Time Hollow

"Change the Past, Save Your Parents"

Introduction

Since Phoenix Wright achieve success in the States, more and more adventure games in the NDS receive an English release. For the last two years, we receive a lot of adventure games in the NDS. There's LifeSign: Surgical Unit, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, and many more. Now we have Time Hollow – an adventure game by Konami that promises a different kind of adventure experience by letting us turn back the clock and change the future. Can it deliver?

Gameplay

To be honest, the premise of the game is very interesting. In this game, we play as Ethan Kairos. Ethan's past has been meddled and tempered by someone. The disturbance in this past resulted in a tragedy. Ethan's parents suddenly disappear on his 17th birthday. Lucky for Ethan, out of nowhere, he got a strange pen called the ‘Hollow Pen'. This pen allows Ethan to open a fabric in time, change some things in the past, and correct the future.

The gameplay in Time Hollow is as generic as any other adventure games can get. We are given a map of the city with certain places that we can visit. On the locations, we are allowed to check for details on the location and obtain useful information to complete Ethan's ‘Flashback'.

Flashback is one of the core systems in this gaming. Every time the past is changed, Ethan will receive a new flashback along with it. However, since Ethan did not have the memory of that past, he will need to dig for the information beforehand to complete the details of the flashback. Once the details of the flashback have been completed, Ethan can start the 'Digging Phase'.

Other than Flashback, Digging Phase is the other core system in this game. After you figure all the details of the flashback and dig enough information, your Hollow Pen will start to glow, and you can rip the fabric of time with it. In this phase, you can alternate the past to prevent the future. Of course, you need to be careful as well because if you incorrectly change the past, the future might take a turn to worse!

Once you correct the past, you can move on with the game storyline. That said, the gameplay of Time Hollow is pretty simple, and you won't need much time to figure out the game mechanic.

Story

It is just an ordinary dinner as usual for Ethan Kairos and his two parents: Timothy and Pamela Kairos. That is when his father and mother discussed about telling something to Ethan in his 17th Birthday. However, something strange happen the next day. Ethan found out that he's living with his Uncle Derek instead of his two parents. Even stranger, nobody but him seems to remember his father and mother. For the rest of the world, Timothy and Pamela Kairos disappear 12 years ago.

Out of a strange vortex in his room, Ethan found a strange pen which enables him to change the past. He soon found out that by changing the past, the world around him also changes. Everything he did in the past triggers a butterfly effect to the present. Along with a strange note from his father, Ethan decided to re-correct the past and find a way to bring his parents back to the world.

Although the storyline seems to be unique, the execution of Time Hollow is full of glaring flaws. There are so many plot holes in the game; even worse; there are so many times in the game when you feel that Ethan is such a fool for not realizing simple facts and forcing you to take the long route to help him understand the fact. Even worse, because there's no such continuity in the game (with the past keeps on changing) it's hard to sympathize with the characters of the game. Compare Time Hollow with Phoenix Wright for example and you'll directly realize how two-dimensional and shallow Time Hollow characters are.

Graphic / Sounds

Graphic and sounds are one of the strength of the game. Every now and then, Time Hollow treats us with animation cutscenes. There is also a lot of artwork (usually depicting the past via Flashback) that are beautifully done. Although the animation style here does not really suit my type, I must agree that it has been done beautifully and nicely.

The voice-over is okay. It's in English but the voice actors are not as bad as what I expect. It's a shame that there's no option to change this to the Japanese seiyuus. Most games have actually adapted the dual language concept, so there's really no reason for Konami not to do so.

Play Time / Replayability

The play time of Time Hollow is unbelievably short. I needed around 5 - 6 hours to complete the game without a walkthrough. If you decided to follow a walkthrough, it might take you only two to three hours to finish the game. It's very short, even for the genre's standard. For comparison, it took me nearly 15 hours to beat the Phoenix Wright trilogy, or more than 10 hours to solve all the mysteries in Hotel Dusk: Room 215.

As for replayability, since Time Hollow introduces us to the concept of alternating reality, you might expect it to have a high replayability value with a lot of alternative endings. Sadly, this is not the case for Time Hollow. All they gave is just one canon endings, and a few variations for the alternative endings. I think this is a pity because Konami fail to maximize the potential of this game (they should have learned from Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger). After all is said and done, it would not take you more than 10 hours to complete and retry every other ending alternative.

Final Recommendation

Even if you are a big fan of adventure games in the NDS, I still recommend you to rent this game first before buying it. The concept of Time Hollow is quite innovative; sadly, it was too short and fails to reach its potential.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/08

Game Release: Time Hollow (US, 09/23/08)