Time and Eternity is a Japanese RPG on the PlayStation 3. In it, you are a royal knight about to marry a beautiful princess. But just as you are about to seal the deal with a kiss, enemies barge through the church door and assassinate you! As you lie bleeding, the last thing you see is your beloved princess, but she’s not who she was before. Now she’s a ruthless, killing machine, beating up all the assassins and invaders ruining her wedding. Turns out the princess shares two souls in one body. The sweet princess Toki and the rough and tough Towa. Also, since she’s a princess, she has the power to magically travel back in time. So Toki/Towa use their power to go into the past to prevent the wedding assassination. And you go back in time, too, but you are stuck in the body of the princess’ pet dragon! Now it’s up to you and the princess to go on a quest to stop the wedding disaster, six months before it happens!

Time and Eternity may look like a standard Japanese RPG, but it has several aspects that help it stand out. In most of these titles, when you talk to others, they just have a still picture of whoever is talking. But in this game, all the characters are hand-drawn and have several different animations, making it look more like a cartoon than a game. Granted, since many of the animations repeat themselves, and none of the characters are very original looking, it doesn’t feel like a GOOD anime, however.

Battles also have a lot of animations between you, the princess, and all the enemies. The fights are unique in other ways, too. The princess can use her rifle to shoot enemies at a distance, or you can press the left stick up to jump forward for close range attacks. When enemies attack, you can press the stick left or right to dodge. Land enough hits and you’ll fill up a meter that allows you to use special skills and magic. It may sound strange, but in a way, the battles reminded me of Nintendo’s Punch Out boxing titles.

In the game, you start out by talking to the princess and her friends. This will usually prompt a mission. Then you go out to a world map screen where you go accept side missions for extra bonuses and goodies, or enter the fields to tromp around fighting enemies and completing your objectives. As you fight, you’ll gain experience points and other extras. Spend these points on skills for Toki and Towa to use. When you gain a level, Toki will switch places with Towa and vice versa. As you fight and talk with these two, their affection with you will fluxuate, and will determine how they feel about you. This will affect what quests you can take and what the ending will be.

While Time and Eternity has a lot of unique ideas, it also has a lot of problems, too. You do a lot of talking in the game, and I do mean, a LOT of talking. I’d rather see more gameplay and battles, but those are problematic, too. While the fights focus on quick action, the controls are a little clunky and slow. And even though the storyline is different, it’s very immature and juvenile and full of generic anime stereotypes. The main character is such a jerk; I just want to smack him up the side of the head. But if you’re itching to play a PS3 RPG that offers something a little different, you may want to check this one out anyway.

Kid Factor:

Time and Eternity is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, and Suggestive Themes. There is only a small bit of blood in the animated cutscenes, and it’s really just small blots and stains. While you do shoot, slash, and blast enemies with magic, they just fall down and disappear when defeated. Characters sometimes curse in the text dialogue, and some of the female characters dress a bit skimpy. A lot of the dialogue is suggestive in a campy, anime sort of way. Because of all this, the game is best for teens and older gamers accustomed to anime geared towards older viewers.

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