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The Time Crystals of Cythii

by Garry Francis profile

(based on 3 ratings)
Estimated play time: 2 hours and 30 minutes (based on 2 votes)
Members voted for the following times for this game:
  • 3 hours: "used some hints" — Zape
  • 2 hours: "used a lot of hints once stuck" — MathBrush
2 reviews4 members have played this game.

About the Story

For generations, your family have been the guardians of the Time Crystals of Cythii. It's a pretty cushy job. All you have to do is prevent the crystals from being stolen, but no one would be stupid enough to steal them or the stability of time would be torn to shreds.

Unfortunately, the unthinkable has happened.

While your parents were out doing the shopping, you were left in charge. You must have dozed off and someone snuck into the time tower and stole the crystals. This has resulted in time warps appearing all over time in the worst possible places. You can't even travel through the time tower without being warped to a different time period.

It's your duty to find the crystals and return them to their rightful place before your parents get home, or you will be in big, big trouble!

Awards

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(2)
3 star:
(1)
2 star:
(0)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 3 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 2
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Time travel to five famous disasters, May 18, 2025
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This is a compact puzzle game. You are a young keeper of time, and the time crystals have been stolen, opening up portals to famous disasters.

Disasters include a lot of conflagarations, like Krakatoa, Hindenburg, and the London Fire, balanced by the icy Titanic sinking and mediated by the San Francisco earthquake.

Some subareas are small, with most being 3-4 rooms and a couple being significantly larger.

Puzzle solution generally revolves around finding an item in one area that allows progress another, so basically like a key-door structure (with three of the items being actual keys, although none get used for doors).

The game is decidedly puzzle-oriented. Time travel is ripe for philosophical quandaries, questions of ethics, unrequited hopes, resignation, ontological paradoxes, butterfly effect, etc. Here, the author has neatly sidestepped all of this, avoiding any deep contemplation about time travel. Time resets every time you leave and enter an area, but only the watch time; all things you did remain in effect and all NPCs remember what you told them. Trying to warn individuals about disasters has no effect or reaction.

The lack of implicit actions in PunyInform is frustrating. A lot of gameplay was like:
>GO [location in water]

You can't do that while holding things.

(oh right, I'm holding a key).

>PUT KEY IN [container]

I splash around a bit and get somewhere. Now I need the key.

>UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY.

You're not holding the Key.

>GET KEY. UNLOCK DOOR.

The door is unlocked.

> ENTER DOOR.

The door is not open.

>OPEN DOOR. ENTER DOOR.

I do what I need to. Time to leave into the water.

'You can't do that while holding items'.

That's a vague excerpt, but some implicit actions for going through closed doors and using items that are in a carried container would be nice. Similarly, X SIGN and READ SIGN are different, which could be interesting, but almost all the descriptions for X-ing things with writing just say 'This is a readable thing. It would be neat to read it', so I wonder if it would be easier to just assume the player wants to READ it whenever they X it. It would be very difficult to examine a sign in real life without reading it, since most of a sign is words.

I did softlock myself once by getting really far into an area and not being able to return to the portal in time, so I recommend saving.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Short and sweet, May 4, 2025

This game reminds me a bit of Francis' other game "Acid Rain". Both fun little puzzlers that aren't too difficult.

I got stuck a couple of times, but if you're thorough and look at everything and try actions more than once to make sure you've achieved everything, you'll likely finish the game without much difficulty or needing to consult hints.

Recommended for beginners or for IF veterans who want some lite puzzle fun without too much hair pulling or a large time investment.

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This is version 1 of this page, edited by Garry Francis on 1 May 2025 at 3:57am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page