Sanrio Time Net

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KenjutheDenjuu(imported)
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:53 am

Re: Sanrio Time Net

Post by KenjutheDenjuu(imported) »

Yes, Sanrio actually did their own monster catching/raising RPG! I've been reading up on it lately since I have the games. There are two version of the game, Sanrio Time Net Past and Sanrio Time Net Future and the games play somewhat similairly to Pokemon. Also, both of the games are made by Imagineer, who are now known as.....The Rocket Company!! The very same company that made the second Dino Device and the Medarot games. I thought this was pretty interesting since I didn't know they had previously gone by another name (or been another company for that matter).

Also I discovered the series was actually based on a manga too, albeit without the cutesy Sanrio characters included. There was also a Pokemon-like giveaway event for a rare monster who could only be gotten be being a part of the Sanrio Time Net Club and receiving a code I think?

The games themselves are fun and look interesting from the videos i've seen. You get a pick of three starters at the start of the game, with each being different types. The monsters in the game are also very cute and the story is interesting for a Sanrio game. Apparently, you're sent an email by the father of time and asked to help out and save the world and such while also collecting monsters. You get to meet a few of the Sanrio characters on the way while travelling around the game, although I don't know what role they play in the story. I think the games themselves are somewhat obscure, but I guess they're like Telefang in that a few people know about them.

Here are some gameplay videos:

Introduction to the game (plus a small amount of gameplay)
Part 2 of the above video (more gameplay)
Another video of Intro + gameplay
Part 1 of a Japanese walkthrough

Later on, Imagineer released another set of monster RPG games called Space Net Cosmo Red and Space Net Cosmo Blue which are totally different games, but feature some of the monsters from Sanrio Time Net. A video of Cosmo Blue is here.
Torchickens(imported)
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:25 pm

Re: Sanrio Time Net

Post by Torchickens(imported) »

*bump*

Since I have recently beaten Kako Hen (past edition), I thought I'd share my SAV file. (download) I basically followed a Japanese TAS of the game on Niconico Video.

Like a year ago or so, I got stuck and stopped playing Sanrio Timenet as I wasn't aware of some backtracking involved, but now I've finally done it! Here's the ending of the game (spoilers). I couldn't have done it without savestates because at the level you're likely to be the two final bosses (see spoilers below for names) require a strategy. Firstly both final bosses are at level 99 so your attacks will hardly do anything and secondly, she'll just keep on regenerating health after she 'withdraws' herself and sends out a random monster. I had to keep reloading save states so that the final boss missed when I healed and so I could use 2-Bai Gaeshi (Japanese: 2ばいがえし); i.e. essentially the equivalent of counter when the final boss hit. Perhaps you could beat her with brute force if you one-hitted every monster, but I don't know.
Spoiler!
Monster Zakki (Japanese: モンスターザッキ) and White Zakkī (Japanese: ホワイトザッキー)
In relation to the gameplay in general I thought the story was interesting. I actually wrote out the plot and introduction process, so here it is:
wrote:Time was flowing properly in the world of Timenet, the home of the Old Man of Time, thanks to the Pillar of Time which is responsible for the flow of the past, the present and the future. However, due to the work of someone, the Pillar of Time was broken into small pieces and the world was divided into the past and the future.
The protagonist receives an email from the Old Man of Time, who explains the situation and requests that he or she helps save the world of Timenet by collecting the Time Fragments, before the flow of time is permanently lost.
You have to give your character a name from any of the standard hiragana/katakana and their scaled forms, numbers and a few symbols. The Old Man of Time also asks you the name of a friend, who is the opposite gender to you. She will race you to change the world of Timenet back to its original state, and will act as your rival at various points in the game.
Soon after, the Old Man of Time takes you to the world of the past. For some reason, you hear a girl exclaim "help me" while you are travelling…
When you arrive at the Old Man of Time's world, he gives you a bodyguard and you get to choose from No. 06 Pikapochi, No. 37 Unchinbōya or No. 67 Hyūpo, all at level one. I don't know their stats, though Pikapochi' final evolution is at level 36, Unchinbōya's final evolution is at level 42 and Hyūpo's final evolution is at level 45. He will also give you ten Get Cards to catch monsters. The Pillar of Time will gradually come together again the more monsters you collect.
In addition to that, you also have to collect watches.

The music is good and there are some good monster designs, but some of them are not so good, e.g. there are a couple of 'monsters' that look like humans. The game has a nice charm to it, though...

I'll talk about some of the downsides of the game in the following three paragraphs.

The random encounters in the game can get a little annoying. Like some other monster battling games random encounters in Sanrio Timenet can happen almost anywhere, so you can't avoid them, and sadly there doesn't seem to be a 'Repel' item. You don't get an item that lets you warp akin to Fly in Pokémon until very late in the game, so this amplifies the random encounter problem, even though the world of Sanrio Timenet seems to be smaller than Kanto. There is a steep difficulty curve near the first-second section or so of the game and I found the two final bosses too be ridiculously hard to the point that you'll find yourself stuck if you haven't prepared a strategy.

The language barrier in the game may be a problem if you plan on playing this game without watching the Japanese TAS I talked about above. Although I now can recognize all hiragana/katakana fairly easily I don't understand Japanese sentence structures much at all, and there is a lot of text, so you may find yourself transcribing it all for a relatively long amount of time. As there is some backtracking in these games this is a problem. In particular, when you get to the place after boarding the ship there are places like a couple of caves that might not even have exits, so you may waste a large amount of time after that point and become disinterested in the game. Also, it may be the case that characters don't tell you what to do, though I haven't checked the text.

Another downside that isn't so bad if you know how to avoid it is a Jetboat glitch. Basically, you can't use the Jetboat if you open the menu with Start and then use it from the items by pressing Select. In my run, this was a big problem at first because you need to use it, and I originally couldn't find a definitive solution, however, you can easily prevent the problem by opening the items with B from the overworld. There is also a small musical glitch where a note may hang in battle, which although relatively rare can be annoying.

Without its downsides, Sanrio Timenet is a good game. I own the guidebook for Kako-Hen and I'm considering getting the Timenet manga. I also started an English Sanrio Timenet Wiki like the Japanese one, originally so I could understand the game better before beating it but I haven't made any plans on devoting myself to it, as perhaps working on Starfy Wiki is enough. I am thinking about making pages for all the monsters though.

Regarding the rare monsters. There are actually four event monsters, or illusory monsters as they're officially called. I've listed them here on the TCRF article, with pictures.
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