Changes I’d Like to See in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

Another Ze-make announced, another leak confirmed. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is on its way to Wii U next spring, and I’m personally hoping that a Wolf Link and Midna amiibo isn’t the only novelty this new version will be boasting. At first glance, the visual makeover TP is getting seems to pale in comparison to the transformation that The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker underwent with its HD counterpart, but upon closer inspection, the visuals have certainly been cleaned up to a large degree and it looks like the game will be boasting at least much sharper textures if not entirely redone ones. TWWHD looks so notably beautiful in this modern day and age simply because its art is much better suited to the HD remaster treatment and has aged so gracefully, and Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma alluded to that very notion around the time of the HD remaster’s release. The lighting changes and added bloom also had a purpose when implemented in TWWHD, which was to capture the mood of the bright, sunny ocean setting, whereas TPHD may not have any use for similar drastic alterations. Similar to TWWHD, TPHD will not be a full remake like the 3DS Zelda remakes, but rather an HD remaster with hopefully a few tweaks here and there. Whereas my love and respect for the original experiences that The Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask provide made me wary of the changes being made to those games for their reintroductions, I don’t have the same kind of fondness for Twilight Princess and I’ll happily welcome some changes to TP that might differentiate it from the original and smooth out the experience.

I’ve thought up some alterations that I think have a realistic chance of being applied to TPHD. Again, this isn’t a full remake, so I don’t expect anything to the extent of the changes in Majora’s Mask 3D, for example. With this in mind, thinking up this list was a bit tricky because even though it sits at the lower end of my personal Zelda totem pole, Twilight Princess is actually a very polished game and there aren’t actually that many basic changes I can think to make. Most of my major quantifiable issues with Twilight Princess (and trust me, there are a lot) are baked into the DNA of the game and not the kind of thing you can just twist with a wrench a few times like Nintendo did with some aspects of The Wind Waker. That said, here are some of the tweaks I’d happily welcome when I experience this new version of Twilight Princess next spring.

GamePad Functionality

I’ll get the obvious one out of the way first, and going by the currently available screenshots and footage of the game, this stuff is all but totally confirmed anyway. It seems the game’s primary control scheme will be the GamePad, and so I fully expect the same kind of wonderfully-implemented functionality that TWWHD saw to be on display here: things like inventory and map management being on the second screen and gyroscopic aiming, which is honestly perfect because the motion-controlled aiming of the Wii version of Twilight Princess is the only aspect of that version I prefer to the otherwise superior GameCube release, so the HD version is poised to be the definitive version for me control-wise (although nothing quite beats the feel of the GameCube controller for me). As a side note, I’m very pleased to see that the HD version is being modeled after the GameCube version’s world map, so no mirror-world here like in the Wii version. Since I am far, far more familiar with the GameCube version (and also other factors like the world’s layout being more consistent with past Zelda games and also containing Hylian text that is based on the English alphabet and that is very readable if it’s not mirrored), I’m perfectly fine with this just being the way the game is, but an ability to swap between the mirror map and the standard one would be fine as well.

Camera and Miiverse Functionality

Taking another nod from The Wind Waker HD (there’s going to be a lot of that here), it’d be great if the Picto Box was introduced to Twilight Princess for this HD version (it was absent in the original game) and some kind of similar Miiverse functionality was also implemented. There’s no figurine quest or anything of the like in TP, but I’d still love to be able to photograph characters and scenery in TP’s world and share them on Miiverse (of course, I can also just do that by taking screenshots with the Home Button). Twilight Princess is actually fairly steeped in lore if you’re a hardcore fan of the series like me, and there’s a fair amount of food for theorizing in the game, so being able to share discoveries and discuss them online would be neat. Of course, if something akin to the figurine quest or maybe just the ability to photograph people and monsters in the world and get a short bio on them could be implemented, that would be most welcome. Twilight Princess is really lacking in any kind of feature like that compared to the other 3D Zelda games, so this remaster would be the perfect opportunity to remedy that and flesh out the game’s world. Even if nothing this ambitious is added, TP still has some of the most interesting architecture and lore in the series and the sharper textures will make studying features like the designs on the walls of the Temple of Time and the aforementioned readable Hylian text throughout the game a new pleasure, and being able to snap, save, and share some pictographs would make this even more enjoyable.

Refine Wolf Link

This is perhaps a more ambitious hope. Link’s wolf form may be the most underdeveloped “unique mechanic” in the entire Zelda series and it seems like an afterthought added to the game in order to give Twilight Princess a big unique feature to make it stand-out from other Zelda titles, something that it otherwise lacks. While overhauling Wolf Link entirely would call for a redesign of the whole game and is obviously not what I would expect, I think some minor tweaks here and there could at least make dashing around and fighting as the clunky lug a smoother experience. Instead of having to constantly hammer a button to make the otherwise sluggish beast dash in short bursts, just having the option to press or hold down a button once to run would be grand. Perhaps an even better choice might be to handle wolf-running the way it works in the far superior wolf simulator, Okami, where Wolf Link would start out at a measured gait and then gradually burst into a full sprint if the analog stick contained to be held forward. Also, please for the love of Din smooth out wolf combat, so enemies don’t fall down after one strike and invulnerably lie there for half a day before getting up and letting Link chew on them again. Whenever I play the original game, I have to resort to using Midna’s charge-up one hit kill attack in every single combat encounter in wolf form because fighting the normal way is just so bloody tedious.

Besides just overall touching up the way Wolf Link feels to play, maybe the bug-hunting sections where the beast gets the most action could be streamlined somehow as well. While I don’t hate these sections, mainly because of the atmosphere present in them, I find them far more tiresome personally than the Triforce shard hunt in The Wind Waker (which I never actually found tiresome at all, but I can see why people don’t like it), so if they tweaked that for TWWHD, maybe they can find a way to make some changes here. I’m not saying that the two sections are really all that equitable, just that they are both oft-maligned aspects of their respective games. I’m not exactly sure how they could alter the bug-hunting parts to make them feel less like a chore, and to be fair it would probably be harder to do than the rather simple and clever way they tweaked the Triforce hunt, but perhaps just something as simple as shortening them somehow to make the whole affair less drawn out so I can get back to dungeon-crawling and sword-slashing as human Link would be acceptable.

Rupees are so Annoying in this Game

You can never fit them in your tiny wallet. Link puts them back into a chest when he can’t hold them (which, again, is always), so a closed chest remains, forever mocking you and possibly even confusing you on a dungeon map. And of course, the game just loves to tell you how much each of these suckers is worth. Again. And again. And again. Every time you turn on the game. How to fix this? First off, just have a huge wallet from the start like in A Link Between Worlds (and swap out the wallet upgrade prizes from Agitha with some heart pieces or something; they did this kind of “reward-swapping” in TWWHD in some areas so there’s no reason it can’t be done here). At the very least increase the max number of rupees Link can hold; I’ve never understood why the largest wallet in TP can still only hold one-thousand rupees (not to mention you’re likely to get the largest wallet late in the game if at all) when Majora’s Mask had a freakin’ bank and The Wind Waker’s rupee max was five-thousand, especially considering just how many rupees Link finds in Twilight Princess. Next, ditch the “rupee saving” mechanic, or at least mark an already-opened rupee chest on the map with a rupee symbol. Finally, and obviously, for the love of Farore just get rid of the rupee reminders. I KNOW HOW MUCH A BLUE RUPEE IS WORTH DAMMIT. 

Seriously, this game and its rupees.

Selective Redone/Orchestrated Music

Taking yet more inspiration from The Wind Waker’s HD remaster, it would be great if selected tracks from Twilight Princess’s score were remastered and in some cases orchestrated. I’m not asking for the entire soundtrack to be redone, but merely given a similar treatment as in TWWHD, with selected songs being redone and in TPHD’s case, hopefully orchestrated. I’m not someone who believes all music in the Zelda series should be orchestrated and I firmly believe digital music (and other forms of music) still has a place, but Twilight Princess perhaps more than any other Zelda game begs to have a large portion of its soundtrack orchestrated, especially the (and I use this word properly) epic Hyrule Field theme (which already has an official orchestral version out there, so there’s really no excuse not to include at least that version or if not, do a new version).

Better Difficulty Balance

Twilight Princess has a great variety of fierce-looking beasties. Unfortunately, rarely do they ever pose an actual threat to the incredibly overpowered Link. Now, personally I don’t play Zelda games for difficulty, but some level of challenge and real opposition in the hero’s quest is appreciated, especially in regards to bosses. Twilight Princess has some wonderful dungeons and along with these tantalizing labyrinths are some very memorable boss encounters. But they’re all piss easy. Mainly this has to do with the strategy involved in taking them down often being pathetically obvious and extremely formulaic. It’s sometimes tough to really feel like a hero when these massive creatures’ menacing appearance is so betrayed by how easily Link stomps on them. With this in mind, I don’t expect completely redesigned encounters like in Majora’s Mask 3D (hopefully if that were the case, they’d be more well thought-out than in that game though), but I think monsters, bosses, and obstacles dealing a bit more damage to Link would go a long way. Of course, this probably won’t happen and the developers will likely just slap a “hero mode” on TPHD and call it a day, which is fine, but it’d be nice if there was something in-between “barely any challenge at all” and “hero mode”. For all its pretense of being “edgy” and “dark”, TP is one of the easiest and least threatening games in the series, so a little more difficulty might at least be in keeping with what the game is going for. And for Nayru’s sake, please take out the hearts and fairies in the final battle’s arena; Skyward Sword got it right in this regard.

Other Assorted Changes

Some other assorted changes I wouldn’t mind seeing: acquire the Horse Call item earlier or make Horse Grass way more common; perhaps too much to ask, but some smoother animations on characters, especially facial animations and especially Link’s facial animations; make the Magic Armor worth a damn or replace it with a better secret item as a reward for what is essentially TP’s only substantial side-quest (that’s not a collectathon at least); and lastly don’t restrict Link’s movement and actions indoors. This last one is something that started in Twilight Princess and continued in Skyward Sword and it is one of my biggest pet peeves about “modern Zelda”. Please get rid of it; it is so awkward and jarring and hurts the sense of freedom that is part of what makes Zelda games special.

I’ll end with just one more hope I have for Twilight Princess HD, which is, largely unlike its original release, I hope it surprises me. Whether it’s a brand new feature or area added, or just some unexpected and clever changes or additions that I hadn’t thought of, I hope there’s something in here that catches me off guard, in a good way. I’ve played through the original Twilight Princess a lot (the GameCube version, particularly), and speaking as someone who doesn’t care too much about the integrity of the original experience, something to mix things up would definitely be appreciated on my part.

The Power of Video Games: How Pikmin 2 Helped Me Fight Depression

This is going to be a much more personal one. In my last "The Power of Video Games" post, I talked about how Ecco the Dolphin for Sega Genesis instilled a sense of fascinating terror in me that has followed me into adulthood. This time, I'd like to talk about a much different video game and quite a different experience.

I've been struggling with various anxiety conditions for as long as I can remember and as I've been told, anxiety can often open the door for depression to sneak in. Unfortunately, for the past two years, this sort of situation has been exactly what I've been dealing with. It got pretty bad last year, after my dog and best friend, Max, fell suddenly and rapidly ill over the course of a few weeks and then was diagnosed with severe, terminal cancer and consequently put to sleep all in the time of a single day. After this, coupled with a post-college stagnation in my life and a worsening resurgence of many of my anxious hang-ups, I began to get depressed.


Max

Now, depression isn't "feeling sad". It's not lying in bed for a few days after a break-up or crying all the time. I've heard and read about the symptoms of clinical depression, but really I can only describe my own experience and "sad" isn't the way to put it. Activities and situations that would normally make me happy and bring me joy began to bring me nothing at all. I began to have trouble getting out of bed and mustering the energy to do much of anything at all. I would try to go out with friends, but I would feel isolated in social situations. I don't think most people really noticed because I'm naturally quiet a lot of the time anyway, but there's a big difference between being my normal quiet and introversive self and feeling depressed. I would feel exhausted by social activities and feel like I had nothing to offer or to say at all. Afterwards, I would go home feeling lonely and worthless.

Likewise, activities that would normally bring me enjoyment during my personal time started to fall flat. This includes reading, writing, and of course, video games. I tried playing a lot of games, but I found myself struggling to really find that "sweet spot", that rich sense of immersion I normally get from the medium. There were moments of enjoyment here and there, sure, but it wasn't like before. There was just this sense of emptiness in me that seemed to be swallowing any and all positive vibes.

Late summer of last year, I decided to play three GameCube classics in anticipation of their upcoming sequels the following year. First up was the original Luigi's Mansion, and following that I decided to tackle the Pikmin series. I've owned the original Pikmin since its release, but never finished it. I started anew in the game and after finishing it, I picked up its sequel, Pikmin 2, which I'd never experienced on GameCube and which had conveniently just been re-released with enhanced pointer controls on the Wii.

I was able to get through Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin without much trouble since they are both relatively short experiences, but Pikmin 2 was another story.

I remember starting the game and enjoying what I initially played quite a bit. The improvements and new features compared to the original game caught my attention and this updated interface, lack of the 30-day time limit that made the first Pikmin feel rushed, and gigantic, real-world objects like a Duracell battery and a crushed soda can charmed me so much that I remember scolding myself for never having played the game before.

"Why have I never played this before?"

But then things hit a wall. Pikmin 2 is a much longer experience than the first game and try as hard as I might, I began to struggle to play to play the game for any lengthy period of time. As depression tugged at my ankles more and more and I began to sink deeper and deeper, I found it hard to do much more than sleep. I had to force myself to try to play Pikmin 2, but I began becoming overwhelmed and having to turn the game off after about half an hour of play. Real-time strategy games have never been my expertise, but Pikmin's unique premise and charming world attracted me. I wanted to get into the game, but its strategic nature and high-risk style of challenge began to make me stressed and overwhelmed. I just didn't feel up to managing these hundreds of tiny creatures and conquering the game's many challenges. I knew there was something about the game that I liked, loved even, but I just could not muster the energy.

So to give a broader picture of my life at this point, I was basically just waking up, going to work, coming home, trying to find enjoyment in something, usually failing, and going to sleep. On days off, I would sleep most of the day, wake up, eat something, and then sleep some more. I tried spending time with friends, I trried gaming, I tried doing other thing I enjoy, but everything just "fell flat". That seems to be the best way to describe it because that's how it felt, and how I felt. Just flat, empty. I didn't really have anything to look forward to and I just felt like nothing.

But then something happened.

One night, I was lying in bed around 9 o'clock at night. If you know me at all, you know that this is nowhere near my normal bedtime and is very unnatural. Like many other days, I didn't feel like doing anything and I simply just gave up, crawled into bed, and shut the lights off. But I knew this was wrong. I wasn't really tired. I didn't want to do this. I knew I was doing exactly what I shouldn't be doing. I was angry at myself. I wanted to fight this.

Reluctantly, I opened my eyes, dragged myself out of bed, and I decided to try. To try to overcome this. I turned on the TV and booted up Pikmin 2. I just wanted to try to play it, if only for an hour. To try to get some enjoyment out of an activity that has typically brought me so much fulfillment.

I don't know if it was the particular part of the game that I was in, or if my mood was just right, or maybe it had something to do with Pikmin being unlike any other game I'd ever played and thus it ignited something lost within me; it was probably some miraculous combination of all of these things. Whatever the case, that night I finally broke the barrier and got into something. I forgot about being depressed, forgot about anxiety, forgot about everything wrong in my life, and I simply lost myself in the weird and wonderful world of Pikmin. Everything suddenly clicked and the game didn't seem so difficult anymore, playing it didn't seem like an insurmountable task. As I journeyed deeper and deeper into one of the game's multi-leveled cavernous dungeons, I began to feel something again.

For the first time in months, I really felt something. A hole being filled in. Accomplishment. Joy.



Working together

By the time I had finished playing that night, after about a five hour session, it was well into the early hours of the morning. I hadn't looked back once while playing. I just played. For me, at the time, to find myself having been deeply involved with something while feeling no nagging feelings or no fatigue, felt like a miracle.

And honest to God, it was all uphill from there. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't magically cured of all my anxiety and depression. I didn't open my window shouting about Christmas morning and go running through the flower fields smiling and laughing. Oh, I still had issues; oh I still do have issues. But after that night, after Pikmin 2 dragged me up and pulled me in, I began to feel better. No, not to feel better, but to feel more normal. I was enjoying a video game again, and I realized that I had only just scratched the surface of Pikmin 2, a lengthy, atmospheric, and challenging experience. When I finally finished the game towards the end of the year, I felt exhilarated. After conquering the game's terrifying final creature, rescuing my partner, Louie, and salvaging every last piece of treasure in the game, I felt a massive feeling of accomplishment. Not because I'd finished a video game, I've finished many of them, but because I felt like I had dealt a serious blow to depression, that I had spit in its face and fought back, that I had cut through all of its shackles and conquered something (and not only that, but legimately enjoyed something) that depression told me I could not.

After that, I began to enjoy playing games again. And after being able to enjoy myself when I was alone, I began to enjoy spending time with friends again. I began to look forward to things again, become excited about things that I'm passionate about again, and to feel some hope again. And there are no words that can accurately describe how good that felt and how thankful I am for these kinds of feelings that so many take for granted.

I am far from being in the perfect place in my life today, I'm still wrestling with depression and discontent, and I will always be fighting a war with anxiety. But I am far better at this present moment right now than I was one year ago. And although at the end of the day, it's because of my own perseverance and determination that I've been able to fight back against depression, it was Pikmin 2 that helped pull me back, and it's this strange, wondrous video game, this fresh, unique experience that was unlike anything I'd ever played before, that I ultimately want to thank today.

Thanks Miyamoto and Co.

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) Review

If you followed my E3 2013 impressions, you'd know that I was extremely disappointed with Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios' new game, which is a sequel to the studio's 2010 Wii game, Donkey Kong Country Returns. I've never been a super huge Donkey Kong fan (though I have played and enjoyed all the Country games) and I wanted something bold and ambitious from the studio out of their first Wii U project, rather than another platformer, which Nintendo already has plenty of coming to their console.

After my initial disappoint began to cool and I rewatched the trailer for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and listened to the developers talk about the game, I tried to warm up to the game. I have a lot of respect for Retro and it sounds like this is the game that they wanted to do. I want to support them and understand why I should care about a new Donkey Kong game. To this end, I was suddenly struck by the desire to replay Donkey Kong Country Returns. You see, I played DKCR shortly after it was released, but I played it more because it was just another game in my collection that I needed to get out of the way than out of a real desire to play it. I sort of rushed through the game, enjoying it, but not really "getting into" it. I felt a genuine interest in playing the game this time and I wanted to really sink my teeth into it and give it my full attention.

With this in mind, I booted the game up on my Wii U at around 2AM about two weeks ago. I still wasn't even sure I'd actually go through with fully completing the game, I just...wanted to play it. A couple of hours later, I was immensely enjoying myself. As I said, I sort of rushed through the game the first time and I really didn't remember much of it, so playing it again felt a fresh new experience. For the rest of the week, I played the game every night, clearing a world each time and each time feeling a sense of joy I haven't felt while playing a game in a very long time. DKCR is the kind of whimsical, imaginative platformer that I feel like I haven't really experienced since the days when all I played were platformers; games like Super Mario Land 2, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and even Crash Bandicoot (a game I played, but never owned and fully played through myself). These games inspired my imagination and instilled a sense of wonder and joy in me that games like New Super Mario Bros. just don't do for me.

Part of this joy comes from the unique level designs within DKCR. Just about every level introduces some kind of new element or set-piece, ranging from a harrowing journey across a stormy shoreline as a massive octopus stalks your every move, a level where Donkey and Diddy barrel blast from pirate ship to pirate ship as they dodge falling cannonballs, and a rocket ride through a cave as a gigantic bat chases you down. Almost no level in the game bores me, both in terms of gameplay design and visual design.



One of my favorite levels

That visual design is a key element of what makes DKCR such an enjoyable experience. Retro Studios proved its immense talent for creating beautiful, immersive worlds in the Metroid Prime games and the art direction in DKCR is similarly phenomenal. If you don't take the time to lean in and notice the jaggies and rough edges in the game, DKCR could easily be mistaken as a modern, HD experience. It certainly blows even the more recent HD New Super Mario Bros. U out of the water. The environments pop with a level of detail both in the background and foreground (which players often travel between) that creates a stunning world to experience complete with jungle ruins overgrown with amazonic plant-life, sparkling, ambient caves full of mole miners, sunny beaches with goofy leaping sharks, and fossil-filled, prehistoric cliffsides. The artists do so many creative and wonderful things, it's hard to even give a taste of it here. There are some levels where everything, Donkey and Diddy Kong included, appear as a jet-black silhouette (sort of like Limbo, except with more color), there is a level where gigantic mountains crumble all around the player both in the background and underneath their feet, and there are the factory environments, which have a retro red and black color scheme (as well as zig-zag-patterned girders) that echoes the original arcade Donkey Kong's classic construction site. A lot of the world themes in the game are familiar and clearly inspired by the original Donkey Kong Country on SNES (though the pirate ship-themed stages bring DKC2 to mind), but since the game is designed to be a retro reboot, and because the artists and designers do so many creative and new things with these themes, this aspect really doesn't bother me in the way a game like Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 does, in which level themes are straight-up ripped off and add little new. It's very hard to find things to complain about when the level designs are this engaging (although the final world in the game is a stereotypical lava world complete with sinking stone platforms and a rising-lava-chase level, but at least a volcano stage makes sense in the context of the tropical island setting).

Donkey Kong Limbo

The whole game is filled with personality and a goofy sense of humor. The villains are wooden Tiki creatures (wooden creatures who are birthed from a fiery volcano) whose designs are based on instruments. These critters go around DK Island and play a catchy tune (seriously, I love that tune) that hypnotises all of the animals and creatures of the island. Using these pawns, the Tikis steal DK's banana hoard for a ridiculous purpose revealed later on in this complex plot. Donkey Kong (and presumably Diddy) is unaffected by this hypnosis (is he just too dumb?) and it's off to save the bananas and I guess the island! The cutscenes in the game are superbly animated and most plot points are hilariously absurd, and I mean this in the best way possible. A lot of people complained about the Tikis replacing the classic Kremling villians, but I don't mind having something new. The Tikis aren't exactly overflowing with personality, but they fit the setting nicely and I like their instrument-focused designs. I also think it's kind of interesting for a Donkey Kong game to have a rather physically weak set of villains who control other creatures to do their bidding. The boss creatures the Tikis control are definitely more interesting than any of the bosses in the first DKC game. It's also very satisfying to pummel the wooden baddies by waggling the Wii Remote and Nunchuck with embarrassing vigor at the end of each boss fight. My only complaint about these villains is the final boss, who without outright spoiling it, is probably the most overused and generic design Retro could come up with. If you've been playing video games for a while, and particularly Nintendo games, it's a safe bet you've already fought a boss like this at least five times. Although the fight itself is fun and I love the music track that plays during it.

The Tikis

In addition to the fantastic art direction and the absurd narrative, the sound design is something else that stands out about the game. The sound effects are so satisfying in this game and that's the best way I can describe it. When Donkey Kong picks up a banana, a banana bunch, or a banana coin and when he bounces off an enemy's noggin, each action is accompanied by a 'click!' or a 'bloopadoop!' or a 'cachuck!' I never get tired of hearing. These kinds of little details are important in a collecty platformer like this, and every sound effect and noise in the game just jives so well. This is an area the SNES original excelled in as well, and DKCR follows suit and is even more pleasant to listen to in this regard.

The music in the game, while good, isn't extremely memorable though. The best tracks in the game are probably the remixes of ones from DKC1 (some of which are great, like the factory theme, others not so much, like Returns' take on Aquatic Ambience, which is far inferior to the beautiful original) but this lack of notable new tunes (with some exceptions) makes the soundtrack live in the shadow of the original's in a way. A lot of the music is ambient and environmental, which stays true to the original SNES game's atmospheric soundtrack, and all of the music does suit the game's environments and trials perfectly. The soundtrack just isn't quite DKC2-level quality.

The controls, however, are smooth as a creamy banana sundae. The SNES trio all had great controls as well, and DKCR probably surpasses them simply in terms of how the game feels. In single-player mode, we only get to play as Donkey Kong this time. Diddy Kong rides on Donkey's back and provides a jet-pack-powered hover ability and extra health. Initially, I was disappointed with this because I always thought that Diddy controlled more smoothly in DKC1 (just one part of why his star game DKC2 is my favorite in the series), but upon playing DKCR this worry quickly disappeared because Donkey Kong feels fantastic to control and there's really no need to switch between the two characters anymore. Perhaps something is lost with the omission of the tag-team mechanic from the SNES games, but ultimately I don't mind having just one great-controlling Kong to deal with. While the controls and gameplay are almost perfect, and truly some of the best I've ever experienced in a platformer, they are marred by a few annoying flaws. Mainly, the obnoxious forced motion control Retro decided to implement in the game. In order to ground-pound and blow a puff of air to uncover secrets, the player must shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuck (or just the Wii Remote if they use that control scheme). While unnecessary, this isn't too bad, and ground-pounding this way is actually satisfying as is pummeling the Tiki bad guys like I mentioned before.The main problem is that rolling, which can be essential to precision platforming in the game, is also mapped to the shaking of the controller, and this action (or any of the others) can't be mapped to a traditional button. The reality here is that this isn't a game-breaker and it mostly works just fine, but it's incredibly frivolous and adds nothing to the experience. The only thing it might add every now and then is frustration when I go to itch myself and accidentally move my controller too much and Donkey Kong suddenly rolls against my will. It's very easy to do this and fly off a cliff, at no fault of the player. Even if this has a very infrequent chance of happening, it is still inexcusable design and Retro is a better developer than this so it baffles me why this is in the game, or at least why we aren't given the option to map the roll action (and any actions) to a traditional button. One other minor hiccup with the control is that high-bouncing off of enemies doesn't feel quite as intuitive as in the originals. In DKC1, I feel like I can just hold down the jump button and bounce off Kremling after Kremling, while in DKCR, I have to be a little more conscious and hit the A button at exactly the right time to bounce off a critter, and simply holding the button down afterwards won't continue my bouncy flow and I must press the button again right before landing on the next baddie. This action is crucial at many points in the game, so while not unforgivably flawed by any means, it's still something worth noting.

The whimsical world of DK

Precise controls are a must in this game because it's a hefty challenge. A lot of this challenge comes from trial and error scenarios, mainly in the mine-cart and rocket-barrel stages. In the rocket-barrel stages, Donkey Kong rides inside, well, a rocket-propelled barrel this is controlled by soley the A button. Hold A to ascend, let go to descend as you avoid obstacles. It's a very simple idea and it's a testament to Retro's abilities that they were able to create such engaging levels around this concept. These levels can be frustrating as hell though when it becomes tough to pay attention to the massive amount of information on screen that the player needs to take into account and react to. I also feel like the collision detection is a little wonky in these levels (I'd often be surprised when I suddenly exploded and think, "Um, what just hit me?" or "How did I just die?"), or maybe it's just that Donkey Kong is sometimes just too big and awkward a target to always navigate the narrow traps that he must avoid with finesse, and perhaps the levels could have been designed a little more leniently with this in mind.

The rocket-barrel (and a balloon-equipped mole miner)

There are two kinds of mine-cart levels. The first type is the standard one, where Donkey Kong rides in a mine-cart and never leaves it, where the cart jumps with him. The other, and more troubling type of mine-cart stage, is where Donkey stands on top of a cart and when the player jumps, the cart doesn't jump with them. These levels require the player to use several mine-carts, instead of staying in just one the whole time. These stages can be a little tricky because the player needs to worry about controlling Donkey's forward momentum as well as jumping at the right time when jumping from mine-cart to mine-cart, as these stages require the player to continuously do (when not jumping forward to the next cart, Donkey will always land on the cart he is currently riding when jumping straight up). Due to this, I suffered a few deaths when I didn't jump at the right time or over-jumped a mine-cart that I was supposed to land on. The standard mine-cart stages and rocket-barrel stages, despite being packed with ridiculous obstacles and requiring perfect timing from the payer, mostly work well because the player only needs to worry about one button. That's the problem with this second type of minecart stage, because the player has to worry about controlling their jumps and Donkey's momentum at certain points in addition to avoiding all of the obstacles. Another aspect of both the rocket-barrel and mine-cart levels that makes them a little unnecessarily unforgiving is that if you get hit, even by a small enemy, your cart/barrel explodes and you instantly die, no matter how much health you have. It wasn't this way in the SNES games on their mine-cart stages, which were a good enough challenge already, and these levels in Returns are already tough enough as well without this aspect, so I do question this design as it comes across as artificial difficulty; just a cheap way to lengthen gameplay time as you will certainly die a lot in this levels. On the other hand, this added challenge certainly does raise the stakes and makes these levels even more intense and therefore more satisfying to complete. I also question that there's an entire world in the game filled solely with mine-cart and rocket-barrel levels. If you're not a fan of these kinds of fast-reflex levels, this lack of variety might frustrate you. Also, since this world is the cave-themed world, I would have liked some traditional, atmospheric cave-themed platforming levels as well, as those have traditionally been a staple in DKC, and Retro's fantastic art direction would only add to their appeal. All this said, both the rocket-barrel and all of the mine-cart stages, while they can certainly become frustrating, are consistently engaging and once I got into the groove of the levels, were actually some of my favorite challenges in the game.

These mine-cart levels get seriously ridiculous (and yes, I realize that's an oxymoron) 

Each of DKCR's levels are incredibly detailed and packed with secrets. Finding all of the puzzle pieces, which are used to unlock art galleries in the game, takes a lot of imagination to find as many of them are deviously well-hidden, but never in a way that I found to be too cryptic. Finding all of the KONG letters in each level takes a certain measure of skill as well. Searching for these goodies requires the player to comb every inch of every level, but the levels are so much fun to replay, I found it very satisfying to discover every secret on my own and 101% complete the game.

As I said, a lot of the difficulty in the game is trial and error (but certainly not all of it). The gameplay and level design are so engaging though, that I never got too discouraged by this. I always jumped right back into the fray and was ready for more. Again, the gameplay is so tight and the levels so intricately crafted that I rarely felt like the situation was out of my control. I always knew I was capable of overcoming any obstacle; I just had to keep trying. This trial and error element is never more apparent than in the hidden temple levels, which are only unlocked after collecting all the KONG letters in each world. I completely missed these secret levels on my first play-through and they are easily the most difficult and insane levels in the game. We're talking Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels degrees of difficult at times (although better-designed and with tighter control than that game). They're all about learning and memorizing every single obstacle and continously dying and trying again, each time getting (hopefully) a little farther into the level. They also have no check-points, so you have to do the whole thing in one go. I did find the difficulty to be a bit unbalanced with these levels as some earlier ones are incredibly difficult, the hardest one is probably found in world 6, and I found the ones in the last two worlds to be among the easiest. All of these levels are very satisfying to conquer though.

Completing the hidden temple stages requires a mastery of patience

The reward for beating these special stages in a final secret stage that, while interesting, is just a single level that's almost as difficult as the levels you had to complete to get there, and your ultimate reward for solving this final hidden area is pretty underwhelming. I suppose the journey itself is the reward, but a full hidden world would have been nice (although I suppose one could consider all the eight temple levels plus the final secret stage a bonus world when added together). Based on one of the art galleries you can unlock in the game, it looks like the developers might have had a full world based around this final level planned too, but perhaps it was scrapped due to time constraints. That's a shame, because based on the artwork, it looks like Retro had some wonderful ideas for this hidden world and it would have been a really awesome reward for completing all of the brutal temple stages. I know that the recent 3DS port contains an extra world, but I'm fairly certain that it is something brand new created by Monster Games, the studio that ported the game, and not Retro's original vision for the bonus ninth world.

Before I conclude, I just want to take this opportunity to say how much I hate Super Guide. If you don't know, Super Guide is the option that Nintendo likes to put in all of its games these days (mostly platformers) where the player has the ability, after dying a certain number of times in a level, to ask a guide to beat the level for them. Super Guide is optional, yes, but it becomes incredibly annoying when, after dying a few times (and you will die a lot), an obnoxious pig appears and starts waving a flag at you and making an irritating blinking sound. Even if actually implementing the Super Guide is optional, can I at least have the option to disable it completely so this annoying, condescending pig will never appear in my game and piss me off even further as I constantly fail at a particularly frustrating challenge? Super Guide will even appear if you die a lot when replaying a level. Why? If I'm replaying a level, obviously it is already complete so I'm replaying it either to enjoy the level again myself, complete it legitimately if I did use Super Guide (which trust me, I never did, nor will I ever do), or most likely I'm looking for secrets in the level, which if it's for the latter I'm going to die even more than usual because I'm experimenting and exploring. Why would I ever be interested in something completing an already-finished level for me if my purpose for being in the level is not to simply get past it, which, I remind you, would always be the case when replaying a level in the game? Please, just give me the option to disable Super Guide completely. Options, options, options. I should have the option to stop Super Guide from appearing at all if I wish, and I should have the option to use traditional buttons for actions instead of shoehorned motion control if I wish.

You will hate him

So, that rant aside, after truly immersing myself in Retro's take on Donkey Kong Country over the past couple weeks, I can safely say that it's a fantastic platformer. It's incredibly satisfying to play, its levels are imaginative, varied, and gorgeously crafted. It beats the hell out of any New Super Mario Bros. game in terms of basically everything, that's for sure. So while I still can't say I'm not disappointed by Retro's next project, I can say that I'm definitely looking forward to playing it now. In fact, it's now one of my most-anticipated games for Wii U. Maybe this sort of thing is said a lot, but Donkey Kong Country Returns is a video game that takes me back to my childhood. It's a video game that isn't afraid to be a video game in the classical sense, which is an immensely entertaining piece of imaginative software that I looked forward to playing every day, especially after a long work-day. DKCR makes me nostalgic for the simple, imaginative joys of my favorite childhood gaming experiences, but it doesn't accomplish this by simply rehashing retro elements and by making shallow references, but does so with its beautiful, varied, joyous level designs.

Pandora's Tower (Nintendo Wii) Review

           The first time I booted up Pandora’s Tower, I was immediately taken in by the lonely, haunting atmosphere of the title screen. A mysterious structure hangs suspended by massive chains over a vast chasm as a mysterious, reverberating wind resonates just barely within earshot. After the camera pans back, revealing more of this bizarre environment, the game’s logo materializes into view. No music. Nothing else. Prior to playing the game, I had only maybe seen one or two trailers for Pandora’s Tower and I knew the basic nature of the plot. But that was it. I almost didn’t even buy the game, but ended up getting it merely to complete the “Operation Rainfall” trilogy of Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. For those who don’t know, Operation Rainfall was a fan-driven campaign to get Nintendo to bring these three games to the US, where Nintendo Wii owners were hungry for games during the console’s sparse final years. It would have been a real shame if I had passed this game up, because it turned out to be something quite special.  

 

After a brief introductory cut-scene breezes through some confusing events and introduces the game’s three main characters while bringing them to the game’s main setting, the game starts. Despite the entire situation not being quite clear at first, the goal of the game’s protagonist is made very clear from the start. The basic plot is this: you play as Aeron, a young solider whose girlfriend, Elena, has been afflicted with a horrifying curse. This curse is slowly turning Elena into a hideous monster and the only way to break this curse, according to a mysterious old woman named Mavda that accompanies the couple on their journey, is by having Elena eat disgusting purple flesh from beasts that inhabit what is known as the Thirteen Towers. The Thirteen Towers are, well, thirteen towers that combine to form a single massive fortress that is suspended via several gigantic chains over The Scar, which is a vast chasm in the middle of a barren wasteland. Aeron’s main goal is to defeat the twelve “Masters” of the towers and bring back their flesh for Elena to eat so the curse can be lifted and her terrible fate averted. If you’ve played Shadow of the Colossus, you might understand the parallels here as the ultimate goal of both games is to best a number of unique bosses to save a loved one’s life. The game’s quiet, isolated atmosphere also gives me ICO and Shadow of the Colossus vibes. 

                Pandora’s Tower revolves entirely around the bond between Aeron and Elena. Aeron is a taciturn young man (he’s almost a silent protagonist and has very little spoken dialogue; just something worth mentioning because it stuck out to me) that is clearly willing to do anything for Elena, even if it means sacrificing his own life. Elena, likewise, cares very deeply for Aeron and feels guilty for putting him through such danger for her sake. The couple’s relationship is the axis around which the entire plot spins and therefore it’s crucial that the player care about Elena and want to save her. The game mostly succeeds on this front. The story puts the player in Aeron’s shoes and goes to a lot of effort to make Elena a likable character that we want to help. I pitied Elena’s terrible fate and I really did care about helping her and I also really wanted the couple to have a happy future. Elena’s urgent situation makes for great motivation for the player. Aeron isn’t fulfilling his destiny as some kind of great hero or he isn’t saving the world from some big evil force, he’s just trying to save the life of the woman he loves. This is a personal story. The urgency of the situation isn’t merely imposed on players in cut-scenes either, but is actually constantly on the player’s mind because of an in-game timer that is constantly depleting while Aeron explores the towers.

The game contains two main environments: the Observatory, which is a structure on the outskirts of The Scar that acts as the player’s home base, and the Thirteen Towers, where all the action takes place. Aeron must explore the towers and acquire beast flesh from the various monsters that roam the towers. This flesh curbs Elena’s curse, but only temporarily. While in the towers, the clock is constantly ticking, and if Aeron takes too long, Elena will slowly undergo the transformation into a hideous beast. In order to prevent this, Aeron must bring beast flesh back to Elena. Eating this flesh will buy the couple some time, but in order to fully destroy to curse, all twelve pieces of “master flesh”, which can only be acquired from the twelve bosses of the towers, must be consumed.

                The time limit imposed on Aeron while he is in the towers forces the player to manage their time effectively and to consistently return to the Observatory, and it also makes sure the player is always keeping Elena first in their thoughts. It’s downright heartbreaking to return to the Observatory just a little too late and to find Elena half-transformed into a beast and to hear her apologize for the purple goop that spills onto the floor when this transformation happens. It’s also physically nauseating to watch her reluctantly take a piece of pulsating, goopy monster flesh and bite into it, practically gagging on the meat she is forced to eat and then nearly coughing it up. Oh yeah, and Elena is also a vegetarian because of her religion, so the experience is doubly unpleasant for her. 

While in the Observatory, Aeron can rest up to heal himself, find old documents lying around that Elena can translate, buy and sell items at a shop that Mavda runs, as well as use the wide variety of strange materials that Aeron finds in the towers to upgrade his weapons and also fuse these items together to create new items. Aeron can also talk to Elena and give her gifts like plants and decorations that make the Observatory more homey, as well as jewelry such as bracelets and necklaces. The whole aspect of Elena waiting around for her boyfriend to help her and the process of giving her new clothes and jewelry to make her like you more feels a little bit like old-fashioned sexism, but Elena’s not exactly a fighter like Aeron is, and most of the couple’s bonding moments come from talking and sharing personal moments rather than from Aeron peppering her with gifts. I like the feeling of having a “home base” in an adventure game, a place that is always there for the player no matter how dangerous their adventure becomes. Naturally, I enjoyed the back and forth between the towers and the Observatory, despite the process becoming very routine and repetitive as the game went on. While in the Observatory, an affinity gauge is visible. Over the course of the game, the player can raise the affinity between Aeron and Elena by talking to Elena, giving her gifts, and by successfully curbing her curse. If the player allows Elena to begin her transformation or gives her a gift that she doesn’t like, the couple’s affinity is negatively affected. I cannot stress the importance of this affinity gauge enough, as it will directly affect the ending of the game, which varies wildly depending on your affinity.

                Essentially, Pandora’s Tower is an action-adventure reminiscent of games like the Legend of Zelda and Castlevania series. Aeron starts out with a sword and acquires a few more weapons in the towers to use in battle. Each weapon features unique attack animations and each one can be upgraded to gain more attacking abilities. The basic combat is simple, featuring standard light and heavy attacks depending on how long the player holds the attack button down, and whether or not they press the button at the right time to unleash stronger combos. The combat could have been deeper in the department of basic attacks, but it’s still satisfying, if not repetitive, to nail a successful combo chain and dig into an enemy. There’s a nice sense of connection when you strike a monster head on, although the game could have benefited from a lock-on feature. Also, unless multiple foes gang up on you, the regular enemy battles in the game are usually fairly simplistic. Once you knock an enemy down for the first time, they’re basically stunned and it’s only a matter of continuously combo-ing them until they fall for good.

 The game’s main gameplay hook comes in the form of the Oraclos Chain, which is a mystical artifact that Mavda bestows upon Aeron. Much of the game’s unique, elegant design revolves around this chain. Aeron can use the chain for a wide variety of purposes, from combat to navigating the towers. In combat, the chain can be used to bind enemies to restrict their movement, swing them around by shaking the Nunchuk, and rip out their flesh by flicking the Wii Remote, among other actions. Outside of combat, the chain can be used for everything from grappling to ledges, swinging across pits, picking up items from afar, pulling boxes around, pulling levers and doing all manner of actions to solve puzzles. Aeron can also use a magnifying-glass-like ability to zoom in and spot objects from afar and can also zoom in on a monster to watch them in slow motion and target a specific part of their body with the chain. You might target an enemy’s helmet for example and rip it off with the chain so you can do more damage. Or you can target an enemy’s weapon and rip it out of their hand, toning down their offensive capabilities. Combining the chain’s abilities with normal attacks is often crucial in combat, especially with large groups of monsters, and although you may find yourself using a lot of the same tactics over and over again, it’s still a unique and fun system.

 One might think of Pandora’s Tower as a Zelda game that revolves around the use of a single, multi-faceted item. Instead of acquiring several tools to progress in your adventure, the player uses one extremely useful tool for a variety of different actions throughout the game. The Oraclos Chain is basically The Legend of Zelda’s Hookshot with a ton of different uses. I love this concept and it’s executed very well here. The Oraclos Chain is very fun to use and the controls are very intuitive as well. Players need only to use the Wii pointer to aim at anything in the environment (the game can also be played with a Wii Classic Controller, but I never tried it). If the chain can be used to interact with an object, a cursor will light up and the chain can be fired at it (if you’ve played Super Mario Galaxy 2, the chain works exactly like Yoshi’s tongue in that game). The pointer controls are very intuitive and mostly work great, except for a few occasions when I meant to fire the chain at something, but it didn’t work for some reason. I can’t really explain these mishaps and they were rare, but it’s worth noting that motion control like this, while beneficial in a lot of ways, still can irritate when I mean to do an action and, due to my own ineptness or not, fail at that action. Conventional button controls don’t have this problem and never will. When I mean to do a specific action, I can always count on a specific button or combination of buttons to perform that action. This said, I don’t think this game would be as fun or work as well without the pointer control, despite these rare instances of unreliability. 

The game’s many towers serve as dungeons full of enemies to conquer and problems to solve. The earlier towers are more linear, but later ones open up and can become quiet confusing. It’s necessary to explore multiple paths and memorize a tower’s spatial layout, especially because escaping quickly to return to Elena and give her flesh is important. The towers’ designs take this into account and feature many shortcuts that lead back to the entrance that can be opened as the player explores (additionally, an item that instantly warps Aeron back to the Observatory can be acquired in the game). The ultimate goal in each tower is to destroy a certain number of chains (the number of chains vary in each tower, with later towers adding on more chains than earlier ones) that serve as a lock on the massive door that leads to the boss’s chamber. One end of these chains is attached to the boss door and the other end is anchored to the ground, and it is this point of connection, hidden in special rooms throughout the towers, which must be destroyed. After defeating the boss and acquiring its “master flesh”, it’s back to the Observatory to give the flesh to Elena and then on to the next tower. 

The bosses in the game are very creative (in terms of both visual and gameplay design) and each one requires a different strategy in order to defeat it. These bosses are unique as far as adventure games go because the ultimate goal isn’t to continuously attack the boss until it falls, but instead the goal is to use the Oraclos Chain to rip out the beast’s glowing master flesh (which comes in the form of a glowing orb of sorts located somewhere on the boss’s body). While some bosses require you to attack them in conventional ways in order to stun them, these bosses mainly require the player to think in a different way. The goal isn’t to destroy them with a barrage of attacks, but to locate and slowly rip this master flesh out. This process requires the player to latch onto the flesh with their chain, charge the chain’s power by slowly pulling it, and then rip at the flesh. Fully excavating the flesh will require several charged pulls with the chain, with more fully charged ones doing more “damage” and bringing the player closer to fully tearing the flesh out of the creature’s body. It’s very satisfying when you finally wear a boss down and rip their master flesh out with one final yank of the Wii Remote (although, watching the poor things scream and finally perish made me feel a bit guilty for killing these creatures, which were minding their own business before I came along. This aspect is another element that Pandora’s Tower has in common with Shadow of the Colossus, although it isn’t quite as moving or pronounced as in Team ICO’s masterpiece). The design of having to locate and figure out how to access a boss’s master flesh makes each boss more of a puzzle than anything (I hate to keep drawing parallels with Shadow of the Colossus, but…), and I quite like this approach. These creatures will do everything in their power to protect this flesh, however, and some of these bosses can be quite frustrating. Sometimes, I felt things could have been a little clearer as to what I should be doing and for some of these creatures, I felt like I defeated them in the wrong way, and like there would have been a more efficient way to deal with them. As I said, I like having to figure out how to ultimately solve each boss, but if the game still allows me to beat them without ever having that “Aha!” moment, it can make for lengthy, frustrating fights that aren’t very satisfying to complete. For the most part though, the bosses were a lot of fun to fight and each one involved figuring out how to get to the master flesh and then the process of latching onto it and ripping it out while avoiding the creature’s attacks.

Pandora’s Tower isn’t incredibly technically impressive on a graphical level, but the art direction is decent enough, and shines brightly in some areas, such as boss designs. Some towers’ visual designs certainly stand out more than others, with the eleventh and twelfth towers deserving special mention, but overall all the towers, despite having unique themes, contain a lot of the same art assets and I feel that more could have been achieved artistically to make these areas more visually distinct. To use another Zelda comparison, if you play any of the 3D Zelda games, every single dungeon is painstakingly crafted down to the finest detail, with every one having a unique theme, visual design, and accompanying musical piece. This sort of variety is important in a lengthy adventure game (and Pandora’s Tower is surprisingly lengthy). Pandora’s towers possess different themes, but visually they still all have the same sort of generic-looking metallic/stone architecture. The most stunning sight in the game is actually the view of the Thirteen Towers from the Observatory, which I never got tired of looking at (basically, the view seen at the title screen). Musically, things are also a bit on the redundant side. While I do think the game possesses a fair deal of good atmosphere, there are only about three musical tracks that will play in every single tower for the entire game. These tracks manage to never become annoying because they’re mainly environmental and are akin to background noise. Oftentimes there’s no music at all playing in Pandora’s Tower. Again, this supports the game’s quiet atmosphere, but a game can still have this kind of atmosphere and also possess varied and beautiful music. Just look at the Metroid series, and again, the dungeon music from the Zelda series. The orchestrated music that plays during boss battles and cut-scenes is high quality, if not very memorable. The exception (as far as memorability goes) is the game’s main theme and also the music that plays during the final boss (which incorporates the main theme), which I quite enjoyed. I’ve heard that a lot of the music in the game is based on real-life classical music, so that’s pretty nifty.

The simple structure of going to the towers and then returning to give Elena flesh, rest, and buy and create items works well enough, and the player is rewarded with more information about the layered mystery of the story after giving Elena master flesh. There’s actually a lot more going on in Pandora’s Tower than you might think. The game contains a rich narrative that slowly unravels over the course of the game and as the player progresses onward, more and more of a detailed, well-realized world is unveiled. Pandora’s Tower is primarily an action-adventure game, but it contains an RPG-sized level of lore and mythology for its universe. I was surprised by the level of details and lore that the game contained, as I was expecting a simplistic action game. 

In addition to its detailed lore, much of which is revealed to the player through countless documents they can find in the towers and in the Observatory, the game also features armor and accessories for Aeron to equip, a leveling system, and various strange items to collect for fusing and upgrading. In this way, the game features quite a number of traditional RPG elements. There’s even a New Game+ option after finishing the game and achieving one of its multiple endings, in which the player retains all of their stats and equipment and new areas can be accessed in the towers and new items can be found. The item fusing system in the game is very robust and there are tons of materials to experiment with and tons of unique items to create. There are healing items, items that enhance Aeron’s attributes like attack and defense, items that damage enemies, and items that can be given to Elena as gifts. It’s fun to strategize and plan whether to buy a needed item for a high price or use found items to fuse the item instead. Oftentimes, fusing is smarter because money is scarce until the later portions of the game. I actually found this to be unbalanced because early in the game I was struggling to cope with Mavda’s high prices and my limited funds, but by the later portions of the game I had more money than I knew what to do with. Part of the reason for this is that Mavda pays Aeron for the various documents and notes he finds and pays more for those found later in the game. As I mentioned before, each weapon can also be upgraded up to ten times by finding certain items. After reaching certain levels, these weapons gain new attacking abilities and combos can be lengthened to tear through the beasts in the towers more efficiently. 

The overall structure of Pandora’s Tower is very repetitive and although early on in the game I truly felt terrible for Elena, watching her choke down horrible flesh from beasts, as the game goes on, this process becomes routine, and although the narrative addresses this, my sympathy for Elena did begin to wane and the experience started to feel more like a video game. In addition, the process of raising the couple’s affinity also becomes routine and after its novelty wears off, it begins to feel more like just another game mechanic. I never stopped caring about the plot, and I was satisfied with the resolution, but it’s a shame that the novelty of the experience begins to wear thin the longer the game goes on. This issue highlights one of my main problems with the game and that is that it simply goes on for too long. I already mentioned how the game has many RPG elements, but it’s still a fairly straightforward action-adventure game. The experience is pretty cut and dry: thirteen dungeons, thirteen bosses: Go. I don’t think a game with such a simple concept like this should last up to almost 40 hours, which it did for me. I’ll again compare the game to Shadow of the Colossus, an experience that stripped all the filler out and focused on a simple, straightforward goal. The player is free to take the experience in at their leisure in that game, taking the time to explore the world if they choose, or plow straight through the game’s 16 amazing colossus encounters. Filler shouldn’t be anywhere near a focused emotional story like Shadow of the Colossus or Pandora’s Tower, but unfortunately the latter half of Pandora’s Tower feels like it could have been trimmed in favor of a more condensed experience.

                Minor spoilers ahead, not for the game’s story, but simply for the way the game progresses. After finishing the game’s first five towers in a linear order (finish one tower, another one is unlocked and so on), the next five towers are all simultaneously unlocked and the player is free to choose any of these they wish and complete them in any order they want to. The problem is that these next five towers mirror the first five, both in terms of level design and their themes. You see, twelve of the game’s thirteen towers represent the twelve gods of the prominent religion in the game’s story, the way of Aios. As I said, everything in the game revolves around Aeron and Elena’s relationship, and there is a huge theme of duality in the game. There are six male gods and six female goddesses. There are six elements in the game’s religion and these elements serve as the themes for each tower (wood, earth, water and so on). So basically, after exploring all the male versions of these elements (except for one element, which is saved for the eleventh and twelfth towers), Aeron ventures to their female counterparts. This is an intriguing concept and it serves the story in the game, but the game doesn’t do much interesting with it until the eleventh and twelfth towers which are unlocked after completing the second set of five. These last two use the duality concept in a clever, if not entirely original, way and manage to be the best-designed levels in the game. So the first five towers are unique, and the last two are unique (Spoiler alert again here, but the thirteenth tower is more of a set-piece than a full level, but it achieves what it’s going for well), but those five in the middle definitely end up feeling like padding. Although the goddess towers still feature unique problems to conquer and altered layouts from their male counterparts, they also feature familiar aesthetics, design elements, and themes. These towers are well-designed and they are still satisfying to complete; they just feel like retreading the same ground, instead of wholly unique new environments. Something good that can be said about these familiarly-designed levels though is that by revisiting design elements that the player learned in the earlier towers, they build upon those elements and introduce more complicated design to the player that is ultimately more satisfying to solve than the earlier towers. I suppose it could be said that the main problem with the goddess towers then isn't one of level design, but one of familiar, uninteresting themes, and also that these levels stretch the game out a little too much. All this said, none of this ruins the experience, only hampers it.

                Luckily, the towers’ bosses remain unique throughout. Looking forward to each big boss encounter was an aspect of the game that kept me engaged, as it was a lot of fun just to find out what each new master was going to be like. This aspect is strengthened by notes that can be found in each tower that explain elements of the bosses and serve to “hype” them up in a sense. Again, I’m reminded of Shadow of the Colossus, where I also found a lot of pleasure in anticipating each new boss.

                If the whole game was set up like the last two towers are (which I don’t want to spoil), the experience might have been more interesting and the mirrored nature of the towers might have worked better. Or, with some adjustments to the story, I wouldn’t have minded exploring the Eight Towers instead of the Thirteen. They could have just made these eight a little bit meatier and added more content to them. Ultimately, a game that relies so much on maintaining a strong emotional attachment with the player just doesn’t benefit from this kind of padding. A more focused, condensed experience is best in this case.

                 Before wrapping up, I feel it’s necessary for me to mention one very annoying glitch in the NTSC version of the game (not sure if it’s in other versions). I researched it online and it seems to be a glitch that many encountered. When I reached the eleventh tower and tried to return to it after a visit to the Observatory, the game froze on the tower’s loading screen and made an odd buzzing noise. Only by turning off the console (resetting would not work for me) and booting it back up again could I continue. Luckily I’d always save in the Observatory before my game froze, so I never lost any progress because of this glitch. This freezing happened to me without fail every time I would try to re-enter the eleventh tower after a single visit to the Observatory in a specific play session. I’ve heard this also happens with the twelfth tower as well, and I’ve heard about different variations of the glitch, such as not being able to return to the eleventh and twelfth towers after unlocking the thirteenth one. I never tried to re-enter them so I can’t confirm this aspect, but apparently, only by going to the thirteenth tower and back again can you go back to the eleventh and twelfth towers without them freezing. More about the glitch can be found here on Destructoid.com, although the editor who writes about it there seems to have not encountered my situation, but the latter situation mentioned above about not being able to return to the eleventh and twelfth towers after unlocking the thirteenth one. While not game-breaking by any means, this glitch is still annoying and a pretty big oversight. Consider this a warning if you plan on playing the game.

                Pandora’s Tower is a very memorable game, from its unique premise to its moving and intriguing story to its unique gameplay hook in the form of the Oraclos Chain. I really like the idea of a game designed around a multifaceted, useful tool like this, and using the chain in combination with weapons and wits is very satisfying. While it doesn’t reach the heights of the games that I feel inspired it, perhaps comparing it to them is unfair. Pandora’s Tower is its own beast, and has a strong identity by itself. There was something really special about the nights that I spent exploring deadly labyrinths and returning to what began to feel like my home in the Observatory to see what new items I could fuse, or to find some previously undiscovered old documents lying around the basement that unveiled more of the adventure’s layered story, or to just talk to Elena or take in the peaceful atmosphere of the firefly-filled courtyard. Despite my feelings about the game going on for a little too long, and its routine nature toning down the narrative’s emotional impact, I still never stopped caring about Aeron and Elena. At the end of it all, I grew really attached to the couple and I wanted them to be happy. Since the game ultimately inspired this feeling in me, I’d call it a success.