SDHawk and MAstrK's Time and Time Again, A Review To The Pas

[Gizmog]

Team Master Kawk: Time And Time Again
5/5
I keep bouncing back and forth on whether this is a 4 or a 5. Is it better to shoot for something great and miss, or aim for something attainable like Undeadliest and hit? Time And Time Again is technically impressive but somewhat lacks personality and soul. I feel like this isn't the first time I've described a Hawk game that way.

The Majora's Mask style NPCs are amazing, something I never would've thought possible in an OHR Game. But where Majora's Mask had a very clear threat in the constantly looming moon, Time and Time Again's threat is much vaguer. Where Majora's Mask's NPCs were personable, these guys are bland. There IS a plot to find and it's an okay one. The NPCs do harbor some neat secrets, but getting to the point where you find them and from there to where you give a damn can be somewhat tedious.

Starting the game with the clock ticking puts a lot of pressure on you right off the bat, and it takes a little bit of time to figure out just what the game expects of you, and that it's okay to take a few loops through the story. It also takes a little bit of time to figure out that people are actually in different places at different times of the day and that this will be the key to your success. The battles can be a little unforgiving early on, and give you no way to heal, which can make you feel really stressed out if you don't know that it's okay to loop around a million times.

It's cold and impersonal, but it's an impressive game for two jackasses from the internet to have put together in their first week as a couple. It would've been interesting if Shizuma or RMSephy, someone with a stronger sense of character had landed on this team and helped them liven up the town a little. Still, it did keep my attention through 7 or 8 loops, and I guess unlike the other games it did have a definite start, middle and ending, so I guess I'll give it the 5. I forget what I predicted for you two at the start, but this definitely deserves to win. Complete package, and feels like it took all week to get right.

I think that still mostly covers it, but I'd like to elaborate on a few spots. When I say "It's hard to figure out what the game expects of you", I mean that the game could do a better job of letting you know that it's a Majora's Mask fetch-quest/time puzzle and not an RPG or One Minute Hero kind of thing. I remember the first time I played, the time limit was almost up and I hadn't done anything so I quit and started over, rather than going forward with what I perceived would be a definite loss. I can see that it would spoil the tension to tell you "Hey! The game is gonna loop till you get it right!", but they could've had hints to the looming catastrophe that would make you feel like sticking around would at least give you a cool explosion or something.

Likewise, I think they could've done some dialogue stuff, some "Yes/No" choices that might piss off an NPC for that "loop" to add a little more of that Groundhog's Day "Try till you get it right" flavor. Even though I'm bitching about it, it's a great game and worth taking a look at and definitely has some ideas that are worth ripping off.