Note: I was a Kickstarter backer for this game.

Timespinner is your typical late-90s Metroidvania JRPG, starring a Protagonist who really hates lamps.

But is that everything to it? Not quite. Timespinner has a lot going on, so let's break it down:

●The Good:

Music - Every area has a distinct theme, and most are super cool. The soundtrack strikes a good balance between "Wow I enjoy listening to this" and not actively distracting you from the level. Thankfully, I got the OST as part of Kickstarter Pledge. There are definitely a couple songs I'll be listening to outside of gameplay.

The World - As you progress through the game, you'll swap back and forth between past and present. The maps are nearly identical, though the effects of 1000 years are quite visible. In certain places, things you do in the past will have an effect on the future. It's pretty neat to see these little touches, even the ones that aren't tied directly to the plot.

Art - As mentioned earlier, this game is big on the late 90s aesthetic. And it looks great. The 32bit inspired pixel art would look right at home on the SNES. The sprite animations are smooth and elegant, and most enemies have several animations, adding a real vitality to each enemy. The protag also has a gorgeous, floaty movement to her, along with some cool looking (though impractical) animations. Turning around after running, and the double jump both stand out as really neat animations. Enemy designs in general are cool too, especially how enemies in the future are clearly based on enemies in the past. This a cool homage to early JRPGs, where to save space, tougher enemies would be recolors of earlier foes.

Story - In the beginning, the story begins as you'd expect from the era this game is emulating. The protagonist lives in a village with her family, is attacked by an Evil Empire who wants their magic powers, and swears vengeance when her family dies. But as the story progresses, plot is revealed both through character interaction as well as collectible journals and memories peppered throughout the various areas. You come to find that the story of the Lachiem Empire (and the universe itself) is a bit more complication than it seemed initially.

Controls/Movement - The movement is tight and precise, the character nearly always does exactly what you want. In certain situations, I found the knockback to be incredibly annoying though.

Bosses: Bosses are fun to fight, and have a clear pattern to learn. Every boss can be cleared without taking damage, and doing so will unlock a symbol next to the boss in the bestiary.

Lamps - There is a huge variety of lamps to destroy, thus helping to fulfill the protagonist's vow to Kill All Lamps. Additionally, the drops are smart. If you're low on sand, you'll get sand, otherwise you'll get money. Thus, you don't have to worry about getting a ton of sand when you're full and need money, or getting money when you desperately need sand. Side note, lamps ALWAYS drop something, and thus are more reliable for grinding money than enemies. So get smashing!

Merchant Crow - Merchant Crow is the best.


●The Bad:

Puzzles - The Time Freeze mechanic is interesting, but I think more could have been done with it. Most puzzles boil down to "wait until enemy is in the right place, freeze time, jump on enemy, jump to higher platform." By the end of the game, this becomes "do the prior several times in a row, while hoping you don't get knocked down all the way to the bottom by the enemy as it rises high enough, and/or run out of sand from trying." I would have liked something more complicated as the game progressed (while also not being controllersmashingly annoying), and a bit more variety or additional time powers where you could freeze only one enemy and not others, or speed up, slow down, rewind.

Drop Rates - Certain quests require you to get drops from monsters and bring them back to an NPC. Most of these are fairly easy, but some are annoyingly rare. One case in particular stands out, as it took me maybe an hour of killing mushrooms to get the drops I needed.

Inventory - You can only carry Nine of anything. But you keep picking stuff up even if you're full, they seemingly just disappear. It would be nice to be able to hold onto extra stuff to sell later.

Combat/Orb Variety - This is the biggest problem in the game, for me. There is so much potential here, but it just seems to have been handled clumsily. The orb system is cool, and you end up with a lot of orbs. That said, you're going to find a couple you like, and stick with those. It's just easier than constantly swapping out to keep up with enemy weaknesses and leveling new orbs. The game gives you some methods to deal with the variety, including being able to equip two different orbs at a time, as well as a "Jewelry Box" which lets you swap between three preset loadouts (including orbs, necklace, and ring). The jewelry box is a good idea, but I think a selection wheel that pops up when you press a button (probably the analog sticks, one for each orb) would have worked great for the orbs.
In addition, there's very little reason to wield two different orbs at once, other than to level them both (at half the rate). I think it would have been cool if there were synergies, where wielding two different orbs had the effects merge somehow. A sword that crackles with lightning, or little ice tornadoes.
Most of the early orbs do the same thing. Combat tends to be "Stand this far away, and pummel your enemy until they die. Move if they move." A few orbs give you an increased arc of attack (and look super cool), but most are just a basic attack that reaches a bit away from you, leading you to swing until dead. Later orbs give you some fun variety, including ranged, autotarget, and multihit attacks, but it's a while before you get them.
That said, there are also various necklaces that allow you to use a ranged superattack, each based on a different orb. Unfortunately, you can't combo these with orb attacks, because swinging your orbs will cancel the charge. At first, you can't use these very often because they consume Aura. Aura slowly refills, but it takes a while. As you progress, you'll find Max Aura boosts, which let you use your super more often. I mostly either used the super as an instakill to get through an area faster, or toughed it out smacking the enemy with orbs and taking a few hits in the process. I think something where the spells are a secondary weapon rather than a super would be nice, and could be used in combination with your standard melee to create a flow to battle. "hit hit, release charge to blast the enemy with the secondary", combo attacks like that. Lower the power and up the use rate. That's clearly not what the dev was going for here though. In addition, using the Super gives you orb experience for the orb the necklace is based on, not the orbs you have equipped, leading into my next point. As a side note though, holding the charge on a super draws money towards you, which is a nice touch.
Finally, levelling orbs is annoying. Endgame orbs are more powerful to compensate, but if you have a favorite orb, you're going to need to grind. Since you can wield two orbs at once, each orb gets a point. Unfortunately, it's based solely on kills. A lategame enemy is worth the same as the very first enemy you fight. There is a way to level orbs at the Alchemist NPC, but the item used to do so is rare, and gives 5 levels regardless of current level. So it's better to use these items for higher level boosts, when you don't want to kill 100 enemies to level the orb again.

●The Verdict

Timespinner is a fun game, especially since it's apparently the creator's first major game, based on a university project. It does have its flaws, but I certainly had fun playing it. I'm looking forward to more from Lunar Ray Games.

Note: I was a Kickstarter backer for this game. Timespinner is your typical late-90s Metroidvania JRPG, starring a Protagonist who really hates lamps. But is that everything to it? Not quite. Timespinner has a lot going on, so let's break it down: ●The Good: Music - Every area has a distinct theme, and most are super cool. The soundtrack strikes a good balance between "Wow I enjoy listening to this" and not actively distracting you from the level. Thankfully, I got the OST as part of Kickstarter Pledge. There are definitely a couple songs I'll be listening to outside of gameplay. The World - As you progress through the game, you'll swap back and forth between past and present. The maps are nearly identical, though the effects of 1000 years are quite visible. In certain places, things you do in the past will have an effect on the future. It's pretty neat to see these little touches, even the ones that aren't tied directly to the plot. Art - As mentioned earlier, this game is big on the late 90s aesthetic. And it looks great. The 32bit inspired pixel art would look right at home on the SNES. The sprite animations are smooth and elegant, and most enemies have several animations, adding a real vitality to each enemy. The protag also has a gorgeous, floaty movement to her, along with some cool looking (though impractical) animations. Turning around after running, and the double jump both stand out as really neat animations. Enemy designs in general are cool too, especially how enemies in the future are clearly based on enemies in the past. This a cool homage to early JRPGs, where to save space, tougher enemies would be recolors of earlier foes. Story - In the beginning, the story begins as you'd expect from the era this game is emulating. The protagonist lives in a village with her family, is attacked by an Evil Empire who wants their magic powers, and swears vengeance when her family dies. But as the story progresses, plot is revealed both through character interaction as well as collectible journals and memories peppered throughout the various areas. You come to find that the story of the Lachiem Empire (and the universe itself) is a bit more complication than it seemed initially. Controls/Movement - The movement is tight and precise, the character nearly always does exactly what you want. In certain situations, I found the knockback to be incredibly annoying though. Bosses: Bosses are fun to fight, and have a clear pattern to learn. Every boss can be cleared without taking damage, and doing so will unlock a symbol next to the boss in the bestiary. Lamps - There is a huge variety of lamps to destroy, thus helping to fulfill the protagonist's vow to Kill All Lamps. Additionally, the drops are smart. If you're low on sand, you'll get sand, otherwise you'll get money. Thus, you don't have to worry about getting a ton of sand when you're full and need money, or getting money when you desperately need sand. Side note, lamps ALWAYS drop something, and thus are more reliable for grinding money than enemies. So get smashing! Merchant Crow - Merchant Crow is the best. ●The Bad: Puzzles - The Time Freeze mechanic is interesting, but I think more could have been done with it. Most puzzles boil down to "wait until enemy is in the right place, freeze time, jump on enemy, jump to higher platform." By the end of the game, this becomes "do the prior several times in a row, while hoping you don't get knocked down all the way to the bottom by the enemy as it rises high enough, and/or run out of sand from trying." I would have liked something more complicated as the game progressed (while also not being controllersmashingly annoying), and a bit more variety or additional time powers where you could freeze only one enemy and not others, or speed up, slow down, rewind. Drop Rates - Certain quests require you to get drops from monsters and bring them back to an NPC. Most of these are fairly easy, but some are annoyingly rare. One case in particular stands out, as it took me maybe an hour of killing mushrooms to get the drops I needed. Inventory - You can only carry Nine of anything. But you keep picking stuff up even if you're full, they seemingly just disappear. It would be nice to be able to hold onto extra stuff to sell later. Combat/Orb Variety - This is the biggest problem in the game, for me. There is so much potential here, but it just seems to have been handled clumsily. The orb system is cool, and you end up with a lot of orbs. That said, you're going to find a couple you like, and stick with those. It's just easier than constantly swapping out to keep up with enemy weaknesses and leveling new orbs. The game gives you some methods to deal with the variety, including being able to equip two different orbs at a time, as well as a "Jewelry Box" which lets you swap between three preset loadouts (including orbs, necklace, and ring). The jewelry box is a good idea, but I think a selection wheel that pops up when you press a button (probably the analog sticks, one for each orb) would have worked great for the orbs. In addition, there's very little reason to wield two different orbs at once, other than to level them both (at half the rate). I think it would have been cool if there were synergies, where wielding two different orbs had the effects merge somehow. A sword that crackles with lightning, or little ice tornadoes. Most of the early orbs do the same thing. Combat tends to be "Stand this far away, and pummel your enemy until they die. Move if they move." A few orbs give you an increased arc of attack (and look super cool), but most are just a basic attack that reaches a bit away from you, leading you to swing until dead. Later orbs give you some fun variety, including ranged, autotarget, and multihit attacks, but it's a while before you get them. That said, there are also various necklaces that allow you to use a ranged superattack, each based on a different orb. Unfortunately, you can't combo these with orb attacks, because swinging your orbs will cancel the charge. At first, you can't use these very often because they consume Aura. Aura slowly refills, but it takes a while. As you progress, you'll find Max Aura boosts, which let you use your super more often. I mostly either used the super as an instakill to get through an area faster, or toughed it out smacking the enemy with orbs and taking a few hits in the process. I think something where the spells are a secondary weapon rather than a super would be nice, and could be used in combination with your standard melee to create a flow to battle. "hit hit, release charge to blast the enemy with the secondary", combo attacks like that. Lower the power and up the use rate. That's clearly not what the dev was going for here though. In addition, using the Super gives you orb experience for the orb the necklace is based on, not the orbs you have equipped, leading into my next point. As a side note though, holding the charge on a super draws money towards you, which is a nice touch. Finally, levelling orbs is annoying. Endgame orbs are more powerful to compensate, but if you have a favorite orb, you're going to need to grind. Since you can wield two orbs at once, each orb gets a point. Unfortunately, it's based solely on kills. A lategame enemy is worth the same as the very first enemy you fight. There is a way to level orbs at the Alchemist NPC, but the item used to do so is rare, and gives 5 levels regardless of current level. So it's better to use these items for higher level boosts, when you don't want to kill 100 enemies to level the orb again. ●The Verdict Timespinner is a fun game, especially since it's apparently the creator's first major game, based on a university project. It does have its flaws, but I certainly had fun playing it. I'm looking forward to more from Lunar Ray Games.