Tokitowa - Time and Eternity (third person 2D/3D RPG, imageepoch, PS3) announced

[Royal]

Normally, I read whole long reviews here, because reviewers here have similar game tastes as I have. But as I saw that RPGfan gave such low score today, it means to never to bother to play this game and hence there is no need to read the review text :)

[Tooker]

I'm the opposite on low-scoring games.  When I see a score that bad, I HAVE to read the text, because I'm like "Seriously?  How could it be that bad?"

[Dincrest]

People who know me know I have a somewhat morbid fascination with bad gaming.  In Staffland, I affectionately call myself a "dumpster diver" or part of the "cleanup crew" because I often review games no one else wants to touch.  I'm one of those curious types who wants to try a bad game just to see "if it's really that bad."  Most of the time, it *is* that bad.  Sometimes, though, I'm pleasantly surprised; e.g. the Naruto: Path of the Ninja RPGs were surprisingly good.  It's like with dumpster diving or scrapping; 97% of the time it's just trash laying about but there is that 3% chance that you find treasure worth cashing in. 

All that being said, I have no desire to try Tokitowa.  I'm perfectly willing to simply let that sleeping dog lie. 

[Embryon]

Ambition without the basic skills to back it up is just empty boasting.

Indeed. I think most people found the art and the concept of the game to be at least interesting, but considering how marvellously bad the whole thing seems to have come together, I don't see the point in supporting it solely for the sake of novelty. Maybe someone else will make a more successful attempt at a later date, or perhaps the 2D animation aspect is just not something that realistically can be well utilized in a game of this type of scale.

And while people enjoy bickering over the exact numerical scores of various games, the content of the giant wall of text accompanying them is more important at the end of the day. People mentioned some of the negative mainstream reviews of games like atelier meruru, but I still think you could discern even from those whether it was a game you could enjoy, even if the reviewer obviously did not. Similarly, I have picked up and enjoyed games on the basis of fairly "negative" reviews on this site (such as popolocrois, fragile dreams and alpha protocol). The reviews here tend to go into such detail that it is quite easy to follow the line of reasoning and evaluate whether you would agree with the conclusions based on what you personally value in a game.

I definitely do appreciate the effort put into the reviews. I can't imagine it being particularly fun to be forced to slog through some the worst stuff that comes out here (time and eternity being a prime example). RPGs tend to be quite lengthy, so I appreciate you guys suffering through it so we don't have to. I imagine it must be quite tempting to simply stop playing the games.

I loved Atelier Meruru (gave it a 92%!) but hated Time & Eternity, if that's any indication of how bad it is. Also, Fragile Dreams is awesome. Represent!

[unsmashable_pumpkin]

Ambition without the basic skills to back it up is just empty boasting.

Indeed. I think most people found the art and the concept of the game to be at least interesting, but considering how marvellously bad the whole thing seems to have come together, I don't see the point in supporting it solely for the sake of novelty. Maybe someone else will make a more successful attempt at a later date, or perhaps the 2D animation aspect is just not something that realistically can be well utilized in a game of this type of scale.

And while people enjoy bickering over the exact numerical scores of various games, the content of the giant wall of text accompanying them is more important at the end of the day. People mentioned some of the negative mainstream reviews of games like atelier meruru, but I still think you could discern even from those whether it was a game you could enjoy, even if the reviewer obviously did not. Similarly, I have picked up and enjoyed games on the basis of fairly "negative" reviews on this site (such as popolocrois, fragile dreams and alpha protocol). The reviews here tend to go into such detail that it is quite easy to follow the line of reasoning and evaluate whether you would agree with the conclusions based on what you personally value in a game.

I definitely do appreciate the effort put into the reviews. I can't imagine it being particularly fun to be forced to slog through some the worst stuff that comes out here (time and eternity being a prime example). RPGs tend to be quite lengthy, so I appreciate you guys suffering through it so we don't have to. I imagine it must be quite tempting to simply stop playing the games.

I loved Atelier Meruru (gave it a 92%!) but hated Time & Eternity, if that's any indication of how bad it is. Also, Fragile Dreams is awesome. Represent!

Atelier series, Fragile Dreams AND Digital Devil Saga fan. You have good taste, and not just in music. ;)

[Aeolus]

It's honestly no surprise that Tokitowa turned out this way given Imageepoch's track record. Hell, aside from the 7th Dragon games, what they done that could be considered "good"?

The Luminous Arc games started off derivative as hell then adopted a "my waifu" mechanic. Nobody really remembers Sands of Destruction. The only reason why anybody remembers the Tales of Knock off that is Arc Rise Fantasia is because that's just how starved the Wii is for JRPG content. They made Criminal Girls. The Fate/Extra games are basically entirely about getting more Fate/Stay Night mythos. Same with Black Rock Shooter.

I suppose there are those two PSP dungeon crawler games, Sol Trigger and its predecessor, but even those are more notable for their gimmicks (and ball busting difficulty) rather than anything else (and even one of these gimmicks is a "my waifu" gimmick with a time skip involved).

[TiamatNM]

I've only played a few imageepoc games and I generally liked them but they all had issues.  Their worst offense IMO is that they have turned out multiple titles where you only control one character yet they still don't allow for realtime movement.  Fate/Extra, BRS, and Tokitowa all share this.  Tokitowa looks to be much worse though for other reasons like graphics and story.

[Ranadiel]

Nobody really remembers Sands of Destruction. The only reason why anybody remembers the Tales of Knock off that is Arc Rise Fantasia is because that's just how starved the Wii is for JRPG content.

I remember Sands of Destruction.....because it is easily a contender for worst RPG storyline I have ever played and I will rage at the top o my lungs about that game at any chance I get. The fact that Tokitowa was done by the same company explains me to me so much about why they failed. I really need to start remembering their name so I can avoid their games specifically.

Although I sort of recall liking Arc Rise Fantasia.....although I can't remember much about it beyond the main character's appearance reminding me of Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia and some very vague plot details.

[Zendervai]

Arc Rise Fantasia was one of ImageEpoch's best, but that doesn't mean it's a masterpiece. It is well put together, even if the difficulty curve is shaped like a mountain range. The biggest problem it has is Ignition's localization. You sure you don't want to hire professional voice actors, Ignition? Most of their games are competent if somewhat repetitive. Maybe they should have tried teaming up with someone else for Tokitowa? Like, get a bigger budget or something?

[Darilon]

It is a shame that it got such a poor review. I am a sucker for anything related to time travel and was hoping this would be at least decent. There was also the fact the rescuing the prince aspect reminded me of Rhapsody, a game which I loved.

On the plus side at least Mana Khemia is no longer last place when it comes to review score.

[Dincrest]

Mana Khemia itself was a very good game.  That port was piss poor and basically took an elephant dump on a good game. 

[cj_iwakura]

I've only played a few imageepoc games and I generally liked them but they all had issues.  Their worst offense IMO is that they have turned out multiple titles where you only control one character yet they still don't allow for realtime movement.  Fate/Extra, BRS, and Tokitowa all share this.  Tokitowa looks to be much worse though for other reasons like graphics and story.

BRS and Fate/Extra have preestablished universes(and good stories) going for them, and I had fun with the combat.

Tokitowa seems poised to fail on all fronts.

[ZeronHitaro]

"my waifu" mechanic.

I can 'kind' of guess but someone give me a brief breakdown of what this is. Curiosity beckons. (Hell I've been out of the J-pool so long I don't even have a solid grasp on what 'waifu' is outside of assuming it's someone's idealization of a wife in a fictitious character.)

[Darilon]

"my waifu" mechanic.

I can 'kind' of guess but someone give me a brief breakdown of what this is. Curiosity beckons. (Hell I've been out of the J-pool so long I don't even have a solid grasp on what 'waifu' is outside of assuming it's someone's idealization of a wife in a fictitious character.)

The main character gains the ability to create a bond with a witch and use skills relating to their specific element. Whenever he uses the bonds power, it shows an image of that specific witch in a wedding dress. I don't think it is mentioned why they are in a wedding dress.

[Zendervai]

Yeah, that was kind of weird. I guess they couldn't think of an image to quickly imply a close bond. It does make the protagonist look like a polygamist.