1 - I've read that the combat is turn-based, but is it actually phase-based?

2 - I've read that there is only one "save game" slot, is there any way around that to get more save slots?

3 - I've read that the game is rather punishing and requires optimized characters, Is there a difficulty setting to offset this?

Thanks in advance.

1: It's just like classic Wizardry. At the start of the round, you choose a command for each character, then when the round starts there's a hidden initiative roll and the selected actions are played out in initiative order.

2. Strictly speaking, there are two saves, an autosave and a hard save. When you load the game, the game loads the most recent save out of the two. You can, of course, work around this by copying the save files elsewhere. (If you want to disable the autosave, just delete the file and create a folder with that name instead; at least when running under WINE, the game doesn't actually properly check to see if the save succeded.)

3. I don't remember there being a difficulty option. On the other hand, the choices made when creating characters tend to not matter in the long run. Also, one way to mitigate the difficulty is to take advantage of the ability to convert money to experience; sell some valuable items (which sometimes drop early for some reason), and you can get access to high level spells early. Later in the game, when offensive spells lose their effectiveness, equipment (in particular, weapons) tends to be the most important thing.

(Also, worth noting that late game combat is all about winning before the enemies can kill your characters. Enemies are so dangerous that the spell that fully heals your entire party is sometimes not enough.)

Drat, that's phase-based. That's the second game in the last couple of days I've had to turn down for being phase-based.

I've never liked phase-based combat because of the chance I'll end up with wasted actions. That guy I was aiming for with the big axe? Now I'm swinging at air because someone else in my party took him down 2nd during initiative while I swung during 5th. It's annoying enough when it's just a wasted standard swing of a weapon, but doubly annoying when I've wasted a spell slot (or mana, whichever a particular game may have as its spellcasting source). It totally takes away from my enjoyment of a game.

I mean, I'm happy for whoever enjoys phase-based combat (or real-time combat, for that matter), it's just a complete annoyance to me.

Usually, and I believe this game is no exception, attacks will auto-target if the original target is dead. In other words, if your target is killed before your turn, you'll just attack another target without wasting your turn. It's only in older games (like NES era games) where you have this issue.

Also, I'd rather have combat work this way than have real time combat (even with pause) in a game that's supposed to be an RPG and that has multiple party members.

What was the other game you had to turn down?

Hmm...well, that certainly does change my opinion a bit. Thanks for the info.

The other game was Grimoire.