Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is an RPG aimed primarily at younger players and those who perhaps haven’t dabbled in the genre before. Telling the story of Sherry, a young girl who’s whisked away on a time-travelling adventure after time itself is frozen during a New Year’s countdown in her hometown of Clocknee, it’s a game that suffers somewhat from a bland setting and a narrative that's a little too light-hearted. Even for a title aimed at kids, it never injects enough peril or urgency into its biggest moments of drama and winds up lacking excitement as a result – a situation that’s made up for to some extent by a decent cast of characters, smart and intuitive skill systems and some pretty satisfying combat.
From the outset, Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is a game intent on thoroughly informing its young audience of the ins and outs of playing a JRPG, resulting in a glacially-paced opening few hours which sees just about every facet of combat and expected systems – such as fast travel, upgrades, skills, shops and item and party management – explained slowly and in great detail. Once the combat proper starts, however, it’s pretty neat and engaging stuff that smooths over the lack of drive provided by the overly schmaltzy storyline and more or less achieves the desired effect of streamlining the most important elements of traditional JRPG gameplay into something that’s easily manageable for younger kids.
Sherry, a likeably feisty protagonist whose distrust of adults and their ways sets the tone of the entire adventure, is joined on her time-travelling battle against invading machines by her nervous but capable friend Pegreo, the inventor whiz-kid of the group and Isaac, a mysterious robot designed and built by Sherry’s now absent father in order to protect her from the very forces that have now emerged. The party, with the help of kooky scientist Doctor Cheatstein, must travel back and forth between 1970 and 1999-era Clocknee, piecing together the mystery at the heart of the story whilst battling everything from jukeboxes to blenders, toasters, TVs and every other household electrical appliance you can think of, all of which have mysteriously sprung to life and are under the control of evil forces determined to destroy Clocknee.
Everything about Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is designed to make it easy for a young audience to get to grips with, all the most fundamental aspects of a standard JRPG shrunk down into bite-sized pieces, removing any chance of confusion from its gameplay. The world map is tiny in comparison to what you’ll be used to in a game of this type and it’s virtually impossible to find yourself lost; areas are locked down as required in order to funnel you towards your next objective. Traversal is simple and quick; Sherry can sprint to her heart’s content and fast travel is available to all areas required by the storyline by a simple click on the large and colourful map. NPC chatter is also kept to a minimum – even during quests – ensuring that things zip along without any long periods of exposition and the whole thing can be done-and-dusted in well under twenty hours.
It’s a shame, however, that in making the game world so tightly-contained and easy to navigate that it’s also been rendered quite banal and empty to explore and investigate around. Clocknee comes across like an empty theme park; its identikit streets bizarrely empty and woodlands and parks devoid of wildlife, it’s a sterile and neutered sort of environment, especially when all of its inhabitants are frozen in place, and it’s a pity that the art style wasn’t a little stronger so that the world in which Sherry’s adventure unfolds felt a little more lived in and interesting. Adding to this is the fact there is no voice acting at any point during the game; it's all very oddly quiet when you're not in combat, compounding the artificiality of Clocknee and its surrounding areas.
On a more positive note, the gameplay itself, the cast of characters you control and the battles they engage in are much more exciting and well-designed than the world which they inhabit, or indeed the story in which they are participants. Everything about the gameplay is zeroed in at kids. The UI is big, chunky and user-friendly, items and upgrades are clearly explained and easy to use and the party’s combat skills – which unlock as you level up – are fun to use and easy to combo together in order to get one over on your enemies. New skills are also unlocked at a clever pace which keeps things interesting while not overwhelming for players, and it won’t be long before you’re firing off well-judged elemental attacks, using Isaac to set up defensive plays in advance of big enemy attacks and benefiting from Pageo’s backpack of nifty gadgets to pull your team out of tight spots.
Speaking of Isaac, he really is the star of the show here, especially in terms of the combat. Over the course of the game he can assume a total of six different roles, each of which comes with its very own custom – and very cute – look. His vanilla style is a solid and dependable tank that deals out a good amount of damage and will keep your party moving in early battles, but over the course of Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers he’ll unlock the ability to transform into the likes of a rescue robot, outlaw, samurai and champion, all of which have their own unique styles and abilities and keep the combat feeling fresh and fun all the way along. Isaac is also pivotal to battles in that once he falls, the fight's over; both Sherry and Pegreo can be downed and then revived, but if Isaac comes a cropper it’s curtains – not that this is something that should happen too often given the child-friendly nature of proceedings, but it’s something which ties into the narrative and makes for a smart little strategic wrinkle in how battles play out.
Isaac also has the most interesting upgrade system which involves using various levels of gears, which you must craft by yourself with materials earned during combat and from chests scattered hither and thither throughout the game world. These can then be installed in his innards to power up his attacks and defence and give him access to new skills to aid the party against trickier foes. Again it’s all commendably clear-cut and intuitive stuff that avoids getting itself bogged down in heavy-handed systems.
HP and SP items and elixirs in Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers come in the form of all sorts of cute food and easy to understand drinks and tonics. You can restore your health by tucking into a biscuit or piece of pie and quench your thirst with a nice attack juice or some bullseye water. There are also trinkets and items of clothing to collect and earn during combat that give your party all manner of buffs and beneficial effects.
In terms of this Switch port, Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers performs perfectly smoothly in both docked and handheld mode – although it is definitely a tad blurred in portable – and we didn’t encounter any bugs or framerate drops whatsoever over the course of our adventure.
Given all that this game does right with regards to providing accessibility for a younger audience whilst still remaining engaging and fun with regards to its combat, it really is a shame that the world is so drab and the story plays it so overly safe. We're almost certain even very young kids could handle quite a bit more drama than is doled out over the course of proceedings here. The combat keeps things ticking along quite nicely and escalates quite pleasantly in the handful of dungeons that come your way later on down the line, but there's no doubt that this is a JRPG that pales in comparison to a lot of what's on offer on Nintendo's console that could be safely played by a younger audience.
Conclusion
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is very much a "My First JRPG" type-affair. Its story is overly-schmaltzy and safe, the game world is small and disappointingly sterile and its cast of bad guys won’t give you too much trouble over the course of its short running time. However, the combat here is entertaining stuff, intuitively laid out and clearly explained, it’s filled with fun skills and makes light and breezy work out of systems that more grown-up JRPGS tend to get bogged down in. It has a likeable central cast of characters and, although there are many more exciting games of its ilk available on Switch, it does do a commendable job in providing a safe starting point for younger players looking to sink their teeth into the genre for the first time.
Comments 28
It's a shame. I really like the cartoony, vibrant art style, but everything else about sounds underwhelming.
Oh well. Maybe in a deep sale.
6/10 ... yet still a better choice than Fortnite
Seriously though, looking around, seeing what many kids/teens get acquainted with as "videogames" these days breaks my heart and in more and more instance actually has me worried. There is a world of "games" out there, dressed up all cute, but built for no other reason than to create a connection between spending cash (digital and in small increments) and dopamine rushes in those young brains. It's like training wheels for compulsive gamblers and generally poor impulse-control. That would be bad enough, but the same minds get exposed to Facebook, Instagram, and so on and so forth, which work the same basic cognitive mechanism.
So even if this misses the mark, it's not like 'Coin Master' is a mechanical or narrative master piece either ... if that kind of insidious content can't be outlawed, there ought to be at least a wealth of decent alternatives. It's just a bit disheartening to see a game like Destiny Connect being sold at $40
At first glance I thought this article said Disney Kinect Review.
Hey! Nice to hear someone took upon themselves to make a kiddy entry level JRPG.
I've grown up on jRPGs I didn't quite understand besides the vibrant colors. While the memories are fond and priceless, I have similar good gaming friends that never joinned me in one of my favorite genres because of the tall entry barrier we all know and love/hate, and love to hate.
I am mostly captivated by that cartoony almost claymation in motion vibe .
If there is no grinding, I might just go for it.
@Bobb
It's grinding that puts me off.
Endless grinding and random battles.
@KitsuneNight I know what you mean. But somehow I have gone to enjoy grinding.
That said, as an adult with little play time nowadays, I really welcome some QOL in newer games such Bravely Default that makes random battles and grinding a lot more tolerable.
But yeah! Grinding is probably on the top 5 reasons people are put off jRPGs
@Bobb
I tried to deal with it, but i could never be arsed.
Even as a teenager I grabbed for the exploder codes to nullify the grinding.
Nowadays 90% of my jrpgs are on Steam, so I can grab a trainer and ignore the grinding.
I actually pre orderd this game cause it looks so striking.
So here is hoping.
Yikes at some of those character designs. >_<
thanks for the review, a hard pass for me
@KitsuneNight Were you trying to be poetic with that comment? Just asking
@BlueBlur101
Not really ?
@KitsuneNight if it means anything, I find Dragon Quest 11 on default settings to be surprisingly anti grinding, in no small part thanks to its removal of random encounters.
Generally, just filling the bestiary for a given region is often much more than enough XP while still being done relatively quickly(and is often made even easier thanks to seeing monsters on the field, except for rarefied and metal ones, before even fighting them), such that most often I tend to be over leveled rather than under leveled despite not spending that much time fighting beside bumping on selected monsters to fill the bestiary entries while going from point A to point B.
@Ludovsky
I'll keep that in mind.
But i'll wait for a price drop of discount or used version.
i just hate grinding it's so ..off putting.
Literally tried to read through some of the last article on Fan Gamer and the ads destroyed the page. There were 12 and they made it so I just scrolled down a gray screen. What gives?
@Ralek85 has anyone suggest to you to stop being so judgemental it’s actually a joke what you said regarding fortnite. I’ve never played it myself but it’s popularity clearly dictates how wrong you are!
Trust me many people think and feel the same way about your gaming habits, would you accept their pity on you? Because they judge or dislike what you play. Honestly! You are the problem.
@Mince
Popularity doesn't equal quality.
And there are a lot of predatory lootbox* orientated games out there.
Not just Fortnite.
Pardon "surprise game play mechanics
It's ludicrous how predatory and openly consumer contemptuous a lot of games have become
Even after you have bought the game every little thing costs you extra.
And that is not a sad state of affairs ?
The setting, characters and art style remind me of Dark Cloud 2. Perhaps in a sale.
I cancelled my preorder cause it just wasn’t looking too good.
I think this would make for a great introductory game to the genre for younger players, though. Then again, perhaps not. You wouldn’t want to turn them off from the genre for the next 20 years of their life. Best to start with Final Fantasy X. Kids are smart. And they’re a lot better at adapting to systems they dont understand than adults, I’d say, even if they don’t learn them as thoroughly.
It’s a starter RPG for kids, but it’s a 12? Don’t get that.
JRPG for kids in the western world should start with South Park games.
I'm going to finish it because I really needed a simple game to play (was getting too frustrated with Blasphemous), but boy do I feel like I'm wasting my time lol. Story is crappy, dialogues are boring and childish, main character is annoying af and dresses like an NPC, music is terrible, camera controls are awful (thankfully adjustable via settings menu). It feels like playing a bad PS2 RPG from the discount bin.
Redeeming qualities for me are the fact that the story moves along quickly, I like AI and robots and time traveling. And the fact I needed a simple game to play.
@Mince Kudos, in one single sentence you smartly undid any meaning of "good/bad", by pointing out that they're useless qualifiers as - after all - we already have "popular/unpopular".
I guess, in the future NL will probably just resort to posting sales charts, after all, there is truly nothing else they could add to that.
I feel justified in taking pity on anyone, who's only or major gaming experience, consists out of thinly veiled gambling machines, aimed at sucking cash out of them and adjusting them for future addictive behavior. Is that harsh as far as statements go? Sure, but I stand by it (if you had any interest, you could have quickly google'd that among the folks who provide the venture capital for games like Coin Masters, are the same fine people who run sites like bwin and such! ^^).
If you feel like "I judge" thenyou are clearly missing the point. Gambling-adjacent behavior enforcement aimed at children is objectively bad, for them and for society. I don't see any personal judgement in that.
Just like kids shouldn't smoke or drink, as it has harmful neurochemical effects on their not-yet fully developed brains, while at the same time, they lack the mental capacities to really make their own judgement calls on the longterm consequences of their current behavior ... just like that, they should not be the target of relentless gambling-dopamin simulation cycles.
It's laughable to compare this to my personal preference as an adult for what is good or bad. We have plenty of subjective topics to discuss in gaming, no argument there, but this is not one of them, so I am not gonna be dragged into a 'synthetic-gambling-for-kids-is-fine-don't-tell-people-what-to-do-you're-bad-enough-yourself'-"""argument""" any further. Ben there, Dan that
My First JRPG was final fantasy 7, and it rocked.
On the... er... N64?
@Ralek85 Not too happy about Fortnite's success, is that it?
@Dog Yep, that's true not happy at all and why would I - or anyone for that matter.
@KitsuneNight Same here
@Northwind That was my first RPG and it hooked me into the genre.
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