Tower of Time

Tower of Time is a rather enjoyable cRPG featuring an extremely engaging real-time battle system and some unusual mechanics, like its leveling system. While the story may not break away from some of the genre clichès, Tower of Time keeps players entertained with its charming characters, unique setting and well-crafted mechanics.

Waves of enemies, unique skills and tactical gameplay coupled with exploration, dungeon crawling and flexible character development. Tower of Time is a game that takes a mix of tower defense combat mechanics with some classic tactical elements and adds them to a dungeon-crawler set, in a tower. Seems interesting enough in concept but does it work?

I’m glad for the update, because I like the game and I think it’s enjoyable. Now that the bug I encountered appears to be fixed (and assuming that there aren’t more serious ones that I haven’t seen) I’m ready to give my verdict.

Tower of Time does everything right an RPG in this style should. It feels like a breath of fresh air, and a throwback at the era when PC games where in their heyday, with stellar writing carrying them instead of graphical prowess. The sense of exploration and story interwoven is very good. The sole thing, and it is a big one, is the controls and general port are a mess. Controls should not be this bad, and it drags down an otherwise great title.

Tower of Time is a collection of a poor ideas mixed with a few positive moments. The combat system is really interesting, but it is definitely not enough to keep the player engaged.

Looking for a blend of real-time tactics, time manipulation, and walls of text? Tower of Time might be the game for you.

I want to give Tower of Time a thumbs-up as I enjoyed the gear and leveling systems and the story has a strong impact. Unfortunately, it's not well-optimised for console and suffers from too many fundamental problems so pick it up for PC if you're feeling adventurous.

Unfortunately, the console version paints a different picture: the game's charm and strengths are overshadowed by the poor technical execution. The release of a patch that just makes things worse can be an oversight, but it is still a severe one that further damages the experience. If you are looking for an RPG that dares to implement change and has a novel approach to the genre, Tower of Time has lots of potentials, but wait until all the issues are fixed.

The narrative, while eventually realised, takes some odd turns and because the overarching plot spans 40+ hours and is drip fed to you at regular intervals, the pacing can feel slow and disjointed. The transition from PC to PS4 has not been kind on the menu systems either. It’s during combat – a blend of RTS with time stopping/slowing mechanics – that Tower of Time is most unique, really pushing the player to understand the beasts they’re fighting and how best to strategize against them. If you liked the Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights games from the 90’s and have been hankering for something similar and traditional yet modernised, Tower of Time delivers just that.

Tower of Time provides a detailed combat system that requires plenty of tactical thinking, so you get good value for money. There are points which could be refined, but as it stands, this is a good game for strategy/RPG fans.