On one hand, the level design is pure crap, enemy respawn is abnormally high and since the game world is not that large, you're going to do a lot of backtracking. A lot. I've seen more of Ophir's tunnels than my living room during the quarantine. That's a problem seen in the prequel, Mars Wars Logs that carries out here to a much wider level. If Technomancer has 20h or so of gameplay, you're going to spend at least 8h beating the same enemies again and again and again. You canimagine how frustrating that is. The combat doesn't help, although it is varied and promising at start (there are three stances and 4 classes of progression, which you can mix), it does gets old and repetitive fast. The level progression is also pretty slow. On the other hand, the quest design is surprisingly good and there a lot of side missions with multiple paths to solve them and creative ways to approach, something very positive on a Indie/double A western rpg. Plus, the world building is superb. For me, its the strongest point, if I've already enjoyed the authoritarian martian dystopia of Mars Wars Logs, here the mythology dives deeper, renewing old tropes and bringing real solid elements to the mix. Imagine roleplaying a jedi knight on a fascist regime: you've ethics, a heart in the right place, but everything around you sucks. The first 7 hours or so are very grimmy, since you feel the weight of being actually opressed and being unable to react. This leads us to the story which is pretty serviceable and makes good use of the amazing original world. The pessimistic ending evokes a John Carpenter's nihilistic atmosphere that brings maturity to the table. And at last, all the five companions are pretty vivid and interesting with backstories that revolves along the main plot. The amount of interaction with the companions is above the expected: they are pretty chatty throughout the entire game, be it on the missions or in the cutscenes triggered when you dislocate through the larger areas.
Tower of Time is a very surprising game. The combat stands out: it draws both from j-rpg (since the battles occur in special stages) and RTS (there´s a slow motion like button which helps playing things in the real time scenario). And different as it is, for me, it kinda got tiresome after 10 gameplay hours or so. On the other hand, the character builds and the item system (craft, enchant, dismantle etc) are both very complex and intuitive. But for me, the exploration side (even with the linear patterns) shines the most. It´s a amazing experience to walk searching for every item, blueprint or even piles of gold. The scenarios are amazingly crafted and each of the tower levels seems closely-knit. The atmospheric music is superb, somewhat eerie and dramatic, always in tune with the growing sense of danger and mistery. The characters may not appear much likeable at first sight, but their development is satisfactory and you end up caring about their fate. And that brings us to the story. The plot itself won´t sound avant-garde to most, but still, it is competent, a little mass effecty, but what it does right, it does very right: withouth spoiling much, it contains a intersting discussion about the relationship between player and game. Without breaking the fourth wall, the characters at least supects that they are been manipulated, the same supect the player feels about being, himself, manipulated by the omnious game master/narrator. A weird and yet old school nice indie rpg that deserves some love.
