Time and Eternity asks players to believe that a princess, a knight, and a second soul trapped inside her body can fix history by rewinding it. The premise is clever. The execution is not.
Imageepoch built the game around a simple idea: Toki, the princess of Kamza, shares her body with Towa, a second personality who emerges when she is wounded. Together they hold the power to travel through time. When a group of assassins attack their wedding ceremony and mortally wound Zack, the knight she is betrothed to, Toki and Towa activate that power. The plan is simple: go back, change the moment, and save him.
It does not work that way. The game sends its leads through a loop of repeated attacks on the wedding, each failure pushing them further back in time and deeper into a web of their own making. The core problem is that the loop is thin. There is no new ground, no new discovery, no fresh reason to keep playing beyond the promise of fixing the past.
Trailer, via PlayStation.
The Loop That Never Changes
Each loop follows the same shape. Toki and Towa return to a moment before the attack, change one small thing, and watch the consequences ripple outward. The game tracks these changes through a prophecy given to them by the fortune teller Makimona, whose words tie the loops together. But the shape stays the same from loop to loop, and the stakes feel smaller each time.
Zack, Drake, and the Hourglass Charm
Zack accompanies Toki and Towa as a spirit possessing their small dragon pet, Drake. Drake cannot be controlled by the player, but he performs attacks and healing spells when needed. It is a strange arrangement, and it never quite lands.
Toki and Towa also find an hourglass charm inside a chest early in the game. They keep it for luck, and later Zack comes to care for both of them, vowing to love both of them. The charm and the vow are small touches, but they carry more weight than the loop itself.
Combat and the Time Manipulation Skill
Combat in Time and Eternity is real-time, triggered through random encounters. Players choose between a gun for long-range, daggers for short range, and magic that works at any distance. Each attack fills an SP meter used to cast magic, which takes time to cast and can be interrupted by enemy attacks.
Drake, who cannot be controlled, can perform both attack and healing spells. Players can also activate a limited use time manipulation skill that slows down, reverses, and stops time to increase damage and put the enemy at a disadvantage.
None of it is bad. None of it is memorable either.
Art and Music, and Why They Matter More Than the Story
The game was built entirely with traditional animation, a concept Imageepoch CEO Ryoei Mikage pushed for from the start. He brought the idea to Bandai Namco producer Kei Hirono, who liked it and got the project started. Bakemonogatari artist Vofan designed the characters, Yuzo Koshiro served as co-composer, and Satelight created the animation.
The result shows in the presentation. The characters move with fluid animation, the backgrounds are rich and detailed, and the music carries real weight. These are the parts of Time and Eternity that stand out, and they are enough to justify the package even when the story falls short.
Reception and the Sales Problem
Time and Eternity underperformed in sales, and it met with a negative reaction from critics. The premise and aspects of its art and music were praised, but most reviewers disliked the gameplay, story, and characters.
That judgment matches what this paper saw playing it. The loop is thin, the combat is forgettable, and the story never builds enough momentum to overcome its own repetition.
The Verdict
Time and Eternity is a game that looks better than it plays. Its animation, music, and character design are strong, but the loop at its center never earns its weight. The story tries to be intimate and personal, but it gets lost in its own repetition.
Key Facts Box
- Developer: Imageepoch
- Publisher: NIS America, Namco Bandai Games, Bandai Namco Games
- Platform: PlayStation 3
- Release: 2012 in Japan, 2013 worldwide
- Genre: Role-playing (RPG)
- Mode: Single player
- Perspective: Third person
- Score: 5.4 of 10
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
