Pandora's Tower impresions - Wii, WiiWare & Virtual Console Forum

vonseux · 2011-07-05T14:35:47+00:00

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.

21
Bankai
Wed 3rd Aug 2011

kkslider5552000 wrote:

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

You haven't looked at the PS3 library, have you?

Even if you don't like the high profile stuff like FFXIII and White Knight there's a great Atelier game, Ar tonelico Qoga, two great Tri Ace games, Neir...

Digitally Downloaded - best darned game site on the web ;-)

22
FonistofCruxis
Wed 3rd Aug 2011

n0body wrote:

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...

Pandora's tower is coming to Europe next year so you may want to wait for that so that you can play it in English.

Neilloggery

23
kkslider5552000
Wed 3rd Aug 2011

WaltzElf wrote:

kkslider5552000 wrote:
I thought Xenoblade and The Last Story were the answer to the complete lack of worthwhile JRPGs on current gen consoles
You haven't looked at the PS3 library, have you?
Even if you don't like the high profile stuff like FFXIII and White Knight there's a great Atelier game, Ar tonelico Qoga, two great Tri Ace games, Neir...

well fair enough, I have heard of ONE of those games. Once. This was meant to praise handheld RPGs as much as make fun of console JRPGs nowadays, btw.

Now, I'm not one to take Metacritic too seriously. But the critics were "that was ok" towards it. Radiata Stories or whatever it's called were also Tri Ace and they at least had a big fan score. These new games did not that. I dunno, maybe I think they would have similar obsessed fans? A minor point I suppose but that kinda interests me.

And using VGchartz despite not being something I exactly trust 100% of the time. An example, Arc Tonelico in 10 weeks did about as well as Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. Resonance of Fate is one of the Tri Ace games I would assume. That actually did ok, that's a good example. But the others, not so much.

Now, I love a good amount of games that very few critics have high scores and didn't sell well. Xenoblade sold about as well in Japan as these games. However, Xenoblade has hype going for it. People are actually talking about it (I would mention Operation Rainfall but I think also, what else in Nintendo land is there to even talk about right now anyway?) Great review after great review, an almost absurd amount of praise, not to mention it is apparently doing really well in pre-orders in Europe so far as NOE is trying to make it somewhat of a big deal. The Last Story also has a lot of hype, not quite as much but better sales in Japan. You NEED hype in order for anyone to care. If Retro Game Challenge is released and no one buys it, does Retro Game Challenge 2 really exist? And Retro Game Challenge got more love from critics too.

Of course, the irony is that I'm pretty sure Pandora's Tower is a similar type of game. No hype.

Non-binary, demiguy, making LPs, still alive

Megaman Legends 2 Let's Play!:
LeT's PlAy MEGAMAN LEGENDS 2 < Link to LP

24
feder
Wed 3rd Aug 2011

I really like the character art, but I can't say I'm too interested in the game itself. I'm more interested in The Last Story more than either Xenoblade or Pandora's Tower, to be honest.

feder

Forums

Topic: Pandora's Tower impresions