This Weird Time Travel Adventure Makes Me Miss The Days When Konami Made Cool, Interesting Games
In 2003, Konami released a really strange game for the PS2. Shadow of Destiny (also known as Shadow of Memories in some regions) is an atmospheric adventure game about a guy trying to prevent his own murder, set across a variety of time periods—from the 1500s to the present day. Protagonist Eike Kusch, one of the worst designed characters in video game history, is repeatedly killed by an unseen assailant, including at the very beginning of the game. He's walking obliviously along a cobbled street in the historic German town of Lebensbaum, before suddenly slumping to the ground with a knife in his back.
Related: Facing Worlds Is The Greatest Multiplayer Map Ever Made
This should be the end of Kusch and his stupid hair, but he's spared from oblivion by an eerie being calling itself Homunculus, voiced by Charles "It's-a-me, Mario!" Martinet. He wakes up in an otherworldly void, silent except for the ticking of a giant grandfather clock, and is gifted a device called a Digipad. With this, Kusch can travel back in time to avoid getting that knife in his back. But as he meddles with the space-time continuum, the town of Lebensbaum and the lives of the citizens who live there are altered too. Not that Kusch cares: he's a detached weirdo who doesn't seem to care about the temporal chaos he's causing.
Every time Kusch survives a murder attempt, another is always lying in wait. In one chapter the killer strikes from behind a tree, and preventing this particular death is a perfect example of how the puzzles in Shadow of Memories work. (Also, of how ridiculous they are.) Kusch travels back to medieval times, finds the guy planting the tree, and convinces him to plant some flowers instead. Back in the modern day, the tree is gone,
Read more on thegamer.com
