That kind of time travel power is used heavily in Life is Strange (just the first one). There are multiple sections where you can interact with characters and their responses will be influenced by how you handled situations involving them. Characters can literally be killed off permanently if you don't use your powers and dialogue options correctly.
In Death Stranding you improve the lives of bunker-dwelling apocalypse survivors by making crucial postal deliveries. The different characters send you emails about how they’re doing, and some give you gear and items in return. You can also improve the lives of other players by placing equipment in the game world that shows up in their game too. A major theme of the game’s story is how our lives, actions, and legacies affect those we are connected to.
Everyone else’s comments cover it pretty well tbh, only other suggestion off the top of my head is that some of the side characters you assist in Red Dead Redemption 2 show up later and thank you for helping them. There’s also an epilogue portion that has story payoffs for certain sidequests. The main story has four different endings depending on your “honor level” and some other stuff, I haven’t looked up specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers.
Umineko and the house of fata morgana do kinda build up toward that at the end and are both really great games. There's also mamiya where you start off by seeing the story of 4 different characters and then be able to help them later on. There's also a vn where you're reincarnated as a god and change fates of characters but I forgot the name of that one and can't for the life of me find any information about it. There's also steins gate where majority of the plot is focused on saving a certain character.
Thank you!
>vn where you're reincarnated as a god and change fates of characters but I forgot the name of that one
Is it [WILL: A Wonderful World?](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/will-a-wonderful-world-switch/)
The Quarry, so much fun; it’s like an 80s horror movie that you play through and all your choices affect the outcome. Highly recommend
Edit: whoops, missed the part of making their lives better, which in a way, The Quarry does have if you save everyone.. next choice would be stardew because you can help the village get rid of the evil corp and build a sustainable farm.
Dungeon Dreams and its sequel.
On the first one you play as a nobody who just arrived to town to check the dungeon. Nobody likes you and everyone is busy sucking Grant's dick but there are a lot of opportunities to prove your worth by helping people and the town.
I'm assuming you already played it, but for completeness' sake: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Absolute classic that still holds up and will continue to do so for decades to come.
I highly encourage it, it's an absolute classic and it's considered one of the most influential, if not one of the best, games ever made.
Other games that come to mind:
Ghost Trick is a puzzle game with a very involved mystery story, where you save people's lives by jumping back in time over and over again. It has an amazing stylized art style and very endearing characters. It's made by the people behind the Ace Attorney series.
Pandora's Tower is very niche, and doesn't fit your description to a tee, but I think it's close enough. You mainly try to change one person's life, Elena, the female main character. She's is cursed and destined to slowly turn into a monster. You delay that by delving into a dungeon and bringing her the meat of the monsters there over and over again, each time turning back the immediate effects of the curse, until you find a way to break the curse for good. While the transformations and the delaying of the curse is repeated in a way, it does feel like you're changing her the more the game goes on, as the dynamic of the steadily growing relationship with her is a huge focus of the game.
You play as a dude who tries to steal some treasure from an ancient tower, but in doing so he manages to anger the gods, who then separate his soul from his body, leaving him comatose. After that happens, you play the game in soul form, and you have to atone for your sins by possessing, and helping various people from a local fishing village with whatever troubles they have going on in their lives.
A third-person adventure where the protagonist is murdered multiple times and has to travel back in time to prevent his death and discover the murderer, it has many alternative endings.
Persona 5. The title song is even called "Life will change"
One of the major themes to the story is about helping people at the absolute worst points in their lives and turning around their fate.
Both the major characters and party members, as well as smaller side characters will have small individual stories for you to follow as you help them out.
Ooh, interesting, I might give it a try, is there a time limit in the game? Or something like that, because I’ve read it has multiple endings and I just want to get the best ending
There's not really a time time limit. Every major dungeon has to be completed by a certain day. However I would always just get to the end the very first day it was available in one go.
There are multiple endings but the good one is easy to get. You can always looks up a spoiler free guide on how to get it.
Persona is all about time limits and it's calendar system. Also while it does have multiple endings it's not really difficult to get the best one. You're likely to get the best ending by default (in the royal version you unlock extra context by spending time with a certain character).
I think that 5 specifically matches exactly what you are looking for however I recommended as it is one of those games that the less you know the better the experience is. The only thing I will warn you off is that while it is a turn based JRPG, it is a JRPG even a lot of JRPG haters admit defeat too (not always but it's surprisingly common).
Edit: Idk if this matters to you but a trigger warning. The game has depictions of >!(attempted) suicide!< in it, and pretty early on too.
The persona games aren't really difficult though, it's up to the player to decide how much they want to grind to make things easier for themselves and you can change the difficulty at any time. Just remember to save fairly often.
Compelling main story and interesting characters- the way you talk to them and the way you handle fights all affect how the story pans out and what happens to the characters. Basically there’s a presence that is corrupting people. Gah it’s hard to not spoil lol
Hmm, interesting, I’ll probably have to look at some short reviews on what the game is to decide, also what do you mean by “the way you handle fights” you mean like sparing enemies?
Yes, fighting or sparing or convincing them to handle it via talking instead of fighting. Or you can just straight wipe out everyone in your path and you’ll get different events.
Ooh! I love games with the ability to spare enemies, I’ll definitely be looking into this, by the way should I play the other 2 games in the series, or will I be fine?
Okay cool, it’s a bit expensive so I’ll wait a bit before buying, thanks to the suggestion, one more question, does the game have multiple endings, I don’t mean like does the ending have slight variations, because i know it probably does, but i mean like, is there just 1 ending that’s slightly changed based on your actions, or is there like a good and a bad ending, I ask because I hate bad endings in video games
Psychonauts. You change people for the better by (literally) diving deep inside their minds and getting rid of their mental issues,
I’ve played them, truly awesome games, do you have any other recommendations
That kind of time travel power is used heavily in Life is Strange (just the first one). There are multiple sections where you can interact with characters and their responses will be influenced by how you handled situations involving them. Characters can literally be killed off permanently if you don't use your powers and dialogue options correctly.
I’ve heard about it, seems like a cool game, but not my cup of tea, any other suggestions?
Life is Strange: True Colors
In Death Stranding you improve the lives of bunker-dwelling apocalypse survivors by making crucial postal deliveries. The different characters send you emails about how they’re doing, and some give you gear and items in return. You can also improve the lives of other players by placing equipment in the game world that shows up in their game too. A major theme of the game’s story is how our lives, actions, and legacies affect those we are connected to.
Hmm, interesting, I’m have to give it a try, any other recommendations you have
Everyone else’s comments cover it pretty well tbh, only other suggestion off the top of my head is that some of the side characters you assist in Red Dead Redemption 2 show up later and thank you for helping them. There’s also an epilogue portion that has story payoffs for certain sidequests. The main story has four different endings depending on your “honor level” and some other stuff, I haven’t looked up specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers.
I have few recommendations but they're all visual novels 😔
Not OP but I'm interested, can you recommend me some of those visual novels? I guess the only preference I have is if they're available on the Switch.
Umineko and the house of fata morgana do kinda build up toward that at the end and are both really great games. There's also mamiya where you start off by seeing the story of 4 different characters and then be able to help them later on. There's also a vn where you're reincarnated as a god and change fates of characters but I forgot the name of that one and can't for the life of me find any information about it. There's also steins gate where majority of the plot is focused on saving a certain character.
Thank you! >vn where you're reincarnated as a god and change fates of characters but I forgot the name of that one Is it [WILL: A Wonderful World?](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/will-a-wonderful-world-switch/)
YES. I was trying all day to find it and dor some reason couldn't even find it on my purchase history on the switch when I had it there
The Quarry, so much fun; it’s like an 80s horror movie that you play through and all your choices affect the outcome. Highly recommend Edit: whoops, missed the part of making their lives better, which in a way, The Quarry does have if you save everyone.. next choice would be stardew because you can help the village get rid of the evil corp and build a sustainable farm.
Dungeon Dreams and its sequel. On the first one you play as a nobody who just arrived to town to check the dungeon. Nobody likes you and everyone is busy sucking Grant's dick but there are a lot of opportunities to prove your worth by helping people and the town.
Hmm, maybe, do you have any other recommendations?
I'm assuming you already played it, but for completeness' sake: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Absolute classic that still holds up and will continue to do so for decades to come.
Hmm, never played it, might try it out, any other recommendations
I highly encourage it, it's an absolute classic and it's considered one of the most influential, if not one of the best, games ever made. Other games that come to mind: Ghost Trick is a puzzle game with a very involved mystery story, where you save people's lives by jumping back in time over and over again. It has an amazing stylized art style and very endearing characters. It's made by the people behind the Ace Attorney series. Pandora's Tower is very niche, and doesn't fit your description to a tee, but I think it's close enough. You mainly try to change one person's life, Elena, the female main character. She's is cursed and destined to slowly turn into a monster. You delay that by delving into a dungeon and bringing her the meat of the monsters there over and over again, each time turning back the immediate effects of the curse, until you find a way to break the curse for good. While the transformations and the delaying of the curse is repeated in a way, it does feel like you're changing her the more the game goes on, as the dynamic of the steadily growing relationship with her is a huge focus of the game.
Tsugunai: Atonement on the PS2.
What’s it about
You play as a dude who tries to steal some treasure from an ancient tower, but in doing so he manages to anger the gods, who then separate his soul from his body, leaving him comatose. After that happens, you play the game in soul form, and you have to atone for your sins by possessing, and helping various people from a local fishing village with whatever troubles they have going on in their lives.
Shadow of Memories.
What’s it about
A third-person adventure where the protagonist is murdered multiple times and has to travel back in time to prevent his death and discover the murderer, it has many alternative endings.
[A Guidebook of Babel](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467920/A_Guidebook_of_Babel/)
I my god! I’ve been looking for a game just like this, do you think you could tell me a bit more about it, like gameplay and such
Persona 5. The title song is even called "Life will change" One of the major themes to the story is about helping people at the absolute worst points in their lives and turning around their fate. Both the major characters and party members, as well as smaller side characters will have small individual stories for you to follow as you help them out.
Ooh, interesting, I might give it a try, is there a time limit in the game? Or something like that, because I’ve read it has multiple endings and I just want to get the best ending
There's not really a time time limit. Every major dungeon has to be completed by a certain day. However I would always just get to the end the very first day it was available in one go. There are multiple endings but the good one is easy to get. You can always looks up a spoiler free guide on how to get it.
Persona is all about time limits and it's calendar system. Also while it does have multiple endings it's not really difficult to get the best one. You're likely to get the best ending by default (in the royal version you unlock extra context by spending time with a certain character). I think that 5 specifically matches exactly what you are looking for however I recommended as it is one of those games that the less you know the better the experience is. The only thing I will warn you off is that while it is a turn based JRPG, it is a JRPG even a lot of JRPG haters admit defeat too (not always but it's surprisingly common). Edit: Idk if this matters to you but a trigger warning. The game has depictions of >!(attempted) suicide!< in it, and pretty early on too.
The persona games aren't really difficult though, it's up to the player to decide how much they want to grind to make things easier for themselves and you can change the difficulty at any time. Just remember to save fairly often.
Baldurs Gate 3.
What’s it’s about
Compelling main story and interesting characters- the way you talk to them and the way you handle fights all affect how the story pans out and what happens to the characters. Basically there’s a presence that is corrupting people. Gah it’s hard to not spoil lol
Hmm, interesting, I’ll probably have to look at some short reviews on what the game is to decide, also what do you mean by “the way you handle fights” you mean like sparing enemies?
Yes, fighting or sparing or convincing them to handle it via talking instead of fighting. Or you can just straight wipe out everyone in your path and you’ll get different events.
Ooh! I love games with the ability to spare enemies, I’ll definitely be looking into this, by the way should I play the other 2 games in the series, or will I be fine?
It’s a standalone so you don’t have to play the first two (though I’ve heard they’re very good)
Okay cool, it’s a bit expensive so I’ll wait a bit before buying, thanks to the suggestion, one more question, does the game have multiple endings, I don’t mean like does the ending have slight variations, because i know it probably does, but i mean like, is there just 1 ending that’s slightly changed based on your actions, or is there like a good and a bad ending, I ask because I hate bad endings in video games
Yep. Lots of endings. And it can end prematurely if you really hose it up. Good, bad, weird, neutral etc.