With the last patch for the Tower of Time the name is changing to Tower of Time Final Edition:

Tower of Time Final Edition

Have an itch for fast paced RPG with new approach to combat and party building?
We have done some final polishing work on Tower of Time and we consider it 'Final Edition' now.

Here is the content of the last patch:

• Fixed achievements on Linux -- now working properly
• Fixed few very small bugs -- e.g. effect of the fountains not visible immediately
• Rebalancing of the difficulty -- enemy units, items, skills, battle parameters as number of enemies, spawn frequency, frequency of skills used, etc..
• As a result there shouldn’t be any spikes in difficulty levels when moving between Tower levels. Still – when you outgrow current difficulty level (by building a real kick-ass party) – we highly recommend increasing difficulty during the game. You can do it anytime outside combat.
• Visual upgrade of some skills

Thanks henriquejr!

Tower of Time is free to own on GOG until January 1st 2020, at 2pm UTC.

Winter Sale Finale is here - last chance for 2500+ deals up to -95%!

Winter Sale finale is here! It's your last chance to grab over 2500 great gaming deals up to 95% off, awesome completion bundles, and an outstanding giveaway as the cherry on top of a delicious New Year’s cake!

Check out the main page of GOG.COM right now and claim a free copy of Tower of Time, a unique real-time tactical RPG set in the fantasy world of Artara. The game offers over 50 hours of adventure-packed gameplay and a rich, breathtaking story. This giveaway lasts until January 1st, 2020, at 2 PM UTC.

[...]

Tower of Time has received new game modes from its latest lengthy update.

NEW GAME MODES

30 Jan @ 5:19am - Event Horizon

Dear Players.

We bring you something different this time.

We have implemented two new games modes. If you want to replay Tower of Time or if you (a New Player) don’t really like cRPGs so much and prefer fast paced games like Darkest Dungeon – you might find this enjoyable. Several other improvements were also made based on your feedback and are listed below.

All in all – this is quite an exciting update, which far exceeds typical updates we have done before. Apologies for the wall of text below, but there are really a lot of changes.

RPGlite and Permadeath game modes

This mode has the following features:

• You start in the city.
• All 7 champions are available in the beginning.
• Blacksmith (Tier I gear), Transmute and Enchanting is enabled.
• All class buildings are upgraded to the max, so you can level up whatever champions you wish, providing you have the resources.
• First 4 floors of the Tower are immediately unlocked, so you can move down whenever you are ready. Remaining parts are unlocked when you descend through the stairs at the end of the given floor.
• You can skip Dialogues and temporarily unlock doors and remove barriers, that usually require doing a quest (via the means of “skip content lever”.
• Party alignment is changed to Party Boost and depends on the level of the champion.
• Some starting resources, so you can customize your starting party a bit.
• Save games are now in separate categories: Normal, RPGlite, Permadeath.
  
  --- PERMADEATH mode ---
• Permadeath mode is for those truly wishing to test themselves. When your champion die in battle, he/she cannot re-enter the tower (unless you resurrect him in combat) and you continue with remaining party.
• New difficulty setting for Permadeath - Blood - which is the only one available for this mode. It starts relatively easy, so you get the resources to build up your party and then ramps up to half way between Hard and Epic.
• Game ends when you loose all your champions OR when you reach the end of floor 11 with at least a single one.

If you played ToT before and descended to 2nd level, this mode should unlock automatically. If you are a new player - you need to kill end level 1 boss (and get familiar with game mechanics in the process).

So now you will be able to pick Whisper and Kaela as the starting party and build them as pure glass cannons or Boron and Rakhem that will rush into the swarms of enemies to cleave them, laughing all the way.

[...]

Items and Attributes

Based on your feedback, we have also made some significant changes to the items as well and strengthened weapon damage overall (so Skills / Mastery does not trump everything).

• Reduced RNG on base stats. Each Weapon sub-type is now different. Each Armor, Ring and Amulet type is also different, you can check it when you go to our new crafting panel.
• Removed some of the “weak” combinations of pre-fixes and suffixes that immediately were dismantled.
• You will be able to select which item sub-type you wish to craft. Some items are more powerful or special so they also cost more. When you click on the question mark, you can see exactly what stats those items have
• Possible magical stats for crafted items and looted items are now separated. Only looted items can give you a rare and powerful stat such as Spectral (which restores your mana for each weapon hit) or Chaotic (which has a small chance to Stun, Daze or Slow enemies). So now you should never disregard looted items – and consider them turning into Epic and Enchanted gear using the forges.
• Items have much more distinctive characteristics – e.g. each of the three 2-handed Swords have a very different stats and unique characteristics now. If you want to have a high stun chance for your melee champions, then you will be able to do so.
• Might and Speed attributes are now more powerful, making Weapon-based builds on par with Mastery. At 50 attribute points they now grant 150% boost to Weapon Damage and Attack Speed vs. 100% boost to Skill Damage from Mastery.
• Melee weapons are now scaling much better than Range weapons, so melee-focused party is certainly viable now.
• Enchanting panel is reworked, not resetting anymore when you switch champions and also showing all possible enchants for the item (Locked), so you can see whether you have missed any enchantment.
• Cost of enchantments is generally reduced, so you should not be afraid to use them.
• Likewise, cost of item forge upgrade has been reduced, as the last slots were far too expensive and rarely anyone used them.

Champions, Skills, Enemies

We have spent a lot of time also re-balancing and re-working some of the skills and enemies as well. One -- because we always wanted to do so based on received feedback and two -- because we had to level the starting point for all champions - to ensure that any starting combination of champions is viable, even if some of the combinations are more difficult than the others.

• We have reduced Health scaling for the enemies on Hard and Epic and instead improved their skills and resistances.
• We have changed some of the end-game bosses, modifying their abilities to ensure that on Hard and Epic the fights do not drag long but instead are quicker and more intense.
• We have re-tuned some of the fights, creating quite interesting scenarios – e.g. a group of only construct crossbowmen that cast their frostbite bolts frequently, effectively immobilizing your party if you don’t counter them.

Another thing changed was mana availability – at the end-game mana regeneration was so high that no one had to care about it, spamming skills as soon as they went off cooldown. So we made several adjustments here as well – mana regeneration is generally decreased, while maximum mana on items plays a bigger role now. Now items and enchantments that generate mana on hit should be essential.

Finally, Boron now starts the combat with 25 rage. So he can jump into the group of those pesky Wraiths instantly. Yeah!

Thanks Zloth!

If you own Tower of Time you can now claim the soundtrack for free courtesy of an update. Additionally a rogue-like mode is coming for the game in future.

FULL OST AVAILABLE (FREE)

27 December - Event Horizon
Dear Players,

Some of you might have noticed a small (400mb) patch - we have just updated downloadable OST for Tower of Time. All 32 music tracks are now included, split into City, Exploration and Fight in a very high quality mp3.

You can find them in the main game location in OST folder. To access them easily, just right click on game in your Library --> Properties --> Local Files --> Browse Local Files

Those of you who did not download the OST yet - a reminder that they are for Free (well, you still need to own ToT). Just click on Downloadable Content to download them.

We are now working on two new game modes that will turn Tower of Time into a challenging rogue-like experience, with all champions available at start and with removed story elements.

Cheers,
Event Horizon team

Tower of Time was reviewed by Fextralife.

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Tower of Time is a tactical RPG that pits your party against the mysterious floors of an upside down tower that will determine the fate of Artara. Do you have what it takes to make it through all 11?

This game is now available on Steam if you're interested!

Thanks Farflame!

Gilded Reviews checked out the Tower of Time:

Tower of Time Review

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Wccftech reviewed Tower of Time.

...
While Tower of Time’s story is definitely more than decent, it’s the gameplay experience that stands out the most. Battles in the game are played in real-time, with players having the ability to move their characters on the field and unleash a variety of special attacks which allow them to strike from afar, close-in to the enemy quickly and so on. It’s also possible to slow down time, which is quite helpful in the most hectic situations. Battles are fought on specific fields, which has allowed the developers to be quite creative when it comes to enemy placement and victory conditions, making battles feel almost like puzzles. Defeating all enemies is the most common condition, but there are plenty other which require players to think long and carefully about what to do, as it’s quite easy to be defeated even on the normal difficulty setting. Losing a battle, thankfully, is not the end of the world thanks to the retry option.
[...]

Thanks Farflame!

COG has reviewed the RPG Tower of Time:

Tower of Time Review

I don’t have any experience with traditional CRPGs. To that end, I was pretty sure this game was gonna be a murderous slog, one that I would have to endure rather than enjoy. Turns out I was only half-right. Tower of Time is still a savage journey, but it’s one that compels me to keep coming back for more.

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[...]
Great RPGs make every battle feel necessary. At no point in my journey did I ever feel like I was grinding away or wasting time. Instead, my victories were hard-fought and properly savored. Although I’ve little experience with CRPGs in general, I did my level best to keep the difficulty at normal. My only concession was the portal battles. More so than even the boss fights, these stages felt like a brick wall against my forehead. After hours of suffering, I gave up and lowered it to the easy difficulty. Just for that battle, though! Afterward, I notched it right back up to normal. Even this felt like a personal failing, rather than some issue with the game’s design. In spite of these stages, the loot and the leveling system, I was never discouraged or bored. Between the pitched battles and the beautiful level layouts, I was always itching to get just a little further. If you’re a fan of CRPGs or just RPGs in general, you can’t go wrong with Tower of Time.

Tower of Time has been reviewed by a number of sites.

There’s a lots to like about Tower of Time; for me something I appreciated was the way Artara’s descent into destruction was described and seems almost inevitable, which reminded me fondly of The Banner Saga. And like The Banner Saga, I will be curious to see how Tower of Time develops over the course of its series; to see the ways that it might innovate further, but a part of me can’t help but hope Artara is another doomed world, like Aurelia from Endless Legend. Tower of Time isn’t a massively ground-breaking game, but is a solid addition to the RPG genre, consistent with itself and impressive for a first time development. So if you’re looking for a new RPG, don’t mind reading or point and click dungeon crawling, then Artara might just be for you.

Hooked Gamers 7.8/10

Tower of Time is more than just a good RPG game. It invents some new game mechanics in the RPG-Adventure genre, displays immersive visuals and audio and has a cast of enjoyable characters and identities. While its story is too generic for my taste, most RPG-fans will love it all the more.

Most of all, Tower of Time is engaging, it begs to be played, to be experienced, first-hand. You won't regret picking Tower of Time up April 12th, as by then this game will be finished and have loads of well-crafted, polished and inspiring gameplay components waiting to be played.

Keen Gamer 8.5/10

I can’t begin to tell you how much customization is in this game. From selecting party members to the level up stat distribution, gear load outs, enchantment selections, moral choices in dialogue and the decisions on which environmental interactions to risk taking this is some of the most freedom I have ever seen in a game that is not of the contemporary open world design.

In the very best sense of the statement, Tower of Time is a game that requires a commitment to really dive into and explore all that it has to offer. It is a bit of a slower game but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad pacing, just that it wants you to become absorbed in it. It isn’t for everyone but those people who enjoy a rich, lengthly RPG that requires as much put into it as is gotten out of it, Tower of Time is a must play.

Pixel Opinions 8/10

Tower of Time is releasing soon and so now is the time to purchase before the price goes up.

2 Days left
10 APRIL - EVENT HORIZON

Dear Players,

The Big Day is approaching fast. Only 2 days left before we open the portals to the mythical world of Artara, full of dangers and secrets.

Tower of Time will release as planned on 12th April around 12 CET. Retail price will be 20.99 EUR / 21.99 USD.

We will release English version on Windows. Linux should follow very shortly (within 1-2 days).

We are finishing localization to German and Polish but we need a bit more time to ensure the quality is as high as possible. We hope you will enjoy our ambitious attempt to bring something fresh to RPG and mix it with deep tactical combat.

Cheers,
Event Horizon team

Tower of Time will release April 12th, according to the latest update.

Pre-release Update

16 March - Event Horizon

Version 0.9.1.1759

Final release 12 April 2018

As Tower of Time is nearing its final release date we have published a major update that makes the game Feature Complete. The only thing missing now are the final four levels of the tower and completion of the story which is in the final polishing state.

What comes in the Pre-release build:

Combat state and Pause added

We have further refined combat system and we have perhaps the most complex tactical system ever done in RPGs.

We added Pause. You can change between slow time and pause anytime, even during combat.

There are several new effects in game, for example freeze – if your champion is frozen you can either wait until it thaws (relatively long) or break the ice, sending other champions to attack it.

Enemies also have few nasty surprises, some elite enemies can sense the weakness of one of your champions and order all other enemies to focus on him/her, much as any player would do.

New combat mode: Defense Towers can show up in certain encounters. Towers attack your champions in range and thus limit your movement options. You can either avoid them or destroy them, the choice is yours.

Finally, we expanded Battle Report screen significantly, so you can check in details how your champions performed. This is very critical for the Ultimate Tactical Experience (Epic difficulty).

Party Alignment
At certain moments in game, your party will face an important choice. Your champions’ personalities are different and they have (perhaps) their own hidden agendas. As you progress deeper, your champions will diverge.
In such critical moments you can let your champions decide for themselves or impose your will by the power of the crystal throne. Careful though, no one likes to feel like a puppet.

These choices are not only dialogue options – party alignment will have an impact on combat as well. If your champions support you, they will support each other in combat too, granting powerful buffs. If not, then they will reduce everyone’s combat effectiveness.

Skills and Skill Tree
Skill tree and individual skills are adjusted, based on intense balancing efforts. There are too many changes to list here, but we followed this idea in principal – each of your champion is unique and his skillset has to be unique as well.

Each skill has two different enhancement paths, one which strengthens the effect of the skill and second which might change its nature.

We added few new skill mechanics, e.g. damage reflection. If you miss this and don’t adjust your tactics, your champions can literally kill themselves now. Similarly, apply this enchant on your champions and see enemies’ health goes down.

Finally, we still have only one fireball in the entire skill tree. Mission accomplished.

Itemization and Item Forge
We further expanded on our itemization and added new statistics. When we did the counting, we now have over one million possible combinations of weapons, base statistics and additional statistics.

Very important addition is Item Forge. It allows you to selectively upgrade an item and its certain statistics – as long as the item has unused upgrade counters. The cost increases with each upgrade – so if you want to create an item worthy of a song, it will cost you dearly.

Guns and 1-handed crossbows
Physical range classes got two new weapon types – 1-handed crossbows and 1-handed pistols. Yeah!

Map Markers and Quests
Map markers and better quest tracking – a feature that was in the top 3 requests from the players. We added that, so you can find NPCs and important locations easier now.

We improved quest descriptions and also added information where the quest did originate, so if you take a break for few days, you should have no problem getting back.

New Enemies, New Bosses, New Unique Items
We have added new enemies, new bosses and lots of unique items. As per request – we added more ”unique” unique that have both positive and negative effects. Encase Kane in nigh-impenetrable Titan Armor but it is so heavy that he moves very slowly -- so have his Dash skill on a short cooldown or just bring the fight to him. Or use powerful Staff of Winds but be ready that each attack will drain your mana.

Optimization and Loading Times
We did optimize the game heavily, going area by area and we will continue to do so until the full release. Game runs quicker overall and there should be no more areas that would tax your CPU and GPU over the usual performance.

Also, we implemented a system of loading part of the scenes into memory. When you enter the new location first time - the loading time will be as before, but then every time you save/load or move between the tower, combat maps and the city – the loading time should be very short.

Music and SFX

We have added new music tracks and hundreds of new sound effects.

Linux version

We are testing a new video player and new movie formats - the problem we have since day 1 of our adventures with Linux. We are on a good track but we need to run a lot of tests on different distributions since we are committed to release 100% working version. Should take few more days.

Balancing

We will balance the game until the very end. At the moment Epic difficulty is midly challenging on level 1 but then from level 2 you really need to think outside the box and find the best synergies between champions' abilities be good at tactical-side of the combat (team positioning, threat management, effective tanking, learning your enemies and what they can do, understanding their weaknesses, etc..).

If you would like to help us, please join our discord channel:

https://discord.gg/8hpkCgD

We hope you will enjoy Tower of Time in its final state.

Cheers,
Event Horizon team

PCGamer report that Tower of Time will release in April and have also a new trailer.

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Tower of Time, a "new take on classic RPGs" about a shattered land, a mysterious tower, and a gang of champions who decide to venture inside and see what's cooking, was expected to trade Early Access for full release by the end of 2017. A quick trip to Steam will reveal that it did not happen. It will (hopefully) happen soon, however, as developer Event Horizon now says that it will be ready for release in April.

[...]

Tower of Time adds pause and makes other adjustments.

Update, Pause and Price

10 January - Event Horizon

A short update about few things here, as we are working towards the final release.

Difficulty levels

We continue to balance difficulty levels and are testing a new way of setting them. On Hard and Epic difficulty enemies will not only scale in health and damage, but also in defense stats and skills (how they use them and how often). We are committed to create a super challenge for veteran players, where winning a battle will be very satisfying experience.

So no - soloing challenges on epic difficulty with cleverly build Boron will no longer be possible ( ...unless you find a different way)

Item Forge

We will add Item Forge - an ability to increase various stats on an item, for an increasing cost. Thanks to that, you will be able to create your ultimate party easier, not relying so much on RNG loot and having a great way to spend any surplus crystals that Maeve is carrying in her loot bag.

Skill adjustments

Observing many players in combat, we are making final (hopefully) adjustment to various skills. The list would be too long to present here, but we have some exciting new mechanics in testing, some of them factor in combat length too. One example can be Headshot - new Maeve's ultimate ability, that deals tons of damage to a single target and if that target is killed, the cooldown of this skill resets and its mana cost is decreased.

Party Alignment

Sometimes you face difficult choice and your champions disagree on how to proceed. In those crucial moments, you (as a Lord sitting in the throne room) will need to decide if you want to let party decide or impose your will, forcing one or the other option. How the party reacts to you and each other, will also affect

Price change

With the recent release of Book Two, we will be increasing the price a little - as announced before - just after current promotion ends.

Feedback

We have received tons of detailed feedback after we released Book Two. Some suggestions are really excellent. Thanks a lot to all who found the time to send us an email or post in the forums! If you find the time to review the game, that also would be great.

If you want to chat with us directly about anything, please join on Discord:
https://discord.gg/swuxMSV

Pause Time

One of the suggestions received was to implement pause, next to slow time. We will do so. We still will recommend to use slow time, as it is more fun in our opinion - but if you wish so, you will be able to pause the game now in combat.

Cheers,
KM

P.S. The screenshots above are from one of the challenges - where you face four Elemental Lords in sequence.

The Early Access Strategy RPG Tower of Time got an update:

Update, Hotfix and Difficulty (0.6.1.1277)

We just released a small update and hotfix to Book Two. Here is a short summary:

Update

• Added description to Battle Challenges.
• Added relative "power" of Battle Challenges, giving the idea about difficulty of each challenge.
• Titan - added autoattacks, as was always intended.
• Few Melee bosses - they complained that Players were kiting them too much. They received an upgrade in a form of various "I catch you" skills.

Skill changes

• Kane, Dash - Enhancement 2 decreases mana and cooldown, making it a useful utility skill.
• Rakhem, Fire Power - Enhancement 1 - adds armor and resistances, making him a durable tank.

Hotfix

• Fixed a bug with some interactive elements not being "active" - that could case game freezes.
• Fixed few places where crash could occur.

That said, we have found two other small isues, which are not game-breaking.

• Flickering cursor over some rotate-able element (but they do work).
• Small delay when moving between inventory and skill tree.

We will address them in a next hotfix coming soon.

Difficulty Levels

The best RPG is the one that keeps the player engaged until the very last. Party advancement, item progression and challenging combat is essential in that. Once you build a party than can handle anything with ease, the game looses charm for some. We are putting a lot of effort to avoid that - that's the reason why we spend a lot of time balancing combat and thinking about new tactical challenges.

We have 5 difficulty levels in game. When you start New Game you can select one of them. You can also change difficulty at any point later on.

What is our aim behind them:

Story - for those who came just for the story. Set your champions to Move & Attack and go get coffee (almost).

Easy - very light challenge, you will have to use skills occasionally but no-one should die.

Normal - a challenge. You will need to use the skills a lot and perhaps go to slow time 2-3 times per combat. Boss encounters will require even more attention.

Hard- very hard challenge. Your performance in combat might not be enough. Clever champion builds, skill and skill enhancement, using enchantments will also be required. You will probably use slow time a lot, especially for boss fights and more challenging encounters

Epic - for those who enjoy nightmarish challenge. Here you need to think outside of the box and really experiment a lot - e.g. try building Kane as a caster tank. You will spend a lot of time in slow time, you will need to be smart about crowd control and use the map to your advantage - e.g. "gather" enemies in tight spots for maximum aoe damage or use walls to break line of sight for channel skills. You might die even in the first fight.

Difficulty level is not only about increasing damage and health of the enemies. The combat system in Tower of Time is quite complex and it changes depending on the combat mode, but unless you play and experiment, it is not easy to explain.


Recommendation

When you get to Tower proper (past intro) - we recommend that you play game on normal for the first 2-3 fights and then decide how to adjust the difficulty.

Alternatively - start a game on Epic, assign attributes and skill points and see if you can win the first combat. (Yes, it is do-able :)

That being said, the game is still in EA - we are doing what we can to balance it well, but it just requires time and feedback, a lot of feedback. If you are willing to share it with us, we will be very grateful. If you find some enemies too easy, then it means that probably you are geared up for higher level or you are a very good tactician. Tower of Time is not about button-mashing, slow time gives everyone an equal chance.

Challenges

Challenges are optional fights you unlock during the progress of the game. They are meant to test yourself against different, sometimes crazy setups - for a reward. For example - you fought four elemental lords in different battles. Well, can you handle ALL four of them in the same battle?

Also, each enemy group consists of 6 challenges. Challenges 1-4 are defined to be beatable immediately after you unlock them. However, challenges 5-6 are much different and sometimes require more champions, higher levels or stronger items.

In the coming small update, we will add proper description of each challenge as well as an "indication" of the challenge power (difficulty). Here is the example for challenges 1 and 6 from Risen.

As you can see, Challenge 6 is much (much) more difficult than Challenge 1.

So don't be discouraged if you cannot beat the last two challenges. They are not meant to be beatable immediately. Come back to them later.

Thanks for playing Tower of Time. Please let us know if you encounter anything new.
We also appreciate Your feedback, especially on the improved combat.

Cheers,
KM

RockPaperShotgun interviewed one of the developers of Tower of Time.

Tower Of Time [official site] was a tremendous surprise - an early access RPG, from first-time developers, with a unique real-time combat system. That's all three strikes, surely? Except no, it's really fantastic. Having finished the first floor of the tower, what's available for now, I wanted to find out more about how an unknown team from Poland were so audacious as to try (so successfully) at such a project. So I spoke to Krzysztof Monkiewicz, the project's lead, to find out how they got started, and where they're going next.

RPS: Can you tell us a bit about the team behind Tower Of Time? How many of you are there, and what have people worked on before?

Krzysztof Monkiewicz: At the moment we include ten full-time people. During development we contracted a few other freelancers for music, SFX and modelling of characters and environment. The team had experience with several games before, but there were not really any AAA titles. For me, more important than proven experience with large productions was the personality. I was looking for people who are creative, willing to take an active part in the development and not afraid of thinking outside the box. Whether it was a good call - only time will tell, but so far I am very happy with the initial feedback.

RPS: Tower Of Time seems an enormous project for a debut game. Making an RPG is a big enough task, but making one with a new approach to combat - well, that's crazy. How did you decide to start trying?

Monkiewicz: That is utterly crazy, I fully agree. When I announced to my friends that I wanted to leave my previous job (completely different industry) and start in game development, they questioned my mental integrity. However, that was always my dream - to find a way to share my ideas and create games that players will actually want to finish.

As for the scope of the game and genre - I realized we could either start small, create a game that would be a clone of another successful game and hope that it will somehow stand out from the swarm of other indie games, or take a risk and do something large and new. It wasn't a tough decision for me - I took the risk.
[...]

RockPaperShotgun tries out the early access version of Tower of Time and has a good time.

Tower Of Time is a splendid RPG with tactical real-time combat

You have to respect clever, and clever is oozing out of Tower Of Time [official site]. Not just an RPG with the guts to try its very own combat system far more intricate than us dungeon crawlers are used to, but also the use of Early Access in a way that makes it seem like an advantage to the player rather than the developer.

Tower Of Time is, at first glance, a traditional isometric-ish RPG, presented in beautiful swishy modern graphics. Click the mouse to move, click on things to interact, attribute skill points and skilfully assign attribute points, and worry about your armour. On top of that, and perhaps a touch crucially, it's also good at these things. It takes place in a familiar fantasy setting featuring a rural human world where cataclysmic events leave almost no sunshine, in which societies are falling as food becomes scarce, and a hero whose childhood marking by a hidden magical throne might make him the one who can change the future. Soon you learn of other regulars, the elves, the orcs, and so on. The writing is a touch purple in places, and definitely leans heavily on the old "for it was to be"-type fantasy stodge, but the atmosphere is immediately established and the characters likable.
[...]

Thanks SSIGuy!

PC Gamer checked out the Early Access version of Tower of Time:

Tower of Time, a 'classic RPG' with RTS-style combat, comes to Steam Early Access

The full game is expected out around the end of the year.

Tower of Time, now on Steam Early Access, is an RPG tale of a once-beautiful land left broken by a mysterious cataclysm. 1000 years later, a great tower is uncovered by a massive earthquake, and the power within its walls compels a  young boy (because it always is!) to lead a group of champions on a quest to discover its secrets. That's not necessarily the most original story setup ever, but it looks very pretty, and promises a "new take on classic RPGs" by combining isometric, party-based exploration with "small scale" RTS-style combat. 

Tower of Time offers five difficulty levels, accommodating players who want a story-focused adventure without all the crushing combat. But it seems clear that battles are meant to be central to the experience: Rather than the "real-time with pause" style common in other RPGs, Tower of Time has a "slow-time feature" that demands on-the-fly attention and puts a priority on pre-fight preparation. And in case there was any doubt, the "Epic" difficulty level, where "one mistake will likely wipe out your party," is promoted as a feature rather than just a bad idea.

[...]

Farflame spotted some screenshots for the real time strategy RPG Tower of Time on Neptune games:

Tower of Time: Classic RPG Gets new Screens Showcasing some of its Fantasy Environments

Event Horizon has released the first screenshots of the Early Access version of the real time strategy RPG Tower of Time

With the Steam Early Access release of this new, promising real time strategy RPG called Tower of Time, Event Horizon developers and their digital artists decided to experiment and see whether they could recreate some lovely scenes inside this mysterios world filled with treasures and creatures.

According to Event Horizon’s guys, Tower of Time is a classic RPG with a unique real-time combat system where tactics are as important as equipment: players can explore the Tower, buried underground for millennia, and uncover the history of times long gone and the mystery of why your land is dying.

[...]

The Early Access version of the real time strategy RPG Tower of Time has been released:

Tower of Time had arrived !

We have launched on time and so far so good. No critical bugs reported. (we will release a patch shortly with few minor ones)

Thanks to everyone who decided to give a chance to an early access title. !

Please use REPORT ISSUE tool, available via SETTINGS - for an easy report in-game, whether you have encountered a bug or have a suggestion or comment. Whatever you report, we see it instantly in our system.

 

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For long ages past, Artara was a place of great peace and beauty. Then, a mysterious event took place. Within a few generations, the land was broken and the skies darkened. More than a thousand years of decline has passed since then.

As a young boy, you came upon the base of an immense Tower, uncovered by yet another violent earthquake. Deep below sleeps an ancient power. Since that day, you have been drawn inexorably to this place. Your task is to lead a group of champions and reach whatever resides in the depths of the Tower. There you will face the ultimate choice…

Tower of Time is a classic RPG with a few added novelties. It has hand-crafted levels filled with various enemies, challenging puzzles, and engaging story-lines. Its dynamic real-time combat with slow mode requires tactical awareness and careful preparation of the party.

Features:

• Engaging story, set in a world where technology met magic with devastating consequences. Hundreds of lore books and scattered pieces of information slowly reveal the history of Artara as the protagonist approaches his fate.
• You must explore the Tower, buried underground for millennia. Find secret locations, cleverly hidden in the environment. Travel through hand-crafted levels where every single place is carefully designed. Discover forgotten scrolls and guess their powers based on the cryptic description. Meet various NPCs, some native to the world and some coming from… strange places.
• Advanced combat system – unique real-time action with a slow-time feature, where each match is played on one of many separate tactical maps and where even most powerful champions can fail without refined tactics. Plan ahead and position your party accordingly. Use slow-time to react to new threats or negate enemy skills. Converse your magic energy and survive all enemy waves. No two encounters are ever the same.
• There are seven classes to choose from, and your party can be adjusted at will and anytime, depending on the challenges you face. Each champion has unique skills that can be upgraded and re-trained at will. Those upgrades often change the nature of the skills. For example, your Summon Elemental skill can either be a durable melee Ent with high health and armor or fragile Water Elemental with devastating range attack.
• New character progression system: there is no experience to gain. Instead, discover ancient knowledge to unlock new skills and carefully design your characters. Each character could be turned into a powerful and durable attacker or skill-based champion.
• Defeat powerful elite enemies wielding diverse skills and spells. Assess their strengths and weakness carefully to succeed. Complete combat challenges for item rewards and unique enchanting recipes, or just to test your new party setup.
• Gather crafting crystals of various types to create items of different power. Discover ancient enchanting recipes that, while very expensive, can change the nature of the combat, granting regeneration aura or immunity to special effects.
• Upgrade your city as the main training/equipment hub and repository of all the lore you find.

Event Horizon will release the classic RPG Tower of Time on July 13 as Early Access:

Tower of Time Early Access

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For long ages past, Artara was a place of great peace and beauty. Then, a mysterious event took place. Within a few generations, the land was broken and the skies darkened. More than a thousand years of decline has passed since then.

As a young boy, you came upon the base of an immense Tower, uncovered by yet another violent earthquake. Deep below sleeps an ancient power. Since that day, you have been drawn inexorably to this place. Your task is to lead a group of champions and reach whatever resides in the depths of the Tower. There you will face the ultimate choice…

Tower of Time is a classic RPG with a few added novelties. It has hand-crafted levels filled with various enemies, challenging puzzles, and engaging story-lines. Its dynamic real-time combat with slow mode requires tactical awareness and careful preparation of the party.

Features:

• Engaging story, set in a world where technology met magic with devastating consequences. Hundreds of lore books and scattered pieces of information slowly reveal the history of Artara as the protagonist approaches his fate.
  
• You must explore the Tower, buried underground for millennia. Find secret locations, cleverly hidden in the environment. Travel through hand-crafted levels where every single place is carefully designed. Discover forgotten scrolls and guess their powers based on the cryptic description. Meet various NPCs, some native to the world and some coming from… strange places.
  
• Advanced combat system – unique real-time action with a slow-time feature, where each match is played on one of many separate tactical maps and where even most powerful champions can fail without refined tactics. Plan ahead and position your party accordingly. Use slow-time to react to new threats or negate enemy skills. Converse your magic energy and survive all enemy waves. No two encounters are ever the same.
  
• There are seven classes to choose from, and your party can be adjusted at will and anytime, depending on the challenges you face. Each champion has unique skills that can be upgraded and re-trained at will. Those upgrades often change the nature of the skills. For example, your Summon Elemental skill can either be a durable melee Ent with high health and armor or fragile Water Elemental with devastating range attack.
  
• New character progression system: there is no experience to gain. Instead, discover ancient knowledge to unlock new skills and carefully design your characters. Each character could be turned into a powerful and durable attacker or skill-based champion.
  
• Defeat powerful elite enemies wielding diverse skills and spells. Assess their strengths and weakness carefully to succeed. Complete combat challenges for item rewards and unique enchanting recipes, or just to test your new party setup.
  
• Gather crafting crystals of various types to create items of different power. Discover ancient enchanting recipes that, while very expensive, can change the nature of the combat, granting regeneration aura or immunity to special effects.
  
• Upgrade your city as the main training/equipment hub and repository of all the lore you find.