i had the urge to play another metroidvania after beating pseudoregalia, so i decided to finally grab timespinner off my wishlist. i enjoyed it quite a bit!
i didn't know a ton going into the game - i'd seen some screenshots and knew it was a metroidvania people liked with some time travel stuff, i guess? so i was kind of taken aback by how much of it is an extremely overt symphony of the night throwback, from the art direction to the UI to the gameplay mechanics to the music to even whole areas (particularly in the "past" version of the map) that are very specific homages to areas from symphony's castle. but i'd completely forgotten that this whole game was, in fact, a years-long nostalgic passion project that eventually made its way to kickstarter, pitched as a symphony throwback a year before igarashi did the same thing with bloodstained. it then spent four more years in development and came out in a post-hollow knight world. unfortunate timing on both parts, probably, but that's the hell that is indie game development
anyway, it's very good at being a symphony homage. it helps that that's one of MY favorite games of all time too lol. but when it's not just doing that i really really dig the like... baroque science fantasy vibe? that the present day map has? it's so sick. i also ended up liking the story and its tale of cycles of violence between planetary empires and meddling with time travel to try and fix things, even though i'm so often allergic to games that rely this heavily on text dumps in a lore journal. it even unexpectedly has a trans character? (and multiple gay couples.) the way she comes out to you after you do enough of her side quests is admittedly kinda hammy in delivery, but i guess it's on par for a game developed in the mid-2010s, and it's a nice little inclusion
so, yeah, fun time. would recommend
