Time loop games that are actually good?

[Goyslop Muncher]

Zero Escape but it's such a huge spoiler just for me to mention it and it's more of a puzzle VN which you may not even be asking about.

Oh yeah I forgot about those games. The entire shtick of the games is time looping or multiple realities or some shit.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

You enter ghost mode after killing a guy and still do your actions. Then you deploy another guy to kill the guy that killed your other guy before he can kill him, which saves him and lets him live and perform his actions as normal. Then he deploys a guy to kill your guy before he can kill his other guy and now your first guy is dead again.

Yeah this game is a hilarious clusterfuck. It's fun but it starts to get complex pretty fucking quick.

 

[Heavy Duty Boots]

How is @John Titor in this thread, and has not mentioned Steins;Gate?
It's a VN, so you may not consider it a game, but the story is basically a time loop of of two weeks

 

[THEY STOLE MY FORESKIN]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Minit, it's like a blend of Majora's Mask + Link's Awakening but you have one minute before the cycle restarts.

Super meat boy showed you replays of each and every death concurrently after a successful attempt at a level showing you your improvement over countless failures and deaths until your success and you get to watch yourself win over all your other previous fails.

That was one of my favorite parts, found it very creative and I've never seen anything like it in other games released before or after

I was enjoying the story of Twelve Minutes until the reveal that your pregnant wife is your half-sister.

In my opinion that's where the story went downhill, it had such a cool and interesting setup (specially learning more about the killer and his daughter) and then went Chris Chan levels of autistic mixed with mystical stuff and an open ended ending that wasn't really necessary

 

[Titos]

Seconding Singularity.
Really wish someone would make a game based on the time travel method and ideas in the book Rant, it has a really interesting idea about the grandfather paradox and would make for a cool Hitman-esque game.

 

[Kendrick]

Final Fantasy 1.

You go kill Garland to save a Princess. The fiends send Garland in the past. Garland in the past gets the power of chaos, which he uses to send the fiends to the present before he dies.

You then kill the fiends which opens a portal to the past. Garland with the power of Chaos overpowers your party and the loop continues.

Except that your playthrough is the one time the loop breaks, and leaves to interpretation how often the loop happened, Groundhog-day style.

 

[Rattus]

NEO: The World Ends with You was released earlier this year. It's not quite as good as the first game (which I consider to be basically perfect, so that was never going to happen), but it's still awesome, and I think its time loop gimmick was well-executed.

 

[Goyslop Muncher]

Does nier: automata count? You play through the story multiple times at different rates from different characters perspectives, and different shit happens. I can't remember if the characters are aware of it happening or not.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

ghost trick is one of the few games that uses time travel and dont go overbored with it.

 

[The Gunt Sex-Partner]

Shadow of Memories on the Ps2 was an interesting time travel game and the guy who made it also worked on a game called Time Hollow.

 

[Anstiv]

Outer Wilds is a good example, as others have mentioned. I don't think the DLC does nearly as much with the concept as the base game does, but the base game uses the mechanic insanely well.

Really one of those games you can't speak much on though, as spoiling it basically ruins the game. Would highly recommend it to anyone though, just don't read anything about it before playing.

 

[Goyslop Muncher]

Outer Wilds is a good example, as others have mentioned. I don't think the DLC does nearly as much with the concept as the base game does, but the base game uses the mechanic insanely well.

Really one of those games you can't speak much on though, as spoiling it basically ruins the game. Would highly recommend it to anyone though, just don't read anything about it before playing.

I bought it on switch and tried playing it. I die in 30 seconds each attempt by some asshole flying monster that zones in on me, and have no idea what's going on. Maybe I'm thinking of a different game, Idk.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

I love the topic.

Achron is a RTS that uses time loop as its core mechanic. You, as a player, can go in the past and send troops in the past (or the future) and win across timelines. It didn't translate well, and it's not properly balanced, but it can be used to demonstrate the concept I guess.

Into The Breach is a rogue-lite that uses Time-Travel to justify the roguelike elements. In your gameplay, you will come across 'time pods' from other successful worlds where the Vex have been defeated. Works pretty well, if you don't think too much about it.

Time Melters is a game that I recently came across and looks impressive visually. The gameplay might not work so well, but the time-loop gameplay works well.

 

[Xarpho]

I kinda liked Braid where you could rewind time to solve puzzles. It's fun the first time when you get hit by a monster and can just pop right back up. There are some absolute bullshit parts to that game, though, especially if you want to get the true ending.

 

[Shining Wit]

Astro Boy on the GBA is a surprisingly solid beat em up/horizontal shooter and its time loop/travel is well implemented
Difficult as fuck to figure out what the hell to do though

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

it's weird how many VNs there are about time looping.

It lets them re-use art assets?

 

[Broble64]

Sexy Brutale is another (and a pretty underrated game in my opinion).

Weirdly enough I wanted to specifically un-recommend Sexy Brutale. Whadda piece of shit. The character design is okay and the set pieces are nice but everything else is just bad. Outer Wilds is great though.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

The Sexy Brutale has some issues but I'd still recommend it considering it's included with humble/xbla (iirc). If you liked Ghost Trick and the idea of Ghost Trick where everything is happening simultaneously on one gigantic map appeals to you it's worth the couple hours it takes to beat. It's a bit of a letdown that the final loop doesn't involve you time managing the HELL out of the loop to save everyone simultaneously though, that would've been a great ending puzzle.

E: Whoops, didn't see it was mentioned briefly before. Whatever, added some thoughts.

I wish we'd get more of this genre overall. Even the bad ones have interesting ideas.

 

[Medulseur]

-snip-

Sounds like it would be more annoying than challenging and it would kind of go against the overall narrative. If everything was just a bit more spaced out then that would probably be a cool part of the game.

Weirdly enough I wanted to specifically un-recommend Sexy Brutale. Whadda piece of shit. The character design is okay and the set pieces are nice but everything else is just bad. Outer Wilds is great though.

It's not for everyone, but I do wish it got more attention for better or worse. Glad we agree on Outer Wilds though. Have you tried the DLC yet?