Time Travelers is an Adventure Game for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Portable, and Play Station Vita by Level-5, creators of the Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven series.
Eighteen years ago, a mysterious portal now known as the "Lost Hole" appeared over Tokyo, causing massive devastation to the city. The city is now rebuilt and powered by a miles-high structure known as the "Space Elevator", though exactly how it does that is unknown to the populace.
On April 28, five people find themselves involved in the fate of a young girl named Mikoto; but none encounter quite the same one. Ordinary High-School Student Yuri Fukase, rumored to be connected to the Lost Hole incident, finds his classmate Mikoto waiting atop the school roof for him. Idol reporter Hina Fushimi receives a mysterious videotape from a similar Mikoto while investigating the mysterious Skull terrorism group. Detective Soma Kamiya finds his attempts at terrorism in exchange for his family's safety complicated by a raincoated, pistol-wielding Mikoto onboard a city bus. 30-year-old self-declared superhero Ressentiment finds himself protecting Mikoto from some local thugs. And brilliant former physicist and con man Kyugo Shindo has only a few hours to pay back 30 million yen or his daughter Mikoto will be killed.
Gameplay takes place through a mix of Quick Time Events, Visual Novel portions, and jumping from character to character to try and advance, similarly to 428: Shibuya Scramble. Unlike most visual novels, the characters are fully voiced and animated.
The game was released in July 12, 2012 in Japan, but no Western release has been announced.
This game provides examples of:
- Arc Words: "What did you lose?"
- Dark Reprise: Several of the characters' theme songs have more downtrodden versions.
- Disney Death: Yoda, Napa, Chiriko, Tanaka, and Itoyama. Napa and Chiriko are explained away by Big Hand being more merciful than he seems; the other three are apparently just Made of Iron.
- Disney Villain Death: Itoyama. In an amusing twist, she falls, climbs back up to harass the heroes one more time, and then falls again, making it a Disney Disney Villain Death.
- Distaff Counterpart: Ressentiment Lady.
- Dueling Games: With Toku Hou.
- Fatal Family Photo: We know Itoyama really bought it the second time she falls because the camera focuses on her phone and its background photo of her with her family.
- For Want Of A Nail: One of the trailers has Mikoto musing on things such as "Maybe if I'd kissed him", and "Maybe if I hadn't opened that door..."
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The entire world is stuck in an 18-year-long one, though only a select few realize it.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Happens to Enjo (stabbed in the back by his right-hand man Mezaki when he finally stops harassing Shindo) and Shuichiro (shot by Itoyama right after he showed remorse for joining the Skull terrorists).
- Heroic Sacrifice/Taking the Bullet: Soma in one timeline.
- The game opens with Hina charging into the core of Shindo's time machine to stop it from exploding and apparently being wiped from existence in the process.
- The final few chapters have every single playable character doing this. Ressentiment uses C4 to delay the S.I.F.; Soma takes the bullet for Yuri; Shindo lets himself get badly wounded by the S.I.F. to protect Hina; Yuri stops Itoyama despite being grievously injured and dies in Mikoto's arms; Hina goes back in time 18 years to save the five of them from the Lost Hole incident despite knowing she'll be hit by rubble in the process and slowly wither away in a coma. Finally, Mikoto undoes the Lost Hole and in turn her own existence to fix the timeline.
- To be fair, Mikoto still managed to exist in the fixed timeline; the only difference was that she was born in 2031 (the year she was actually conceived in both timelines) rather than 2013 (which only happened in the looped timeline due to Hina going back in time before giving birth to her).
- Insistent Terminology: Shindo insists on being called Dr. Shindo, to the point that when he's formally introduced as Kyugo Shindo, complete with subtitles, he interrupts to correct them, and sure enough they appear again - introducing him as Dr. Shindo.
- Ressentiment insists that he's a "Real Life Hero", to the point that he lists that as his current occupation during a job interview.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: Later in the game, the gap between making a bad decision and seeing its resulting Time Stop grows significantly.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Mikoto's real father is Shunsuke Kai, a.k.a. Skeleton.
- Neck Snap: Poor Chiriko.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Hina can be heard in the launch trailer declaring "It's All My Fault". She only says this in a Game Over used to explain the Time Stop mechanic.
- Non-Action Guy: Yuri's Quick Time Event sections that do involve fighting tend to focus more on dodging and defending.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Two of the main characters are fighting to save their child's life. The launch trailer shows Soma fails in one timeline and watches his son fall to his death.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong
- Shout-Out:
- Mikoto's apparently trying to bring Marty McFly's orange vest back into style.
- Lampshaded in-game. At one point Mikoto is in the car with her father, a physicist. Said car is a deLorean. When they stop to talk to Tadano in the street, he honestly thinks they're Doc and Marty for a moment.
- Hina's Leitmotif is titled "The Door into Summer".
- At some points in the story, someone appears wearing a Tama costume. It's Mikoto.
- Shindo has a Monokuma figurine in his shelf.
- Mikoto's apparently trying to bring Marty McFly's orange vest back into style.
- Supporting Protagonist: The five player characters, as Mikoto seems to be driving the plot.
