungeon. That is, you pick which skills you want to use in the dungeon (register them), then you are shown how high your stats have to be to use those skills. If your stats are too low, you won't be able to use any skills, so you must ''seal'' the ones you don't want right away, allowing you to master the other skills. As you gain levels in the dungeons, your stats will increase, allowing you to unseal your skills and use them. By the end of the dugneon, you will usually be able to use all of your registered skills at once, making you very powerful. Again, there is realism here. You have many natural abilities, but you can't use them *all* as soon as you just wake up, or ever, for that matter.

I could go on more about gameplay, but that's already too much. You get the idea. You go into dungeons, fight monsters with your registered spells and skills, and find random items.

Now, the story. You are Sword, a travelling swordsman who is headed toward a Clock Tower for some unknown reason. On the way there, Sword has a flashback of a girl asking for help, and that seems to be why he's heading for the Tower, but any more than that is currently unknown. As he nears the Tower, a knight appears and attacks him. Sword fights off the knight, forcing it to run away toward the Tower. Sword persues and enters the Tower. Soon he finds himself in a small room with a book on a table. He opens the book and a bright flash of light appears. When the light is gone, Sword finds himself in a strange new world. A world that seems to be made up of several different pieces of land from different times and dimensions. Now you must try to solve the mystery of this world so that you may find the way back home. The story is interesting and has a unique twist to it, which people who decided not to finish the game never learned of.

During the course of the game, you will come across other characters who will decide to help you out. Instead of taking Sword into the dungeons, you can take one of the others (but you may only take one character at a time). Rao, the military soldier. Nigel, the treasure hunter. Pyra, the sorceress. Lady, the free spirited warrior. And Marion, a mysterious living doll. Each character has different stats, spells, skills, usable weapons and armor, and of course, personalities.

The sound in this game is alright. There is no speech in the game, but neither is there in many modern RPGs. All dialogue is written in text. The music that plays in the dungeons is spooky, creating that danger-around-every-corner feeling, but it isn't really that great all things considered. However, I really like the music that plays outside the dungeons and in various places. Each character has theme music which plays while that character is outside. In buildings, there is a different theme music which is related to that building. The combat sounds effects are good, ranging from a weapon bouncing off armor to a raging fire.

This game's replayability is dependent totally on how much you like the dungeons. If you like the dungeons, then you can play for months. If not, then you'll be done in a few days.

I suggest anyone who's considering buying this game to rent or play it first if possible. Actually, I'd recommend that everyone rent it or try it out at least once.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/00, Updated 08/13/00