A Hat in Time

Many of the in-depth details used are from the A Hat in Time Wiki.

Background

A Hat in Time follows Hat Kid, a little girl trying to return to her home world via spaceship. While on her journey, she passes over a planet, and a member of the planet's Mafia comes to collect a toll for the Mafia Town government. When Hat Kid refuses to pay, the Mafia man busts the spaceship door open, causing Hat Kid and all of her "Time Pieces", magical hourglasses that power her ship, to fall to the planet below. Hat Kid lands in Mafia Town and meets Mustache Girl, a local troublemaker who hates "bad guys". Mustache Girl agrees to look for the missing Time Pieces in exchange for Hat Kid's help fighting the Mafia, and the two defeat the Mafia Boss. When Mustache Girl realizes the Time Pieces can rewind time, she wants to use them to become a time-traveling superhero, but Hat Kid refuses due to the dangers of manipulating time. Angered, Mustache Girl declares the two enemies and sets off to find the Time Pieces on her own.

Hat Kid ventures across the planet looking for Time Pieces, encountering and befriending many foes that included two rival bird directors DJ Grooves and the Conductor competing for a movie award and a group of mountain villagers called Nomads infected by a dangerous plague, ultimately befriending them all. Hat Kid also outwits a malevolent spirit called the Snatcher into becoming her best friend after he tried to kill her after tricking her into doing his dirty work in Subcon Forest. The game's DLCs also have Hat Kid searching for Time Pieces while working in the Arctic Cruise and under the employ of the Nyakuza crime boss Empress, the latter ending with Hat Kid forced to flee Nyakuza Metro after a bounty was placed on her head. Mustache Girl exploits Hat Kid's absence to break into her ship and steals the collected Time Pieces, using them to turn the planet into a fiery inferno where her word is law. Hat Kid confronts her, but Mustache Girl uses the Time Pieces to open a time rift and make herself all-powerful. The enemies Hat Kid has fought come to her aid in battle, some sacrificing themselves so that Hat Kid can use their dropped Pons to power herself up. Hat Kid finally defeats Mustache Girl and uses the Time Pieces to restore the planet to normal and revive all those who were lost. The player can then choose whether Hat Kid should hand over a Time Piece to Mustache Girl for protection or not. Though her former foes are sad to see her leave, Hat Kid restores the Time Pieces to her vault and resumes her voyage home. In a post-credits scene, Hat Kid is shown sleeping in bed surrounded by toys resembling the other characters.

Power of the Verse

Although the verse has characters around Wall level via a causal feat from Hat Kid, to possibly Large Island level via the possibility of the flowers scaling to their storm feat. The time pieces themselves are Macrocosmic level+. The speed of the verse is also quite impressive. Travel speed wise they are Relativistic+ with MFTL+ reactions. The verse also has impressive hax thanks to the time pieces allowing for Reality Warping, Time Manipulation, BFR, Memory Manipulation, etcetera.

Terms

Time Pieces: Time Pieces are one of the main objectives in the game, serving as a fuel source that Hat Kid's Spaceship runs on to power its functions and access to other areas. However, during her first encounter with a Mafia Goon, and having the front of the ship depressurize, releasing the Time Pieces into a nearby planet, she must go out and retrieve each and every Time Piece to get back home. As discovered by Mustache Girl after she and Hat Kid infiltrated the Mafia HQ and defeated the Mafia Boss, a smashed Time Piece can result in time temporarily stopping and rewinding. This effect is used little in the game itself, as Hat Kid seems completely unwilling to use Time Pieces for time travel for any reason, but it is important for setting up Mustache Girl into betraying Hat Kid after refusing to use Time Pieces for fighting crime. The second major use of reversing time is when Mustache Girl infiltrates Hat Kid's Spaceship after collecting 25 Time Pieces, where she breaks into the vault and starts to smash many pieces to result in the planet changing up into The Finale. A major side effect of Time Pieces smashing, Time Rifts can come into existence when a Time Piece smashes onto an object or living being, causing a blue or purple colored sphere to exist. In order to reclaim the Time Piece that has smashed in this manner, the player must enter the rift and collect it at the end, fixing the rift by removing it from the world.

Time Rift: Time Rifts are tears in reality found throughout A Hat in Time which appear around broken Time Pieces. They act as a non-sequitur segment separate from the levels they are found in, where they can be entered by touching a Time Rift that appears as a floating glowing orb. Each Time Rift is found across the various Chapters of A Hat in Time, with fixed locations shown by pictures when they appear on that chapter's map. As well as a unique location for each rift, every single Time Rift also has its own unique layout, as well as a dream-based visual design depending on which type the rift is. These rifts are divided into two sections:
- Blue Time Rfits: Blue Time Rifts, otherwise known as the Water Time Rift or Dream World is a type of Time Rift that takes place in a strange place with brightly colored blocks, wedges, and other various objects suspended in an abyss, surrounded by several large clock tower-like structures in the distance. These rifts appears to be underwater, with bubbles that float passively and even a whale swimming through the upper part of the level at times, though Hat Kid jumps and falls through it like air. Objects are arranged in such a way as to provide a path for Hat Kid to traverse, using all the platforming skills she has honed. Along the way, lanterns mark checkpoints. At the end of the path lies a Time Piece, which ends the level. When falling or dying, the Hat Kid teleports to the last Checkpoint. They can be entered by touching a Blue Time Rift, floating glowing orbs, found in previously played acts.The parkour itself can be pretty challenging, but just a little harder than usual levels they are found in.
- Purple Time Rift: Purple Time Rifts, or Story Time Rifts are the second major type of Time Rift, created by landing on an Enemy or Character and having their thoughts and dreams permeate and develop the layout of the following rifts. Due to this, each Purple Time Rift is visually distinct from one another, sharing many design cues from the chapter they are tied to. Unlike the more fragmented Blue Time Rifts, Purple Time Rifts seem to be far more cohesion in terms of layout. They are also comprised of many levels instead of just getting to the end of a single segment, requiring Hat Kid to enter a pipe to progress to the next level, before completing the level by breaking open an attack-able Time Rift ball and collecting its Time Piece. Scattered throughout each level of these rifts except for certain exceptions are Rift Pons, a type of Pon which is tallied at the bottom of the screen separate from normal pons. They are used as a currency of sorts to unlock the next pipe to progress deeper into the rift. Frequently, there are more Pons to collect than needed, allowing a rushing player to collect the bare minimum in order to progress more quickly, or allowing a more diligent player to do less work in the later levels and spend their saved up Rift Pons to just progress past a notably difficult portion. Alongside Rift Pons is Storybook Pages, an optional collectible which are hidden throughout the various levels of Purple Time Rifts. They serve to fill in some of the backstory of certain characters, locations and events prior to Hat Kid's arrival.
- Death Wish Time Rift: Death Wish Time Rifts, or Community Time Rifts are a subgroup of Time Rifts introduced with the "Seal the Deal DLC" as a series of three Death Wish stamps found after several of the difficult challenges. They act functionally as Purple Time Rifts, with Rift Pons and Storybook Pages to boot, with only their manner of unlocking being the major difference between them and the common Purple Time Rift. Each of these time rifts come from the A Hat in Time community, which were then put into the game and credited their original makers in their stamp and mission description.