Time Flies
A Retrospective Review by Aethereal
Download Here

How To Do Things Right

There are many, many OHRRPGCE games out there. Probably tenfold more than the ones we know about. Most of these games, to put it quite frankly, are pieces of unworthy crap that never should have even existed in anyone's brain cells. These games failed to do anything the right way, despite the intentions or beliefs of the authors. Doing everything the right way in your project is something every single game author out there should aspire to. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to make the best game in the world, but if you do everything right, it'll stand out to those who play it, and you'll be a better game designer in the end.

Therefore, I'm going to show you how to do things right by presenting a review of the final edition of Fortis' game Time Flies, a game that I believe does everything the right way. It doesn't have the best graphics, gameplay, story, or music, but it stands out as a great game despite it being far from the best game, due to the fact that every part of it was given attention and the parts fit together to make the whole in a near-perfect way. Basically, playing this game is an inspiration to improve your game in every aspect that needs improving to benefit your project.

An introduction to the game and its creator will be the first part of this review. The first version of Time Flies was released in March of 2000 and was an above-average game, but was nothing truly remarkable, unlike the current version. It underwent several revisions up to the third and final version (which is the version covered in this review), released in September of 2002. There were noticable differences in the two versions; the graphics improved greatly, the plot flow was restructured, and the gameplay was far more interesting. The differences between the two versions are a sparkling example of effort, and learning how to make a game better simply by doing things the right way.

Time Flies is the story of a dude named Zack and his best friend Kento, who were trained as kids to fight and use magic by a mysterious man named Kiamo. It starts innocently enough with a simple quest to find Kento's cat, but it turns into a nightmare for Zack when Kiamo shows up at his hometown and causes some real havoc, which culminates in Zack being thrown back in time four hundred years. The part of the story that stands out the most, in my opinion, is that it does an excellent job of staying away from the formula used by Chrono Trigger. Rather than travel through time to Save The Girl (TM), Zack is forcibly sent to the past and is stuck with figuring out a way home on his own. While he does eventually return to his time, it's not in the conventional find-the-hidden-portal-which- requires-you-to-navigate-about-four-dungeons method, which is refreshing to see. The other really excellent part of the story is the characters. Each character has a distinct personality which stands out, and it really brings life to the characters and the world they live in. Even the NPCs have excellent personalities from time to time. Now, the story isn't perfect, because the writing does get weak in a couple of places (and the typos don't help) and the story is not on a grand scale, but it is fun and mildly interesting. The primary boosts it gets are from the excellent development of the world and characters. It also ends on a cliffhanger, which unfortunately will never be resolved, but it does leave you wondering.

The next point I want to go over is the graphics. Fortis certainly put effort forth in the graphics, and it shows. While they occasionally have inconsistencies in style, the graphics are still far above average for the OHRRPGCE. The most consistent graphics are the sprites. Fortis is well known for his cartoony art style (there's a reason why this man is a comic art major) and that style translates into many of the sprites, especially the enemy sprites. For a game such as Time Flies, the art style fits perfectly. The cartoony style really captures the personality of the game as a whole and translates it into a visual form. The maptiles are a little weaker but are certainly not bad by any means. They just don't share the same amount of detail that the sprites do, and sometimes they don't blend very well together. The remaining graphics all fit the game well using a cartoony style in most cases, although there's a graphic here and there that is lacking (notably the ice spells). Overall, though, the graphics are great and fit the game's style perfectly. In that sense, it's difficult to say they could be better than they are.

The third point I would like to cover is the music. Fortis did not write the music; it was composed by two people, one of those being Jazz_Man, a name you may or may not know. The music sounds like RPG music. That's not to say it's generic, but don't expect something on the scale of Nobuo Uematsu or Yasunori Mitsuda. Fortis' role in the music was in placing it, and this is a job he did well. The music is often utilized during cutscenes - something that, surprisingly, many OHRRPGCE games lack - and is also used effectively outside of cutscenes, such as each of the two time periods using a different battle theme. It is pleasing to the ear, and the best part is that it's original.

The final component of this game that has yet to be analyzed is the gameplay. I once said that Fortis did an excellent job of not making this the 5,000th sequel of "Hammer the Spacebar RPG", and I stand by that statement. With a small amount of work, Fortis has turned a generic battle system into something that requires a bit more strategy than mindless button mashing. The main draw of the battles is the way the enemies are set up; each is assigned a type, such as flying, gelatinous, etc. Certain weapons will fail against certain types; for example, you can't hit a flying enemy with a sword, and you'll need magic if you want to easily beat gelatinous creatures. Simple additions like this add an element of strategy you don't often see; you'll need to understand how to use your special attacks and how to direct which characters to attack which enemies if you want to kill them in the most efficient way. This adds a degree of realism to the game that helps contrast with the cartoony style of most other things, especially the graphics. Outside of battle, the dungeon gameplay is fairly standard and nothing spectacular. This is actually the weakest part of the gameplay; the dungeons have no puzzles or anything to keep you busy while you trudge through except for the enemies. Their layouts, however, are solid. Another welcome addition is the enemies on the map; this is underused, and if pulled off correctly is almost always preferable to the standard random battles seen in just about every other game out there. As far as difficulty goes, the game itself is not too hard while not being a cakewalk, unless you level up a lot. Overall, the gameplay is solid and one of the best traits of the game.

I hope this review has shown you that Time Flies is a game you should play if you haven't already, as not only is it an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so, but it is an educational tool that can help you better your projects. Simply study the way Time Flies flows, and how everything fits together; you'll understand that it's a game that manages to do everything the right way, even if they're not done in the best way possible, and realize that's all you need to create a good, solid game that will be loved by many.

Don't forget, time flies when you're having fun.