Climax Entertainment has long been creating RPGs for Sega consoles. Some of the games you may have heard of include Landstalker, Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, and Dark Savior. Climax continues this tradition for Sega's latest console the Dreamcast with Timestalkers (aka Climax Landers). As long as Climax has been making RPGs for Sega, Sega has been translating them for the American market. The same goes for Timestalkers, Sega of America's first RPG.

82%Storyline

Timestalkers has a great storyline due mainly to the fact that it and its game world are completely original. As the game opens you see Sword (cool name-M-) the game's main protagonist, walking down a dirt road. Then, in a scene that took place an hour or so earlier, you see Sword talking to a woman whom he promptly sends off in tears. Then Sword is again walking down the road wallowing in his own misery, when all of the sudden an ax flies past Sword's head hitting a near by tree. Sword pursues his would-be-killer into an eerie looking clock tower. Inside Sword finds a book and, out of curiosity he opens it, at which point he blacks out. When he wakes he finds he is still in the clock tower. It is now morning and the book is gone!?! Still looking for the ax thrower, Sword travels deeper into the tower and your first dungeon. After finishing the "practice" dungeon Sword exits the tower to see a strange world (no Sword you are not in Kansas anymore -M-). A strange "ol'man" who is called Master greets Sword and tells him that he is a "Hero", that there are others in this world like him, and the only way out of this world is to solve its mystery.

Like Shining in the Darkness and Evolution, Time Stalkers (TS from now on) is a "dungeon crawler". Unlike SiTD, there is more than ONE HUGE dungeon. Unlike Evolution the dungeons are smaller and less boring. Every time you complete a new dungeon a story event takes place in which a few things happen, such as the arrival of a new land mass, new playable characters, and cutscenes.

Got Character?

If you like RPGs with cool characters, TS has you covered. All the characters look cool and have there own personalities. Sword is the leader, a seemingly unlikely hero. He is self-centered and seems to really like himself. On top of that he's a real jerk. He always has a smart-ass remark waiting to be used. What he lacks in people skills are more than made up for in his swordsmanship. Sword is easily the best fighter in the game.

Nigel is the elven treasure hunter from the awesome Genesis action/RPG Landstalker. With him as always is Friday the nymph he befriended in Landstalker. Nigel is almost the exact opposite of Sword. He is a nice guy; even when things get tough he remains confident and never losses his temper. He is also willing to humour an oldman by listening to his stories. Nigel is almost equal to Sword in combat. He can use both a sword and a crossbow.

Rao is a lionman. On his home world he was a great warrior. Unlike a solider, Rao thinks too much about even the smallest problem. He uses BIG swords and spears, he has HIGH attack power but he is kind of sluggish.

Pyra is an eleven sorceress whom first appeared in the Genesis dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness. Don't let her innocent looks fool you, she is a capable mage. And watch out for her temper (which isn't as bad as it was in SITD). She and Nigel are from the same world but not the same era.

Lady was born to a rich family. She is expected to act so, but she hates it! She ran away from home to pursue adventures. Lady's first appearance was in the SNES Act/RPG Ladystalker (one of the few Climax games not on a Sega console.) She acts tougher than she is and seems to be spoiled. Her weapon of choice is a Whip.

There is also a hidden character whom I couldn't find.

Change of heart?

During the game the characters change mainly Sword who becomes more "soft" but don't call him that to his face, or he'll kick your butt! Even the NPC's have unique personalities that change during the game.

95%Graphics

Being that this is a 128-bit RPG, you know that it will look great. The visuals are quite good and give the feeling that TS's world is forever changing. The world is quite mixed up with a 1980's Japan next to Medieval Europe. The characters are detailed even with facial expressions and, though the characters are slightly blockey looking, they are not nearly as bad as those in SOME RPGs.

The dungeons do have a repetitive look after a while, being that they are all randomly generated.

Battle-tastic!

The in-battle attack and spell visuals are amazing! The monster designs are quite good with the bosses being the best. The framerate is not 60fps so there is some minimal lag during spell casting.

92%Sound/Music

Climax normally has good music in their RPGs and the same goes for TS. Rao's theme is one of the best in any RPG! The only tunes that are not too good are the dungeon themes.

The sound effects are nothing special, just the typical slashes and burning noises.

88%Gameplay

The game plays quite easily except for a few things. For one, only one player character can enter the dungeons at a time. The rest of the party is made up of monsters that you capture, which is a cool idea, but I would have rather been able to take all characters into the dungeons. The game has 50+ monsters to capture and use, but many of the monsters suffer from the typical "palette swapping". In most RPGs it's not that big of a deal, but considering that you use the monsters as party members there should be more monster designs.

Mortal Combat!

The combat system in TS takes the normal turn-based style RPG battles and adds some cool twists. First off there is a Vitality meter, which is like MP for skills and melee attacks. The game also makes use of a satiety meter, that shows your party members' hunger and which decreases when you "investigate" yellow areas. Once drained you lose your HP. Fear not because you can refill your meter by having your starving party member eat some fruit. Last but not least you can see the enemy before they attack you. Each enemy has an aggression meter that determines if it will attack you or not. More often than not you have to engage them in combat, but there is also the chance that it might run off when you approach it!

Mini-me

TS is full of Mini-games to purchase and play on your VMU. They range from a monsters rancher type gameto a pointless games like chicken toss. The games, however, disappear after they are taken off the VMU, but there is a cheat to keep them.

Rank not Levels!?!

In TS you go up in levels, but when a dungeon is completed you lose your level! Fear not, you still gain HP, MP, VIT, skills, and spells. After gaining so many levels you gain a new "title" or rank which lets you earn more spells, and Hp and all that good stuff.

A few other things that make this game unique include a VIT meter (think of it as MP for Skills and melee attacks.) There is also a satiety bar which show how hungry your allies are. It drops constantly while searching areas but it cat be refilled by eating an array of fruits.

82%Overall

Timestalkers is the best Dreamcast RPG for the time being. It's no Eternal Arcadia but it will kill about 20hrs of time till the BEST of BEST RPGs arrive. So when it comes time to buy a DC RPG, pick up Timestalkers. It is the best one for the money for the moment.