This video by Scott Manley actually brought me back to TLF. I had played it back in its early stages and got turned off by the rather terrible combat and the information overload that is so common out of Arcen titles, along with Real Life getting in the way.
But I saw this video (as I watch him regularly) and was instantly drawn to fire the game up again. Turn based bullet hell? Sign me up! I am one of the resident Touhou fans here after all.
So, ensign when the clock hit one am last night and I still couldn't sleep I got up and began the game.
Wow was it awesome. And one of the key things that I find even better than the massively improved combat is the tutorial. I knew the Arcen information overload was a problem but did not know how to fix it. You figured it out. The gradual reveal of information and options is exactly what I needed to understand things.
As I said on Twitter, this game makes me want to keep playing just a few more minutes more than any Civilization game ever did. It wasn't until four am that I finally put the game down and went to sleep.
I only regret that I got my copy of TLF free because I was in the beta. That's easy to fix though. I'll just buy it for a friend... or three.