Timespinner

Timespinner is a narratively ambitious 2D Metroidvania. It boasts a great story, which deals with difficult themes such as war and oppression, a strong art direction, and a brilliant soundtrack, but, unfortunately, it also leaves some of its mechanics underdeveloped.

The game’s protagonist is Lunais, a young woman who lives in an isolated village in the world of Winderia, training to be a Time Messenger: a person who is tasked to use the village’s sacred artifact, the Timespinner, to travel back in time and warn them of any incoming danger. When they are attacked by the Lachiem Empire, however, Lunais’ mother is killed, the Timespinner is damaged and she ends up sent to Lachiem far back in the past.

The people of Lachiem are depicted as oppressive and imperialist, with their invasion of Winderia being framed in a very clear political debate. The description of their first arrival in Winderia, for example, immediately reminds us of the first European incursions to America:

“The Elders sent a scout, Undar, to the city to find out what they were. ‘Ships,’ she says. ‘From the stars. They are called Lachiem, and bring great gifts for trade, in exchange for our world’s resources. The cityfolk say they seem friendly, but… they have soldiers, too. Many soldiers.’”

The story becomes more complex when Lunais realizes that she was sent to a point in time when Lachiem was not the oppressor, but the oppressed. She wakes up in a foreign land amidst a war of revolution: the kingdom of Vilete treats the people of Lachiem as lesser than human: they have no rights, nor voice, and are to be crushed down if they start to speak up for themselves. Lachiem is the place where Vilete dumps their weak and undesired. For all intends and purposes, the people of Lachiem are trash, and trash has no feelings.

Vilete is under a fascist rule, which defends the natural superiority of those who bear magic auras (“Powers of the Aura are our birthright, the gift of the Plasma. Those with magical ability are the natural apex of our race,”) whereas Lachiem desires equality (“We believe all are equal regardless of strength of aura.”) Timespinner’s narrative, then, raises a central question: how a people that knew firsthand the dangers of an oppressive regime could become the oppressors themselves?

Lunais’ quest is built around this problem. When she goes back in time, she only wants revenge. She has a single goal in mind: “I’ll kill them all.” For the protagonist, Lachiem is an irredeemable enemy, a monster, something less than human. She creates a binary worldview in which she is the hero and Lachiem is the villain, and decides to act upon that belief. When she arrives at Lachiem, however, a newfound friend warns her: “But please remember…it’s not as simple as we want to make it.”

Lunais’ character arc, then, revolves around the dangers of dehumanizing your enemies, which was precisely part of the mindset that made Lachiem become the “evil” empire of the protagonist’s future. As the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire explains, “when education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor.” Hate, even when justified under certain circumstances, is an uncontrollable beast. It feeds on itself and transforms people, blinding them to the nature of their own actions. By treating the oppressor as an abstract evil, it becomes difficult to prevent oneself from becoming a similar evil to others. That is part of the reason why Lachiem deteriorated as an empire and became another Vilete. The oppressor is always the “other one.”When the protagonist confronts the Lachiem Queen about her future actions against Lunais’ people, her answer couldn’t be more tragic:  “Dear girl, you’re thinking of Vilete.”

Meanwhile, the people of Vilete think they are on the right side as well. The game’s hub area is populated by some soldiers of Vilete who got stranded in Lachiem. They are the most important secondary characters in the game, and, through sidequests that develop their struggles and personalities, eventually become Lunais’ closest friends – thankfully, the reward for fulfilling all their requests is not just an abstract achievement, but a touching scene filled with displays of friendship.

But, despite this friendship, Vilete’s soldiers are far from perfect. A captain called Haristel, for instance, defends Vilete’s fascist rule by claiming that is not fascist at all: if some people are treated better than others it’s because they deserve it:  “Vilete is a meritocracy of the magical, a celebration of our abilities to help the worlds.” However, there is no meritocracy when people’s magical abilities are determined by birth. Magic in Timespinner is as deterministic as money in a capitalist society: those who are born with it get even more, and those who are born without it struggle to just survive – and they try to survive while hearing people like Haristel claim that it’s just a matter of effort and ability. When questioned about war crimes, Haristel vehemently denies their existence and, when the proof starts to become overwhelming, she assumes no responsibility: “So I’m supposed to be ashamed of something I have no control over.” Denial is one of the game’s core motifs, directing the choices and actions of its tragic characters, which will end up dooming their worlds.

Despite its themes, Timespinner is not overly serious, boasting some fantastically comical characters. There is, for example, a crow – wearing a crown – that acts as a merchant, selling special goods. When questioned about how it could get to different places so quickly, its answer is whimsical: “Pshaw. Like a little thing like ~time~ would keep me from being here *and* there.” On the same token, the Succubus Lunais battles at some points explain their motivation in an equally playful and absurd way: “Come now, we’re not so bad. We only feed on ~drama~…”

On the gameplay department, Timespinner is a simple but competent Metroidvania. There is a large interconnected map to explore in a non-linear way, with more paths becoming available as the protagonist acquires specific abilities, which fall under the genre’s staples: there is the double jump, the ability to move underwater, and so forth.

There are some gimmicks in place to make the game stand out. One of them is time travel: Lunais can travel between Lachiem’s past and future by activating certain gates, and the maps of both time periods mirror each other. However, this has little impact on the gameplay,  since Lunais’ actions in the past rarely change something in the future: this is reserved for specific points in the story. The other gimmick is the ability to stop time, which makes enemies and projectiles become platforms. Even though it has great potential, this ability is criminally underutilized and can be safely ignored throughout most of the game.

Besides that, the game is your typical 2D Metroidvania. You find health and energy upgrades hidden in the environments, alongside some bits about the game’s world and lore. You attack with orbs, which can vary from green swords to red pistols, which level up as they are used. And there is the option to have a familiar, which also levels up as they help to destroy weak monsters.

The game’s presentation is on another level altogether. The art direction is superb, capturing the corruption of Lachiem through strong changes in the environment: the enemies in the past, for instance, are dangerous animals, while in the future there are only robotic impersonations of them; where there was a lush forest, now there is a window to a futuristic city that appears to be forever immersed in darkness. Meanwhile, the soundtrack, composed by Jeff Ball, goes full Castlevania in tone while boasting more energy than most tracks in Bloodstained: just listen to Defiance since it perfectly captures the tone and pace of Konami’s classic soundtracks. And the music is not just an homage to the genre, also working well with the time travel motif. The theme of the game’s last area, Shear of Atropos, for example, has some bits that harken back to the music of The Terminator, framing Lunais as this killer from the future that is initially single-minded in her violent purpose.

Timespinner, then, has an interesting narrative, a great cast of tragic characters, and a brilliant presentation. If it had been just a bit more daring with its mechanics, it would have had the makings of a classic.

August 19, 2019.