Topic: Pandora's Tower impresions

Today ive played the japanese Pandora no Tou for one hour and I want to share some impressions from the game. note; I only got to the first giant boss, trough tons of japanese text and info.
First of all I would say this game is like a 3D metroidvania, with lots of content and cinematics. The maps are huge and there's diffent areas you can explore. Gameplay is very tight, the character moves fast and uses three styles of weapon at the same time - bow, whip and sword - he can make combos and link attacks between the three weapons - very cool. There's no jump button, but it works fine with platforms. One interesting mechanic is the Pointer, wich you can zoom in to aim or search the enviroment. You can also shoot at different parts of the monsters body.
Graphics gave me a mixed opinion, for instance the character models looks nice and the scenario has lots of detail. on the other hand, lots of detail makes the game suffer from its low resolution, and things can look very fuzzy sometimes. Its not clean as God of War on the PS2, looks more like the last Prince of Persia. I wish they had gone with a more stylish visual.
It also has some AdventureRPG elemnts, like text interaction, and lots of Itens... the character can upgrade many things, I wish I could talk more about it but its all in japanese.
The challange is engaging, since you can kill the enemies in different ways, block and dodge, use itens to heal, etc... the bosses or bigger opponents require you to use your whip and pull specific parts, you can also hold the smaller enemies. Ive got really excited on the first hour playing the game and only stoped because ive got killed by the big boss. this one;

On a nutshell, Pandora's Tower is a better game than Metroid Other M, far better than Prince of Persia forgotten sands, and most important a game that can hook you.
There aren't many games like this on the console, it's more Bayonetta and less Zelda, and there aren't many action games with this much dept on all consoles, so I really hope it gets localized.

That impression makes it quite appealing to me. Nice work vonseux. Will keep this on my radar.
_{sadly the character isnt as hot as bayonetta}

Eh, just reading long cut scenes and cinematic immediately makes me turn away from this game. However, you said it was like Bayonetta and there's a combo system. Do you have any idea how many combos you can pull off?

Thanks for taking the time to write that up! I haven't heard a lot about PT yet, so it's good to hear from someone who's played it.

Thanks for the impressions! You made the game sound really cool. I'm a lot more interested in it now. That part where you can make combos between all 3 weapons sounded really cool. I can't believe this isn't getting localized. I hope NoA changes there mind. I would love to give this game a chance.

Crap, it really does sound awesome! You had me at "Metroidvania". I have to import this now,

If this doesn't come out in America, you might be better off waiting for the EU release and importing that as you'll then be able to understand it better.

Somehow I really don't trust this description.

My impressions are the exact opposite - perhaps because I understand (most of) the Japanese.

The plot is uninteresting. The combat, if you've played the likes of God of War or even the PS3 Castlevania, is vastly inferior. It's not an attractive game.

My overall impression from around 10 hours play is Nintendo felt the need to try and compete with the God of War franchise, and came up with this.

That's what I got outta the trailers, and that's the kind of description I was expecting. Normally I don't trust your opinion on action games, but today I'll take your word for it. I've got better games to worry about.

As we all know, I'm a Warriors fantaic. This was too button mashy for me. Those to phrases put together should tell you all you need to know about this game.

God of War combat sucks, its vastly repetitive with waves and waves of enemies that requires only button mashing, while the bosses instead of strategy has quick time events. But that's not the point; I don't think theese games are similar at hall, even as an inferior version.

And yet Pandora's Tower is worse.

Seriously, if you've got a HD console, you don't need this game. There are better examples of action games that will suit your tastes - whether that's Castlevania, God of War, Prince of Persia, 100 different types of Warriors games, Darksiders or Dante's Inferno.

I would recommend all of those over this tripe. Especially Darksiders - that game has a Nintendo vibe, while doing everything better than Pandora.

I predict this game is going to be one of those polarising ones, like Metroid: Other M. There are those that love it. There are those that loathe it. It would be good for people to see both points of view so they can make an informed decision about this game.

Okay so there are others, but if you can only play on a nintendo system and you can't play rated M (over protective parents) this is the way to go.

@WaltElf

"Seriously, if you've got a HD console, you don't need this game. There are better examples of action games that will suit your tastes - whether that's Castlevania, God of War, Prince of Persia, 100 different types of Warriors games, Darksiders or Dante's Inferno."

You should seriously being referencing Bayonetta in your line of reasoning, as it really is the pinnacle of the hack and slash/ action genre.

I find it funny that you think it's far superior to Metroid Other M, yes that game underperformed on the Wii.

It just goes to show NoA only ports what they think will be big sellers, not what's a good game or not.

The impressions I've read and the videos I've watched so far make Pandora's Tower a promising game.
Graphically it could be better (judging from YouTube videos). The main characters weapon (a whip that is used by pointing on the screen) reminds me of Yoshi's tongue in Super Mario Galaxy 2 (a cool element that was unfortunately underused). The boss fights and puzzles in Pandora, and the tower itself are just like Zelda-dungeons. But the gothic style, whip and Metroidvania-gameplay almost make this feel like a Castlevania game. Just put some Castlevania music in there and put Dracula as the final boss and voilá: Pandora's Tower is a new Castlevania game for Wii.

You're right, I did forget that one.

I don't personally think it's the best, but I can see where fans come from with that game.

I'm most excited about being able to grab an enemy with the whip, and swing it around like a wrecking ball to demolish the rest of it's friends.

I think it looks alright, although I understand why NOA (beside their always asinine strategy) is so skeptic about releasing it in the West. Games like this should have been produced (released and advertised) 4 years ago when all the attention was on Wii, and not 4 months before its departure. The momentum is gone and I'll be surprised if this is going to sell more than 100.000 copies outside Japan.

Anybody knows what is the average length of the game?!

That looks very much like a game I am going to be importing! Thanks for the thread
Looks to be like Nintendo's answer to castlevania, just like how XB & TLS are answers to XSXG and FF...

I thought Xenoblade and The Last Story were the answer to the complete lack of worthwhile JRPGs on current gen consoles