Rpgs on the Dreamcast were few and far between, at least in the US. While I would have loved to play titles like Langrisser Millennium and Sorcerian I knew they wouldn’t be localized. One of the first Rpgs let alone games announced for Sega’s last console was Time Stalkers. With long time Sega partner Climax behind its development big things were expected. When the first screenshots appeared in the press it looked like a next generation fan’s dream. The reality is anything but however. While there are aspects of Time Stalkers that I like the overall game is subpar in my opinion. The DC’s US library wasn’t filled with Rpgs but there are better options than this.
Aimless hero Sword is wandering through a forest one day when he is assaulted by an iron knight. The knight flees into a nearby tower and seemingly disappears. When Sword follows he stumbles across a book that transports him to another world. This land is comprised of pieces of different worlds and still growing. Sword is informed by the mysterious Master that he must discover who is behind the world’s creation if he is to ever find a way home.
The game’s premise is interesting but the story is sadly terrible. Sega has done a respectable job with the localization but what little story that is present is awful. The returning characters from prior games are consistent with their established personalities. But there is little interaction even among the primary cast. It is interesting to see the wildly varying NPCs interacting with each other as the game progresses but I can’t help but feel the game could have done more with this premise. This is such a fascinating world and desperately needed to be explored more in depth than just being window dressing.
I can’t stress how much I like the concept behind Time Stalkers. A world inhabited by characters from varying titles from a given developer is practically a dream. Can you imagine if Nintendo or Capcom, two publishers with a laundry list of popular characters, did something like this? Now granted Captain N was sort of like that for Nintendo but that wasn’t a game. Time Stalkers pulls a bunch of Climax characters from Landstalker, Shining in the Darkness and Ladystalker to inhabit its patchwork world. It’s a cool premise but the gameplay just isn’t engaging, leaving this a cool but missed opportunity.
Despite the name Time Stalkers is not a sequel to Landstalker. This is a roguelike rather than an action rpg. Like all titles in the genre Time Stalkers has certain rules. You always default to level 1 upon leaving a dungeon, maps are randomly generated, and all characters have a limited inventory, at least initially. In some ways this is similar to Evolution, another DC role playing game. Except here the individual floors are more compact. Exploration is made lively by searching hot spots marked on the map. This consumes your hunger meter but the game has so much fruit available it is a non-issue. This is one of the best ways to find items and incentivizes using characters with a higher luck rating.
Although Sword is the main character eventually you’ll have 5 or 6 “party” members. You only control one at a time with each bringing specific strengths and weaknesses. Sword is well rounded but can only carry four items into a dungeon. Rao is the strongest but slowest and is usually the last to attack in battle. Nigel has the highest luck and can carry eight items initially, making him one of the best in the game.
The battle system is a bit different but also has some annoying flaws. The turn based battles are arranged in a grid, with as many as four separate enemy grids depending on the number and positioning of enemies encountered. All attacks have a range and at times you’ll have to reposition characters to attack enemies. What slows down battles is the vigor meter. Your actions use up set amounts of vigor, with a small portion regained between rounds. Different weapons and attacks use up different amounts and it is easy to drain it all. This means using items or defending, drawing combat out. I also hate that the game lacks cursor memory, meaning if one character kills an enemy another was set to attack the turn is wasted. We moved past that after the 8-bit era.
It isn’t all bad of course. Practically every enemy can be captured and later used in battle. Like you they can earn titles that grant new abilities, making it worthwhile to raise certain monsters. While combat is repetitious and often drawn out it is insanely easy; this also applies to the whole game. I rarely died, even in the few later dungeons where the difficulty ramped up. The game showers you with unnecessary items that end up being sold. There are a number of side activities such as undertaking specific missions in dungeons but they are wholly unnecessary. You can easily complete all nine main dungeons once and still beat the game with little issue. It is nice that the content is there but there needs to be a reason to engage with it.
Before its release Time Stalkers looked like one of the most impressive Dreamcast showcases. But the long delay to release hurt it. The overall texture detail is usually far above what the N64 and PlayStation were capable of. But the simple character models give it the appearance of a game originally planned for a weaker platform. Even worse the camera is egregiously bad, sometimes spinning out of control and offering the worst view possible. Obscured objects become transparent but it is enough of a problem to be notable. Where the graphics disappoint the soundtrack is amazing. Everyone has their own character theme and the overall score is generally fantastic.
In Closing
There are some good gameplay ideas in Time Stalkers but they don’t come together to create a compelling product. The game isn’t completely bad but there are better Dreamcast games to spend your time with than this.
