RELATED: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Vs Majora’s Mask – Which Game Is Better?
However, this upcoming game is far from the first to explore gameplay with time loop phenomena. There are plenty of games out there that have thoroughly investigated how to tell a fascinating story and make a compelling game where time keeps resetting. They range in genre, from horror to adventure-comedy, and vastly differentiate in mechanics. Some are famous while others are a little more obscure.
Updated December 20, 2021 by Allison Stalberg: Deathloop has come out and has won awards such as Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction, and Critics Choice. Its reviews have been stellar as well, getting a perfect 10 out of 10 from PCGamesN and GameSpot.
With its success, players have been hungry for more time-loop games. Luckily for them, there are plenty out there. However, they have a broad range in terms of settings and gameplay genre. In the end, fans will have plenty of options when it comes to finding a game they enjoy that utilizes this trope.
15 The Zero Escape Series
The Zero Escape series is a trilogy of games that puts nine characters in incredibly stressful escape-room, death-game situations. Death is common, but not permanent because the character’s consciousness time loops back to the beginning each time they die.
In terms of genre, the games are science fiction and horror. The gameplay is in choice and puzzles. Typical of a time-loop narrative, the story is far from linear and branches out based on different choices. The character learns from those choices and eventually can get the true ending. The games are also decently long for the horror genre.
14 Raging Loop
Raging Loop is a visual novel, a game that is mostly read but tasks the player with choices to make. The story is about a man who ends up in a run-down village that is forced into a horrific ritual called the Feast of Yomi. The ritual is basically the party game, Werewolf, and the villagers try to hang a wolf among them every day while the wolves kill a villager at night.
RELATED: The Best Horror Visual Novels According To VNDB
The protagonist is trapped in a time loop of this ritual and has to find out why and how to break out of the loop.
13 Elsinore
Elsinore is Shakespeare’s Hamlet within a time loop story. The player takes the role of Ophelia, who has a vision of everyone in the castle dying. She relives the same four days over and over and uses this loop to find out how to prevent the tragedy of Hamlet from occurring.
The indie game was released on Steam in 2019 and is a point-and-click adventure. The player has to use what they learn from each loop to try to change fate.
12 The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Majora’s Mask is among one of the most famous games to use a time-loop narrative. Link has a time limit of three days before the loop resets. Part of what makes this time-loop story unique is that it plays out in real-time.
Three days of in-game time are about 54 minutes of real-time for the player. This mechanic does add a certain amount of stress on the player, as that means they sometimes need to rush to get certain quests done.
11 Returnal
Returnal holds similarities with Deathloop in being a new game in the world of time-loop narratives. The story focuses on the protagonist, Selene, crash landing on an alien planet. Every time she dies on the planet, she loops back to the crash. Once she dies and is set on a new time loop, she loses most of her items but permanently gets to keep other things like keys, ether, and gadgets.
RELATED: Returnal: Tips For Surviving The Echoing Ruins Biome
Returnal falls into the third-person shooter genre. Being one of the more recent time-loop games, it garnered many fans and high-quality reviews from various publications such as Game Informer and GameSpot.
10 Minit
Released on Steam in 2018, Minit is a time loop game with one of the shortest loops of all, each loop only being 60 seconds long. The adventure indie game is charming and short enough to beat in one sitting. The plot is about the protagonist finding a sword that turns out to be cursed. The curse makes it so they die and respawn in a loop of a single minute.
In terms of style, the game is pretty retro and light-hearted. In terms of reviews on Steam, they are very positive.
9 GrimGrimoire
GrimGrimoire is on the older side, having been released back in 2007 for the PS2. The game is a real-time strategy sidescroller. The plot is basically Harry Potter meets time-loop shenanigans. Players take the role of a trainee witch, Lillet, who is in a time-loop of five days. On the fifth day, teachers and students of her magic school are killed by an evil wizard seeking a philosopher’s stone.
Throughout the loops, Lillet learns all she can about the secrets of the magic academy, her teachers, and classmates so that she can find a way to stop the fifth-day tragedy.
8 Randal’s Monday
Randal’s Monday is a dark-comedy point-and-click game about a man trapped in a loop of a single day. The protagonist is cursed by committed selfish actions and must set himself right to undo the curse that put him in the loop.
RELATED: Forgotten Adventure Games You Need To Play
The game is littered with pop culture references and fans love it for its adult humor. However, it also contains cons, such as difficult puzzles that require walkthroughs and possessing no auto-save feature.
7 Dinner With An Owl
Released in May of 2021, Dinner with an Owl is a short free-to-play game on Steam. It is a must-play for fans of escape rooms and gothic styles. In terms of the gameplay, it is a point-and-click adventure with the goal of escaping a mansion.
Reviews have recommended the game due to its interesting art style, unsettling storyline, and eerie music. Of course, like Deathloop, the story loops as well.
6 Undertale
Undertale is a famous game, and its time-loop aspects are often in the background of its comedy, characters, and story. This is because the time-loop depends solely on the player and how many times they will restart the game. Undertale views the common game restart through a meta-lens. Some characters will remember your previous actions.
RELATED: Best Turn-Based RPGs On The Nintendo Switch
If you once beat the game on a Genocide run, even the perfect ending changes slightly because the story never forgets. To save and load the game is part of the protagonists’ special ability, making it a time-loop game.
5 The Sexy Brutale
The Sexy Brutale is an adventure point-and-click indie game that takes place within a 12-hour time-loop of a masked ball where guests are murdered by the staff. The game is considered easy, but incredibly fun. The party is at a casino mansion with 10 interesting guests.
As the player time-loops over and over, players are tasked with sabotaging the attempted murders done by the staff to save the guests. The game is loved for its story, and the main complaints by fans include the game being short and being too easy.
4 The Forgotten City
Like Deathloop, The Forgotten City is another time loop game that came out in 2021 with overwhelmingly positive results. It is an adventure indie RPG set in Rome. Players get to make their own character and explore the open world of an ancient Roman city while trying to solve the mystery of a time loop.
Reviews have praised the game for its story, charming characters, twists, and thoughtful discussions of philosophy and post-colonialism. Many have recommended just playing the game without reading much about it to avoid spoilers.
3 Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds is about a solar system trapped in a time loop. In terms of genre, it is an action-adventure open-world mystery game. You play as a new recruit to a new space program and learn the mysteries of the solar system and whether the time-loop can be stopped.
Many fans seal their lips about this game, as it is best played with no spoilers. After all, the title is all about collecting information.
2 Steins; Gate
The visual novel Steins; Gate has won many awards and spawned both anime and manga adaptations. Time travel is at the center of the story and understanding how it works is central to the narrative. The complex story has spawned many fan theories, and many of them have to do with time loops.
While the game came out back in 2009, it has gotten a ton of related media over the past 11 years from novels to board games and drama CDs.
1 12 Minutes
12 Minutes is another time-loop game that released in 2021. The loop is just 12 minutes long as the player watches the lives of the inhabitants of a small apartment to solve a mystery from a top-down perspective. It is up to the player to solve the mystery and to keep trying each loop to get the best result.
Along with Returnal and Deathloop, 12 Minutes makes three time-loop games released in one year. The rest are scattered in terms of when they were released. What makes this year so special? A theory to the sudden spike of time-loop games is that it’s a self-expression of the feelings of repetitive days of quarantining from the pandemic. Taking place in a small apartment, 12 Minutes certainly does explore such a timely theme.
MORE: The Most Immersive Open World Games
