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Time Tenshi 2
PC (Steam)
Significantly More Voluminous
3.5/5 stars
“Time Tenshi 2” (“TT2”) was released a scant 7 months after the original “Time Tenshi,” a super-short Visual Novel (VN) that ended on an abrupt cliffhanger just when it seemed to be getting started. “TT2” looked, at first, to be more of the same, with all of the same shortcomings, but a longer runtime. However, Silver Cow Studios, the ecchi Indie team behind this series, took player criticisms to heart and released a Special Edition of “TT2,” which includes significantly more of the things VN fans expect. While the original version of “TT2” weighed-in at the same definitely-not-token price of $10 as the original, the Special Edition (which can be had either as DLC for “TT2” or as a stand-alone title) is an even heftier $16, when it’s not on sale.
Not wanting to forget the events of the original “Time Tenshi” I dove into the sequel immediately afterward, and found a significantly fuller-bodied, gamier experience… that’s still horrifically overpriced.
Presentation
“TT2” looks and sounds much the same as its predecessor. It’s still built in the free Ren’Py Engine and recycles a good deal of the character art. There are some new characters, though, and a decent amount of new art as well. “TT2” still has the same problems with art style consistency as its predecessor, thanks to the dialog portraits and the full-screen bromides being done by different people of different skill levels, though it seems that the ‘worse’ artist has improved a bit with practice. However, it’s noteworthy that “TT2” tries to up its Cinematic value by doing more with the Ren’Py Engine’s limited animation capabilities. Very rarely, this sequel actually has big bouncing boobs… at a whopping 2 frames per second, since the ‘animation’ is really just max-speed portrait swapping.
The boobs still aren’t all that big, though, and in a few cases, the team at Silver Cow had decided to mix their fetishes by including some giantess and amazon material, which didn’t appeal to me. Regardless, the girls’ base bustlines have all been bumped up a notch, so perhaps if the ‘Time Tenshi’ series keeps going long enough, we might actually see some truly big boobs in a mainstream videogame.
Audio is still incredibly generic. It features the same generic VN soundtrack and, again, no voice acting at all.
“TT2” improves slightly on its predecessor technically, as it natively supports Xinput controllers Unfortunately, it is still devoid of other options, such as resolution.
Story
“TT2” picks up immediately after the events of the original “Time Tenshi,” causing the first game to be nothing more than a glorified prologue to the real deal. “TT2” is also roughly 3-4 times longer than the original, allowing it to be significantly more in-depth.
At the end of “Time Tenshi,” our hero, Kenji Johnson, causes a time paradox that re-wrote part of the present, and the resulting time ripple caused Time Window technician, Michelle, to become trapped inside the device. The villains from the prologue game suddenly reappear, and seem to have no memory of their dealings with the heroes.
Thus Kenji, his grandfather Tensai, and the two remaining girls set out to put a stop to the villains’ plans to change the future by creating large numbers of temporal paradoxes. Despite Michelle’s continued presence as a hologram inside the Time Window, Tensai decides to hire another scientist to bolster the size of the crew… and he picks a hickish, pig-headed ex-cheerleader-turned-hacker named Tessa, who immediately fails to hit it off with Kyo and Rose.
This much longer, more-fleshed out narrative of “TT2” involves many more choices for the player to make as Kenji, all of which earn affinity points with the four girls. The game also includes two major choices, which ultimately determine which bonus scene the player sees at the end of the game, as well as another major decision that least to the Bad End or the Good End. While “TT2” is still rather linear and devoid of choices compared to the more renowned example of the Visual Novel genre, the visible improvement in Silver Cow’s endeavors is quite positive.
With 5 different possible endings (all with a decent sense of closure), well-thought-out sci-fi themes, and some moderately impressive boobs (still none of the navel-obscuring variety, though), “TT2” actually feels like a complete product that could be sold at retail and expect to receive positive word of mouth.
Gameplay
“TT2” is the same type of basic VN that was its predecessor. The vast majority of the gameplay involves clicking to advance the story text and occasionally making a choice on behalf of the main character.
In “TT2,” as mentioned, there are a lot more choices, and each of them can earn affinity with one or more of the four women of the Time Angels crew. Also, as mentioned, there are two big decisions, which both must target the same girl in order to get her bonus scene (and the game flat-out says this in the credits if the player fails to get a bonus ending). Failing to earn enough affinity with a given girl prior to the big scenes prevents her from appearing as an option, which can add a bit of replay value. Replaying the game is also not a chore, as any previously-seen text can simply be skipped at high-speed on subsequent runs. I was pleased that by playing naturally and without consulting any FAQs, I ended up with the ending I wanted right off the bat, and was able to speed through for the alternate scenes with ease.
Overall
If Silver Cow Studios strapped the first two ‘Time Tenshi’ titles together and sold them as a single unit, they might have something that approaches their beloved $10 asking price. With a much longer run-time, a fuller-figured story, a reasonable amount of choices, and honest-to-goodness romance options, “TT2’s” Special Edition comes dangerously close to being a good Visual Novel. As is, it’s probably the best Visual Novel about big boobs getting bigger while traveling through time that’s available for purchase on Steam.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 2.5/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
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