Time Gal

Time Gal is an interactive movie video game developed and published by Taito and Toei Company, and originally released as a laserdisc game in Japan for the arcades in 1985. The pre-recorded animation for the game was produced by Toei Animation. It's inspired by laserdisc games like Dragon's Lair and Ninja Hayate, which were released the year before. It was later ported to the Sega CD (in a worldwide release) and other systems like Amiga, MSX, PlayStation, etc.

Gameplay-wise, Time Gal is an action game which uses full motion video (FMV) to display the on-screen action. The player, in the shoes of the Action Girl Reika "Time Gal" Kirishima, must correctly choose the on-screen character's actions to progress the story, following visual cues (like highlights on the background or foreground) to input commands that will allow Reika dodge or counter the threats the game tosses at her. Additionally, specific moments in the game have Reika stopping time in itself, which presents a list of options and gives them seven seconds to pick the correct one.

Story-wise, things are pretty simple. Reika is a young woman from 3001 AD, when people can travel through time with specific and very rare time machines. However, a VERY crafy and dangerous criminal named Luda has managed to break into a building where one of these machines is kept, shoot down the guards and steal said time machine, presumably to change history enough to take over the world. Having survived this attack, Reika grabs her ray gun and activates her own time travel device (a brooch on her top) to chase after Luda and capture him, traveling through diverse time periods where everything and everyone is trying to kill her. . .

Tropes used in Time Gal include:

• Action Commands / Press X to Not Die: Like in Dragon's Lair, except this time the game DOES tell you when and where to click.
• Action Girl: Reika may just be 16 years old, but she's a rather accomplished and agile fighter thanks to her fast reflexes, her time travel device and her Ray Gun.
• All Webbed Up: Reika is webbed like this in A.D. 3999 before a time freeze, though more of a limb restraining variant rather than full body wrap.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Western cover of the game features Reika, a 16-year-old anime girl, as a seasoned and older-looking beauty.
• Art Shift: In some cut scenes, Reika looks older and more womanly than usual.
• Badass Normal: Aside from her gadgets and arguably her peak physical training, Reika is a normal human woman.
• Bare Your Midriff: Reika's outfit leaves her belly exposed for all to see at all times and time periods.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The last stages are in outer space and play this traight. Unless Reika gets Thrown Out the Airlock in some stages.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished - Bowdlerize: Reika's deaths are portrayed as far less hilariously gruesome than those suffered by Dirk the Daring or Space Ace, mostly shown as her going Super-Deformed as she's hit. If a death's likely to be bloodier, a Gory Discretion Shot will follow.
• Breast Attack: One of Reika's deaths has her whipped across her breasts. And losing her top, plus her time travel device.
  • In the Japanese game when this happens she states "Oww my breast" while in the U.S. version she will either way "it hurts' or "you meanie"
  • After the time freeze, the A.D. 3999 creatures if the player didn't pick right will bite Reika on the sides of her breast which leads to a lost life.
• Butt Biter: One of Reika's A.D. 3999 deaths has a creature biting her rear.
  • A.D.4001 has a mechanical creature that appears to do this to Reika, it seems to miss but Reiko still holder her butt in pain after the bite.
• Clothing Damage - Defeat by Modesty: Many of Reika's deaths. A Justified Trope when you look closer: if she loses her top, she also loses her time travel device since it's placed in the brooch holding said top on her, and if she loses her bikini bottom, she surely loses her Ray Gun and only weapon with it.
• Didn't Think This Through: Many of Reika's deaths initially can seem like the right choice was made, but it's not.
  • After the time freeze in A.D. 3999, one of the options Reika can do is open the door of the ship which leads to the creatures attacking her being sucked out of the ship... then it turns out the web she is still stuck to was attached to one of the creatures, leading to her being pulled out of the ship alongside her attackers.
  • Using the net against the cavemen might seem initially like a success, until they power out and club Reika.
• Evil Is Bigger: Though granted she mostly fights monsters and men, they are all physically bigger and more imposing than Reika herself. This is taken even further in many death scenes where Reika becomes Chibi-Sized and the enemy who beat her remains normal.
• Fragile Speedster: Reika can do some incredible parkour and outrun even a giant dinosaur, but literally 1 mess up and it is a life lost. Also see Defeat By Modesty.
• Evil Laugh: Luda, whenever Reika gets killed off.
• Expy: Reika looks a lot like both Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura and Yuri from Dirty Pair.
• Grandfather Paradox - Ret-Gone: Do. NOT. Make. Reika. Shoot. The. Cavemen. Really, DON'T.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Essentially how to defeat Luda. Reika has to take advantage of a shot that would otherwise kill her, before the time freeze runs off.
• Le Parkour: A food part of the action is to make Reika pull this by clinking on the right spot, then follow it with another...
• The Many Deaths of You: One of the things that have made Time Gal famous is how Reika can either die or be defeated in MANY different ways, several of them being damn hilarious if very slapsticky.
• Miss Fanservice: Reika fights in pretty much a Chainmail Bikini and boots, which lets her show off her lovely body.
  • Averted in scenes that feature Clothing Damage. Usually when something would be revealed it is not viewable to the player due to angle, the most seen is Reika's bare back when the back of her top is cut through.
• Prayer Pose: An option during a time freeze is to pray, and Reika will do this... It doesn't end well.
• Plucky Girl: Reika must become this, if she wants to catch Luda and finish her mission well.
• Rump Roast: One of Reika's deaths in B.C. 7000000, accompanied with a small Pain-Powered Leap.
• Super-Deformed: Lots of these, especially in the death scenes.
• Soft Water: Completely averted, even more so in the World War II stage. If Reika falls into the water from a big height, she'll lose a life. If she falls from a smaller one, she may have a chance - as long as this isn't followed by the wrong choice.
• Unskilled but Strong: Many of the enemies of the older periods such as the dinosaurs and the cavemen are shown to be much more powerful than Reika in pure physical strength but not very skilled in general combat, which is how Reika can avoid them.
• Time Stands Still: Each level of the game has at least one stage where, rather than simply jumping here and there or shooting enemies right on time, the player is given a set of choices for Reika to take. ie, once she's about to fall into a net set by a bunch of cavemen and she can either: fall into the net, defend herself by shooting them, fight back by grabbing the net itself and try esnaring them with it, or jump away. The last one is the correct option.
• Weak but Skilled: Reika is at both ends of the trope. On one hand she has terrific aim with her ray gun, excellent movement and is able generally outpace any opponent. On the other end, when it comes to raw strength, she doesn't do well.
  • A good example would be the above mentioned cavemen net situation. Despite them having a net ready for her as she is falling. she literally can take the net from them before falling on it and trap them on the net meant for her... but if she is successful, the cavemen simply get free and club her. In contrast, if she is caught in the net she has no means of escape and is left at the mercy of the same cavemen, followed by a lost life. The correct solution is to jump away instead.
• Would Hit a Girl: All of the male enemies do not even begin to go easy on Reika on basis of her gender. Even the breast attack example seems merciful compared to what others do or want to do to her.