Introduction
Today we are going to look at the sequel of Tales of Agaris. It is called Heroes of Time and takes place in the same universe as in Tales of Agaris. This time you will have a new cast of characters, but you will also meet the characters of Tales of Agaris. Your story will start in the year 2130, a 1000 years have passed since Gorgos has been stopped by our heroes. You play as a character named Henzo who inadvertently becomes the hero of time by trying to stop the evil scientist.
What did I think before playing Heroes of Time
I did have a lot of fun in Tales of Agaris but the game was too simple and short. I also hoped that the sequel would fix the issues of the broken English that I encountered in Tales of Agaris. I had no idea what to expect when starting Heroes of Time but I do like time travel a lot. I visited the Itch page to learn more about the Heroes of Time.
The Itch page
https://metthink.itch.io/heroes-of-time
I went to the Itch page to gather more information. I encountered the same broken English as in Tales of Agaris. It can be hard to decipher what is going on exactly in this game, but the premise is that the evil scientist Aizak wants to travel back in time. You get the chance to stop Aizak from resurrecting Gorgos.
Rating
I rate Heroes of Time before playing with a 3.0.
I had hoped that the developer would have learned from Tales of Agaris to fix the broken English and make sure this game has been proofread and fixed the broken english. There are no gameplay elements mentioned on the Itch page, but only that the game has multiple different endings.
I feel that the developer is making the same mistakes all over again.
Story
The story starts in the year 2130 where Aizak is creating a time machine to travel back in time. Henzo and his friends follow him back in time to stop Aizak from resurrecting Gorgos.
Rating
I rate the story of Heroes of Time with a 2.0
The story is very weak. Going back to the same world as a prequel is no problem. Having the same characters playable with the same skills. I feel like I am playing Tales of Agaris from a different point of view. Heroes of Time should have just played in a new environment where Gorgos comes back. You will travel in the exact same maps, you will encounter the same non-playable characters. Even the treasure chests are in the same spot!
Gameplay
The gameplay works the same as in Tales of Agaris. You defeat monsters to gain experience and level up to learn new skills. When equipping weapons you will suddenly get a new set of skills. Somewhere down the line of the game, your team changes drastically. This makes no sense at all.
You will also not need to buy items at shops, later in the game, you will receive the best equipment for free.
Depending on the actions that you take in the game, the ending will change, but it might be hard to follow what is going on with the broken English. Your characters will level up extremely fast and earn a lot of gold. You can easily rush the game, especially if you have played Tales of Agaris, and remember all the paths in the game.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Heroes of Time with a 1.0
If I wanted to play Tales of Agaris again, I would simply boot up that game.
Why a 1.0?
– Re-used characters, playable and nonplayable.
– Same treasure chests with the same loot.
– Same world map with the same monsters.
– A lot of the cutscenes are re-used
– You get the best items in the game for free
– Your gold gets stolen and there is no way to get it back.
– Broken English and untranslated skills.
– Endings make no sense
– Very basic RPG elements.
– Skills change without notice
– Same equipment items as in Tales of Agaris and no balanced additions.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of Heroes of Time are nothing special and are mostly copies of Tales of Agaris. The new graphics have nothing new to add.
Sound
I made a video of this game and noticed there is quite some copyrighted music from Final Fantasy which also got blocked out from our YouTube video.
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics with a 5.0.
I had hoped for more original graphics and soundtracks that would have set this game apart from Tales of Agaris. There are a lot of soundtracks to buy in the Steam store for the RPG maker engine. There are also music artists or studios where you can buy a lot of music from! You can even get some free music if you mention them in the credits!
What did I think after playing Heroes of Time?
I had the idea that this developer tried to emulate Chrono Trigger by using time travel with multiple endings. If that is indeed what the developer intended to achieve, there are some key components missing. Like having a time travel machine and more! Emulating a game is great for inspiration as long as you do not clone everything and give the game its own identity. Not only did Heroes of Time fail to emulate Chrono Trigger, but this game also failed to be a decent RPG.
Rating
I rate Heroes of Time with a 2.0 after playing.
This game failed in almost every aspect that is possible along with huge bugs like sequence breaks. I would advise you to rather play Tales of Agaris that game is much better compared with Heroes of Time!
I had expected more of Heroes of Time!
What are my personal thoughts about Heroes of Time
This game has an amazing idea, executed poorly with broken English. I would scrap the project and start over with a completely new story and make sure that the English language is written properly to at least a basic level
Rating
My personal rating for Heroes of Time is a 1.0
This project is extremely poorly executed and a clone of the previous game from a different point of view. If Tales of Agaris would have not existed, this game would be much better.
Last Words
Pros
- Experience a game with basic RPG elements.
- Experience Tales of Agaris from a different view point with a different end game boss
- Heroes of Time is free to play.
Cons
- The english is not written properly.
- Heroes of Time are a clone of Tales of Agaris, not a second part
- Heroes oif Time has many bugs and problems
- Many cons from Tales of Agaris return
This game was reviewed in June 2021 when it was only available on Itch. At this time, there are newer versions available!
Final Rating
2.6
Let me know what you think of Heroes of Time in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
Simone Krijgsman
I like the idea behind the game. Too bad it turned out the way that it did.
Mattheus ReisQ
The fact of you find the same places, characters, cities caves made this a bad game in your opinion. I desagree. Its the same universe, same planet. Things cannot change drastically for a time travel.... thats the idea.
supersven
Hello, thank you for developing this game.
I have already explained to you in great detail about why I choose this rating.
Using time travel in a game is tricky, if you travel back in time, things will always be different than expected.
Games in the same universe are not bad, especially when using the same characters.
You have got the time travel part extremely wrong in your game which breaks all immersion and you have no understanding of how time travel works, This is not a huge problem unless you make a game about it.
What you needed to do instead is show different parts of the universe of your game not the exact same, made changes due to time traveling, have different caves, unknown people popping up.
I would advise to make your party go back in time but due to the fact that they were late, they ended up earlier in time than when Gorgos would resurrect, make sure the butterfly effect triggers and show a complete different story because of that.
Gorgos also never woke up in Heroes of Time, this is another huge problem! Something like Gorgos awakening is a fixed point in time, simply ignoring this fact decreases your rating by a lot! No matter what would happen, Gorgos should awaken unless you give me a reason in the game, why it is not a fixed point in time.
If Derek dies in the past, the future can never be the same! This is called a paradox, let us assume Derek would have children, that is a fair assumption right? Dereks children would also have children and maybe their children invented electricity. Thus the future you see at the end of the game makes no sense anymore and should be completely different!
Having the adventure in the same universe is not bad, but you really need to put in new areas, new places for treasure chests and avoid including the old party unless it is from the start of the game, a wise idea would be to call that upon a temporal shift due to time travel. If you travel back in time, time will no longer go in a straight line!
There are also bugs in your game and broken English which also brings down the final rating along with untranslated items, giving the best items for free is also a big mistake. I also had to lower your rating due to using copyrighted music from Final Fantasy. You also used the RTP of the RPG maker engine which is also not a bad thing, but you have not used it to give your game its own identity.
I would have given the game a higher personal rating, but I am stickler for doing things correctly or at least attempt to make them the best way I can. The time travel bothered me too much because it was incorrect otherwise it would have gotten a higher rating!
I hope you will add new music, give new graphics and change how the time travel system works in your game, I think your game can get to a rating of 8 if done correctly but I think that would still take years of work!
My tips for you to make a better game.
- Remove the playable characters from Tales of Agaris
- Change the whole concept of Time Travel in your game
- Hire a proofreader to make sure that the English grammar is written properly
- Gather new free tilesets from the Internet and give them credit at the end of your game.
- Add new monsters to your game.
- Add multiple Time zones in your game, show more of the future for example or more before Gorgos. Go back to the origin of Gorgos!
- Change the soundtracks, there are a lot of free soundtracks out there!
- Change the way how skills, work, do not change skills depending on the weapon you have equipped but give new skills with level ups.
- Remove multiple non-playable characters from the cities and instead add non-playable characters with something cool to say.
- Add more houses that you can go inside and change them depending on the era that you are in.
- Make the leveling progress slower
- Make a whole different adventure than is shown in Tales of Agaris but featuring some of the events on the side but alter them.
- Remove a lot of the treasure chests in the dungeons and give them less rewarding loot.
- Add more paths in your dungeons.
I would love to talk more to you and I hope you take these pointers into account when continuing your project!
Think about how great your game can become if you take all these into account with some of your own ideas!
Mattheus ReisQ
Remembering that it is not a sequel. Heroes of Time doesn't depends on Tales of Ágaris or vice versa. Nor a copy.
And in one of the endings Gorgos is summoned. You played one or two of the endings.
Mattheus ReisQ
Our ideas are really different about everything. If Tales of Ágaris doesn't exist, Heroes of Time its awesome. For me it doesn't make sense. But I respect your opinion.
Simone Krijgsman
The whole time travel concept would still be broken though.
supersven
I agreee!
Mattheus ReisQ
Fully agreed about the english grammar, bugs and final fantasy songs. This was a mistake of course
Lucky
I actually like RPGMaker games, and i don't even mind when some common assets are used. But when there essentially zero unique assets the game really doesn't stand out at all and seems really generic.
supersven
I love RPG maker games as well! I am even developing one!
There are a lot of free unique tilesets on the internet and loads of DLC for new stuff!
Using time travel is quite tricky as well as you can see in this game!
Beltrán
Well, I was waiting to see if the sequel was any better than the previous game, but turns out it still needs a lot of work. Thanks for the review 😀
supersven
You are welcome and I am glad that you liked the review!
eFe
It's a shame, I was hoping that at least in the "sequel" the broken English was fixed, but from what I see it's not the case, it seems that it still needs a lot of work. Thanks for the honest review 🙂
P.S.Instead of write "The Itch page", you wrote "The Steam page"
Mattheus R Queiroga
Oh man, you didn't understand a phrase in english despite some word were placed bad? just analyze the context where the history is showing. I must fix these grammar erros, but what about the game? why dont you download it? I have seen here that no one downloaded the game since this review came, It influences a lot. The game is not a shame on the assumption that it is a free and amateur game. Download and finish the game, then you can say if it is that so bad.
supersven
Hello,
I have seen quite some people from the site play the game and give feedback.
If you want I can send you images of these people and for a fact, I know Efe usually tries out every game, even some silly ones like Sneaky Ant!
Simone Krijgsman
I have played Tales of Agaris and Heroes of Time. I feel that it is quite odd that the characters are the same before and after the adventure in Tales of Agaris / the start of Heroes of Time. Normally the experiences in the adventures make a character or party grow. Also in 1000 years, nature, houses, people should have changed. A tree can become a Forrest. Houses are rebuilt and decorated in the taste of the new (or older) age. Without explanations, the lifetime timespan of villagers does not exceed the standard human lifespan. How are they alive for over 1000 years? Your game has potential. I understand that this is not the feedback that you were looking for but try to read the good things as well. It's my personal belief that you can make Heroes of Time into a good game if you continue the development.
Question, Is Heroes of time before or after the events in Tales of Agaris?
supersven
Thanks for letting me know of the typo!
I would advise to play the first part 🙂
Mattheus R Queiroga
The story is engaging, the characters are charismatic, the story has different endings, a non-linear trajectory, which allows you to choose the characters from the future or from the past. None of those things were mentioned. The broken english was more important than everything.
supersven
Hello,
There is zero character development, and the broken concept of time travel breaks that even more.
Choosing characters from the past breaks the game more, it is no longer about them but the characters in the future.
Seki
Posting this as someone who only played Heroes of Time and not Tales of Ágaris. In fact, I happen to be the English text reviser for the game, though I did not alter the original dialogue, but rather only fixed spelling, grammar, and other more formal aspects (which could explain why there's still a language barrier happening, since the original text is in Portuguese - and the translation is a direct translation instead of a proper adaption to another language). That being said, I'll take the feedback here and try to improve the next time I ever help someone out in revising their project.
As for the game itself, imo, the experience was enjoyable and the characters are likable, although the plot is fallible and there isn't any real character development (they stay the same throughout the story). I can't argue on the topic of repetitiveness, since I haven't played the prequel, but I imagine it's as you said, since both the graphics and the characters were re-utilized. Still, as a casual project aimed at a younger audience, I'd consider it a fine RPG Maker game with a bit of comedy and action. However, I do recognize the problems mentioned in the review regarding gameplay, audio, lack of difficulty and variety etc.
supersven
If you ever need some tips or want to talk about games, feel free to contact me!
Yes, the game is indeed fun, a lot more fun if you have not played Tales of Agaris yet.
I see, the translation is not a proper adaption, that is good to know! Would be better for the next project indeed!
For fixing some mistakes and grammar, you did a good job, but not perfect. I still applaud your work since it is an extremely time-consuming task with an error in every corner!
Seki
Thank you, I appreciate the honest feedback!
Mattheus R Queiroga
Its funny, because the grammar errors are in both games, but just in Heroes of Time had a bad rating... I still cant settle for the fact that Tales of Ágaris got 6.0 on Gameplay and Heroes of Time got 1.0 as soon is the SAME SYSTEMS. The rating should be the same, what is the difference? You were very picky for rating a casual and amateur free game/trilogy. I payed too much money for this because you got interested. The worst money spent in my life. Sounds like a coup,
supersven
As I have explained, this game is the second in the series with rehashed gameplay mechanics.
Tales of Agaris feels fresh and like a fun RPG maker, great idea, but might need some expansion.
Heroes of Time does almost everything the same, if the game would cost money, it would have been called a quick cash grab, hence the low gameplay rating.
Simone Krijgsman
A literal translation explains a lot! Thanks for the info.
Mattheus R Queiroga
Simone, explain what?
Simone Krijgsman
This explains the quality of the translation.