[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/timestalkersimg_7.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Hey! You're our hero!"]]
''Time Stalkers'' (or ''Climax Landers'' in Japan) is a 1999 {{Roguelike}} turn-based JRPG developed by Climax Entertainment, the minds behind ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'' and ''VideoGame/{{Landstalker}}'', and published by Creator/{{Sega}}. It has the distinction of being one of the first [=RPGs=] on the Platform/SegaDreamcast. The main cast of ''Time Stalkers'' features {{Crossover}} characters and locations from other Climax titles.

The story follows [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Sword]], a wandering swordsman who pursues an assailant into a clocktower. Inside he finds a library and, after casually flipping through a [[RealityWritingBook random book]], is knocked unconscious and transported to a [[WorldInTheSky floating landmass]] [[PatchworkWorld pieced together from]] [[AnachronismStew different worlds and time periods]]. He is immediately confronted by [[WiseOldFolkFacade an old man]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin calling himself Master]], who declares Sword to be TheChosenOne destined to save Ring World from [[VaguenessIsComing an unspecified evil out to destroy it]]. Over the course of the story, Sword is joined on his quest by Rao (implied to be from the world of ''VideoGame/FedaTheEmblemOfJustice''), Nigel from ''VideoGame/{{Landstalker}}'', Pyra from ''VideoGame/ShiningInTheDarkness'', and Lady from ''VideoGame/LadyStalker''.
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!!''Time Stalkers'' contains examples of the following tropes:
* AbhorrentAdmirer:
** Captain Hawk aggressively hits on every woman in ring world, who react either with contempt or confusion.
** Sho is infatuated with June, who for her own part condescends to him and is put off by his affection. She still goes on dates with him, though.
** Ash to Captain Hawk, though if Rao confronts them about it they'll insist it's just a joke.
** Bob is quietly obsessed with Pyra, who does not take well to his stalking.
** June flirts aggressively with Sword. Sword bluntly demands that she shut up and go away.
* AbortedArc:
** After recovering from his depression, Dr. Alan begins research into a mysterious star. This is never resolved.
** Masaru Tanaka becomes convinced that he's the creator of Ring World, and that an equally powerful being is restricting his powers. After fretting about it for a while, he goes to see Dr. Alan for an invention to boost his power. When Dr. Alan ignores him, Masaru simply gives up and goes home.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Miss Joanne will sometimes admit to liking Howard's joke during her debriefing.
* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Ring World was designed from the ground up to be this. The inhabitants are equipped to facilitate heroes, who bear the requisite token needed to bypass the dungeon's barriers.
* AgeGapRomance:
** Akane Yamada, a high school student, is the object of both Captain Hawk and Nigel's affections. Captain Hawk is at least in his late twenties, and Nigel is in his eighties. Akane doesn't seem to notice their affection, much less return it.
** The middle-aged Daisaku is infatuated with Princess Rose, who appears to be in her late teens to early twenties.
* AllJustADream: Some of the characters hold this view of their new situation. Sandy believes she's just dreaming, and Masaru Tanaka thinks he's the solipsist creator of Ring World.
* AlwaysAccurateAttack: Astral Magic circumvents magic's low accuracy and allows the caster to hit with 99% accuracy--the highest obtainable in the game.
* AmbiguouslyHuman:
** Sword's race is never specified. His ears are pointier than a human's, but smaller than an elf's, and his character model has [[CuteLittleFangs fangs]]. There's potential dialogue that goes into his origins, but it's between him and [[SecretCharacter Marion]], so there's no guarantee the player will ever see it.
** Master is ambiguously elvish. He has ears similar to Pyra's and Nigel's, but he's bearded and looks quite elderly for a species with such a long lifespan. His race is never specified. [[spoiler: It's also possible that his real body looks nothing like his avatar in the Ring World, if he even has a body at all.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: Rao comes from a world where a [[ForeverWar thousand-year war]] has waged against a Liberation Army and resulted in the creation of the Phantom Zone. While never spelled out explicitly, the evidence is compelling that Rao is from Mildras Graz of ''VideoGame/FedaTheEmblemOfJustice'', a sister series to the ''Shining'' franchise.
* AnachronismStew: Ring World is built from multiple worlds across multiple genres and timelines. Its base components include a prehistoric volcano, several standard fantasy settings, a 1980s Japanese suburb, a 1950s urban center, and a futuristic sci-fi setting.
* AnimalLover: Sword prefers animals to people. Most of his downtime is spent either playing with dogs or nuzzling Mutton's coat.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Only one PC can enter a dungeon at a time, due to magic barriers that keep out anyone not carrying the Hero's Crest. Heroes can take up to two captured monsters with them into battle.
* ArmedLegs: Cyborg-type monsters primarily attack with bladed kicks.
* AutoRevive: A skill inherent to certain monster types. It can activate multiple times in one battle, making it especially annoying on enemies.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The heroes can wear ten rings at once; one for each finger. The character with the highest starting carrying capacity is Nigel, who can bring 8 items into a dungeon. To max out rings, a player would have to load a character with nothing but rings, send them into a dungeon, and get lucky enough with treasure hunting that they find an additional 2+ rings.
* AxCrazy: Lady prefers (and enjoys) violent solutions to problems.
* BadDate: Zunda, a prehistoric tribal, takes June, a 1980s suburbanite, on a date to the convenience store.
* BeastAndBeauty: Mr. Noiman and Bunny. Noiman is a portly, bizarrely dressed rabbit man, while Bunny is an attractive woman with rabbit ears.
* TheBully: When his wife is away, Jiro Yamada invites himself into Kenji Tanaka's home to insult him and his dog, wife, and son.
* ButThouMust: Defied. The true plot revolves around the heroes' attempts to escape the story.
* CantSpitItOut:
** Bob, when confronted by Pyra about his stalking, can only stammer and avoid the topic.
** Daisuke, normally a confident speaker, can't express his feelings toward Princess Rose.
* CasanovaWannabe: Several characters. Captain Hawk is the biggest offender. Sword is a middling example. He presents himself as a womanizer, but his interest in women [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday seems limited to talking about how interested in women he is]].
* CentralTheme: Explore and embrace the world outside your borders while keeping to heart where you came from.
* ContemporaryCaveman: Sho is the only member of the prehistoric tribe to venture outside of the village. He's fascinated by modernity and wants to fit in, but is just off-kilter enough that he fails.
* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler:Master]] punishing the world for Sword's trick coincides with Masaru Tanaka wishing it would all disappear. This convinces Masaru of his suspicion that he is the true creator of Ring World.
* CosmeticAward: The only high-value items for sale are art pieces purchased from Ash's Fashion Shop.
* CrapsackWorld: Rao's world has been locked in a state of war that's been perpetuated for so long that it has warped the landscape, creating areas like the Phantom Zone. Sword calls his own world cursed and hints at prolonged conflict with dark forces, but isn't as forthcoming with details.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** Captain Hawk's reputation of "The Galaxy's Greatest Hero" is belied by his [[PaperTiger failed womanizing and disinterest in the threats facing the world]]. It's enough to make the heroes write him off. Then he emerges completely unharmed from Dr. Alan's death traps and they're forced to reassess his abilities.
** Ash is as good of a boxer as they've ever been, new lifestyle notwithstanding. They manage to easily chase Boss and his gang out of their shop after a failed takeover.
* CuteAndPsycho: Lady is an attractive young woman with an impulsive violent streak.
* CypherLanguage: Kiwi, Dr. Alan's creation, has a relatively simple one. The text is reversed and an extraneous letter is added to the beginning of each word.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Sword's full plan for dealing with [[spoiler:Master]]: keep him distracted while one of the heroes goes on an adventure. The only thing it accomplishes is pissing [[spoiler:Master]] off, which Sword concedes was the entire point.
* DimensionLord: [[spoiler: Master]] is this to the Ring World. He pieced it together from various worlds and timelines, and can manipulate its denizens at will.
* DontExplainTheJoke: Miss Joanne's whole purpose is explaining Howard's jokes.
* DrivenToSuicide: Part of both Arthur and Zunda's plot arcs. They stand on the edge of Downtown, contemplating a cessation of existence. Both of them get better.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Fire, ice, and lightning. Fire and ice are opposed to one another, and lightning exists independently. In practice, none of this matters in gameplay.
* EndlessDaytime: Ring World is locked in a state of perpetual day.
* EvilDoppelganger: One of the boss types in the Doll House is an evil version of Marion.
* ExactWords: An injured Nigel convinces Sword to rescue Friday by assuring him that she's really cute. What he neglects to mention is that, as a sprite, Friday is only a few inches tall.
* FantasyGunControl: Despite having a ''Star Trek''-esque space civilization and two modern urban centers as part of its composition, there isn't anything resembling a firearm to be found in Ring World. Cyborg-type monsters get access to a technique called "gun bullet," which appears to fire a point-blank bullet [[ArmCannon out of their arm]]. The Undead Lord bosses of the Phantom Zone have bandoliers, but no guns.
* AFateWorseThanDeath: Inflicted on the party. For robbing [[spoiler: Master of his "living story"]], Ring World is cursed with undying hunger and thirst.
* ForeverWar: Rao comes from a world engulfed in one. By his own admission nobody remembers what it's being waged for.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The party doesn't take too well to Lady. Pyra theorizes that [[spoiler:Master]] summoned her to deliberately annoy the party.
* GameBreakingBug: Saved games have a tendency to become corrupted as they go on, with the community believing that it happens because a hero learns too many skills.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Implicitly invoked with most enemies, including the final boss. There's no context given to the bosses or where they came from because the heroes deliberately refuse to learn it.
* GoldDigger: June spends her time in Ring World searching for wealthy marriage material.
* GoldfishPoopGang: Boss's gang is ineffectual to the point of being harmless.
* HappilyMarried: Mr. Noiman and Bunny are perhaps the only happy, functional relationship in Ring World. Whenever the two are on screen together they spend their time fawning over one another.
* HasAType: June is aroused by the "primitives" of the prehistoric tribe. When she finds out Sho is one of them, she goes from wanting him to leave her alone to resenting him for leaving.
* HenpeckedHusband: Most of the married men, but Kenji Tanaka in particular. Interestingly, he claims enduring his wife's insults is a show of strength that provides her comfort.
* HeroOfAnotherStory:
** A given, considering it's a crossover. Pyra, Nigel, and Lady are all protagonists in their respective games.
** Captain Hawk may be this, having identified himself as "The Galaxy's Greatest Hero." He has the strength to back up the claim, at least, but is ambivalent to the conflict and only engages with the heroes when he's making passes at them.
* {{Hobos}}: Billy and Bob are homeless men who wandered into Fountain Square just in time for it to get abducted into Ring World. Billy pursues his dream of living in the big city, which seems to include every location in Ring World. Meanwhile, Bob develops an infatuation with Pyra and follows her wherever she goes.
* HypocriticalHumor: If talking to Captain Hawk with a heroine, he'll warn them to be careful of perverts who would use them as sexual objects, denouncing them as the worse kind of human beings.
* ImpossibleTask: Heroes can take missions from Mr. Noiman that take the form of a task you must complete before finishing a dungeon. If the assignment requires them to find items that the dungeon decides not to spawn, or raise a monster to a certain level without providing enough XP, there's not much the hero can do about it.
* InfiniteStockForSale: A feature of the Ring World. All stores have their stock magically refilled.
* InstantExpert: Marion is able to knock out Rao after only rudimentary instruction and cast a fire spell immediately after observing Pyra.
* InvincibleVillain: [[spoiler:Master]] proves to be this. His continued existence isn't linked to his physical body, and the heroes have no way to confront him on their terms. The best they can do is meet him halfway and give him the GrandFinale he craves.
* TheJeeves: Mutton, Sword's unfailingly polite and obedient servant. Mutton was magically created alongside Ring World and will likely disappear with it, but it's not in his nature to worry much about it.
* KamehameHadoken: The Energy Ball technique, which can be used with knuckles-type weapons or while unarmed.
* KarmaHoudini: Other than not getting what he wanted from the world he built, [[spoiler: Master]] doesn't face any consequences for his actions. He and the heroes part ways on relatively benign terms.
* KnightInSourArmor: Sir Arthur's entire shtick involves him grumpily fretting over Princess Rose's safety as she explores her new surroundings. Follow his arc to its conclusion and he'll eventually get over himself, joining in on her adventures.
* LateCharacterSyndrome: Lady joins the party late into the game and has very little to contribute to the plot.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Each hero gets their own theme song that plays while they're the active character.
* LevelLockedLoot: Equipment requires certain stats in order to use. Because initial inventory space is so limited, this can be a problem when bringing higher-level gear into dungeons. Legendary Items can be upgraded at the shop to gradually reduce the stat requirements, making them easier to equip than other gear despite their superior value.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Inverted. Spellcasters like Pyra and Marion can one-shot enemies early on with spells, but their damage tends to not scale as well as physical attackers like Sword and Rao. More importantly, physical attackers get access to skills that allow them to hit one target multiple times, whereas higher level spells are limited to hitting multiple targets with the same damage as base spells. Either archetype can easily handle a dungeon, but high level warriors are much better at chewing through a boss' health bar.
* MadeOfIron: Captain Hawk shrugs off Dr. Alan's death traps and Lady's deathblows.
* MadScientist: Dr. Alan starts as the typical AbsentMindedProfessor concerned with revealing the mysteries of Ring World, but after Professor Hawk unwittingly sabotages his work one too many times he dedicates his inventions toward revenge.
* MagicKnight: Sword is proficient with both weapons and magic, with an emphasis on fire spells. He's also capable of equipping staffs, which are caster-focused weapons.
* MakeAWish: Ring World tends to provide the heroes with what they say they need. Sword deduces this fact, and uses it to wish for someone who can [[spoiler: circumvent Master's wards.]]
* MascotRPG: It brings together the mascots or pre-established characters from the different games by Climax Entertainment.
* MayflyDecemberFriendship: Pyra remarks how it's nice having a girl friend her age in Akane, only for a jealous Lady to chide her; as an elf, Pyra is close to ten times Akane's age.
* NoSell:
** No matter how high your defense gets, enemy attacks will still do a minimum of 1 damage. Negating damage completely requires the appropriate skill, like Mag Invalid or Dmg Invalid. These skills are very hard to learn, but can be found on certain items, like shields, or monsters, like Hard Bugs.
** Balloon-type monsters can invalidate both Priority skills and spellcasting just by being present in a battle.
* NotListeningToMeAreYou: Dr. Alan has a tendency to do this, which leads him to neglecting requests from Captain Hawk and Masaru Tanaka. He dismisses them as voices in his head.
* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: [[spoiler: Master]] usually knows everything that's going on in Ring World, but his senses become limited when he sends his soul to inhabit a body.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Both Pyra and Nigel appear to be in their late teens, but are actually in their eighties. They're elves, after all.
* OneManArmy: Heroes with technique or spell priority combined with either All Tech or Mega/Giga spells can attack entire enemy groupings twice per turn. With a decent weapon and stats, this skill set-up will let the hero character clear the screen in a single turn or eat through boss HP by themselves.
* PhysicalGod: [[spoiler: Master]] can take a physical form to interact with the world. He's still effectively omnipotent, but [[NotSoOmniscientAfterAll no longer has a bird's eye view of Ring World]]. Given his motivations this turns out to be a critical weakness, and one that Sword manages to exploit.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Boss' gang spends most of the game getting chased out of prospective hideouts. When they finally manage to hold up in Rao's abandoned home they spend the rest of the game exalting in their new base of operations.
* PowerfulButInaccurate: The most obvious way the game balances attacks: techniques that deal more damage typically come with a hefty accuracy penalty. Spells in particular can have a 45-60% hit rate depending on the target to balance out the fact that they can wipe out whole parties.
* PrincessClassic: Princess Rose looks and behaves as if she came straight out of a classic Disney film. Despite this-and Sir Arthur explicitly referring to her as "Princess"-she claims she's the daughter of an earl and thus not actually a princess.
* PurposefullyOverpowered:
** Marion can carry more items into dungeons than anyone, register more skills than anyone, has twice the hunger meter and bonus skill points, and naturally learns skills that negate physical and magical damage.
** The secret dragon-type enemies are basically bosses that you can include in your party. They have 999 hunger, 6 to 7 times the hp your hero will have by the end of the dungeon, and can one-shot most enemies.
* RealityWarper: At minimum, [[spoiler: Master]] can alter Ring World any way he sees fit by [[spoiler: adding or removing pages from the book it exists in]].
* RefusalOfTheCall: The driving force of the plot. None of the cast want to be heroes of Ring World and are doing their best to return home.
* RefusedByTheCall: Mr. Noiman is declared to be the chosen one by Master after his arrival, only for Master to rescind the proclamation after getting a better look at him.
* {{Roguelike}}: Heroes begin each randomly generated dungeon at level 1 with a limited pool of equipment brought with them from past adventures. As ''Time Stalkers'' came out before the Roguelike boom in the indie gaming sphere, the level reset was a frequent source of confusion and criticism.
* RollerbladeGood: Cyborg-type monsters move as if wearing skates.
* ScavengerHunt: A possible mission type that involves finding one or more specific items in a dungeon. The game doesn't necessarily prioritize spawning the required items during a run, so whether or not the mission can be finished is a crap shoot.
* ScratchDamage: Provided you aren't grossly under-leveled for the floor you're on, most enemy attacks will only deal 1 damage. It's unclear if this was a deliberate design choice or not. Bosses and spellcasters can reliably do much more damage, and can quickly end a run if you're not careful.
* SexyDimorphism: Mr. Noiman is a rabbit-man, emphasis on rabbit. Bunny is a rabbit-woman, emphasis on woman.
* SickeninglySweet: The Bunny family lives in a fairy-tale house in a pastel world with smiley-faced flowers built on top of a googly-eyed flying turtle. Mr. Noiman is noticeably out of place there.
* SquishyWizard: Pyra and caster-type monsters tend to be more susceptible to damage.
* StalkerWithACrush: After Pyra joins the party, Bob will always follow her around and pine after her from a safe distance.
** Nigel appears to be this to Akane, spending a lot of time in the convenience store while she's manning the register. When confronted on this, he denies it.
* StatGrinding: Skills have a stat requirement associated with their mastery. If the total value of a hero's stat requirements exceeds their current stats, all their skills are deactivated. The player can "seal" skills, temporarily removing them from the pool until their stats reach a point where they can be activated again.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Lady wears a hot pink shoulderless mini dress, while Marion rocks a unitard with a CleavageWindow.
* TeamShot: The title screen has all the heroes in their action poses, looking up at the camera. Weirdly, the developers decided to have Nigel repeatedly scratch his nose and to pose Marron as an inanimate doll.
* {{Theotech}}: Dr. Anna's church is a part Shinto shrine, part Catholic cathedral, and part biology lab.
* TreasureHunter: Nigel is one by trade, it being the focus of his debut game. Lady is likewise a treasure hunter in her original game, but that aspect of her character is less emphasized here in favor of general thrill-seeking.
* TrespassingHero: Averted. Kenji Tanaka and Nattie both question why the heroes think it's appropriate to barge into homes.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: An in-universe example. [[spoiler: Master]] is furious that Sword [[spoiler:distracted him from part of the story,]] and ends up taking Sword up on his offer of a premature GrandFinale. The party never learns what exactly they were meant to "save" the world from.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Mr. Noiman is a short and squat anthropomorphic rabbit wearing bondage gear and a digital clock, while his wife, Bunny, is an attractive woman with bunny ears.
* TheUnfought: The heroes never throw down against [[spoiler: Master]]. As a disembodied presence that exists outside of Ring World, it's not really an option.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Curses and certain weapons and techniques can inflict status effects. Most enemies can be defeated in one-hit, making their value dubious.
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Predictably, the Final Cavern. It was created for this expressed purpose.
* WeirdnessCensor: The residents of Fujimi Town are much more skeptical of their new surroundings than other Pieces, whose fantasy and sci-fi backgrounds can help explain their new neighbors. Masaru Tanaka believes the world is his solipsist creation, Sandy chalks it up to being a dream, and the Yamadas think their neighbors are wearing costumes or part of television crews.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: The character profiles asks this question of Bunny and Mr. Noiman. She never answers the question, but is obviously madly in love regardless. Mr. Noiman is conscious of the difference, and frets whenever she takes over the shop for him.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Ash, a former boxer turned friendly antiquarian. Being a game from the '90s, it's mum on whether Ash is a cross-dresser or transgender, with her character profile attributing their behavior to head trauma. Nonetheless, they're very cordial.
* WorldOfTechnicolorHair: Predictably for a JRPG, many of the characters have atypical hair colors. Of the main cast, Sword has blue hair, Pyra has pink hair, and Marion has white hair.
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