Sadly Valusoft only released it for the NA. Otherwise I'd have picked it up on release.

Jesus, bansama, how many times have you been shafted by regional restrictions? I know this particular case isn't unique to you, but it seems about 4 out of every 5 games mentioned on GOG, you get the shaft with restrictions.

Way too many.

GamePro and Valusoft should both sell to you. GamersGate, D2D and Impulse have it regionally locked and it won't even show on Steam's site.

Last time I tried to buy directly from Valusoft, the checkout process failed due to restrictions. Doesn't really matter. I'll just get it from GamersGate when it goes on discount for 50% or so via a holiday to the US ;).

Depending how much you trust them, proxy services can easily save you the price of the plane ticket:

http://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/

Just don't completely check out with credit card and wait for GG to mail you to complete your order.

Also change your GG password immediately afterwards.

Some people might question the morality of it but, in the end, I'm still paying for the game even when every search in Google for the game resulted in so many ways to get a hacked copy free.

Heh. I think you missed the emoticon.

Heh heh. Lol. I see it now.

I wish this would come out in a box in the UK so I could import.

I'll probably give in here soon and get it on Gamersgate.

I realise its a difficult area and optional etc, and that you can and probably should leave it till after the main plot. But its areas like these that make you take a hard look at the game's battle system.

I went there too early, sure. But no matter how much more I levelled, it would still be hard for my fighters to draw aggro and protect weaker party members. No matter how buff my mages got, they where still never going to get area effect/crowd control magic. No matter how much I levelled there was still no tactics to avoid the clumsy manner enemies can swarm wherever the hell they like.

You can beat the game without being at all bothered by the battle system because the major plot line has options to avoid encounters and most of the forced battles are so easy enough to pull through. I just happened to try that temple too early and found myself frustrated by the game's definition of difficult. It isn't one you can really beat with clever tactics or abilities, just more hit points and better equipment.

I find it best to take direct control of your spell casting characters that have attribute altering magic and let your tanks go AI to hack away mindlessly.

In some of the closer call battles that I've had, I had to pause every time cast spell would verify by it's icon appearing next to the avatar I cast it on so that I could hurry up and cast the next one without too much free time between pauses.

What frustrates me is the speed of casting and I'm hoping that is because I'm still towards the beginning of the game (just defeated the golem in the warehouses) and my character's levels are under par.

I really liked the game, although it is the second one (next to the Witcher) which I find unplayable with English voices.
I'm no fan of German language, but the original version is SO much better here.

And I hate those crabs ><. Especially since my party wasn't picked for effectiveness ;)
However, the harderst battle for me wasn't with the crab boss, but the non-sealed Zant.

You can queue multiple spells / tasks with Ctrl key.

Attack/Parry is hardcoded into the queue system. Not infrequently your guys will parry at the same time the enemy's parry occurs, meaning both of them just stare at each other for a round. I was continually clicking off the parry in the queue to hurry the f up and slaughter weaker enemies. Some enemies don't parry, and they have the distinct advantage because of it.

There is an extensive fixpack (Ergo's) for TRoT, just as there is/was for the original Drakensang.

I'm not really seeing a problem with this in terms of game design. It's meant to be one of the toughest battles in the game, so it stands to reason that it requires well-equipped, high-level characters as well as good tactics on top of that. The battles with 6+ giant crabs on the way through the temple should have also provided adequate warning that what was waiting at the bottom was going to be a pretty tough fight (the first time I started making my way through the temple I was having to go through half my healing potions just to take on a larger group of giant crabs, and took that as a sign that I should come back when I was stronger... plus the geode in the temple pretty much flat out tells you to not go in too far if you find yourself having trouble). As for your other comments on that game's battle system, the fact that enemies could move freely around characters was a little annoying, although I think enemy aggro was still quite manageable even if it required a bit more attention from the player. As for mages not having AoE spells, this just seems to be a feature of the Dark Eye ruleset, which means they have to act more like squishy support characters than the heavy artillery we're used to seeing them as in other games. I simply see it as a matter of taking note of how the game's ruleset operates and designing your characters and tactics accordingly.

Heh, I'd actually forgotten about that one. Probably because after trying that battle without any seals and having my ass handed to me I promptly plunked down three seals and put the whole affair behind me.

You did the right thing. I won't post any further spoilers, but IMHO It's literally not worth it T_T