Review: Time Hollow (DS)

Adventure, Reviews — By The Gamer Goddess on September 21, 2009 at 12:00 am

Time Hollow is a story-driven point and tap style adventure along the lines of the cult classic like Phoenix Wright. In Time Hollow, players assume the identity of Ethan Kairos, a high school student whose parents disappear on his 17th birthday. Strangely enough it’s as though they never existed. After your parents’ disappearance, you come to possess something called the “hollow pen”. Not your average, ordinary nerd tool; the pen can draw portals into time. This pen becomes immensely useful as ultimately what remains of your past are these unclear picture-like memories, also known as “flashbacks”. With said pen, you can draw portals to specific moments within these flashbacks. Still with me? Good.

Game play mainly consists of time puzzles, locating items, digging, talking to characters, drawing rifts, and flashback detailing. All of which are seemingly enjoyable, but it’s the story that really carries the game. The plot’s extremely engaging and offers plenty of unforeseen twists and “!” moments. It’s definitely enough to keep you tapping the screen in search of the next big revelation. I wish I could wholeheartedly say that the characters are a great asset to the plot, [insert awkward pause here] but sadly they aren’t. Only a few have personalities that inspire you to care about them.

Time Hollow‘s graphics are crisp and true to its anime origins. The sound isn’t anything out of the ordinary for DS games, but it could benefit from more voice overs and less heavily written narration.

Time Hollow is a decent game with great promise. With an open-ended final cut screen we could be looking at a part two; which I’m not adverse to. Hopefully next time around they explore the premise further and really work on character development. It’s an intriguing concept with some fun game-play centered on the practice of interrogating people and creating rifts in time.

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Tags: ds, nintendo ds, phoenix wright, time hollow