Time Loop
A plot device where characters re-experience a repeated span of time, often with retained memories.
The time loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are constantly resetting; when a certain condition is met, such as a death of a character or a certain point in time, the loop starts again, possibly with one or more characters retaining the memories from the previous loop. A time loop is also sometimes used to describe a scenario involving time travel where events form a circular chain of causality. In this context, actions in the past lead to future events, which then trigger the original journey back in time, creating a self-contained loop without a clear starting point.
Lore & Background
The time loop in Outer Wilds is a central mechanic explicitly created by the Nomai through the Ash Twin Project. The loop resets every 22 minutes, triggered by the sun going supernova. The player character retains memories from previous loops due to being paired with a Nomai statue, a process that selectively grants memory retention to certain individuals. This is not a universal reset; only those paired with a statue remember the loop.
Reader's Guide
It notes that the presentation of a time loop as a puzzle has led to video games centered on the time loop mechanic, giving the player the ability to learn and figure out the rules themselves. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Minit, The Sexy Brutale, Outer Wilds, 12 Minutes, Returnal and Deathloop were all designed to allow the player to figure out the loop's sequences of events and then navigate their character through a loop a final time to successfully complete the game. According to Raul Rubio, the CEO of Tequila Works that created The Sexy Brutale, "Time loops allow players to train to get better at the game, faster, smarter, by experimenting from a fixed starting situation, and seeing what it works to move 'forward' within the loop and adding something else to that structure to build a solid process."
Did You Know?
- An early example of a time loop is the 1915 Russian novel Strange Life of Ivan Osokin.
- The episode "The Man Who Murdered Time" in the radio drama The Shadow was broadcast on 1 January 1939.
- The short story "Doubled and Redoubled" by Malcolm Jameson appeared in the February 1941 issue of Unknown.
- The highest-grossing Japanese film of 1983 was The Return of Godzilla (also known as Godzilla 1984); The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was not in the top two.
- The visual novel and anime franchise Steins;Gate (2009) is a Japanese work that uses the time loop concept.
More in Powers & Artifacts
Elsewhere in Outer Wilds
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