The completion of The Top 10 Video Games That Involve Time Manipulation or Time Travel left me the feeling of impending doom which was realized when I check my E-mail only to find that I missed some very important games on the list, especially the number one spot, so I have decided to give these unnamed games, that deserve recognition for their concepts of time and how the change the industry, recognition at last. While thinking about them it became apparent that the best way to identify these games was with other games that I note for taking the concepts of time and apply them most excellently in RPGs and Fantasy Adventure games. So, let me begin.

Where else can a list about time concepts start then with the simple concept of day and night, and I believe that the first Breath of Fire delivered the concept brilliantly. Not only did it become day and night, but the player had the opportunity to decide and control the time of day with two magic items that they obtained during their quest through the game. The time of day allowed different events to occur which can be divided in to two categories the day events and the night events, also different creature would attack you at different times of the day this added a sense of time constant to the players who did not wish to be adventuring the field at night.

Rewind was a concept of time manipulation that you get the ability to do once you found an item in the beginning of the game that allowed this. The ability, however, would only affect particular things. Other then being a needed key item to advance in the story it was a great way to leave a dungeon without having to fight monsters on the way out. Even though it had very little purpose it was a mark of possibility that time manipulation would become common in later games and serve as a method to give players the feeling of control.

Now I was personally left wondering why Kingdome Hearts II is on this list until I remembered the past world in another world this seemed like an attempt to give players the past of the world and the to inform them that things change. I saw it as an idea of time travel that should have been displayed much earlier then now, but none the less it was interesting and it demonstrated how the past effects the present. It even went as far as to let your characters consider what they could do to change the future, or in this case the present, so I believe this probably the first time in an RPG we get to see the main character is not as high and mighty as he is made out to be and that he is willing to break the rules for his advantage. So all in all it made it look more realistic in terms of temptation.

What do I mean by the clock is ticking? Well it is commonly known as you better complete this part of the game before time runs out or it means game over. The first roll playing game that applied this factor in perfection, to my knowledge, was Final Fantasy VII, and it did that a lot I do not think that there is any game that used this idea as much as Final Fantasy VII . This factor was everywhere in combat, on the field, in combat and on the field at the same time, which made people worry because they wished they saved before they did any of this. I liked Final Fantasy VII, but I hated this so bad.

Yes it is true the number six is the ATE, Active Time Event, in Final Fantasy IX this was a fun thing it gave the player information about the cast of characters in the game and how they interact with other characters and objects throughout the game. This System also gave the player the feeling of omniscient due to the knew more about what was going on then the actual characters them self so it put the player at a third person god like perspective and not just as an individual character who only knew what the character knew. The ATE system is one of many features in the Final Fantasy series that helps with the idea of time matters.

Another Final Fantasy concept only instead of event it is battle. The ATB, Active Time Battle, system is probably one of the most famous time concepts in the industry of RPGs and we have Final Fantasy IV to thank for it. What this does is it make battle happen in real time if you leave the game waiting without pausing it in a battle your characters are going to get hurt because monsters keep attacking and doing stuff there is no turns it all happens in time even your characters attacks take time to pull and there is a bar at the bottom of the screen that tell you to wait until your characters is ready for the next attack. This system certainly speeded up combat.

Now this was a big improvement in Roll Playing Game battles it removed the wait from the Active Time Battle system and it allowed instant attacks as well as dodging. I know that this was not the first game to feature this idea and concept of time nor was it the best, but I found it to be the one that showed both the old idea of real time and a new fast pace base idea of real time so I thought the hybrid of the two would certainly explain what was needed in a real time battle system and this game does not fall short on any of the real time concepts. If only its field and map areas had that real time fell to them.

I mentioned this game in The Top 10 Video Games That Involve Time Manipulation or Time Travel this game has a great concept of time you can manipulate day and night and travel seven years into the future and back into the past yes this game has a great feel to it. Stuff you do in the past can affect the future like the spider quest and fishing the time traveling is very helpful and fun it makes the feel the way a time traveling game should feel. This game can leave the player feeling like they can actually change the out come of the game. So what can be better that this Fantasy Adventure game? Well...

Yes, I missed this on The Top 10 Video Games That Involve Time Manipulation or Time Travel, but it has been mentioned now this game had everything that made The Ocarina of Time great and then some not only where you thrown into an parallel world, but you had seventy two hours, three days, to stop the suicidal moon from crashing into the world and destroying it. This game not only had time travel but it also had alternate world traveling, which the last Zelda game that idea and concept appeared in was A Link to the Past. So in the three days what you do in the past will affect the out come of the game so you have to do things wisely. So what can beat Majora’s Mask? Well let try our number one spot.

This is the game that got regrettably left out of The Top 10 Video Games That Involve Time Manipulation or Time Travel and there is no doubt that Chrono Trigger is the number one game in The Top 10 RPGs and Fantasy Adventure Games That Consider Time. Chrono Trigger is the RPG that considered it all. It had day and night, an active battle system, and time travel that kept in mind what you did in the past change the future. If you did some thing in the past there would be an affect on the present and the future. This game allowed you to travel to about five different time period including The End of Time. Once you got the time machine their was no stopping you because you had the power to change a lot of things from opening doors to getting secret items to dealing with the unexpected Chrono Trigger gave that ability to the player like very few later game could. This game can be considered the only RPG that granted the power to change the game.

Well, with all that stated that puts us to the end of The Top 10 RPGs and Fantasy Adventure Games That Consider Time I hope you liked it and I hope I did not forget anything, if you though I did please let me hear from you. If it was not for these RPGs and Fantasy Adventure games that took the time to consider time what would today’s online RPGs be like with out the concepts that were thought of and applied to these games? Well probably not as good as they are.

List by Arcreium