How could such a cool concept become something so insipid?
Time Hollow tells the story of Ethan Kairos, whose 17th birthday is shaken up when he receives a pen that can alter the past. He discovers that his parents have gone missing and it's up to him to fix the past, keeping in mind possible repercussions, and ultimately create a better future. The story is spread over six days, each of which takes only about an hour to complete, but you won't get truly invested in the story until about the third day. At that point, the story picks up, gets interesting, and starts to grab the player. For the first couple hours of play, though, the game's a complete dud.
Time Hollow's biggest problem, however, is the lack of options given to the player. Almost everything the player needs to do is expressly told to the player, and all conversations and important events are triggered automatically. When the game does give you freedom, it's vague on what needs to be done, and a lot of time can be wasted by aimlessly looking for a tiny clue that must be found. It's not exactly fun and can actually become annoying. It's near-impossible to get a game over; it's tough to actually call Time Hollow a game.
In terms of presentation, Time Hollow is nice. The soundtrack is decent, but far from special and the graphics are pretty, but rather standard stuff for the DS with some pretty bland design choices. The highlights are the rare, and annoyingly brief, full-motion cutscenes that are a nice escape from reading hackneyed dialogue throughough the game. Though each character has a unique personality and unique hobbies, they all seem to be the same. There's little attempt at any humor, and at times, Time Hollow can be a complete bore.
Overall, Time Hollow is a huge disappointment. After playing the game, I found myself wondering whether it actually started off as a video game. It seems to be better suited for a manga or television mini-series, but definetly not for a form of interactive enterainment like video games. The story's concept is engaging, even if its delivery isn't, but Time Hollow's ultimate crime is how it simply isn't fun.