Siliconera: In this interview, we asked Developer Opus Studio and publisher Idea Factory how they designed levels to support the time setting feature and why they picked side-scrolling as the game’s genre.
Jikandia: The Timeless Land is a hack-n-slash RPG of a different sort. Dungeons are presented as 2D platforming areas loaded with treasure chests and monsters. The catch is you're given a limited amount of time to traverse each level (between 3 and 30 minutes).
From the review:
"First, we had In The Land of Time. Then there was The Land That Time Forgot. And The Land Before Time after that. Now…we have Jikandia: The Timeless Land, the latest handheld game to be localized by Aksys Games. Jikandia opens with a scene slightly reminiscent of a cross between the opening scenes of Battle Royale and Turtles In Time: a group of young students are riding on a subway when it suddenly stops and thrusts them into another world. From then on, it is quite obvious that their lives will never be the same again…quite possibly because they just might be killed any minute now."
GamingUnion.net: "In 2009, North America was treated to Opus Studio's first game that dealt with the concept of time, Half-Minute Hero. The game had players playing out 30-second mini-games under a variety of different play styles, including an old-school RPG and even a tactical strategy game. Instead of creating an immediate sequel, Opus Studio created a brand-new game with that core theme - Jikandia: The Timeless Land. But instead of mini-games, Jikandia revolves around the dungeon exploration genre. There's been a noticeable amount of these types of games as of late, so does Opus' spin on the genre provide players with a timeless classic or does this title simply fade into obscurity?"