Shadow of Destiny

Description

A young man named Eike Kusch strolls through the quiet patriarchal German town Lebensbaum. Suddenly, a tremendous blow darkens the sight of his eyes, and the next thing he can see is a very strange room filled with bizarre objects, and a voice talking to him from nowhere. A mysterious being known as Homunculus tells Eike that he has been stabbed to death. Homunculus gives Eike a time-travelling device and brings him back to life a short while before his murder took place. From that moment on, Eike's miraculously acquired second chance turns into a constant race against time, as he tries to escape from his destiny. In order to alter the course of events, preventing the unknown person from carrying out his murder, Eike will have to travel back in time as far as the 16th century, meeting people closely connected to his own existence and changing the fabric of reality.

Shadow of Memories (Shadow of Destiny in North America) is an adventure game. There are no action elements in the game, and the protagonist has no health bar. Each chapter has a time limit, during which Eike has to find a way to prevent the murderer from killing him. This is mainly achieved by traveling through time to different hours, days, years, and even centuries. Obtaining a crucial item, having a conversation with a specific character, or performing another action in the past will prevent Eike from getting killed. Time-traveling requires energy units, which can be found by exploring the town. If Eike fails to achieve the goal at hand within the allotted time and prevent his murder, the chapter must be restarted.

During the course of the game the player will have several choices and opportunities to change the future in various ways. Due to the time-traveling feature, many objectives can be accomplished in non-linear ways, branching the storyline and eventually resulting in eight different endings, six of which can be achieved during the first playthrough, and two others unlocked after having reached the other six.

Alternate Titles

• "Walpurgis no hiru to yoru" -- Working title
• "Shadow of Memories" -- Japanese and PAL title

Merchant Title Platform Price   Shadow of Destiny PlayStation 2 $2.95   Shadow of Destiny     Please select your country: United States Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malaysia Malta Mexico The Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Uruguay Vietnam Other Worldwide Not an American user?

User Reviews

What should I do before I get killed?..	PlayStation 2	YID YANG (162353)
Not since Blade Runner have I seen so many different endings!	Windows	Jeanne (75626)
To move to the future...sometimes we must look at our past	PlayStation 2	Nad Budgen (2)

The Press Says

Game Over Online	Windows	Jul 23, 2002	90 out of 100	90
Gaming Target	PlayStation 2	Jun 11, 2001	9 out of 10	90
PSX Extreme	PlayStation 2	Mar 22, 2001	8.7 out of 10	87
Just Adventure	PlayStation 2	2001	B+	83
Just Adventure	Windows	Jul 24, 2002	B+	83
GameSpy	Windows	Jun 18, 2002	78 out of 100	78
Gamezone (Germany)	Xbox	Oct 14, 2002	7.2 out of 10	72
Power Unlimited	Xbox	Dec, 2002	68 out of 100	68
Jeuxvideo.com	Xbox	Sep 27, 2002	13 out of 20	65
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Mar, 2003	55 out of 100	55

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Oh my god...	3	hydra9 (3855) Dec 19, 2008

Trivia

Lebensbaum, the name of the town where the events of "Shadow of Destiny" take place, means "Tree of Life" in German.