Time and Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Imageepoch for the PlayStation 3. It was published in Japan by Bandai Namco Games in 2012, and worldwide by NIS America in 2013. The story follows the knight Zack and princess Toki, who are attacked during their wedding ceremony. Zack is killed, awakening a soul sharing Toki's body called Towa, and the three repeatedly travel back through time to thwart those responsible for the attack. The game follows Toki and Towa, who share the same body, exploring different environments and engaging in real-time action-based combat with enemies.
The game's concept was created by Imageepoch CEO Ryoei Mikage, who wanted to make a game that portrayed its characters solely through traditional animation. He brought it to Bandai Namco producer Kei Hirono, who liked it and got the project started. Development lasted three years, and multiple staff members cited varied difficulties with its production. The staff included Bakemonogatari artist Vofan designing the characters, Yuzo Koshiro as co-composer, and Satelight creating the animation. Time and Eternity underperformed in sales, and met with a negative reaction from journalists. While its premise and aspects of its art and music were praised, most otherwise disliked the gameplay, story and characters.
Gameplay
Time and Eternity is a role-playing video game in which players take on the role of Toki and Towa, the alternate personalities of a princess betrothed to the story's main protagonist, named Zack by default; during the story, Zack accompanies them as a spirit possessing their small dragon pet Drake. The game progresses by completing quests across its four chapters, which are tied to exploring locations selected from an overworld map. The player can also pick up side quests which reward in-game currency. During exploration and combat, all characters and enemies are displayed with animated 2D art, while the environments use 3D graphics.
During dungeon navigation, shown through a camera fixed behind Toki and Towa, the player explores environments to find treasure in chests and trigger story events tied to quests. Combat is triggered through random encounters, with all fights seeing Toki or Towa fighting a single enemy using a real-time battle system: some encounters have successive enemy battles back to back. Toki and Towa have access to three attack types: a gun for long-range, daggers for short range, and magic which can work at any range, with equipment shared between the two. Toki and Towa can attack, guard, dodge, and use up to three assigned abilities. During combat Drake, who cannot be controlled by the player, can perform both attack and healing spells. Performing regular attacks fills an SP metre which is used to power magic, which takes time to cast and can be interrupted by enemy attacks. Toki and Towa can also activate a limited use time manipulation skill, allowing them to slow down, reverse and stop time to allow for increased damage while putting the enemy at a disadvantage. During fights against larger enemies, the game switches to a third-person shooter style, with the player needing to aim and fire spells while dodging the enemy's projectiles.
Toki and Towa increase their power by gaining levels from experience points, equipping gear, and skill points dubbed "GP" which are acquired upon leveling up and completing quests. Upon leveling up, Toki or Towa switch places with each other; this character switch can also be done with a rare consumable item. Toki and Towa's skill trees are separate from each other, with skills only becoming available when a character's level requirement is reached. Dedicated events related to either Toki or Towa can be triggered based on interactions with Zack either during conversations or in combat, which impact their relationship and can alter each the stats of each woman. The game features two standard endings tied to Toki and Towa, and a third New Game Plus-exclusive ending. The affection meter has no impact on the ending choice. When starting a players are able carry over unlocked skills and their current money into the next playthrough. Time and Eternity features two difficulty levels, "Easy" and "Normal", which can be changed at any point.
Synopsis In the kingdom of Kamza, the earnest but dirty-minded knight Zack is engaged to be married to Toki, princess of the ruling family who holds the power to manipulate time. On their wedding day, the ceremony is attacked by ninjas and Zack is mortally wounded. This causes Towa, a second soul living within Toki, to manifest and defeat the ninjas. Remembering a prophecy given to them by the fortune teller Makimona, Toki and Towa use their power to travel back six months and prevent the attack, inhabiting their younger self; Zack's soul is also transported back by his wish to be with Toki, ending up housed in her pet dragon Drake. They learn that Toki's decision to travel back in time caused a chain of events which led to the Assassin's Guild leader blaming Toki for a presumed attempt on his life. With the misunderstanding resolved, the three travel forward to the wedding day.
The wedding is attacked repeatedly, with each attack prompting Toki to turn back time to try correcting events. In the second loop they save one of Toki's friends from a pact with a malicious dragon that would force her to kill Toki, breaking it with advice from Makimona. In the third loop, Makimona herself attacks upon becoming possessed after stealing a magical artifact to improve her romantic chances. In each loop, it is ultimately revealed that Toki and Towa are to blame in some way, repeatedly creating a temporal paradox. During their adventures Zack comes to care for both Toki and Towa, vowing to love both of them, and becomes acquainted with a sentient talking charm Toki and Towa found inside an hourglass and kept for luck.
After Makimona is cleansed, Toki's grandmother Eva reveals that the source of events comes from when Toki and Towa were children, and were rehearsing a marriage vow for when Toki would get married. Another force interpreted this as a true vow and has manipulated events to prevent Zack from coming between them. After they travel back to the wedding one final time, the charm attacks and is manifested in human form, revealing himself as Moebius, a representation of time. His existence is the reason Toki and Towa can share the same body, and if Moebius is defeated, one of them must disappear. Determined to preserve the vow by erasing Toki and Towa's memories, Moebius travels back through time, forcing the three to fight him as he possesses their previous enemies.
Travelling to the day Toki and Zack first met, the three face Moebius empowered after taking most of Toki and Towa's memories. As Toki and Towa cannot annul the vow themselves, Eva sacrifices herself to travel back in time to prevent the vow being sworn. Without the vow, Toki and Towa are able to defeat Mobius, but then Zack must choose which soul will remain. In the standard endings Zack must choose either Toki or Towa, while a New Game Plus run unlocks an option where Zack's love for both allows Toki and Towa to continue sharing a body. In all endings, Zack proposes once again to rekindle their relationship.
Development The concept for Time and Eternity was created by Imageepoch CEO Ryoei Mikage, who had long wanted to create an RPG which incorporated traditional animation into its real-time graphics, summing it up as an experimental title. While earlier consoles lacked the power to realise this vision, he felt the PlayStation 3 was capable and approached Kei Hirono of Bandai Namco Games about the project, as Bandai Namco had experience with anime-based projects. Hirono liked the concept, and the project was greenlit. Mikage suggested bringing notable staff onto the project, which Hirono agreed to so the game could stand out within the RPG market. Notable staff included composer Yuzo Koshiro, and Taiwanese artist Vofan. The story draft was created by Shoji Masuda, known for his work on Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke, while the script was written by Yoichi Kato. Hirono acted as co-producer with Kensuke Tsukanaka, while future Final Fantasy XV designer Tsukasa Toya was director. Satoshi Maruyama was art director. Paon Corporation assisted the game's production with programming and field design, while the animation was created by anime studio Satelight, known for their work on Macross Frontier and Genesis of Aquarion.
Production on the game lasted three years, with a prolonged prototyping period. Due to its unusual design, there were issues during its development. Mikage described the early development as "groping in the dark", with its production taking much longer than other RPGs at the time. He called it a challenging project, enjoying the experience due to its learning curve while highlighting unspecified areas of development that created issues, while Hirono felt that using traditional 3D graphics would have caused fewer issues. Hirono also noted that while he had an established relationship with Satelight, it was his first time working with Imageepoch and handling both studios at once was difficult. Commenting after the game's announcement in 2012, Masuda recalled that the project had been suspended after his work was completed, assuming the game had been cancelled. In 2023, Koshiro said that while initial enthusiasm for the project was strong, halfway into development problems emerged with unspecified development areas. Communication between the team and its leads faltered, and production stalled for a time. While enthusiastic during the early stages, by the end of its development, Mikage was miserable from stress.
Design In contrast to other RPGs which had grand themes and settings, Hirono wanted Time and Eternity to focus on the subject of marriage, with him coincidentally getting married during the game's production. It was also supposed to be a light-hearted comedic adventure with "plenty of girl talk". It was primarily developed for a male Japanese audience with appealing female characters and erotic elements. In contrast to similar RPGs which had empowered male leads with a cute girlfriend, Hirono focused on the empowered dual characters of Toki and Towa while reducing Zack to a supporting role. A key moment planned early on was the final choice at the end as to whether Toki or Towa would survive, while also losing the memories of their relationship with Zack. Hirono wanted this to be an impactful choice for players who had grown to know both heroines over the game.