The Time Limit
Since the days of the arcade, Video games have often had a little mechanic factored in that would be used mostly in order to siphon more quarters from the pockets of gamers - the time limit. Mostly, the time limit would be a set amount of a short time (five minutes ish) before either a player had to finish a stage, or be led to a game over. It was simple, and a great way to add tension to a game.
However, as years have gone by, and games have migrated to the homes of people, time limits have somewhat vanished. They do crop up from time to time though, whether it be a self destruct sequence, (Metroid Prime 2's being the most notable to me seeing as you have to fight a BOSS while running from the clock), a simple timed mission, etc. But really, time limits don't have as much of a place anymore. I do have a point that I'm getting to, just bear with me.
Once in a while, we have the reverse of a time limit - the time counter. Generally just a simple little meter that keeps track of how long you've played. It's in most games today, showing up as a clock format when you load up your game (my Pokemon Pearl game was notable for actually having a total playing time of around 188:37) just to show how much you've invested in it. Again, an easy thing to do.
However, over the years, once in a while, the time limit would pop up in a most... unusual way. Rather than place the time limit on a stage, the time limit is placed on the entire game. Most of these ones though are RPGs, but I've seen it crop up in other games as well. The idea is that you only have a certain amount of time to beat the game, or else it's an automatic game over.
In a few of these titles, you may have dates and such, and so, specific events may be programmed for certain times. NPCs will be moving on their own set schedules, will have different ideas and actions on different days, stuff like that. It's a great idea that generally allows a bit more depth to be brought to a game, as you can note a specific passage of time.
Look at any of the Final Fantasy games for instance - by assumption, seeing as time does not pass officially, storyline wise, these events only take a day, maybe two. It's a great way to seem epic, but it's a bit odd to one's suspension of disbelief that, in only one day, a mere farmboy could grow to have magical power surpassing the greatest of wizards, or the might of a thousand men.
While I would want to include a title like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in this kind of subgenre, I actually don't think I can. While there is a 'Three Day' time limit placed on it, these three days can be repeated as often as one needs. So while the NPCs have a bit of depth in terms of having a schedule they follow, as well as altering their actions depending on what you may do with them on one of the days... any tension there is nearly lost, since you can, if you wish, revert the time to the status quo and go back to day 1.
When I say a time limit, I mean it. Lose a day in your game - guess what, you're not getting it back. One semi-example, is the Harvest Moon series. time passes during the days, and there are even a few events that occur during an ingame year. However, the only type of 'limit' on the game, is that in 3 ingame years (120 days apiece) all of the available wives have married off (and the one that doesn't leaves town forever). It's simple, and semi-effective. But that merely renders the game non 'winnable.' There is no definitive win for that game though anyways.
There is a bit more of a traditional following of a definitive limit though, found in a handful of games. However, this is where my problem sets in. This limit is found, in fact, in two of my PSP games - Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, and Persona 3. The idea behind the 'limit' behind both is this:
For Valkyrie Profile, you play as the Valkyrie known as Lenneth, receiving a message from the one-eyed god-king himself, Odin, that Ragnarok is fast approaching, and Lenneth must assemble an army of the dead in order to confront this oncoming foe - in a set amount of time (ingame counted as 180 chapters - stopping in a village generally uses 1 or 2 chapters, while dungeons use a bit more.) Persona 3 though uses the idea that, in one year's time, some malevolent force is coming, and members of a rather elite group must train to stop it.
However, here is the problem I find with these games. I have a love-hate relationship with this kind of game, and the main reason I can enjoy these games is the overlying themes in the games - Valkyrie Profile for instance is an absolutely gorgeous looking game, with the main theme surrounding it being death. It's simple, but brilliantly effective. Persona 3 has an interesting feel of it, but I'll get into that in a bit.
The main reason I have a love-hate relationship with that kind of game is due to the fact that I feel as though I need to micromanage and make use of every possible moment, in order to ensure success. As someone who is not entirely great at Real-Time Strategy games, Micromanaging is -not- my specialty.
By all means, due to the gameplay limits in Persona and Valkyrie Profile, I should hate these games. But that's just the thing. By placing a limit on when a threat approaches, it adds a real layer of tension and fear to the game. As the end grows nearer, your choices may become affected by the knowledge that the potential end of the world is nigh. Both of these games also have an interesting way to balance each other out in terms of just how open a close-ended game can be.
Valkyrie Profile grants you a few interesting choices. You can, for instance, take what few warriors you have, and fight alongside them, battle-hardening their spirits so that when Ragnarok approaches and Fenrir breaks free of his prison (I assume that that may be what will happen seeing as this game is heavily based in Norse mythology) you and your three kindred spirits will take him down... Or, you may employ your second duty as a Valkyrie, and ferry the souls of the restless dead to Odin, wherein they may also join your ranks as soldiers, so that when Ragnarok approaches, you have an army with which to stave off the menace.
It's a fine line though - Train in a dungeon too much, and you won't have the time to train other soldiers to a good level. Gather too many souls, and you will have spread yourself too thin to assist them. When a soldier levels up, do you spend their level up points on their traits, so that they will be a better fighter for your side? Or do you add to their heroic attributes, so that Odin will be impressed when you enlist them as a permanent member of Odin's army? The scope of that game is massive, granting you a large world to explore, plenty of villages to venture into, and plenty of people to find and hire for your cause.
However, how does Persona 3 take this approach? Well, they have a rather interesting set as well. You don't need to worry about strengthening your party members, or their internal entities (known as Personas) as they will level up as the game progresses. Rather, Persona 3 is a game about personal growth, rather than shared experiences. You are the main character, despite what the appearance may say. And you are a high school student. In Japan.
Now, Persona 3 has the 'Few vs. Many' argument as well, but it functions a little differently. You have the unique ability to store up to eight personas within you, rather than a normal person, who can only host a single persona, attuned to their body. Each Persona is assigned a different 'class' known as an Arcana - of which there are 21 different kinds. And there are 5+ different Personas per Arcana. And now, here is where the fun sets in. Of the various Arcanas, as you look along it, each Persona upward is a stronger type of Persona. For instance - in the 'Priestess' Arcana, the level 1 Persona in that class is known as an 'Apsaras' and the level 2 Persona is a Unicorn. The Unicorn is naturally stronger than an Apsaras, but requires more effort to get.
The game puts in a lovely system known as 'Social Links.' Scattered through the game are 21 NPCs/locations that each correspond to one of the Arcanas - and yes, they thematically match. The leader of the Karate club that you joined? He is the Strength Arcana NPC. The player you ran into on that popular MMO that you can play on Sundays? S/he's the Hermit Arcana NPC. If I wanted to get and control a 'Unicorn' Persona, I would need to find the person who corresponded to the Priestess Persona, and spend time with them, learn about them, etc. and raise my Social Link with them to level 2. If I want the next Priestess Persona? Well, I'd best get to work then and raise it to level 3.
Oh but WAIT, there's MORE. As well as having to balance raising social links, you also need to remember one thing - You're still in high school. Attendance is important. If you spent the previous night ascending the floors of Tartarus for a while, fighting off monsters, and you do that every night - You're going to wear yourself down, and probably doze off in class. Doze off, and you miss information that may crop up later so that you can raise your Academics stat. And hey, what about money to fund these expeditions to Tartarus? Health supplies aren't free after all! Expect to spend some days after school working in a coffee shop to earn extra funds. Or, maybe you'll decide to kick back, engage in some Karaoke, let loose, work on your Charm a little bit.
I'm convinced that Persona 3 is perhaps one of the most interesting RPGs out there. It does so much, and does it all so well, that it's a little overwhelming. It is rather incredible that all of this can be found in a single game. It actually manages to simulate something only seen in anime or comic books - how a superhero/magical girl is to balance their lives - Social, Magical, and of course, Education/Jobwise.
Anyways, that's my spiel on Time Limits, as well as a bit of a gush towards Persona 3. Hope you enjoyed.
Since the days of the arcade, Video games have often had a little mechanic factored in that would be used mostly in order to siphon more quarters from the pockets of gamers - the time limit. Mostly, the time limit would be a set amount of a short time (five minutes ish) before either a player had to finish a stage, or be led to a game over. It was simple, and a great way to add tension to a game.
However, as years have gone by, and games have migrated to the homes of people, time limits have somewhat vanished. They do crop up from time to time though, whether it be a self destruct sequence, (Metroid Prime 2's being the most notable to me seeing as you have to fight a BOSS while running from the clock), a simple timed mission, etc. But really, time limits don't have as much of a place anymore. I do have a point that I'm getting to, just bear with me.
Once in a while, we have the reverse of a time limit - the time counter. Generally just a simple little meter that keeps track of how long you've played. It's in most games today, showing up as a clock format when you load up your game (my Pokemon Pearl game was notable for actually having a total playing time of around 188:37) just to show how much you've invested in it. Again, an easy thing to do.
However, over the years, once in a while, the time limit would pop up in a most... unusual way. Rather than place the time limit on a stage, the time limit is placed on the entire game. Most of these ones though are RPGs, but I've seen it crop up in other games as well. The idea is that you only have a certain amount of time to beat the game, or else it's an automatic game over.
In a few of these titles, you may have dates and such, and so, specific events may be programmed for certain times. NPCs will be moving on their own set schedules, will have different ideas and actions on different days, stuff like that. It's a great idea that generally allows a bit more depth to be brought to a game, as you can note a specific passage of time.
Look at any of the Final Fantasy games for instance - by assumption, seeing as time does not pass officially, storyline wise, these events only take a day, maybe two. It's a great way to seem epic, but it's a bit odd to one's suspension of disbelief that, in only one day, a mere farmboy could grow to have magical power surpassing the greatest of wizards, or the might of a thousand men.
While I would want to include a title like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in this kind of subgenre, I actually don't think I can. While there is a 'Three Day' time limit placed on it, these three days can be repeated as often as one needs. So while the NPCs have a bit of depth in terms of having a schedule they follow, as well as altering their actions depending on what you may do with them on one of the days... any tension there is nearly lost, since you can, if you wish, revert the time to the status quo and go back to day 1.
When I say a time limit, I mean it. Lose a day in your game - guess what, you're not getting it back. One semi-example, is the Harvest Moon series. time passes during the days, and there are even a few events that occur during an ingame year. However, the only type of 'limit' on the game, is that in 3 ingame years (120 days apiece) all of the available wives have married off (and the one that doesn't leaves town forever). It's simple, and semi-effective. But that merely renders the game non 'winnable.' There is no definitive win for that game though anyways.
There is a bit more of a traditional following of a definitive limit though, found in a handful of games. However, this is where my problem sets in. This limit is found, in fact, in two of my PSP games - Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, and Persona 3. The idea behind the 'limit' behind both is this:
For Valkyrie Profile, you play as the Valkyrie known as Lenneth, receiving a message from the one-eyed god-king himself, Odin, that Ragnarok is fast approaching, and Lenneth must assemble an army of the dead in order to confront this oncoming foe - in a set amount of time (ingame counted as 180 chapters - stopping in a village generally uses 1 or 2 chapters, while dungeons use a bit more.) Persona 3 though uses the idea that, in one year's time, some malevolent force is coming, and members of a rather elite group must train to stop it.
However, here is the problem I find with these games. I have a love-hate relationship with this kind of game, and the main reason I can enjoy these games is the overlying themes in the games - Valkyrie Profile for instance is an absolutely gorgeous looking game, with the main theme surrounding it being death. It's simple, but brilliantly effective. Persona 3 has an interesting feel of it, but I'll get into that in a bit.
The main reason I have a love-hate relationship with that kind of game is due to the fact that I feel as though I need to micromanage and make use of every possible moment, in order to ensure success. As someone who is not entirely great at Real-Time Strategy games, Micromanaging is -not- my specialty.
By all means, due to the gameplay limits in Persona and Valkyrie Profile, I should hate these games. But that's just the thing. By placing a limit on when a threat approaches, it adds a real layer of tension and fear to the game. As the end grows nearer, your choices may become affected by the knowledge that the potential end of the world is nigh. Both of these games also have an interesting way to balance each other out in terms of just how open a close-ended game can be.
Valkyrie Profile grants you a few interesting choices. You can, for instance, take what few warriors you have, and fight alongside them, battle-hardening their spirits so that when Ragnarok approaches and Fenrir breaks free of his prison (I assume that that may be what will happen seeing as this game is heavily based in Norse mythology) you and your three kindred spirits will take him down... Or, you may employ your second duty as a Valkyrie, and ferry the souls of the restless dead to Odin, wherein they may also join your ranks as soldiers, so that when Ragnarok approaches, you have an army with which to stave off the menace.
It's a fine line though - Train in a dungeon too much, and you won't have the time to train other soldiers to a good level. Gather too many souls, and you will have spread yourself too thin to assist them. When a soldier levels up, do you spend their level up points on their traits, so that they will be a better fighter for your side? Or do you add to their heroic attributes, so that Odin will be impressed when you enlist them as a permanent member of Odin's army? The scope of that game is massive, granting you a large world to explore, plenty of villages to venture into, and plenty of people to find and hire for your cause.
However, how does Persona 3 take this approach? Well, they have a rather interesting set as well. You don't need to worry about strengthening your party members, or their internal entities (known as Personas) as they will level up as the game progresses. Rather, Persona 3 is a game about personal growth, rather than shared experiences. You are the main character, despite what the appearance may say. And you are a high school student. In Japan.
Now, Persona 3 has the 'Few vs. Many' argument as well, but it functions a little differently. You have the unique ability to store up to eight personas within you, rather than a normal person, who can only host a single persona, attuned to their body. Each Persona is assigned a different 'class' known as an Arcana - of which there are 21 different kinds. And there are 5+ different Personas per Arcana. And now, here is where the fun sets in. Of the various Arcanas, as you look along it, each Persona upward is a stronger type of Persona. For instance - in the 'Priestess' Arcana, the level 1 Persona in that class is known as an 'Apsaras' and the level 2 Persona is a Unicorn. The Unicorn is naturally stronger than an Apsaras, but requires more effort to get.
The game puts in a lovely system known as 'Social Links.' Scattered through the game are 21 NPCs/locations that each correspond to one of the Arcanas - and yes, they thematically match. The leader of the Karate club that you joined? He is the Strength Arcana NPC. The player you ran into on that popular MMO that you can play on Sundays? S/he's the Hermit Arcana NPC. If I wanted to get and control a 'Unicorn' Persona, I would need to find the person who corresponded to the Priestess Persona, and spend time with them, learn about them, etc. and raise my Social Link with them to level 2. If I want the next Priestess Persona? Well, I'd best get to work then and raise it to level 3.
Oh but WAIT, there's MORE. As well as having to balance raising social links, you also need to remember one thing - You're still in high school. Attendance is important. If you spent the previous night ascending the floors of Tartarus for a while, fighting off monsters, and you do that every night - You're going to wear yourself down, and probably doze off in class. Doze off, and you miss information that may crop up later so that you can raise your Academics stat. And hey, what about money to fund these expeditions to Tartarus? Health supplies aren't free after all! Expect to spend some days after school working in a coffee shop to earn extra funds. Or, maybe you'll decide to kick back, engage in some Karaoke, let loose, work on your Charm a little bit.
I'm convinced that Persona 3 is perhaps one of the most interesting RPGs out there. It does so much, and does it all so well, that it's a little overwhelming. It is rather incredible that all of this can be found in a single game. It actually manages to simulate something only seen in anime or comic books - how a superhero/magical girl is to balance their lives - Social, Magical, and of course, Education/Jobwise.
Anyways, that's my spiel on Time Limits, as well as a bit of a gush towards Persona 3. Hope you enjoyed.
