Times and Galaxy

HEADLINE: Overlooked indie game turns out to be hidden gem LEDE: 'Times and Galaxy' lets you explore silly happenings on weird planets, hunt for information, flirt with aliens and robots (or not), do side quests on your space ship if you feel like it, get a dubious "charisma cap", drink oil, and pet a goo dog. NUT GRAF: With only 40 reviews at the time of writing, Times and Galaxy has gone all but unnoticed. This must come as a surprise to the 95% of players who state - often very enthusiastically - that they would recommend the game. It certainly doesn't appear to lack in quality. Copychaser Games offers a well thought-out world with wacky characters to explore, accessible regardless of your interest in or talent for journalism. While not being challenging, it definitely seems to be entertaining to players with any interest in reading. It's conveniently divided into chapters, which should make it easy to play in shorter sessions. Its many details give it the appearance of a labour of love through and through. KEY QUOTE: "I've got that song stuck in my head" - löyly's partner who proceeded to take off their headphones and come over every time the intro song played. COLOR: Times and Galaxy might be the game that has made this reviewer laugh the most and loudest this year. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

This game has a lot in common with games I like, so it took me a while to figure out why it was dragging and getting boring. There's no gameplay. All you do is look around the room and talk to people once. No putting clues together, no returning to people to ask about what you've found, just clicking on a few things and then picking whichever options you've unlocked that will give you the most points. You don't get to make any decisions that matter and the only way to lose is to pick options when building a story that would give you negative points and there's no in or out of story reason to do that. It's also frustrating that you get exactly one conversation with characters, and if you pick the wrong options, that's it, you're locked out of getting 100% discovery. I normally care about that, but it's just not rewarding enough to be bothered about.

I love this game so far but the game freezes and hard locks you on cycle 10. No matter how many times I restart its missing objects i need or locking me in a convo that wont continue or end. I would give it a thumbs up but...i cant play any more cuz its locked.

A truly fantastic little experience- more sandbox story than strategy game though. It's a weird galaxy out there, and you get to explore/experience it first hand, through the fresh eyes of a "literally built yesterday" robot- and detailed stories from new friends you'll make aboard The Scanner. I DO wish there was some kind of, harder mode to it. It lets you just, sort of choose the outcome of your stories- will they be good, bad? Odd? You literally decide that, and it's very laid out ahead of you what response your actions get. Maybe so clear in the conversations you have to build your database for your news-story, but there isn't any mystery to how your story will be recieved at the end of the day. And I wish that was a bit different. I have no interest in making my report terrible on purpose- and it's VERY easy to make yourself liked, reputable and well read. But that's what makes the difference between a casual sandbox story kind of game, and one that's more of a story based strategy one. It's all in what you prefer- and while that one aspect might not be my personal favorite, there's more than enough heart, soul, and coffee dispenser oil in this to still make it beloved by me.

This is the first time I felt inclined to leave a review. Sadly it seems like this gem of a narrative game is not getting as much coverage as it deserves. And it's a shame. The sheer number of lovable characters and an impressive amount of artwork that has been put into a game. So many diferent ways you can spin a story and the variety of the stories you cover. Definitely one of the best story driven games this year. As for the bugs in my approximately nine hour playtrough I've only encountered one instance when a dialog refused to start and it froze the game. Thankfully autosaves are frequent so it wasn't a hassle. Things weren't so smooth at launch though.

this bit of copy “Writers at Copychaser spent years working as journalists before entering the games industry” and reviews praising how journalismy the game was sold me on buying this game. it was unfortunately, a huge disappointment. Maybe it was a too realistic sim of being an unpaid journalism intern. The gameplay broke down like this: 50% running back and forth at the office solving problems like the power going out. 25% listening to coworkers trauma dump about journalism. 25% a journalism mini-game where you get to talk to people one time and pick from a set of questions one time to try to get information. there’s some level of scoring on completeness and what audience you’re appealing to, but this had next to zero impact on the game. this is more an inside joke for journalists and writers with some gamification tacked on than an actual game. inside jokes are all well and good, but they should be easter eggs not the whole lawn. i did not have a good time and was just kind of annoyed by the time i finished. I don’t feel great about dumping on an indie development team but this was such a letdown. editor’s note: unpaid internships should be illegal and they are and have always been incredibly unethical.

The Good: I love to flirt with everyone on the entire space ship and not face any consequences whatsoever. I got this game because I'm majoring in journalism and I do love robots and aliens and flirting with Copybot. Copybot is my favorite. I love Copybot. I like the mechanic of writing the stories and finding information for them, I think it's real clever. The Bad: This child that is friends with alien orphans will not speak to me. I keep getting stuck and having to close the game. I might just give up and submit the story with a very low level of thoroughness. Also when does all my flirting start paying off I want everyone to fight over me. The Ugly?: The art is really cute. Copybot is really cute. However. Sometimes when I'm watching Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, they throw in some 2002 videogame graphics in the cute animation and it's jarring. That's the same for this game. Every time I travel to a planet and I have to look at that ugly 3D spaceship, I get a little sad. But then it gets better when I land on the planet and there's the most adorable little robot I have ever laid eyes on.

Throughout Times and Galaxy (T&G), you (a newly assembled first-of-its-kind robo-reporter) will find numerous characters to interact with, including your colleagues, countless times as you complete your 17 cycles. T&G is at its best when speaking with these characters and experiencing its world full of details all around that complete the world. Characters have a bit of story to them and feel a part of a living world much went into creating the world with its 5 distinct species and each section of the newspaper, each mimicking real sections in a paper. As you go from story to story interviewing subjects and studying the environment more and more of this world comes to life in a way that’ll keep you gripped until it’s done and wanting more. It’s clear there is a lot of passion here as the artwork is well crafted with unique and interesting character designs for what is likely dozens of characters, it makes them all the more memorable. It also helps the characters you talk to have several different little poses while conversing which adds emotion and color to the conversions in a simple yet effective way. The backgrounds are full of detail as well with much to look at without being too overwhelming. For the most part, each cycle follows the same format, you wake up on the ship where you’ll then have time to interact with most of the crew of the ship and staff of the paper, here you’ll get dialogue choices of the kind of robot you want to be and even if you want to date your colleagues, all of this makes for a more engaging story and one where you end up caring about the ship and their stories, there is always one to tell and some of them are connected. You’ll then get an assignment, sometimes with an option to choose which one and head out. On assignment you’ll interview people and look at and scan objects to get the details of the story, you aren’t able to get everything in a story from one go-through as you can only ask so many questions, and if you ask wrong questions an interviewee may well get annoyed and leave. This creates a strategic element for how you want to approach a story as quotes and information fit into one of three categories, informational, alien interest, and sensational. Quotes and information that may not be reliable or come from an unwilling source can also affect the paper's readership and reputation, balancing these is a puzzle where you choose what to focus on. The story builder is how you put all of this together to create a story and is the weakest element of the game, some of the information is sorted into one of those three categories even if it doesn’t feel appropriate there, and often the stories you create lack consistency, either repeating information unnecessarily or pivoting to something only tangentially related. While you are unable to read the actual story you end up making it can make creating a story a bit jarring. The stories are the meat of the gameplay and by nature of being separate assignments with only a few that are connected, there isn’t an overarching story per-say but there are consistent themes and style throughout. Touching on humor as well as serious themes gives a balance to the game that prevents stagnation. Much of the game's world details are absurd from the overly complex sports to the absurd government but there is deeper if you look. Corporations and labor are frequent topics of discussion with a union rep as one of the major characters you interact with frequently on the ship arguing for the necessity of unions even in a seemingly fair and caring workplace. Ethics are considered especially with the reputation and tone systems as you question whether it’s best to sensationalize for readership or stick to facts which may be more boring but boost reputation, will you spend your time writing fluff pieces for business or softballing government officials? Or will you dig deeper? Robots have a complexity to them, some are happy to do and are always doing the job they were programmed for but others seem less so and are even sad at their existence being programmed and usually for one task or job, is it right to be programmed for a specific job? Some of these you’d never find by simply going about the assignments, talking to everyone on the ship is where the real depth comes out and is what makes it have some deeper meaning beyond the cute and humorous seeming presentation. [h1]★★★★☆[/h1]

Pretty good game. I like the way you build stories, but it's frustrating that you can be so limited in options for some of the stories. The personalities of the NPCs are not often easy to read, so it's quite likely you'll make a dialogue choice that doesn't work and then you effectively get locked out of interviewing them for useful info. I thought the charisma cap might help nail it down a little, but it really feels mostly useless. Sometimes it feels sloooowwwwww. Like, antagonizingly slow. By the end, it all feels repetitive. There are multiple storylines to follow through dialogue with the characters, but the news game play doesn't have any. In fact, what you write doesn't feel like it affects the game at all which I think is a missed opportunity to really flesh this out. Overall, not time waster but I'm not necessarily stoked on this. Fun enough, finished the game, but that's about it.

12/16/2024: Looking back, I approached this review with a bit of fanboy-ism. Updated today to better fit my overall experience (after a replay) [h2]Times & Galaxy: An incredibly well-written, knee-slapping, and [i]heart-eyed[/i] adventure. 8/10[/h2] [h3]Opening:[/h3] [i]Times & Galaxy[/i] is the second game by Copychaser Games, the other being [i]Speed Dating for Ghosts.[/i] While the latter has had a good amount of success, the former, T&G, has had a much smaller reception. I find this incredibly unjust, as I have just recently finished the former, and I can confidently say it's going on my favorites list. The unique dialogue options, the goofy dumb-fun comedy moments, and the lovey-dovey flirting mechanics are so creative it makes me giggle and kick my feet in the air like I'm talking to someone I have a crush on (which you can do in this game!!!) [h3]Story[/h3] You are *NAME_REF!!ERROR*, the newest ReporterBot fresh off the production line with the best internship ever: a position at universe-renowned Times & Galaxy! Venture to other planets and get the scoop on the latest, then compile it into your best possible writing. Just remember, there's no such thing as a perfect paper. T&G's story is easily understandable from the get-go, but they make so many interesting choices with each passing cycle. From an interesting shuttle crash site, to a seemingly haunted farm, each story to report on is wonderfully unique. Each interaction is filled with natural dialogue, reasonable dialogue options, and goofy comedy. Endings: SPOILER WARNING!!! I will be covering the endings (of which there are a few)! Blacked out text directly spoils the endings. Overall, I didn't like the endings. If I had to use one word, I'd say rushed. In the Sensational ending, [spoiler]Wyren is hired, and the ship's systems go down the same cycle. Everyone assumes they did it, but it was actually Puff Piece! Hahaha, everyone laughs, credits roll.[/spoiler] After this one, I felt a bit odd. Obviously a happy ending, but everything just feels so tightly packed in, especially since it has to fit into one cycle. In the Alien Interest ending, [spoiler]Arwin quits, and the higher-ups elect Richard Gravity to take their place. You race after Arwin, and, depending on how your dialogue goes, they either take their leave or stay for good.[/spoiler] After this one, I felt okay. Despite the fact that [spoiler]it's not made very clear that you can make them stay[/spoiler], I thought the idea of the ending being dependent on correctly picking dialogue prompts was pretty cool. In the Informational ending, [spoiler]almost half the ship is fired. You can't sell papers on just info, dummy![/spoiler] After this one, I didn't feel so good. Obviously, it's a hard truth for a lot of real-life journalist companies. But previously, it was possible to change sad endings to happy ones, like in the Alien ending. The build-up of other characters saying things along the lines of "Oh, maybe you can change their mind!", just like the Alien ending, just to not let the player do it really hurt my experience. 8/10 [h3]Gameplay/Controls[/h3] The gameplay loop is fairly simple: pick a story (or have one picked for you), venture off, gather intel, and form a story. Based of your story, you can gain or lose Reputation and Readership. The best articles rise both, and the worst lower them. But, between the simple loop is some of the most natural, goofy dialogue I've seen in a game like this. Want to talk to a floating ball of goop inside a jar with a robot body? Go ahead. Want to pet a slimy space-dog? Be my guest. Want to form a loving relationship with CopyBot? They'd love that! The diversity of options you have while talking to these people is great, too. One downside, however, is the controls are unable to be remapped. If you are using a keyboard, you're out of luck (unless you want to use a 3rd-party app). Controller users can rebind buttons using Steam Input, however. 9/10 [h3]Replayability[/h3] [strike]I will admit, I have not started a new playthrough just yet, but I can tell it's going to be great. Most cycles have multiple options to write papers on, so it takes a few playthroughs to experience everything. Some of the earlier sections, however, may be a drag, as it does take a few cycles to unlock sprinting.[/strike] I have replayed the game! The second time through was almost as good as the first, but some of the earlier sections did have a bit of that dragging feeling. The game does take at least 2 replays to get all the stories you can, and one playthrough took roughly 12 hours for all the dialogue for me. Also, I spread misinformation by saying sprinting takes a few cycles to unlock, when you actually receive it on your very first cycle aboard. 8/10 [h3]Diversity[/h3] Yeah, this game has it all. You have multiple options in terms of relationships, whether it be a male, female, or genderless (robots and the like), you can pick he/she/they when making your ReporterBot, and multiple characters are shown to be LGBTQ+. The game also contains a lot of metaphors for real life topics, like gender identity. One species has a large ceremony to give their young a title they bear for life, basically telling them the life they will live. One of the characters on your ship, however, didn't agree with their title, so they left home to pursue their own dreams. A pretty clear metaphor, but we like those here. If I must add one negative, it feels a bit like the stereotypical "grr change is bad!" character felt a bit dry and too close to reality. I understand that's the message they're going for, but it just seemed to take me out of the game a bit. 9/10 [h3]Music[/h3] There aren't really any stand-out tracks, other than the opening theme song (which is a banger). [strike]The music never seemed out of place, however.[/strike] I will say, the song for the ending credits feels really out of place, especially when you get one of the happier endings. 7/10. [h3]Bugs[/h3] [strike]I encountered a couple bugs in my playthrough, but most of them never seemed to take me out of the experience. There was one instance, however, where I somehow got caught in an infinite loop during a conversation, so that will impact my score. However, other bugs were much less jarring, and felt easy to overlook.[/strike] I have encountered many more bugs on my second playthrough. Here are a few: [list] [*]While talking to Oren during a certain cycle on the ship, I got stuck in an infinite loop of dialogue that required a restart. [*]While talking to a character during the first Orphan story, I was softlocked after completing the dialogue with them. [*]Upon clicking a bit too fast while talking to ScannerBot, their face was stuck on my screen for a while. [*]ReporterBot's overall movement speed is tied to the frame-rate. Higher FPS means slower movement. [*]Not 100% sure if this is a bug, but some of the dialogue options seemed wrong. Asking a character question A resulted sometimes in a response for question B. [*]After a big plot-point during the naming ceremony, no characters had an exclamation point above their head, despite the fact they now had new interactions [/list] That's just a few off the top of my head. I understand the game is indie, so the bugs are more understandable, but the large number of them is the reason that I am docking points. 5/10 [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Overall, [i]Times & Galaxy[/i] was an incredible experience. It felt nice rizzing up JanitorBot, and it'll feel nice again in my next playthrough. I very recommend this game to any Visual Novel fans, as it's expansive dialogue and goofy interactions really brighten any mood. I give [i]Times & Galaxy[/i] an 8/10. The two points are subtracted for it's many bugs, un-remappable controls, and a few [spoiler]somewhat anti-climatic "out-of-left-field"[/spoiler] endings. [spoiler]Oh my dear Yar, they could never make me hate you[/spoiler]