Jikandia: The Timeless Land Review

In 2009, North America was treated to Opus Studio's first game that dealt with the concept of time, Half-Minute Hero. The game had players playing out 30-second mini-games under a variety of different play styles, including an old-school RPG and even a tactical strategy game. Instead of creating an immediate sequel, Opus Studio created a brand-new game with that core theme - Jikandia: The Timeless Land. But instead of mini-games, Jikandia revolves around the dungeon exploration genre. There's been a noticeable amount of these types of games as of late, so does Opus' spin on the genre provide players with a timeless classic or does this title simply fade into obscurity?

In Jikandia, players take the role of a male or female character who is travelling on a train with their fellow classmates when the train suddenly malfunctions and throws all of the kids into a mysterious portal that pops out of nowhere. Players learn that they've ended up in Jikandia, a world where time doesn't exist...until just recently. A few hours into the game, it becomes clear that a person calling themselves the King of Time is bringing back the concept of time to Jikandia, causing monsters and the land itself to run afoul. Of course, it's up to the player and their classmates to take down the King and return normalcy to Jikandia.

While this initially seems quite worn out for an RPG, it somehow works exceptionally well in Jikandia. The story, as you'd expect, doesn't take itself too seriously and it shows in Aksys' localization. Numerous times throughout the game characters will bring up completely random conversations, even referring to several well-known Internet memes, but they all surprisingly fit well in the carefree and go-lucky world that Opus Studio has created. It's sad however that the game doesn't fully utilize Aksys' excellent localization, as the dialogue box only shows a few words at a time. Trying to make the text go faster using the X button, like in most RPGs, will skip to the next line, but players are forced to wait for each line to finish. This gets quite nerve-wracking during some of the later post-boss dialogues, which takes a good 2-3 minutes to finish.

The core of the game, the dungeons, fare much better. Revisiting the concept of time found in Half-Minute Hero, Jikandia has players choose the amount of time they wish to spend in any given dungeon, from 3 to 30 minutes. The longer you stay in the dungeon, the better the chances are of getting better weapons and items from the treasure chests that line the dungeons. This system works exceptionally well in practice, since it allows casual players to spend a brief time in the dungeons each time they pick up the game, while hardcore dungeon raiders can spend the full 30 minutes in an attempt to get the best loot possible.

Going along with the concept of Jikandia being in flux, the dungeons are randomized every time they are entered, including the stages, items and enemy placement. Each floor has its own unique goal, which ranges from defeating all the enemies to getting to the next room without taking any damage and even grabbing all of the available treasure. Completing the task nets the player a floor star, which awards bonuses that make the next floor easier. Once players get the max five stars, they can gain the ability to invoke temporary invincibility, which comes in exceptionally handy and is usually crucial during the bouts with Jikandia's many bosses.