Veil of Time

A missing brother, a borrowed sword
Castra has always lived in the shadow of its clock tower. When a simple bounty with his friend Gill turns into a fight, Raine is summoned to Castra Castle, where his uncle Gale hands him the family sword and a writ. His brother Asperitas has vanished along with the outpost soldiers, and the trail leads into the forest. What Raine finds out there is older than Castra, and his brother may not be the same man who left.
Two ways to fight
On the field, Raine fights in real time. Slash, charge a heavy swing that throws a sword beam, and read each enemy's wind-up. Swing into the white flash and you parry: the world drops to a pencil sketch for a heartbeat while Raine and his foe stay in color, then you riposte.
Let an enemy reach you and the fight becomes a turn-based battle for the whole party. A watch-hand ring sweeps on every attack and every block; stop it in the gold for a PERFECT hit or a PERFECT guard. Enemies carry guard pips you can break to Shatter them open, they hold grudges about who hurt them, and allies can team up for dual techs.
A world that keeps its own hours
Day turns to dusk and dusk to night. Lamps come on in Castra, the forest gets darker and less friendly, and some things only hunt after sundown. Rest at campfires, take bounties off the town quest board, read the books you find, and fill in a bestiary that learns each enemy's weaknesses as you fight them. In the taverns, people will deal you into the Slog, a collectible card game with its own rivals.
Features
Real-time field combat with parries, charged heavies and sketch-time ripostes

Turn-based party battles with timed strikes and blocks, guard-breaking Shatter, enemy grudges, and dual techs

Hand-painted maps from Castra and its forest to snowbound mountains, a waterfall temple and blighted ruins

A 32-track score by composer Tim Carlos

Optional voiced dialogue and narrated books, more than 3,800 voiced lines (see the AI disclosure)

The Slog, a collectible card game with rivals across the world

29 quests and bounties, 31 readable books and a 62-entry bestiary

16 achievements, New Game+, and four difficulty levels from Easy to Master

Text speed, auto-advance, battle pacing and a visual clarity setting