Time and Eternity

 PlayStation 3
User Score
5.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 76 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 76
  3. Negative: 31 out of 76
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  1. ChexMix
    Jun 13, 2017
    0
    The biggest draw for this game, at least for me, was the concept of hand-drawn animations being used, even during the battle and "roaming" gameplay. In this aspect of the game, I was met with great disappointment, as the animations outside of cutscenes did not 'fit' well with the 3D backgrounds at all (those backgrounds themselves also looked very bad and poorly rendered), and at timesThe biggest draw for this game, at least for me, was the concept of hand-drawn animations being used, even during the battle and "roaming" gameplay. In this aspect of the game, I was met with great disappointment, as the animations outside of cutscenes did not 'fit' well with the 3D backgrounds at all (those backgrounds themselves also looked very bad and poorly rendered), and at times they just looked downright terrible.

    However, I do not base my enjoyment of games on how they look. Unfortunately, I happened to find that the rest of this game is just as unappealing as its "graphics" are. But before I get into anything major I'd like to quickly address the voice work done for this game, since that also seems to be something worth taking note of on here. Now, keeping in mind that I personally had played it with English voices (and I have absolutely no intention of getting the game again to play with Japanese voices), the voice work was far from at least being average. It simply lacked the emotion and some of the characters just simply sounded "annoying," to put it simply. A couple characters were 'okay' to listen to, but it later got to a point where I had to mute the game because I just didn't want to hear much more of any of it. Speaking of muting it, the game's music was surprisingly good, but really nothing too memorable and something I would listen to a lot outside of the game (keeping in mind I also muted it, so I didn't listen to a lot of it in-game either). I'd consider the soundtrack to be the best thing about the game.

    Now for my personal worst thing about the game, the plot and the characters. Starting with the characters, all of them are essentially anime troupes. Really bad ones. Toki is a typical ditzy, generic, happy-go-lucky type of character, Towa is what I believe the 'anime world' refers to as "tsundere," consistently angry and the more 'tough' of the two. 'Zack' is essentially just a stupid pervert, no real redeeming qualities about his character. Any and all side characters in this game are a joke, literally. They're almost all there to make "jokes" and have "gags." Moving onto the story, it has a hint of originality, but that all is soon diminished by the snail's pace the game goes at, and how boring it becomes the further you go.

    And finally, for the gameplay itself: I wasn't fond of it. The battle system, similarly to the plot, went very slow, and to make it even worse most enemies seemed to block attacks, only making it feel even slower. The enemy encounters were also at random and I feel happened far too often. I think it would've benefitted them to put actual enemy models in the overworld, as it is far too desolate, empty, and just not pretty to look at otherwise (going back to the visuals a bit here). Side quests were boring as well, if I remember correctly most of them were simply pointless fetch quests and "kill X monster(s)".

    I will conclude here, because I do not feel that I have much more to say about my disdain for this game. Also, this review is all just my opinion, if you are interested in this game then I would suggest viewing gameplay and deciding for yourself whether or not this is the game for you (as evident by other reviews on here, there are people who actually really enjoyed it, I'd read from both viewpoints before deciding).

    - ChexMix    … Expand
  2. GMWaffles
    Jul 17, 2013
    3
    So I bought this game without the highest hopes. Although most JRPG's aren't great games, they are usually quite entertaining. This game right here was atrocious. I tried to like it it, I really did but I just couldn't.
    The graphics look great, and that's probably the strongest point of the game. Although the animation in itself was jarring and felt awkward, especially when moving through    So I bought this game without the highest hopes. Although most JRPG's aren't great games, they are usually quite entertaining. This game right here was atrocious. I tried to like it it, I really did but I just couldn't.
    The graphics look great, and that's probably the strongest point of the game. Although the animation in itself was jarring and felt awkward, especially when moving through an area, Toki/Towa's running animation was just terrible.

    Another major letdown was the voiceovers, they seemed bland with no emotion. And the lip syncing was way off with the mouth visibly moving even though the voiceovers had finished. The gameplay itself was also very clunky and hard to use, pressing the dodge button didn't work more often then not, leaving it a gamble to try and dodge the attacks.

    The story wasn't great, but I wasn't expecting some grand epic amazing story when I started the game.
    All in all I give this game a three, it's not broken and it works, and I think that's the only thing it has going for it right now, so if your reading this, buy it at your own risk.    … Expand
  3. Cerzel
    Jul 16, 2013
    0
    Time and Eternity is not a good game. It is not worth renting, borrowing from a friend, and most of all, it's not worth buying. Time and Eternity is an example of high ambitions and a complete and utter inability to follow through.

    Let's start with the writing. T&E takes its character archetypes and dialogue from the very worst of any harem anime you'll see. Our "hero", Zack, is your    Time and Eternity is not a good game. It is not worth renting, borrowing from a friend, and most of all, it's not worth buying. Time and Eternity is an example of high ambitions and a complete and utter inability to follow through.

    Let's start with the writing. T&E takes its character archetypes and dialogue from the very worst of any harem anime you'll see. Our "hero", Zack, is your typical perverted, stupid, hot-blooded protagonist who spends most of his time yelling about how much he wants to see the female cast naked. Shortly into the game he's forced into the body of the perverted animal mascot, and this becomes combined with a number of absurd slapstick animations. The heroines, Toki and Towa, are as bland an uninteresting as they get, with Toki being the plucky, hopeful standard heroine and Towa the tough, angry girl. The side characters range from one-dimensional jokes to what coming from any developer other than ImageEpoch I would assume to be satire. The story makes no attempt to be interesting even if the premise is just barely original, and the plot of the game quickly takes a back-seat to your harem's moe-moe antics.

    The "HD animation", the main draw of the game for many people, is quite simply terrible. A screenshot or two will look good, as the images themselves aren't bad quality, but the animations are very poorly done, more resembling an eighth-grade Powerpoint presentation than any anime made in the last several years. Animations are repeated incessantly at rapid-speed; characters folding and unfolding their arms and crossing and uncrossing their legs as though they desperately need a toilet trip or a straightjacket wrapped around them. The animations are also choppy, and there is no attempt at lip-synching made here, with characters simply flapping their mouths endlessly to important lines of spoken dialogue like "Huh?" and "...".

    The soundtrack has a few great tracks, such as the battle themes, but for the most part the music is downright annoying, giving the impression that Yuzo Koshiro simply couldn't be bothered anymore. The voice acting is outright bad; and I'm not even referring to NISA's dub of the game. Despite a great cast, the Japanese voice actors have delivered some of the most painfully uninspired and weak performances of their careers, and this isn't helped by the game's horrible, choppy presentation.

    Now, the gameplay. If anyone played ImageEpoch's earlier Black Rock Shooter on the PSP, T&E's battle system should seem familiar. Much like BRS, you stand in place while enemies move towards you or attack from afar. You can shoot them, jump closer and use a knife, dodge, or guard attacks, and use special skills and items in battle. In BRS, the battles were fast, fluid, and responsive. In T&E however, battles are slow, clunky, tedious and suffer from frequent slowdown and frame drops. Controls are frequently unresponsive, either in your character continuing to shoot after letting go of the button, or not dodging when you hit it. These issues are made even worse by the lack of any kind of cancel function present in the time I played, leaving battles a frustrating mess when most enemies will begin and end an attack animation in the time it takes Towa or Toki to shoot a single bullet. Add onto this a cluttered, ugly battle user interface and every enemy wearing out its welcome with a great deal more HP than any mook has any right to have, and there is nothing enjoyable about the battles.

    To top it off, the game is buggy, and lacks basic features, like a pause button. When in any cutscenes, dialogue advances automatically, and the game cannot be paused. There is no reason for this when the animation merely consists of a few stock scenes repeated over and over, but it's clearly too much for ImageEpoch to handle, as skipping any line of dialogue will cause the characters to start flying across the screen, glitching in and out of different animations while trying to remember where they were supposed to be placed. This is a feat easily achieved over and over with just a single skip, and it leaves one wondering if the game was ever tested at all.

    In closing, there is simply nothing of value to be found anywhere in Time & Eternity. The game is a complete mess, in every aspect, and it's a wonder why NISA ever decided to inflict this travesty upon the west in the first place.    … Expand
  4. GypsyPeach
    Jul 31, 2014
    0
    I was curious about this game, the story sounded like it could have potential so I picked it up and good god I regretted it. It was supposed to be all hand drawn so I hoped for something that would be just gorgeous but apparently they meant only the characters were drawn and everything else was made on the PS1. When you FINALLY get to the playing part, your character looks like a paperI was curious about this game, the story sounded like it could have potential so I picked it up and good god I regretted it. It was supposed to be all hand drawn so I hoped for something that would be just gorgeous but apparently they meant only the characters were drawn and everything else was made on the PS1. When you FINALLY get to the playing part, your character looks like a paper pasted onto the background moving around. However, as I've said in previous reviews I don't base my entire liking of a game on how it looks. So.... here are the problems:

    The worst part of the game though is infact and sadly, the story and the characters in it. There was hope for it, I tried to like it but I just couldn't.... I had high hopes for this and it was a huge let down. There's so much talking during the exposition most of which dosn't even matter or add to the story you just get tired of listening to them or reading what they're saying and you just want to skip through it all because it doesn't even matter in regards to what you need to do. There is TOO much exposition puked out at you as an attempt to try and get you involved or make the story original... which it is only barely. The spewed exposition vomit makes all of the following story-line feel choppy and uninspired which gives you little reason to continue on so by this point you're basically just annoyed with the game and probably feeling tormented since you've yet to play at all. (My fiancee only made it through 15 minutes before wanting to shoot himself). However, if you finally manage to get through the opening scene(s) the beginning is slow and pointless in relation to your overall quest. It tries to make sense of time but with how blatently obvious your character is about having gone back in time the other people in the world must be mentally retarded not to figure it out. In addition, the story seems to get rehashed and you get reminded constantly of your main goal (as if you don't know already, or maybe you're dumb too!).

    The controls themselves aren't bad when you move around or fight but the music is generally obnoxious and in addition to the character voices you should basically play the game with everything muted. However there are still bugs in the controls like.... a pause button. This includes in cutscenes where the dialogue advances automatically whether you've read it or not. There is absolutely no reason for this since animations of the characters consists of a few awkward scenes repeated over and over. Also... skipping any line of dialogue will cause the characters to start flying across the screen, glitching in and out of different animations (crossing arms, legs, whatever) while you're stuck trying to remember where they were supposed to be placed. This sort of thing makes you wonder if the game was ever tested at all since it's an easy fix. The voices lack emotion and seem even a bit forced as they attempt to not be bland and uninteresting. The voice actors must have been horribly uninspired by the script as well, japanese and english alike because as far as the content of what is being said.... I'd rather listen to a group of stereotypical dumb-blonde valley girls....they're probably more interesting and possibly smarter. These people have also apparently never heard of lip synching (I read lips a bit so it's particularly annoying to me).

    The side characters are annoying in all respects with how they treat your characters to how they speak/act in general (ex: calling Zack (main character) a scumbag for wanting to kiss his fiance before the wedding). The main characters are very unoriginal as the male Zack is your typical perverted, stupid, hot-blooded, wants-to-see-the-females-naked kind of guy and the two females Toki and Towa are also very stereotypical. Toki is the happy, positive hopeful girl and Towa is the tough angry girl.

    The animation is choppy and irritating ESPECIALLY with how much talking seems to be involved with the game as they fidget around from one awkward position into the next and repeat such in an endless cycle of unnecessary ugly clunky-ness. A big draw to this game is the "HD animation" I'm sure as I had hoped it would look nice as well but it's a lie.... screen shots, being still might be fine but when you're actually moving or playing, like I said earlier, the PS1 had better quality in the actual animations and graphics of its games. The animations repetitive and unnecessary, choppy, derpy and distracting (thank god--I'd rather look at their awkward movements than listen to them talk FOREVER). The graphics are blurry and undetailed even on HD so it's kinda worthless in the 'pretty' department which was potentially the main draw.

    Overall, there is absolutely no reason to get this game.... not to rent, not to borrow from someone, and not to buy. It's a complete travesty in gaming in all senses....every aspect is a mess and there are ZERO redeeming qualities    … Expand
  5. motherfuker
    Sep 16, 2013
    0
    Time and Eternity? More like Rehash & Tea Parties the Video Game. I mean wow, literally everything is a recolor. The protagonist, the bosses, the enemies, the fields and EVEN the plot is rehashed constantly. Oh and there's too many Tea Parties

    Oh and you would think "maybe the music might be good", nope, not even the amazing Yuzo Koshiro honestly gave a **** Avoid this game unless    Time and Eternity? More like Rehash & Tea Parties the Video Game. I mean wow, literally everything is a recolor. The protagonist, the bosses, the enemies, the fields and EVEN the plot is rehashed constantly. Oh and there's too many Tea Parties

    Oh and you would think "maybe the music might be good", nope, not even the amazing Yuzo Koshiro honestly gave a ****

    Avoid this game unless you love bad games or just have really low standards.    … Expand
  6. Dynel
    Jun 27, 2014
    2
    After playing the game for a long time, I decided to drop the game.

    The game has many flaws that become apparent once you start playing. While everything seems new and with great ideas, it is poorly done. Enemies take way too long to beat and follow a certain pattern. By no means that makes the battle easy, as a slight recolored enemy means another pattern to discover. Story is    After playing the game for a long time, I decided to drop the game.

    The game has many flaws that become apparent once you start playing. While everything seems new and with great ideas, it is poorly done. Enemies take way too long to beat and follow a certain pattern. By no means that makes the battle easy, as a slight recolored enemy means another pattern to discover.

    Story is original and very well done, there's character growth and the animation in general is good. But, that's it. Maps are huge, but, you will never see either enemies on map or npc's. it's just the character "running" to some place. And here is where the game seems rather rushed, enganging battles should not take more than 5 minutes, or the game will feel rather bland.

    Scenarios aren't that good, if there was some more interaction, it would be better. Music isn't good and there's no option for Japanese voices, plus, the lip sync wasn't done good enough, as some characters keep moving the lips but there's no sound.

    Some characters follow the norm and are somewhat interesting, but, after a while, there's no motivation to continue playing, as events become foreseeable.

    all in all, the game feels both rushed and lacking    … Expand
  7. Mr_Eleganto
    Apr 7, 2021
    4
    This game was a disaster for me... I gave it a shot even through bad reviews, but after 3-4 hours of play i felt bored and empty. The game seems really stupid in terms of dialogues, despite i'm not even a native speaker in English. Don't bother. I love Imageepoch, but this... Stay away.

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2013
27
#27 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
42

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 40
  3. Negative: 26 out of 40
  1. Thunderbolt
    Nov 11, 2013
    30
    Its story amounts to little more than misfired jokes about an obnoxious perv trying to look up as many skirts as possible.
    Read full review
  2. Official PlayStation Magazine Benelux
    Sep 27, 2013
    47
    Looking at just some still images from the game, you would have to be blind, not to call it beautiful. However once you see it in motion, you realize that producing manga or anime is not the same as making a game. The lively animations do not match with the static backgrounds. [September p.86]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Sep 19, 2013
    50
    Time equals money, and Time and Eternity is not worth either.
    Read full review
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