- ‘Time Coordinated Attack’ System Draws Attention by Reproducing Records Left by Past Agents via Holograms
- Pursuing infinite build diversity with 90s retro-futuristic visuals and agent-specific card concepts
If I rewind time, the me from a moment ago appears and fights alongside me.
‘BORROW or ROB’ , a sci-fi roguelike deckbuilder currently under development by the South Korean indie developer Pirates of Wall Street, is attracting attention with its unique time-reversal combat system.
‘BORROW or ROB’ proceeds by dividing a single battle into two phases: forward and reverse. All actions performed by the player in the forward phase are recorded on the timeline, while in the reverse phase, the player’s past self appears as a hologram to recreate their actions exactly as they were at that time.
Deck building, which involves calculating not just which cards to choose but also when to use which cards and how to utilize those actions in future battles, serves as a key element.
The Machine God Pantheon’s Time-Reversal Invasion, the Counterattack Technique Stolen by Humanity
The game unfolds in a future where the artificial intelligence ‘Pantheon’ defines humans as meaningless beings and has even perfected time-reversal technology.
The Human Resistance could not defeat the Pantheon, no matter how meticulous their plans were. This was because the Pantheon analyzed the battle results and sent troops back in time to neutralize the battle itself.
The key to the counterattack begins when future humanity steals the Pantheon’s time-reversal technology and sends it to the past. The machine equipped with this technology is the ‘BORROW or ROB,’ which is also the title of the game.
Now, humanity, too, will be able to travel back in time and fight alongside their past selves.
Boss battle structure divided into two phases: forward and reverse.
The boss battle consists of Phase 1 (Forward) and Phase 2 (Reverse).
In the forward direction, combat proceeds in a standard manner, but all player actions are recorded on the timeline. Subsequently, when the reverse phase begins, the battle is played back in reverse, with previously used cards and actions appearing in reverse order.
Therefore, Phase 1 is not merely an attack phase, but rather a process of exploration to grasp the boss’s combat patterns and rules. Since the reverse processes—such as positional changes, bombardment order, and enemy splitting and merging—vary depending on the boss, it is important to play with the next phase in mind.
A pincer attack with BORROW and time, a single blow completed by overlapping with my past self.
In each battle, two agents appear, one deployed in the forward direction and the other in the reverse direction.
The action logs left by the agent in Phase 1 are recreated as holograms in Phase 2. When the player attacks with the current agent, the past agent also attacks from the same location, overlapping with the current one. The developers call this the “Temporal Pincer.”
In particular, if you step on the location where a past agent stood, ‘BORROW’ is activated, inheriting the defenses and buffs accumulated at that time. Conversely, if you attack from the same location, a time rift opens, allowing you to select a time-coordinated attack tactic.
Ultimately, the actions you took in the past determine your current combat choices.
Approximately 100 Time Coordinated Attacks Mastered Through Timing Judgment
When the time coordinate attack hits, the reverse clock activates, and the player must input at the moment the clock hands reach 12 o’clock.
Depending on the judgment result, a more powerful grade of Time Co-op Tactics is activated, and you can encounter approximately 100 different Time Co-op Tactics based on the combination of cards used in the past and present. The key to combat lies not just in collecting good cards, but in how you connect your actions in the past and present.
Agent-specific card concepts and 90s retro-future visuals
The game is configured with different card colors, concepts, equipment, and time-based coordinated attack tactics for each agent.
The key strategic element is how to combine agents with different combat styles—such as close combat, destruction, corrosion, data manipulation, and defense—and in what order to deploy their actions.
Since card, equipment, and skill builds vary depending on the agent combination, you can look forward to the fun of building new strategies for every battle.
The visuals are being produced based on a 90s retro-futuristic style. By combining a sci-fi setting of time reversal with a dystopian worldview where machine civilization dominates humanity, it conveys a retro sensibility even amidst a cold and mechanical atmosphere.
The unique ‘time reversal’ mechanism, where a player’s past actions become powerful allies and strategic cards, holds the potential to present a new paradigm to the genre market.
Attention is focused on how the development team’s ingenious ideas will materialize into high-quality content named ‘BORROW or ROB’ . The game is scheduled to be released as an Early Access title on Steam in September 2026.
Information regarding ‘BORROW or ROB’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| development | Pirates of Wall Street, Inc. |
| Genre | SF Roguelike Deckbuilder |
| platform | PC / Steam |
| Release date | Early Access in September 2026 |
| core system | Forward/Reverse Phase 2 Boss Battle / Temporal Pincer / BORROW |
| pincer attack tactics | Approximately 100 variations (varies depending on the card combination used) |
| Art style | 90s style retro-future |
| Worldview Keywords | AI Pantheon, Time Reversal Invasion, Human Resistance, Time-Stealing Machine |
| Steam Page | Shortcut |
