by Jayden Leggett, Assistant Editor (Australia)
Pandora’s Tower gives a new meaning to the term “Chains of love”, as players take on the role of hero Aeron (read: “bitch-whipped girly-boy”) as he uses his magical chain to vanquish monsters to recover flesh for his beloved Elena (read: “slave-driving task-master”), in order to prevent her from transforming into a hideous monster (can anybody say “PMS”?) in this new Zelda meets Monster Hunter action-adventure title.
The game begins with a very JRPG movie in which a weird old lady helps Aeron rescue Elena from her kingdom after a curse has begun mutating her into the previously mentioned freak of nature. After this somewhat confusing introduction the player is given control over Aeron, who wields a sword and his newly-gifted “Oraclos Chain”. Sword combat is competent but by no means on par with the action of titles such as God of War or Devil May Cry. Aeron has a standard three-hit combo which can also be powered up into a flashier set of manoeuvres by holding down the “A” button and correctly timing consequent button presses to prolong the combo. In addition to this Aeron can also block and roll out of harm’s way by pressing “Z”. So this means that so far we are playing a simple and seemingly uninspired Zelda clone.
The levels all consist of large scale, multi-staged castle interiors that require exploration and then backtracking after hitting a particular switch or triggering a certain mechanism, again a lot like the dungeons in Zelda, complete with different themes i.e. fire, mines, forest etc. Unlike Zelda however there are no “over-world” sections to traverse in order to get from dungeon to dungeon, which can be seen as either a good or bad thing (personally I liked not having to waste my oh-so-valuable time trekking around and instead being able to jump straight into the dungeon crawling action). All the while as you spelunk these castle interiors there is an indicator in the bottom left corner of the screen showing how much time you have left to return to and cure Elena before she becomes a mindless beast (more on this later).
In terms of the level design, this game is somewhat of a mixed bag. Early levels are reasonably straightforward enough, particularly the first level, Treetop Tower. After climbing the tower my path was cut off by a dense section of rose thorns. Once I destroyed a living rose (not as lame as it sounds), it was obvious that this previously blocked section had now been opened up to me. However with many of the game’s later levels I felt like I had stumbled across the the right path by pure accident, as many of the ways forward were very easily overlooked: a grappling section high up in the corner of the screen, a platform offscreen that is only reachable once you make a blind leap of faith etc. The last levels, Dawn/Dusk towers were the most frustrating, but once I reached the end I felt a huge sense of accomplishment which (almost) made my constant trekking back and forth worth it. Ironclad spire also made me feel particularly awesome after I had set all of the mechanical gears and devices in motion which allowed me to swing and climb my way to the top of this clockwork conundrum. Let it be said that you will be referring to the map on more than one occasion in this game.
Unfortunately instead of introducing new themes for each of the twelve levels in the game, five of the later levels simply re-use the previous themes of fire, water, forest etc, which just comes off as lazy design, and definitely didn’t help to ease the game’s repetitiveness. At least the bosses don’t get reused, as certain other games are guilty of (Devil May Cry series, I am looking at you). What enhances this game’s quality and makes it stand out from the crowd is the chain’s gameplay mechanic. The chain is your ultimate “go to” tool that is used to overcome 99% of the game’s obstacles (be they puzzles, enemies or certain environmental elements). Think of it as Batman’s utility belt: without it you are pretty much just some dope in a queer-looking outfit.
When used in combat the chain has a range of uses. Pointing the Wii remote on-screen at an enemy and pushing “B” lassos your chain around them, while holding the “B” button will zoom in on the screen and allow you to accurately target specific body parts like legs, head etc. From this point you can shake the Wii remote to yank it out of their flesh and cause some damage, or shake the nun-chuck to swing them around overhead morning star-style to take out surrounding enemies. You can bind two enemies together to prevent them from moving while laying into them with your sword, or grab hold of smaller enemies and press “A” & “B” together to whip the chain and throw them at other enemies.
However, the chain will only hold enemies for a small amount of time unless you first strengthen it by giving it a decent tug (the chain, that is) by either dragging your character away from your enemies or standing still and holding the “C” button. The more charge your chain has in it, the longer it can bind your enemies and the more damage it will cause when you yank it back out of their flesh. Using the chain to toss around enemies like rag dolls was fun for a while, but due to the combination of things such as a lack of enemy variety, constantly re-spawning enemies upon room entry and the lack of effect that your sword or other melee weapons have in combat means that combat can often get dull, and when I got stuck in the middle of a level running backwards and forwards looking for where I was meant to go next, I found myself often simply running past the monsters just so I could get to where I needed to go (or at least try to get there).
But that’s not all this fancy super chain can do! It is used to drag and toss objects around the environment, swing over chasms, hook on to grappling points on walls to get your Spider-Man on, grab distant inventory items and open special doors that contain huge chains that you need to smash in order to tackle the level’s boss. And speaking of bosses, your trusty chain is 100% compulsory if you want to defeat any of them.
In another Zelda inspired tribute/rip-off, boss encounters take place at the very end of each level in a self contained room (often circular in shape – apparently the perfect setting for a 1-on-1 arena battle). Each boss has a different technique required to expose their “master flesh” AKA their brightly-glowing-obvious-weak-point. The physical appearances of each boss are a reflection of their environments (e.g. a tree monster in the treetop themed tower, a giant fire demon in the molten lava themed tower etc). Defeating some of these guys is a relatively straightforward affair e.g. circle behind them or smack them about a bit until they become dazed and expose their shiny Achilles heel. Others require a bit more thinking before you figure out how to defeat them. There were quite a few occasions where I died repeatedly until I realised I was conducting my actions all wrong, and when I finally layeth the smacketh down upon these mighty jerks, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment (particularly against the fire demon, which seriously took me numerous deaths until I realised that I needed to rip away at all of his armor before I was actually causing him any real damage. Yeah, me smart).
For the most part the controls work fine, though it does get a little bit annoying having to always chain up a defeated foe and then shake the Wii remote to remove their beast flesh. Also, when battles get hectic and you are dodging an enemy’s attacks while you are chained to another, the game doesn’t always register when you are trying to shake and disengage the chain. Also irritating are the camera angles used, which although provide a more cinematic view of the scenery often result in you getting biffed over the skull by off-camera enemies. It would have been nice to include some manual controls for the camera, or at least one button that toggles between the cinematic camera angles and a floating camera that follows behind the player.
As mentioned previously, whenever you are away from your Observatory hideout, a timer is constantly ticking down to remind you of Elena’s constant deterioration into beastiality – uh, I mean, monsterism (minus the sweet taste – Simpsons reference, people, try to keep up). Apparently this was meant to serve as a plot device to make the player become emotionally attached to Elena by having cutesy conversations and giving her various gifts to increase the level of “bond” the two characters share, but honestly half the time I just wanted to plant my fist between her eyes. It’s not bad enough having to teleport back to base just as you are making decent progress in a level (and if you don’t have a teleportation stone, you are in for one heck of journey backtracking), but returning home only to be rewarded with Elena’s whiny voice coupled with the clumsy, cutesy cut scenes really made me not give a toss about her character and want to get back to beast slaying. If all of the cut scenes in this game were combined into a feature length movie, it would be called “English Emos in Love: The Endless British Sorrow Story”. Long story short, the timer was a major pain in the ass that got in the way of some quality dungeon exploring. Adding to that ass-pain was the kick in the crotch that was Elena’s voice. I seriously wouldn’t have minded her completely becoming a beast if it meant her voice were also to transform as well.
However returning back to your private bat cave isn’t all bad. During your adventure you will acquire a bulk of various different items and also a couple of different melee weapons. These can be taken the to the old lady, where you can buy or sell various healing potions and stat boosters, create different items from the raw materials you have collected, and upgrade the power of your weapons, assuming of course that you have collected all of the necessary ingredients (fans of the Monster Hunter series will know exactly what I am talking about here). Creating armor and potions is useful and worthwhile, although I found that upgrading my weapons was almost an exercise in futility, as ultimately it is your chain that deals damage to the bosses, not your sword. And the only way that the chain can be enhanced is by defeating the bosses, which almost renders the weapon upgrading system moot.
The game’s graphics do a good enough job of portraying large scale castle interiors, but close up there are some very ugly textures. Also during times where there were many enemies on screen and lots of flashy effects I did experience some slowdown, but these graphical issues aren’t a criticism of the game so much as they are of the technical limitations of the Wii. In terms of sound there are no surprises. The music and sound effects are neither exceptionally good or horribly bad (excluding of course some of the voice acting. Curse you Elena!)
Despite the game’s flaws I was still able to have a fun time overall with Pandora’s Tower, and saw the game to its completion, which revealed that there were multiple items to be obtained and a “replay” mode of sorts that allows the player access into certain areas that the player was previously barred from. It’s just a shame that poorly executed mechanics like repetitive battles, confusing level design and an unnecessary time limit hold this game back from being awesome. As it is, Pandora’s Tower is a good game that just falls a chain’s flail away from greatness.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Pandora’s Tower 3.5 out of 5 kinky bedroom love chains.
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