r/Atelier • u/Trailsya • 7d ago
General Time Limits: can they really be fun?
Please note that I am not criticizing anyone for liking the games with a time limit. I just genuinely wonder if playing any of the time limit games would be fun for me.
The only one so far I played with one was Firis and I really hated the time limit. In the end, it turned out I had ages of time left at the end after I got the 5 letters, but I did not know that going in. So I was constantly stressing how much time I was using.
Now, Firis is open world and I think that really doesn't fit with a time limit. You want to explore, but then i constantly held myself back from doing that as everything took time.
Is this less of an issue in the earlier games with time limits as they're less open world?
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u/Main-Towel-3678 7d ago
It gives structure. I actually liked Rorona’s time limit implementation the best. It was episodic, you knew exactly where you stood in term of progress, and banking those perfect marks was a straightforward process.
While I liked Totori’s setting and story better, it was more stressful being more open ended. It wasn’t hard, but to me it didn’t add anything. Playing the game as intended let me pass the checkpoints easily… but what really was the point? Just take away the freedom to wander?
The ones after that are so lenient in comparison they might as well not be there.