Up late talking games & writing? You're...

It's been a while since I updated and there's a lot to cover, so just gonna jump right into things here…
Anywho, TIME Force is a little hard to describe, but I think Capy’s own phrase "single player co-op" kind of explains things a bit. Basically, the player goes back-and-forth to different time periods Mega Man style, and has the ability to rewind time whenever their character dies. After rewinding, they can switch to a different character (several wacky ones to choose from) and the trick is that not only does the new character stay, the old, dead one does as well. With just a few dies and restarts, the screen is full of friendly "ghosts" who are all opening fire on the same boss, or laying waste to the same area.

The writing is hilarious, there's a lot of really clever, interesting design going on, and the graphics are stylized pixel art, which I think looks great. It takes a little bit of time to wrap your head around the rewind mechanic, but once you click into it, it's a much deeper, more sophisticated game than it first appears.
The story has chaotic mood swings between being totally serious, being absurd, breaking the fourth wall, and everything in between. It's a real mish-mash that doesn't hit any correct notes, and it doesn't help that all of the characters are intensely unlikable thanks to their general a-hole personalities and an overall obsession with sex in ways that are neither appropriate, funny, clever, or appealing.

Technically, it's a steaming pile with muddy PS2-era graphics, a framerate that chugs harder than a desperate frat boy eager to impress, super-basic camera problems,… Hell, you name it, and it’s bad.

The actual gameplay is miserable as well, coming off like a poor-man's Dynasty Warriors that soon turns repetitive and intolerable. I have no idea why Square bothered to bring this to America other than the fact that they knew Nier fans like myself would jump at the chance to get another piece of work from that same team, but these two projects couldn't be further apart. Avoid it all costs.
I'm about eight hours in, and so far it's best described as Persona-lite, but I don't say that as a bad thing. I mean, if you’re going to steal, then still from the best. That said, it's in no way a complete carbon copy, because it varies in quite a few ways.

The biggest, most interesting thing about it is the combat system. It's a little more complicated than I want to get into right now, but basically people can have their "MIND" (basically a persona-like spirit) turn on or off at will, and there are positives and negatives to being in either mode. The game also has a few interesting spins during combat, mostly in the way it manages three different resources that fuel abilities. It doesn't feel at all like the combat in Persona although it may appear similar on the surface, and I definitely appreciate what it’s got going on.

At the moment, my characters are trying to figure out what's going on with their world, having recently discovered a spirit realm that is somehow connected, in addition to a vaguely Team Rocket-ish squad of MIND users who are gonna end up being The Bad Guys . The story isn’t mind blowing but it's definitely good enough to keep the action going so far, and the art style is solid.
In this game, the player must collect spirits found using the Vita’s GPS functions, as well as more commonly summoned with currency earned in the game. There are the usual elemental attributes to deal with (fire beats water, etc.) and there are a wide variety of supporting skills that characters have.

It's not really that this game is that good in any one aspect, but the elements come together to create an experience that's satisfying for a few minutes at a time, although I can see many places where the developers can improve. Specifically, I'm getting to a point in the game where the enemies are of a much higher level than I am, and I can't level up the characters that I have. Without access to better characters through random summons or buying them, it seems as though I'm going to hit a wall of difficulty that I won't be able to get past, but we’ll see.