Hype: The Time Quest

I... I remember! I'm Hype.

—One of Hype's three lines.

Hype: The Time Quest is a video game based on the Playmobil line of German toys. It takes place in the medieval period, although some buttons and elevators can be found throughout the game.

Hype, the titular character, is turned to stone by a powerful black knight, and is then sent back 200 years in time, where he is released by an amateur wizard, and his future sidekick, Gogoud. So now he has to embark on a quest to collect magic jewels that allow him to travel through time so that he can kill the black knight, save the King, the kingdom and his betrothed.

The main characters are Hype and Gogoud, Hype being the character you play as (although there is his dragon, Zatila, whom hype rides on in order to perform a few tasks that require flight). Other major characters include Karon and Nohlin (the leaders of the brigands during the reigns, respectively, of Taskan II and Taskan III and allies of Hype's), Vibe (his betrothed), and the black knight, Barnak.

The game was released in 1999 with another Playmobil game aimed for a younger audience.

Tropes used in Hype: The Time Quest include:

• A God Am I: Inverted. Barnak was a god, and now he just wants a kingdom to rule.
• Action Girl: The brigand leaders, Rave and Vibe all go against the womanly standards of the medieval era. However, the only one you ever see actually fight is Karon.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Oh God. The first town's prices are minimal, while the fourth's are outrageous! They justify it with civil wars most of the time, but war never seemed to bother the guy in the first era.
• Airborne Mook: Bats and ghosts.
• Alternate Universe: subverted, as Hype frequently time travels backwards, once resulting in everyone's memory loss 50 years in the future.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The Speed Boots and Hype's new armor. But it's more of a subversion, since these actually do something.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: Hype's crossbow has two types of bolts, red and blue. The red do more damage, but still do not kill in one hit.
• Ass Pull: At first Zatila can only fly for so long. Then, he gets so invigorated by collecting the Energia Prisma that he can suddenly fly forever.
• Automatic Crossbow: Hype's crossbow, of course. No reloading, ready to fire as soon as an arrow has been fired. However, Dark Hype takes this even farther with his rapid fire crossbow!
• Back Tracking: Especially near the end of the game.
• Badbutt: Senekal
  • Gogoud too, when you learn of his origin.
• Bag of Holding
• Battleship Raid: Subverted. One of the bosses is a three-headed dragon made of gold coins, which Hype fights while standing on piles of the stuff.
• Battle Theme Music: All bosses have this, and some even fade out when Hype is far enough away. Most have the same song, but the Gladiator and Senekal have a completely different one, while Barnak's is a slightly different version of the standard song.
• Beating a Dead Player
• Behind the Black
• Benevolent Architecture: this troper could go on for days talking about Torras.
• Best Boss Ever: Senekal and the gladiator.
• Breather Level: The monastery is a quarter as hard as the first challenge: the dungeon.
  • Gathering the flags is likely one of the easiest parts of the game (with the exception of the second era, which is still easier than most of the stuff you have to put up with before that point).
• Canis Latinicus: Averted surprisingly well, considering how much it uses Latin.
• Check Point: All the saving spots.
• Classic Cheat Code: There are more than twenty of these. Ex: Thereyougo, druidik, houdini, pouletfrit. You can even exploit Thereyougo to skip Rajoth via Sequence Breaking.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Potions, herbs, magics, and bolts.
• Creator Cameo: Toyed with, as the game's director is named Alain Tascan. That name look familiar?
  • What is that tile on the rafters in Rave's room that says "Tania" on it???
• Curb Stomp Battle: The opening cutscene features a fight between Hype and Barnak... Wait, that was a fight? I thought it was just Hype flying around the screen!
  • Happens when you travel back in time after a significant advance in the game. Guards take one hit with the fully-charged sword.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Completely averted. One of the reasons this game rocks.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Invoked by Taskan I.
• Cutscene: What kind of RPG would it be without 'em?
• Darker and Edgier: Fourth Era.
• Defanged Horrors: When you kill anything, they just fall down, look dazed, and fade away. What the heck?
• Do Not Drop Your Weapon
• Do Not Run with a Gun: Hype can shoot and slash away while running, while all enemies stop moving to attack.
• Doomed Hometown: Need I say more?
• The Dragon: Voydh, of course! And, to a lesser extent, Enost.
• Easter Egg: The PDF files on the CD have some interesting information.
• Empty Room Psych: Subverted in that the unused inn room has absolutely nothing in it at first, but has a secret button in a later Era.
  • Rave's room (when it IS her room, and not Hype's). And on top of it, there's a little tile hidden in the rafters with the word "Tania" on it. Guess what it does. Absolutely nothing.
    • And it's been driving This Troper crazy!
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The black tower, to the extreme. Complete with the most ominous and disturbing music in the game.
• Exploding Barrels: Ayup, and lots of them!
• Explosion Propulsion: Exploding barrels send Hype flying. But the best example of this is the final cutscene, when the sundial explodes, propelling Hype off the edge of the tower. Naturally, he's right as rain in the following clip.
  • Wait, how has the girl in the second era, standing on top of the barrels near the laboratory that, when the barrels are shot, flies into the sky and re-descends in the FOURTH era not been mentioned yet?
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Granslak, as long as you stay away from his feet.
• First Episode Spoiler: Arguably Gogoud being the guardian of time. He states it blatantly in the opening cutscene, but by the time the player reaches the part of the game where it actually happens, they'll usually have forgotten about it.
• Floating Platforms: Invisible ones in the Lost City.
• Follow the Leader: The game was heavily marketed as the PC equivalent of Ocarina of Time.
• Foreboding Architecture: If you see a wall decoration with a soldier on it, I wouldn't suggest turning your back to it. If there's an empty suit of armor on the ground or on the wall, it's definitely going to attack you.
• Game Breaker: Magia Glacia Ring, but only for the Voydh boss-battle.
  • Granted, it's practically the only thing that'll do anything to him.
• Girly Run: Pretty much any girl character that runs (minor ones included).
• Goddamned Bats: The bats, quite obviously. It's most evident at Gogoud's manner in the second and fourth eras. Also the Field of Courage in the third.
• Government in Exile: Duh.
• Guns Are Worthless: Halfway played straight. The blue bolts are pathetic, while red ones are even more powerful than Hype's sword... on mooks. Certain bosses take damage from it, but some don't. But when it comes to those Goddamned Bats, the crossbow is your best friend.
• Gravity Barrier: Absolutely, completely, and totally averted. You can fall off of ANY vertical drop. At all.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: And a crossbow.
• He's Back: Eh... Sorta.
• Hit Points: Duh.
• Idle Animation: Hype has four: Throwing his sword up in the air and catching it in its sheath when Hype has no weapon drawn, throwing his crossbow up in the air and catching it in his hand when he has the crossbow drawn, twirling the sword in his hand and swinging his sword in a cool fashion when it is drawn.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: H:TTQ loves this trope.
• Infallible Babble: Tips on defeating bosses, Gogoud's whereabouts, and the crazy guy who really DOES babble.
  • Let's not forget that practically everyone in the fourth era tells you to go to the inn.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Sometimes the only thing that keeps you from jumping over a certain fence is your foot which barely doesn't reach the fence's height.
• Invisible Block: Floating ones in the Lost City.
• Inevitable Tournament: You have to sign up for a tournament-thing (or rather, cheat your way in), defeat a gladiator, and then face the Golden Dragons.
• Jaw Drop: The common reaction when one learns of Gogoud's origin: "A magician eternal, Gogoud is the son of magic. He was born of a strange combination of molecules, a combination generated by the legendary storm which created the sea in olden times.
• Kill It with Ice: Rajoth
  • Using the Magia Glacia Ring magic on Voydh right as he takes of is a very good strategy.
    • It's practically the only way to actually do damage to him!
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Subverted, since he didn't actually forget anything, but he still lost all his skills.
  • Possibly not. During the tutorial, Gogoud only says that Hype "is a bit rusty" and indeed, it isn't long before Hype is fighting brigands and Taskan I's soldiers. It's just that, without any of the jewels and the power they grant Hype, Hype was easily defeated by Barnak...
• La Résistance: Vibe in the fourth era. 'Nuff said.
• Late to the Party: Finally, back in my own time- whoops! Why is everything dark, the people brainwashed, and the guards trying to kill me?
• Lift of Doom: The floor of the last part of the last dungeon.
  • Accompanied by what could easily be the most disturbing music in the game.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: Not unbearable, but every time you change maps you have to wait for it to load.
• Locked Door: Not that many, actually, but enough to include this trope.
• The Lost Woods: The forest in the first era. From that point on, it gets ghosts in the second era, Ghosts and falling branches in the third, and finally, they add black guards in the fourth. Oh, and you might want to Mind Your Step in the fourth era, those rifts won't be merciful.
  • Especially with the (over powered) black knights shooting at you!
• Magnet Hands: Aside from putting his sword in its sheath, Hype never drops that sword.
  • Justified? That sword snaps into figures hands just fine, seems to make sense to me.
• Mirror Match: The last boss of the third Era.
  • Except that he's soooo much more powerful than you! Plus, he has some magic that you wouldn't have at that point!
• Misguided Missile: Barnak's water-tornado-thingy attack can be led back at him, although it's easier just to keep them going until they run out of steam, since it doesn't do much damage.
  • It's also impossible to deal the final damage to him using his tornadoes.
• Money for Nothing: This becomes an issue when you use cheat codes. Otherwise, you're always wishing you had more.
• Mooks: guards and such.
• Moral Dissonance: Chasing a frightened woman around until she drops her money, and then taking it. It's probably played for laughs, though.
• Musical Gameplay: Several of the cutscenes will change the music. Notably When Gogoud visits Hype in the 4th era or when you speak with Zatila at certain parts.
• Musical Spoiler: The music changes two seconds before several bosses.
• Narm: Barnak turning Voydh into a baby dragon.
• New World Tease: You get to see your kingdom flourish, and the people smile again, but the game ends right there, with a monologue from Gogoud.
• No-Gear Level: Hype's first visit to the dungeon, and when Karon takes his crossbow.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: This game's Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits do cause Hype some damage (both to his health and to his armour, just as if an enemy had hit him)...
• Nostalgia Filter: Oh GOOOOOOOOD!
• Now Where Was I Going Again?: Mostly averted, with the exception of a certain saving point in the dungeon.
• Pass Through the Rings: The minigame to get pack expansions, and eventually Speed Boots. You need to touch all the torches in order, within the time limit.
  • Flying on Zatila's back is somewhat like this.
• Paused Interrupt: Happens in just about every conversation involving more than one NPC.
• Plot Coupon
• Power Glows: Hype's fully charged sword.
• Powerup Mount: Zatila.
• Schizo-Tech: Button-operated elevators... three of them. Not to mention a drawbridge that can be drawn from the opposite side of the court.
  • Enost. ENOST!!!!!!!!!
• Sequence Breaking: See Classic Cheat code.
• Sidequest: Getting the speed boots and pack extensions.
• Side View: In the game boy version.
• SNK Boss: Dark Hype.
  • Unlimited crossbow ammo, and he rapid-fires three bolts at a time, managing to change their trajectory, too!
  • EVERY magic in the game (including ones that the player wouldn't have by that time). The dragon magics (which the player wouldn't have any of) are actually MORE powerful than Hype's, as he fires two Ice Dragons, whereas Hype fires one, and three Lightning and Fire dragons, whereas Hype fires two.
  • He has more health than Hype.
  • Not to mention the fact that his AI is actually often smarter than the target audience. He actually times his magic so that your magic attacks never hit!
• Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: Crossbow bolts, and sword upgrades, but the most prominent example of this would have to be Hype's magic.
• Space-Filling Path: Rajoth's library, mostly.
• Spirit Advisor: Gogoud in the fourth era.
• Steampunk: The Laboratory is made of this.
• Stop Poking Me: More of a "Stop talking to me". A woman near the well in the second Era runs away from Hype several times, before dropping money on the ground and disappearing.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Mooks, mostly.
  • Rajoth and Enost, too.
    • Forget that, all bossed fall into this trope!
• Ring Out: Mhasse. More of ring in.
• Talk to Everyone: In Torras's first era, certain townsfolk give you advice on how to kill Granslak in 1/3 or 2/3 of the time (depends on how fast you move).
  • Almost every non-hostile in the fourth Era will tell you to go to the Inn.
  • There's also the man in town that asks you to get rid of the bees.
• The Three Trials: Better known as The Four Jewels.
  • It's more fitting for with the four flags. Interestingly enough, collecting them before or after you charge the fourth jewel results in different dialogue from Zatila.
• Victory Pose: When you get magic. More of "hover in the air, let off a blinding flash of light, and THEN do a victory pose!"
• Villain World: The Fourth Era. Justified, as the King was overthrown by an Evil Overlord.
• Violation of Common Sense: Let's see... jumping over bottomless pits, killing ghosts, climbing to absurd altitudes on tiny rafters... seems pretty fair to this troper.
• Welcome to Corneria: Happily averted.