Would an open-world RPG featuring time travel work?

[Joshumitsu]

With the Bethesda engine, it has allowed people to experience virtual worlds in a way that not many people could've imagined 10-15 years ago. Imagine using a similar engine for a concept like Chrono Trigger, where what you do in the past effects how things turn out in the future. Imagine switching back and forth between different eras, weapons, cultures, customs, NPC's, etc. Perhaps things turn out differently in one era if you assist the "main quest" in a previous era or if you invest in resources in one era, it effects the economy in the next. If you saved civilization from orcs or something, people could look at you as a hero in the next era or scorn your name if you haven't completed a "main quest" in another era because your "abandonment" led to them being enslaved by the orcs or lizardmen or whatever and until you complete a prior era's main quest, you'll get the shaft in the future eras. It doesn't even have to be a humans vs. orcs/good vs. bad storyline but more about a character getting stuck in the past and trying to bring balance within the realm of time. You'd really only need three to five eras: Perhaps, a Jurassic period, a medieval period, a modern day period, and a futuristic period. The worlds of each period don't even need to be as big as Fallout's or Skyrim's.

 

I mean, the possibility could be endless. It'd be ambitious and something entirely different from what everyone has seen but it'd give gamers a chance to experience open worlds in a way they've never done so before; virtual time travel. Essentially, it could even be doable now and would just be similar to the mod that linked Fallout 3 and New Vegas together. The only problem is how much resources would be involved....which again, it doesn't even have to be too big. The idea is to give gamers the ability to experience the effects an individual may have in one place/time in relation to the next.

 

What do you think? Would it be doable? If not now, what about in 5-10 years?

[Vagrant0]

Interesting concept, but silly complicated to do it in an open world style unless you outright prevent paradoxes and limit timeline changes to only key events. But at that it really isn't an open world any more. The Soul Reaver series did some things with this, but I don't think that franchise went anywhere after the 4th game.

[Vindekarr]

Absolutely awesome concept, absolutely nightmarish to do with current tech. There are a few games with time rewind features that roll-back time to give you a second chance, but they're almost exclusively racing games, and it's used simply to make them more forgiving to novice drivers. What you're talking about would be... phenominaly awesome, I dearly hope someone does it evenrtualy. :thumbsup:

[tnu]

The problem is as you say the possibilities are endless. It would not be possible or likely at least to calculate all the possible veriables for such a scenario.

[Dovahkriid]

first of all - chrono trigger = awesome game, i'm playing it now.

then yeah, it's a fantastic concept but it is impossible to make (at least for now). for example, look at skyrim: one era, big world, many bugs. imagine now 5 eras: bugs are increasing logaritmically: manybugs*manybugs*manybugs*manybugs*manybugs = totally unplayable. the only solution that i see are the semi-random progressive generated content, like quests, npcs, items, and maps. something like this is possible, but it requires too much effort. but partially, you can find these features right now: minecraft=random terrain, spore=random terrain, npc.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Dovahkriid