As an avid fan of RPG’s in many forms, I am always looking for a solid RPG that does something interesting to set itself apart from its peers. Lately, I’ve been pleased to discover that NIS America has been publishing a few RPG’s that fit this category exactly. Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers is a very good example, and I have to say that it is a refreshing, unique experience that I wasn’t expecting. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it is a hidden gem that you shouldn’t overlook.

In Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers, you play Sherry Aldeis, a young girl who lives in the town of Clocknee. On New Year’s Eve, Clocknee holds a festival in honor of a prominent figure, and the passing of another year. However, this time, something changes, and time stops completely. It is up to Sherry, her robotic companion Isaac, and other allies you meet over the course of the adventure, to fix time.

Destiny Connect plays like a typical RPG, in which you explore Clocknee in the past and in the future, and investigate mysteries in order to return the present-day Clocknee back to normal. Exploration is fairly simple, as you navigate various environments, engaging enemies, opening treasure microwaves, and finding water orbs in various places.

Water orbs are used to purchase costumes for Sherry, and allow her to take on all sorts of different looks, from sporty, to cute, to classy, and beyond. You also can find items in the previously mentioned treasure microwaves and will encounter enemies in the environments as well. By running into an enemy on the map, it opens up the combat screen, which takes place in Traditional, Turn-Based mechanics on a static arena.

Combat is fairly simple, in that most of the mechanics don’t deviate from what you would expect. If you hit an enemy before they see you on the map, you get a first-attack bonus. On the other hand, if an enemy touches you first, they get the initiative, and you are put at a disadvantage. Human characters can attack, use skills, items, and can take on a variety of combat roles.

By leveling up, your characters unlock new skills, and by using certain items you can find out in the world (and in battles) you can upgrade your skills to strengthen them. Each character’s ability set is very different, and it gives them a unique role that allows you to strategize accordingly. Human characters don’t change their weapons very often. Instead, you can equip mods to their weapons that will enhance their capabilities. Isaac, Sherry’s robotic companion is a very different story.

Isaac is unique in that if his health drops to zero, you get an automatic game over. Additionally, Isaac doesn’t always learn skills by leveling, and he cannot equip armor and accessories as the human characters can. Instead, he can equip gears (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Skill gears) to upgrade his stats and unlock new skills.

As Isaac levels up, he unlocks more gear slots, which means you can slowly enhance his capabilities over time. Additionally, you can upgrade gears you have slotted to a higher tier, to get higher stat bonuses and make the most of your gear slots. Gears can be crafted using parts, which you get out of treasure microwaves or from killing enemies.

Isaac also cannot use items, which means that if his health gets low, one of your other characters will need to use an item or a skill on him. Isaac also has a variety of transformations, which change his battle capabilities and make him able to fill multiple combat roles in a single battle. Transformations do not consume a turn, so you can easily swap Isaac’s role to suit any situation.

There are various facilities that you will use during your time in Clocknee, such as the Café, which sells food (healing/support) items, and equipment, including weapon mods. There is also the workshop, which you use to augment Isaac. You can also sleep at Sherry’s home (or other places) to recover full HP, but your SP does not increase that way.

Now, here are the issues with Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers. First off, the mini-map is helpful; it can be expanded to multiple sizes and shows useful things on it. However, you manually have to turn it back on each time you enter or exit a building, or when you change areas. This gets annoying really quickly, and I found it somewhat frustrating.

Another issue lies with the water orbs. The water orbs have a tiny sparkle to them, but they sparkle intermittently so you can easily miss them. Additionally, they do not show up on the map and are well hidden in most cases, so if you’re looking for them, there will be a lot of unnecessary backtracking. There are also some weird sections in the dialogue, that just don’t seem like they fit, such as Sherry talking to her mother, referencing her mother in the third person.

I should also mention that there are surprisingly large amounts of loading screens. The loading screens don’t tend to be very long, but they are still an annoyance nonetheless. The camera can also be somewhat unwieldy indoors and sometimes takes some finessing to get it to cooperate how you want it to.

Other than these issues, Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers is a solid RPG that I would greatly recommend to anyone who enjoys games like Earthbound. With the game being on Switch, not only is it great for kids or families, but it is also highly portable too, which makes it even more appealing for the upcoming holiday season.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers was provided by NIS America for this review.

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Destiny Connect: Tick Tock Travelers

$39.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Cute Characters
• Unique Story
• Traditional, Turn-Based Combat
• Lots of Character Customization
• Helpful Mini-Map

Cons

• Camera is Wonky Indoors
• Water Orbs are Hard to See