This vs. Tower of Time

[thee.alemaozinho]

What would you say? I absolutely loved Tower of Time, played it through 3 times up to the highest difficulty. I liked the balanced concept of exploration and arena battles, with a little freedom to choose from which battles to take next, which party members to choose from with which skills, it was all very engaging.

Does the same apply here? Not sure about how I feel that now it is more like the other games, where they abandoned that arena idea. Does that make it better or worse in your opinion?

[thee.alemaozinho]

Nobody replied, so after playing a considerable time, I can answer it myself: It is worse, way worse. And it really pains me to say that.

ToT was one of my all time favourites, it really was.

This one here, not so much.

Technically it may be better, with more choices regarding characters and skills, but exploration feels so boring, there is nothing, really nothing worth discovering, the levels stripped of details and all seemingly shaped the same.

Remember how in ToT sometimes you could started high up and could see far below some lights and later would be able to visit that place? Even if it was just an illusion, it worked perfectly fine, it gave the whole tower a sense of being real (to a certain degree).

Here, all levels seem almost be procedurally generated, just with a change of textures. Apart from some exceptions, there is absolutely no noteworthy storytelling in the maps.

As for the story - for some reason it feels way less epic than in ToT. There I loved the style of the animated cutscenes, here I just don't care.

It seems the devs have taken some wrong turn somewhere in the development process, and it sadly really shows.

I still hope for a ToT 2, but if their next game is again more in the wake of DE, I'll definitely skip it.

[Dekinai]

I spend a lot of time in ToT myself, i found the gameplay, setting, graphics, theme and the story (although i am not much of a reader myself and skipped/missed some of the story) fantastic. The way the world was introduced and the tower that was upside down peaked my interests right from the start. the monsters and theme change in every level of the tower i loved. I even ironman it with all characters alive to only find out there was no achievement for that hahaha. I don't play for achievements but that felt silly :D

I loved tower of time and would really like to see a sequel in much the same style and graphic style but with updated graphics and animations. I also like the crafting in these games and although not perfect it's good enough and also impact full. i remember you can't just spam craft items, you only have a so much resources at your disposal to gear up with, making gearing a somewhat strategic decision aswell on hard difficulties.

I was scrolling through my steam library and for some reason i went back to this game and noticed a update. i doubt it will be a very big difference iin the end. I found this game lacking soul, which ToT did have. maybe its the graphics or the engine on which this game is build. I still liked this game, its a good game but i found it to lengthy in the end without any real progression not possible anymore. (maybe they fixed that in v1.5)

In the end i was tired of the game, i rushed it in the last hours to complete it. While typing this i've been trying to remember the story but can only recall the first bit somewhat. i am sure that if i'd play it again i will have "oh yea" moments. ToT stuck with me more. I did also play it more so that could also be the reason.

In the end, Tower of Time wins in all regards over this one for me.
Edit: I would like to add, The music in tower of time did add a lot to the atmosphere of the game. i sometimes play the music still!

Looking forward to their next game for sure!

[thee.alemaozinho]

Completely agree with you!

Lost its soul is probably a very good description when considering DE as a successor from ToT. ToT you could feel they had this very unique design idea and followed it through, and, though not perfect, it was a really wholesome experience which motivated me to beat the game 3 times up to the highest difficulty.

DE... not so much. The levels are quite bland and boring, missing all the details and storytelling ToT had; the idea of having the fights in the open world is a mixed sword, as I suspect, this is the main reason for why the levels are the way they are now. And even then, they did not follow through completely, as there are still shut off arenas in some fights.

I also agree on the music parts, though in DE there was one that caught my attention, and that was in the old temples. That one reminded me of the music quality in ToT.

I hope the devs are taking this to heart, as sometimes less is more, and the additions or changes they made to DE from ToT did imo not work in favor of the game.

[Dekinai]

Do we know if they are working on a new project and what that project will be?

I do like it that this game has a connection to Tower of Time, its in the same universe.
I wonder if they will continue with this universe.

Hopefully we can get some information as to what they are working at.

[thee.alemaozinho]

Originally posted by Dekinai:

Do we know if they are working on a new project and what that project will be?

I do like it that this game has a connection to Tower of Time, its in the same universe.
I wonder if they will continue with this universe.

Hopefully we can get some information as to what they are working at.

I very much liked that as well! I think the backstory with the Organthe is really powerful.

But I sincerely hope that the new game, if there is one to come (and if it is in the same genre), is closer to ToT than to DE.