Shadow of Destiny (PSP, 2009)

Rating: 9.5/10
If you couldn’t tell from my Monster House (and to an extent TWEWY) review, I really enjoy playing obscure games. Some of my top favorite games aren’t AAA titles like Mario and Uncharted and instead are games like Jet Set Radio and Rule of Rose. Shadow of Destiny is definitely one of those favorites. Shadow of Destiny follows Eike, a guy with a last name I can’t pronounce, who dies… Literally in the first cut scene… But he’s okay. He gets a mysterious device, the Z-Pad, by a character named Homunculus. The Z-Pad allows Eike to travel through time in order to change his fate, and possibly the fate of others…

From that, you can figure out that this game is a time-traveling murder mystery, similar to Ghost Trick. To be honest, there isn’t really a lot I can say about Shadow of Destiny without spoiling major plot points. The story heavily involves alchemy, and you frequently go to the 1500s, where you lose someone during your first trip…Whoops. It’s important to note that the places you travel to have a connection to Eike and his death.

One thing to point out is that there isn’t much aside from getting from Point A to Point B. Unlike Ghost Trick, there’s no puzzles, or even some sort of combat. It’s almost like a walking simulator, and your only enemy is time itself. It’s truly centered around the story. As someone who doesn’t really like walking simulators, I feel like there could have been some kind of puzzle placed here and there. Then again, I really did like the story, and there’s eight possible endings you can get.

Pros:

+ A rich story

+ Multiple endings and replay value
+ Side quests

Cons:
- There’s not much of a challenge


Final Thoughts:
Shadow of Destiny is a fantastic PS2/PSP title that has an interesting story for its time and even holds up now. For someone who isn’t very fond of walking simulators, I really enjoyed this for the story and the plot twists kept me playing. I played the PSP version, which is pretty much a full port of the PS2 game with a few altered/added things, like the acting. It goes unsaid, but I highly recommend this game. There’s another game by Shadow of Destiny’s writer, called Time Hollow. I can’t wait to play that, as I hope that it’s as good as Shadow of Destiny.