The Dawning Clocks of Time Remake — Update 1.5.1904.51
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Combat feels sharper, the ATE combat slot system is now fully integrated into battles and several effect-leaking bugs have been squashed, along with the cut map feature being restored. We've also fixed many game progression bugs that could occur.[/p]
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⚔️ Combat Improvements
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Input Buffering[/p]
- [p] Melee combo attacks now support input buffering — press attack during a swing and the next hit queues up automatically, making combos feel responsive and fluid.[/p]
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Hit Stop[/p]
- [p] Landing a melee hit now triggers a brief freeze-frame hit stop for extra impact — a subtle 60ms pause that makes every swing feel like it connects.
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🎰 Active Time Effects (ATE) — Overhaul
[p]The Active Time Effects slot system has been completely reworked.
Combat-Reactive Spins[/p]
- [p] The ATE now automatically spins as soon as a battle starts — no waiting around.
[/p]- [p] During combat, landing 4 consecutive hits triggers an automatic spin.
[/p]- [p] A cooldown prevents spam so spins stay dramatic and meaningful.[/p]
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Reel-by-Reel Stops[/p]
- [p] Reels now stop one column at a time from left to right.
[/p]- [p] When two reels match and a win is likely, the final reel pauses with dramatic anticipation before revealing the result.[/p]
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Five ATE Effects[/p]
- [p]Extra Damage (50% chance) — doubles your damage output.
[/p]- [p]Invincibility (33% chance) — a brief window of complete invulnerability.
[/p]- [p]Healing Wave (40% chance) — instantly regenerates a chunk of HP.
[/p]- [p]Attack Rush (45% chance) — speeds up your attacks for a limited time.
[/p]- [p]Slow Motion (50% chance) — slows enemies down, giving you the advantage.
[/p]- [p] Each effect has a probability gate — stronger effects are rarer, keeping combat balanced.
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Visual & Audio Feedback[/p]
- [p] Winning an effect triggers a subtle color-coded screen flash (auto-created, no setup needed).
[/p]- [p] The effect name appears with a punch-scale pop-in animation and gentle pulsing glow.
[/p]- [p] Level-up from repeated spins grants a guaranteed slow-motion burst.
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Cut features from the original release have been restored and polished, along with smoother UI transitions, a progression fix, and more quality-of-life improvements.[/p]
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🗺️ RESTORED — Map
[p]A feature originally planned for the first release but cut due to time constraints has now been
fully restored and improved. Press
TAB (keyboard) or
Select (gamepad) to open a
bird's eye view map that shows the actual world around you from above.
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- [p] The map renders a real top-down view of your surroundings using an overhead camera.
[/p]- [p] Indoor scenes automatically hide ceilings so you can see into rooms clearly.
[/p]- [p] Outdoor scenes render the full environment without clipping.
[/p]- [p] Fog is automatically disabled on the map camera so nothing is obscured.
[/p]- [p]Sven's portrait appears at your position on the map with a gentle pulsing glow so you always know where you are. [/p][p][/p]
🔍 RESTORED — Map Pointer Arrows
[p]Another originally planned feature now brought to life. Important objects in the world are marked on the bird's eye map with
color-coded pulsing arrows:
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- [p]Yellow arrows mark pickup items — weapons, documents, keys, and more.
[/p]- [p]Blue arrows mark doors that lead to other areas.
[/p]- [p]Red arrows mark enemies — and they move in real time as enemies patrol.
[/p]- [p] All arrows pulse with a transparent glow animation so they're visible without blocking the view.
[/p]- [p] Arrows for destroyed enemies or picked-up items are automatically removed.
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✨ UI Polish
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Item Pickup Popup[/p]
- [p] Picking up an item now triggers a satisfying zoom-in popup effect — the item icon scales up with a slight overshoot before settling, then shrinks back down when dismissed.
[/p]- [p] Combined with the existing fade animation for a polished, tactile feel.
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🐛 Bug Fixes
- [p]Fixed a bug where the player could no longer move after defeating NULL — if the map screen was open or mid-close during the boss defeat sequence, the game could get permanently stuck in a paused state. The map UI now properly resets its internal state during scene transitions.
[/p]- [p]Fixed multiple UI screens that could leave the game stuck paused — the Item Pickup popup, Cinematic Player, and Document Reader all had edge cases where being interrupted by a scene change (e.g. boss defeat, door transition) would leak a pause count, freezing the player permanently. All UI screens now have safety cleanup on disable.
[/p]- [p]Fixed Camera Closeup sequences leaking pause state — if a camera closeup was interrupted by a scene transition before completing, the game would remain paused. Closeups now properly resume on disable.
[/p]- [p]Fixed Battle Tutorial stealing pause state from other systems — the tutorial was calling Resume without ever having called Pause, which could unpause something else prematurely and cause erratic behavior.
[/p]- [p]Fixed Return to Title not fully clearing pause state — returning to the main menu now force-clears all pause state to prevent stale pauses from carrying over into a new game.
[/p]- [p]Fixed Item Container on Switch hanging forever when closed — the item box close sequence used a timed delay that couldn't tick while the game was paused, causing the container to never finish closing on Nintendo Switch.
[/p]- [p]Fixed a progression-blocking bug in Vita Base where NPC dialogs could fail to complete properly, leaving the player stuck and unable to continue the story. The dialog system now correctly re-enables all actors and clears its state when a conversation ends, even if interrupted or triggered during a scene transition.
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Thank you for playing The Dawning Clocks of Time Remake. Your support means the world to us. If you encounter any issues, please report them through the Steam Community Hub. Don't forget to leave a review if you're enjoying the game — it helps more than you know![/p]