Time travel is a plot element I see in vidya a lot that is almost always fucked up in some way, shape, or form. Very rarely do I see it implemented in an elegant way. What are some games that incorporate time travel and don't royally fuck it?
In contrast, what are some vidya that fuck up time travel horrendously?
What is good time travel? It isn't a set in stone reality, so there are multiple theories as to how it may work.
As for cool implementation in vidya, Dishonored 2 of all games has a really cool idea for a level where you use a tool to switch timelines. Present is all overgrown, fallen into decay and swarming with bloodflies and monsters, the past is all pristine and elegant, but is occupied with guards.
the nier/drakengard series
I'd define good time travel as the concept being incorporated into the story or the gameplay without making you question the consistency or plausibility of it. Less paradoxical behavior the better.
Good: Chrono Trigger
Bad: FF8
Time Travel is a retarded plot device 99% of the time. I hate even seeing it.
Titanfall 2 had a level all around a timetravel mechanic. You essentially switched between the level before and after it was destroyed to throw off enemies and get through obstacles. It's a shame it's only for one mission.
STEP BACK NIGGA, I'M ABOUT TO DROP SOME HEAVY SHIT
Its a crime youngfags have never head of this game.
Life is strange
None of them.
The concept itself allows for all sorts of asspulls and cheap cop outs so writers can just not give a fuck and let their consciousness flow like a diarrhea.
SMT toys with the idea where characters can glimpse into other time periods and even go there to fight something, but it never affects anything and the history is unchanged.
It's kinda pointless, but also is the least fucked up.
I think it can work without too much hassle in a surreal multiple alternate timeline-like capacity.
THIS
Majora's Mask?
Witcher 1 also had a cool time travel bit to it.
YU-NO does it well
.> Majora's Mask
The stamp system explains the bank. Items are just convenience but you lose all stackables
Sonic CD is my favorite time travel to date. There it is less a plot element and more a game mechanic.
Fractured But Whole is the most recent game I have played to use time travel in a boring way. Just a joke plot point.
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Came here to post exactly this
Good taste user
I liked how Prince of Persia Warrior Within and Virtue's Last Reward handled it.
Wouldn't say it was the best way to do it, but it didn't ruin the games and within their context felt "comprehensible" and not out of place.
Whatever happened to that one RTS where you can go back in time to fuck with the enemy as they are building their shit?
The only good time travel as plot game is Day of the Tentacle. Don't really know if Chrono Trigger did it well because I'm not into jrpgs.
The only way to really fuck up time travel (other than just not doing anything relevant to plot or gameplay) is to apply the rules inconsistently. Time loops and being able to change the past are mutually contradictory, and it's hard to reconcile them without extra elements. This is why the movie Looper is shit.
Chrono Trigger mixes loops and past-changing, but that's because of Lavos being a horrible abomination and the planet itself gaining sapient thought and limited time-fucking powers.
TimeSplitters FP ends the last boss fight with Cortez jumping back to help himself despite not receiving any help previously. This works because you're not actually in a time loop, you're in (at least) two different timelines that feed into each other.
Legacy of Kain is probably the absolute limit of acceptable time travel, what with constantly breaking the entire timeline and all.
Legacy of Kain does more or less have a consistent timeline, except that it feeds back on itself, breaks off at one point and then creates an alternate timeline to replace the dead one (which is ironically the one where humanity thrived and lived).
Kain fucked up, but Raziel was the pawn which forced him to do so.
Or so I remember, I really need to replay those games.
Final Fantasy 8's time travel wasn't any worse than Final Fantasy 1's time travel it was just presented in a more obscure way.
Oh god
i remember this now
This isn't something exclusive to vidya, every form of media can never do time travel right because time travel in itself is a clusterfuck.
DQ XI has quest lines that end tragically but you reset time and go back to the past in the post game and can resolve most of them with happy endings.
FUCK YOU YOU PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT MARATHON INFINITY WAS FUCKING TRASH GET THAT SHIT OUT OF HERE
I really liked R&C A Crack In Time and partly because of how it handled time travel. Off the top of my head I remember a level where you'd repeatedly phase into the more action-oriented past and back into the puzzle-like present while grinding on rails and it's quite a spectacle both to play and see. The time puzzles as Clank were also probably my favourite Clank sections in the series.
In terms of narrative, I thought it was pretty cool how Azimuth kills Ratchet towards the end, then you play as Clank going back a few minutes in time to push Ratchet out of the way of the bolt that killed him, saving him. Was a good way of establishing how strong Azimuth is before you fight him and makes it feel more climactic.
Darkest of Days had a neat concept for time travel that completely blew it towards the end. The idea that people who were "lost" in time either being MIA throughout most of their life or because they could not be identified among the dead being used as time soldiers to stop terrorist plots before the perpetrators are even a thought in some drunkards balls is cool, but they fucked it up a little. That there are "bad" time traveler dudes who wear black and just fuck shit up for no reason at all falls completely flat during the Civil War levels and that nobody would find their bodies/weapons in the ashes of Pompeii is completely ridiculous ROMAN SHIELDS STOP BULLETS GUIZE Also, the fact that your character is the reason for the incredibly high death tolls in the Civil War is hilarious on at least three levels of irony. Darkest of Days did a Holocaust level before COD WWII. Let that settle in for a second
Such a fucking good game
Blinx the Timesweeper.
Radiant Historia has one point in time where you can rest for free in a military base. Throughout the game, I regularly returned to that time period to avoid having to pay to sleep at an inn.
As far as I'm aware, it's the only game that lets you abuse time-traveling powers in that way. The only thing close to it is in Chrono Trigger, where you can collect treasure from a chest, then go back in time and collect it again.
Although it's one of the best games of all time, Chrono Trigger honestly didn't do time travel well.
When your father was banging your mom to conceive you, there was a small time frame where either you or one of your fellow sperm could have been the one to impregnate the egg. Had your sperm self been a second too late or a second too early, there was a legit chance another sperm might have been born instead of you. So any miniscule change in the events that lead to their copulation (at the exact time, at the exact place, at the exact second you were conceived) meant that time travellers always run the risk of making themselves "unexist".
So when Chrono and pals are going around and making big alterations to world events (especially with Marle heavily interacting with her ancestors, Ayla and Leene), their asses should have disappear the Moment the timelines changed and their parents chose to fuck another day. (Or perhaps never even met or existed at all.)
Marle did disappear after she inadvertently derailed the timeline, though. Then it got fixed and she reappeared. Drastic changes like that would (and did) have effects, but negligible changes have negligible effects, unless the equivalent of Laplace's Demon is around to observe every detail.
I liked LoK's time travel because it had specific rules to it. While minor details in a timeline could be changed, major events couldn't, except for in a very special condition.
Yeah, Link basically cheats the banker every time the cycle resets and he withdraws cash. The items could be explained through their magic properties making them stick with you or some shit. Fate is a heavy element in the Zelda series.
Titanfall 2 did it better.
See
This is also a great contender since you move mostly laterally instead of forward or back.
blinx 2 is better and you know it