Excellent Time-Travelling Metroidvania 'Timespinner' Is Getting A Sequel

Wasn’t Timespinner maybe too on the nose with its SOTN homage? That’s a common criticism I had heard. Has anyone here played it and want to give thoughts?

The original was so underrated. Truly one of my favorite Metroidvanias on Switch. Can’t wait for the sequel!

Cool! Hope I can play this one too on Linux.

There was a time traveling Metroidvania and I've not played it?

Man I'm bad at playing games I'd like...

The true ending of the original made me sad and I hope I can undo is in some way here.

I played this, while the story is interesting, I don't like the art.

I saw the words: Time-Travelling Metroidvania and Sequel, and my brain immediately thought "OH MY GOD THE MESSENGER IS GETTING A SEQUEL AHHHH" nope. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Looks like a good game though.

@Gaming-Penguin
Man, exactly the same here.
I'll never truly recover from the sheer awesomness of The Messenger.
Never played Time spinner though and it looks pretty neat.

It's been a while since I played it but I recall finding Timespinner to be throughly mediocre and the dialogue in particular was actually painful.

Not interested in the sequel whatsoever.

Hard to be excited for this one after backing the last one and finding such a middling product.

On the one had the first timespinner had some fantastic ideas for game play and stepping between worlds. On the other, Timespinner more or less gave up on those fantastic ideas before even reaching the half way point. Now maybe they just bit off more than they could chew or they simply just wanted the damn thing to be done. In the end the result was a jumble collection of ideas that never really coalessed into anything meaningful. Time mechanics were great and you can see a few of them play out normally at the start, but when you needed them the most in the second half, they were sorely forgotten leaning on tropes of the genre to lead things out. Even the boss structure seemed to suffer from highes at the start to middling lows at the finish. It was like the game was made by two different groups of people that had very differenting visions for the game.

Things tend to get worse as well with the story as it gets into a bit of obsurdity. Yes, time travel can do that, but that wasn't what broke this game down. The "resistance" npc's in their little tucked away location was filled with characters that were more concerned with making a statement about gender, than making any kind of sense. Even taking the player down a road of nonsense that just seemed more like virtue signalling of that era. While diffused into a larger collection of NPC's this probably would have gone unnoticed in like game such as Horizon Forbidden west, the more focused experience just lead to many questions with no answers. How does this community florish etc. It just became nonsensical.

Maybe a sequel can fix all that as it has been over 4 years now since the last game. Tools done. Engine tweaked. New staff added (I hope) to the project.

Unfortunately there is also an ugly side to Lunar Ray Games as well. For one their development team interactions behaved like narcissists to their user base and would even say things like "You're lucky the vita version even released at all" to one member on their discord server, when the user was just outlining the issues in question and wondering if they would be fixed. That sort of thing happened more often than not during my time on their server before leaving. The general attitude of the staff kind of turns me off further from every buying a sequel. Which is a shame, because the good ideas they did have show lots of potential.

I'll wait for a review. I won't be pushing this one across the finish line like the last one. Give me an Iconoclast 2 over this honestly.

Pretty cool news. I was a big fan of the first one. One of the small handful of Metroidvanias on the Switch I played through multiple times even with a backlog of games. The combat was just different enough and smooth enough to make it a pretty fun one to revisit.

@TotalHenshin maybe at the time, but since then we've had much closer clones of SotN like Bloodstained and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. Timespinner now seems hugely original by comparison

@TotalHenshin I never played it but hearing that just makes me WANT to play it.

I enjoyed the first game.
Let's hope it gets a physical not through LRG.
Even though I got the first game physically I'd like the second to be widely available through normal retailers.

I know Metroidvanias are a dime a dozen but I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay, story, and graphics of the first one. It's too bad it doesn't continue the first one's story, but I'm down for the game regardless.

Excellent news🙂 The first one is a gem if you like the Castlevania series. When i started playing the first one i hit the game hard by playing nonstop. I was a little bit sad when i finished the game that i spend some time quietly looking at the starting screen of the game remembering the moments i had playing the game. I am glad the game is getting a sequel, another few hours for me of getting lost on my Switch playing it😋

Very cool. I enjoyed the first game very much, so I'll check this out.

I've played through the original multiple times and enjoyed it. Initially I was drawn to the art style... absolutely gorgeous pixel art. Nice color palettes as well and interesting music. The gameplay was addictive. All in all a solid title. If you've not yet checked it out, it's old enough to be on sale regularly. Looking forward to the sequel

Yes, this is exactly the kinda news I needed to hear on a cruddy day! Timespinner was great and I'm stoked to see what their team comes up with for a sequel.

@TotalHenshin Whoever said that has only played like 2 or 3 games in their entire life LMFAO. timespinner takes some cues from the castlevania series but it is very much it's own thing. Has more of a retro gothic steampunk vibe with the enemy and area designs on top of the time travel mechanic

@TotalHenshin No it wasn't too on the nose. They didn't have upside-down castles, for one thing. There are multiple branching endgame locations depending on storyline choices.

They did have weird familiars, some of whom were almost aware of the audience. The familiars were key to unlocking the "best ending" IIRC, which seems to be the one they went with for Timespinners 2 (hint: it's about the Eternal Mother).

Other than that I don't recall a RPG-like gear/equipment system, but you can upgrade and combine attack orbs for different effects. I don't recall SOTN having a combination system with its primary weapons, or having orbs. There are no secret inputs to learn spells/special moves in TS like there was in SOTN, afaik.

@NotSoCryptic sorry but that is rubbish. The rebel NPCs at the main hub were some of the best handlings of "taboo" topics, perhaps ever. A finely tuned line is walked, with sexuality being overtly expressed without taking over the plotline for no reason (which normie / cishet stuff can tend to do, out of corporate cynicism, btw). There's a good reason and a good outcome for Lunais, herself.

@Jark It wasn't the handling of the topics it's self that was the problem. It was the fact that you had a small colony of Taboo topics and only taboo topics that makes the entire scenario unbelievable.

I disagree with your assesment about it "taking over hte plotline for no reason", it most certainly did do this. The game takes a radical shift in tone about half way through. Like the leading developer of the team had some sort of cultural awakening and wanted to force that perspective on everyone. Ultimately the game is very Schizophrenic in its handling of topics and story elements. I'm talking long term survivability of those societies as a whole. As well as some unanswered questions about restoring the population that immediately go unanswered and ignored.

Doesn't matter if its "taboo" topic or not. It just didn't make sense.

The Rebels were the least interesting and least sensical part of the game. Which is saying a lot given how the rest of the game unfolds story wise and game play wise.

Time Spinner is a mess with some brilliant ideas mixed it. In all honesty its garbage. I'd approach a sequel with caution. Maybe if they do a better job of injecting "taboo" topics into their story and world, it would be a little easier to accept. When you're entire rebel colony is just one massive "taboo" topic right down your main character. It sticks out like a throbbing thumb. Doesn't even matter how well the relationships themselves are written and close to reality and the royalty aspect of the game and how it basically kills the royal line. If memory serves (forgive me its been a few years since I finished this game), but the royal blood line was an important factor with something in the game. Might have been a weapon or door to a ship or something, I remember thinking that in the very moment were that plot line was "resolved".

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, but it was rubbish, rushed, and not well thought out after a point. When the games creators threw their hands into the air and decided to just get it out the door, instead of embracing their original vision. That was basically the end of any line of quality the game had. I'd say "Taboo" topics was forced, heavy handed, hamfisted introduction, spurred on by political ideology of the time. This game is not going to age well at all.

I'm spot on with my position of the first game and enough to be worried about a second. I hope they got their ***** together, planned it out. Made the "taboo" topics make sense or at least put less emphasis on them, because I wasn't there for them in the first place. Just like how I'm not looking for miriam to have a love interest in Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. I didn't need that in this game either. I was there for time traveling game play, metroidvania style exploration, and a serious world ending story. Not a colony of rebels that added nothing to the game. I say this because I think their designers are brillant. Some really fantastic ideas in Time Spinner. They shot themselves in the foot. As I said, their community interaction was also horrible. Combining those two things, I'm not sure I wnat to buy another title from them. I hope I'm wrong, because if they can get past these elements they have a very promising future ahead.

Hopefully this one is longer, as I recall the first was like, 6 hours

I still have the first on my wishlist. Maybe they’ll bring a sale on the first to help get sales for the second.