We have seen a lot more activity on the Towerborne website lately, with the development team at Stoic Games offering more info on the upcoming fantasy action-adventure game that will be published by Microsoft"s Xbox Game Studios over the past few weeks.
Today, the latest dev diary entry on the Towerborne site takes a look at one of the many weapon types that the player characters can use in the game. It"s Sword and Shield, and as the dev diary itself notes, this is a classic gaming combat trope in the fantasy genre.
The dev diary says Sword and Shield is the only weapon type in the game that can block attacks, which can reduce the amount of damage the player will receive during an attack. Sword and Shield also lets players parry attacks which can result in no damage at all if a parry is successful.
This weapon type will also let users activate what Stoic calls Valor Mode. Stoic says this mode can be enabled when a player character"s Weapon Meter is filled up with both fighting enemies and also receiving damage. Valor Mode can reduce the amount of damage a player can receive for a set amount of time
The dev diary adds:
During the duration of Valor Mode, the player does not need to time their parry, but will instead automatically parry incoming attacks by simply holding the appropriate button. If, however, the player opts to engage more skillfully, they can attempt to time the parry perfectly, and should they do this, the enemy is stunned for a number of seconds.
The use of the Sword and Shield weapon type also has a number of Focus Abilities, some of which are also described and shown in the Towerborne dev diary entry. Currently, Towerborne is due to launch sometime in 2024. However, as of this writing, there"s not an exact date yet for its release. Microsoft will publish the game for the PC and for its Xbox Series X and S consoles.