Time Stalkers

"Climax creates a truly unique RPG, even if it is a bit short"

I remember in the days of the Nintendo and the Sega Master System when RPG's were only played by a select few. Graphics weren't near as important as story and gameplay.

With the inception of the Playstation, RPG's suddenly became popular with the mainstream audience. Though it's by no means my favorite, Final Fantasy VII was one of the first RPG's to be popular with casual gamers.

Since then, many developers have jumped on the bandwagon, the result being a bombardment of RPG's, some good, some bad.

In a time when a new Final Fantasy and six new versions of Pokemon are being thrown at us every six months, it's nice to see that some developers are trying to be unique. Unique is always a good thing.....most of the time.

Time Stalkers was one of the first RPG's available for the Dreamcast, and while it is not the best, it is certainly one of them.

Graphics - The graphics in Time Stalkers are very clean and smooth, though there are some clipping issues. The characters are all greatly detailed and unique from one another.

The outside environment deserves a paragraph of its own. It is in full 3D and is one of the most beautifully rendered places I've ever seen in a game. The camera moves around to give you a clear view of where you are, though sometimes you can get lost behind buildings, but that's rare. There is also a 1st person view option so you can look around.

There are also dozens of people to talk and interact with, each of them radically different from each other. No two characters in the game are alike.

The dungeons are randomly generated, so you never go through the same one twice. There are two selectable camera views. One is more of an over-head view, which I prefer. The other is a side/front/behind view, which is really impressive graphically, but makes it slightly difficult to navigate the dungeons. Several people have complained about being able to see though the walls. The reason for that is so the camera can move around your character without having to whip around wildly when it gets close to a wall like it does in other 3D games like Tomb Raider.

The enemies are also beautifully rendered, and really friggin' cute looking too, making you feel like a heel for killing them.

Overall, Time Stalkers gets an A for graphics.

Gameplay - Time Stalkers has relatively easy controls and simple menus throughout the game, making it easy for newbies to learn, and easier for veterans to get used to.

The game uses a turn-base fighting system for battles, though perhaps a time-bar would have been useful for attacks, because it just seemed that the enemies had more opportunities to attack than my party did. The interesting thing is that certain moves can only be performed on certain enemy positions. Another great feature is that you don't just fight enemies in front of you, but also to the side and behind, making for a challenging battle.

One complaint that many players had was that you were only permitted to take four items into the dungeon with you, and your weapon and armor counted as one each, leaving only two spaces for health items. In other RPG's this might be a problem, but not in Time Stalkers. The dungeons are littered with weapons, armor, and health and magic items. You also level up relatively frequently, and most of the characters have health magic.

Since you are only able to take in four items at a time, the dozens of items that you bring out are to be sold in town for cash so you can buy bigger and better weapons, get existing weapons repaired or modified, buy more space in the monster house, or buy VMU games. There's tons to do with your hard-earned cash if you just look around.

One of the biggest problems many people had with Time Stalkers was the fact that each time you exited a dungeon, your EXP. Level returned to 1, and you had to start all over again each dungeon. Many people became frustrated with the game and claimed that there was no reason to try and level your character up.

This couldn't be more incorrect. While it is true that your character returns to Level 1 at the end of each dungeon, the stats and abilities they learn remain and grow throughout the game.

Another unique feature about the game is that you only control one character at a time. Outside of the dungeons, you are able to switch between characters. The more you use a character, the stronger and more resistant to injury they become. Because you can only use one character at a time, you must capture and recruit enemies in the dungeons and add their numbers to your own party.

This is where the game shines and is extremely fun. Your character is given the ability to capture enemies in these cute little tubes. I call this the Pokemon-Principle, because you capture monsters and make them fight for you. Like your character, the monsters will also level up and gain new abilities. The fun part about this is that you're always running into new enemies that you'll want to capture.

You can only carry so many monsters with you at any time, so you are generously given a monster house to store the extras in. You are prompted to register them, giving them a unique name and then either setting the ones you don't want free, keeping registered monsters on you, or letting them graze in a field. There is also a place where you can revive dead monsters.

Though I haven't tried it, you're also able to copy your monsters and trade them with your friends. This is where the real replay value of the game comes into play. A mode where two people could pit their characters and teams of monsters against each other would have been absolutely great, but we can't have everything, I suppose.

Moving away from the monster capturing feature, there are also several spells that can be learned by each character, most of the offensive ones elemental.

There are also weapons unique to each character. Sometimes you will find a cursed weapon, and if it is equipped, you may not be able to unequip it.

The HP and MP on Time Stalkers is extremely low, so being attacked by an enemy and losing only 1 HP is not uncommon. If you are sufficiently armored, most of the weaker enemies will only be able to take of 1 HP or less per hit.

There is also a Vigor level that must be watched carefully. When you attack an enemy, you use up Vigor points. Certain attacks use more Vigor points than others, and when your Vigor points get so low, most of the upper-level attacks become unavailable until the points are restored.

The dungeons are filled with traps as well as enemies. You can make your character search for the traps, but doing so lowers your hunger meter. When your hunger meter is drained, you will be unable to search for traps and run the risk of stepping on one and losing a good chunk of HP, MP, or sometimes the trap will make the monsters on the floor you're on angry, causing them to be more ferocious when you fight them.

Time Stalkers gets an A for Gameplay

Story - The story of Time Stalkers is a very unique one, but unfortunately, the game takes a nosedive here.

Your main character, Sword, is a wandering adventurer who left his home and possible romantic interest behind after some sort of disaster where his whole family was killed.

On his travels, he finds a book which sucks him into some magically spawned universe which is made up of chunks of other worlds. The purpose of the game is to try and figure out what is causing this to happen and how to return home.

Time Stalkers has the premise for a great RPG tale, but the story isn't developed as good as it could be.

The game is also relatively short. I finished it in only 18 hours, where the average RPG usually takes 30-40 hours to complete. That's just not enough time to adequately develop an epic story that an RPG is supposed to have.

The dialogue is all in text, which is alright, but with the space that is available on the GD-ROMs, voices could have been possible, given the shortness of the story.

The dialogue is a little dry at times, and Sword comes off as the cliched lone-wolf type hero who wants to be left alone.

The other characters a bit cliched as well. You've got the loner, the brooding warrior, the spirited adventurer, the rookie magician, the spoiled brat, and a robot.

The concept for the story was good, but it was poorly executed and contained too many cliched elements.

Time Stalkers gets a C for Story.

Audio - Like the graphics, Time Stalkers has a great audio element. The dungeons are a little quiet, but they have a sort of a tension building tune. The battle music is really good as well. The boss battles give you sort of a desperate feeling.

One interesting thing is that each character has their own theme music that plays when you are out of the dungeon and moving around the amalgam of worlds.

The title screen music is kind of goofy, but you don't have to listen to it long.

Time Stalkers gets an A for music.

Replay Value - Unfortunately, replay value has limited offerings. The monster capturing and raising is the primary reason you'll want to come back. Building up your characters is another reason for playing the game again, since you can only use one character at a time, and there's not enough dungeons to allow them all to reach their peaks during the story of the game.

There are also some mini-quests you can go on. A bunny-man named Noiman runs an agency that lets you choose from several jobs. This mainly means returning to previously completed dungeons to accomplish some task or find some item. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Time Stalkers gets a B for Replay Value

Buy/Rent - As I've stated before, the cautious gamer always rents before buying, but now that Dreamcast games are scarce in rental stores, buying may be your only option. Time Stalkers is about two and a half years old, so you should be able to pick it up for under $20.

Time Stalkers is a definite Buy.

Overall - Time Stalkers had a lot of good things going for it that was overshadowed by a short and cliched story with some questionable gameplay elements.

Fans of monster-catching games like Pokemon and Jade Cocoon will probably get into Time Stalkers, but hardcore Final Fantasy fans will probably shy away from it because of its somewhat radical departure from the standard RPG.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/02, Updated 01/03/02