It's been a firecracker year for JRPGs between the return of Trails in the Sky, the acclaimed Expedition 33, and the imminent remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics. It seems that the hype will keep flowing for genre fans of all stripes, assuming Threads of Time—which popped in with a new trailer at today's PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct—can realize some distinguished ambitions.
I say that because it's so reverent to timeline-hopping classics like Chrono Trigger and Live a Live, a point that caught online editor Fraser Brown's eye the moment the game was announced. The game sees you across a smorgasbord of time periods, from neon-lit city streets to ancient, untamed jungles, but has such spiffy pixel art and lighting that it's impossible to mistake for a SNES standard.
This trailer has a lot more combat in it than the previous one, and while it's hard to gauge how rich the tactics are, it's certainly a looker. There's a ton of gorgeous animation to gawk at between some hand-drawn cinematics and in-engine spritework that picks up where other 'HD-2D' games like Octopath Traveler and the recent Dragon Quest remakes left off.
That art style has me dazzled and clapping gormlessly like a circus seal—and with Threads of Time's behind-the-party camera perspective and vertical battle maps, it has a look all its own. Oh, and it also has dinosaurs, so that's an instant win in my book.
An RPG like this is a tantalizing prospect; it's a bold gambit to welcome comparisons to an all-timer like Chrono Trigger, but if they can pull it off, it should be an exciting release day indeed. No pressure, right?
Threads of Time doesn't have a release window yet, but it is available to wishlist on Steam.
Check out every game, trailer, and announcement in the PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct.
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