Pandora’s Tower review

by Paul on Jun 13th, 2012

Now this is a nice surprise! In this day and age of 24/7 rolling news and constant access to the internet it’s pretty hard to find yourself being unaware of a new game. Way back when we had nothing but a monthly magazine to quench our thirst for gaming knowledge it was inevitable that every now and then a new release would pass you by, but these days we have a mixture of online gaming sites and good old Twitter to ensure that pretty much nothing slips by our hawk-like gaze unnoticed. So you can imagine my surprise when Pandora’s Tower plopped itself onto my doormat. It’s a game that, while I had heard of it as part of the Operation Rainfall campaign, I didn’t know very much else about it and I have to admit that it’s actually quite refreshing to be starting up a new game with no real idea of what to expect.

Operation Rainfall was a sustained push by gamers over in America to get three games (Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower) released on their fair shores. For reasons only known to Nintendo the games had only seen the light of day in Japan and over here in the UK and Europe, not across the pond in the US. Our American cousins were missing out and they didn’t like it. NOT. ONE. BIT. So they all got behind a joint effort to get Nintendo to release them. It took a while but they did succeed. Hooray for people power! Er … except, it’s not all good news as Pandora’s Tower is the only one of the three Operation Rainfall games not to be granted an American release. This is a real shame as it really is rather good. What’s even worse is that, for us who do get to sample its delights, the game simply arrives too late to make much of an impression amongst the majority of Wii owners and is left to suffer the ignoble fate of being lost in the mad scramble for Wii U.

On paper Pandora’s Tower does little to inspire interest, joining the very long list of typical JRPGs where an angsty teen is tasked to save his beloved. You could rightly wonder what all the fuss was about but things actually kick off very briskly and the developers have wisely decided to get the usual ‘save the princess’ tosh out of the way immediately. Within five minutes we’ve got all the back story out of the way and you’re off on our quest. You play as Aeron, our titular hero, and the task at hand is to lift the curse that has befallen Elena, the beloved in question who needs to be saved. Elena’s curse can only be lifted if Aeron tackles “the thirteen towers of the scar”, each of which hosts a whole plethora of beasts, ranging from small wasp-like creatures, right up to a ‘master monster’. It’s here that the developers add a nice little twist to the generic plot. Aeron’s task is not just to defeat the master of each tower, he has to return with the master’s heart for Elena to eat. Yup, she’s got to chow down on the bad guy you’ve just vanquished in order to keep the curse at bay in order to stop Elena being transformed into a hideous beast. What makes this all the worse for our heroes is that they belong to a race of strict vegetarians so holding aloft a monster’s heart for Elena to consume is not exactly her idea of a gourmet meal. When the choice is that or being turned into something H. R. Geiger sees in his nightmares, it doesn’t take long for Elena to overcome her stomach-turning revulsion and we are made to watch her take those retch-inducing bites in a perverse reversal of Snow White biting into the apple.

So, we embark on the quest to take on these thirteen towers and what makes this game so interesting and fun to play that it’s actually two games in one. The first part sees you gallivanting through the towers and tackling beasties with Elena waiting for you in the Observatory. There is a clock ever-present in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen that is counting down towards the curse totally taking over Elena. Not only that but the more it moves to zero the more the relationship between you and Elena deteriorates. You have to keep a close eye on it, capture some flesh and return it to Elena before the time runs out. Only certain enemies within the towers will give you the flesh you need and it makes things delightfully tense and gives you a real urge to keep on going. Very often games of this ilk present a global threat that’s about to kick off, yet once you set off it’s as if time stops and the big bad guy is left hanging in limbo while you make your way from town to town searching chests and talking to the locals. So, it makes a nice change to actually be presented with a permanently ticking clock as you go through the dungeons to keep things moving. The game cleverly avoids this becoming an annoyance; none of the towers are particularly large and they are all littered with shortcuts so, while you may be pressed for time – even stretching right to the wire on occasions – it’s never less than thrilling to get through and rush back to Elena.

However, this is where the second part of the game comes into play. When you do return to the Observatory to give Elena the flesh to help restore her, you’re given the chance to chat to Elena and to present her with gifts that you’ve found in the towers. This will improve the relationship you share with her. This has the two-fold effect of making the emotional attachment to her even stronger so that you’re invested even further in the main body of the quest, but it will also influence which ending you will receive when you complete the game. There’s six different endings available, each of which will depend on how you conversed with Elena, how you treated her while you were in the Observatory and how quickly you made your way through the towers. All of this isn’t compulsory – you could not speak to her for the entirety of the game if you wanted – but to ignore her is to miss out on what makes this game so unique amongst its contemporaries and it makes for a really interesting addition. In terms of encouraging player investment there’s none close to it that springs to mind.

The main quest plays out as a Zelda / Metroid hybrid, so expect lots of exploring, smashing open crates and fighting enemies as you make your way through a variety of towers that comprise of the usual environmental genre staples. Sadly, repetition in tower design does set in towards the end, and it’s hard to avoid the sneaking suspicion that you’ve played a particular tower once before. All of them are gorgeous to look at but, such is the ageing Wii hardware, come with a slightly fuzzy look to them. Having said all that, any problems with samey towers is soon forgotten because the game does so much to keep you entertained. You’re armed with a sword which offers up some basic but enjoyable hack ‘n slash combat and there’s scope to upgrade to more weapons as you go, but to progress anywhere in Pandora’s Tower you’re going to have to get to grips with its ace in the hole; the Oraclos Chain. The chain is given to you when you embark on the adventure and is perhaps the game’s strongest element and I was left very impressed with how Ganbarion have implemented the Wii’s motion controls.

The chain instantly brings to mind God of War fused with Link’s Hookshot and with it you can grab enemies, tie them together and pull them to the ground, as well as using it to move around the different towers. Later on you’re able to upgrade it so that it fires out pulses of energy. It’s a very versatile weapon / tool and it’s clear that a great deal of thought has gone into how the chain works with the Wii remote and the nunchuck. When so many Wii developers have opted for simple ‘shake the remote’ banality this level of control comes as a great and welcome surprise. You can play with the classic controller if you’d prefer but I’d advise you to stick with the motion controls as there’s a great deal of satisfaction to be had as you fight the enemies in each tower, using the chain to take them out in some very interesting ways that feel entirely organic and natural. Not once did I feel self-conscious or awkward while playing this game, which is not something I’d say about Skyward Sword!

As we enter the final stage of the Wii’s life it is a real treat to have a game like Pandora’s Tower. Knowing that a lot of people are going to miss out is real shame, but I take solace in the fact that this is Ganbarion’s first title and it shows a lot of promise. I can only hope that, despite Nintendo’s bizarre rationale of only releasing it in some countries, they too can see the potential in this game and I look forward to seeing what Ganbarion can come up with for the Wii U. If the US-based readers amongst you can hunt down an import copy I’d urge you to do so. A charming and engaging title awaits you.

4/5

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Screenshots courtesy of Nintendo Gamer. Thanks!

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