Games Ex has beaten in 2016:
67. Shadow Tower|PS1|1998|dungeon crawler|14h 51m|7/10
After a series of real time first person dungeon crawlers on the PlayStation, known as the King's Field franchise, From Software shifted gears with Shadow Tower in 1998. Like the King's Field games, Shadow Tower is also a real time first person dungeon crawler. However, Shadow Tower is different from King's Field in many ways. Above all else though, Shadow Tower represents From Software just doing exactly what they wanted to do, customer expectations and legacy be damned. Who could have known that these wild ideas would eventually blossom into the best selling series From Software ever had?
Shadow Tower's plot is confusing to say the least. The instruction manual's description of the plot differs from what the game itself says, which also differs from what internet lore sites say. Basically though, you're a mercenary named Ruus Hardy who's climbing down into a subterranean tower from the top, seeking a cursed crown. To get the crown, you will fight a lot of monsters and wander a lot of dungeons. You'll need your wits, your skills, and great item management ability to survive to the end. (You'll also need the help of an overgrown rat who for some reason the game thinks is a mole.)
Shadow Tower's core gameplay is simple to describe. You explore, you fight, you work your way ever downward. Though simple in concept, successful execution is anything but. For starters you have to deal with equipment breaking. Your equipment is ALWAYS breaking. Be it a helmet, a sword, your boots, even your magic rings break. Once broken, a piece of gear no longer works, and must be repaired to use again. Repairing a piece of equipment to its full extent, costs your own life points and can only be done at special blacksmith shops that are never conveniently located.
Your next worst enemy in Shadow Tower is darkness. Shadow Tower is called SHADOW Tower for a reason, this is a tower of shadows. Without aid of light, your visibility is about five feet in front of you, making stepping on a trap or into an enemy very likely. To combat the darkness, you'll need torches, potions of light, or if you're lucky enough; shining gear. Shining gear is self illuminating, but is also very rare. To use it, it must be equipped, which means it will be broken soon enough. Wandering aimlessly in darkness with broken equipment happens fairly often.
Once you have a stable set of equipment and some decent light, you can start focusing on the meat of the game; KILLING. This is one helluva combat oriented experience. You must learn to fight smartly and do it well, or you'll get nowhere. Killing monsters nets you item drops, as well as experience. And there are a LOT of monsters in this game, over 140 different creatures to battle with. But you do not level up in Shadow Tower. Rather, your levels rise based on what you do. Attacking with a sword for example raises your slashing ability. Getting hit in the face raises your defense points. Occasionally you can find soul pods, which give you experience points to dole out to whatever attributes you deem most important.
Shadow Tower consists of themed "worlds" that branch out from the tower itself. Each world has its own vile lord. You must kill all seven lords to open the sealed door at the bottom of the tower to reach the crown. This isn't exactly easy. Broken equipment and darkness are you primary hindrances yes, but so is getting lost. Getting lost in Shadow Tower is not hard to do. You have no in-game maps, and you don't even have a compass. With so many environments being dark and repetitive looking, you'll likely find yourself bewildered fairly often. Shadow Tower goes so far as to track your discovery progress for each part of the tower, so completionists can drive themselves utterly insane trying to 100% explore everything.
Shadow Tower is a soul devouringly dark game folks. Everything is bleak and depressing by design. Practically every NPC you meet wants to kill you, and the ones that don't simply insult you. You'll often find nihilistic graffiti on the walls encouraging you to just give up and let the tower consume your soul. This unceasingly oppressive atmosphere was the most difficult part of Shadow Tower for me. I mean, even King's Field games have their moments of beauty from time to time. Not here though. And on that note, let's take a moment to discuss differences between the two series.
King's Field games are expansive nonlinear dungeon crawling action-RPGs, but Shadow Tower is an almost claustrophobia confined linear dungeon crawling action-adventure. Many King's Field games contain outdoor environments, but Shadow Tower takes place entirely in the tower. King's Field focuses on a deeper story and complex puzzles, but Shadow Tower's story is barely there and the few puzzles are utterly simple. Shadow Tower has a far deeper combat system, including the use of shields and dual wielding magic. Other differences include; breaking equipment, lack of a compass, voice acted NPCs, non traditional level up system, shops with their own storefronts, zero maps, much less hidden doors, and plenty of other things I'm forgetting. By far the most jarring difference is the lack of background music. This was done to make Shadow Tower more serious or whatever, but considering how amazing King's Field OSTs are, it really sucks that Shadow Tower doesn't have one.
Shadow Tower is a crazy game, made by crazy people, for crazy gamers. The cover art with the nearly naked, broken yet gleeful man, clutching his hard won crown, while bathed in pure darkness, is just perfect. It's the perfect visual metaphor of what Shadow Tower provides, with no illusion as to who its true demographic is. Indeed, when I think of my experience beating Shadow Tower, I remember a quote from Hermann Hesse's classic novel Steppenwolf: "MAGIC THEATER, ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY, FOR MADMEN ONLY!" Shadow Tower is indeed a magic theater, with a difficult entrance, for madmen only. This is not a game, it is an experience.
Thanks for reading. Now I'm going to play something cute and whimsical and see if I can get any feeling back in my soul.
Addendum:
Over the years many people have discussed the difficulty level of Shadow Tower. Instead of offering my own opinion, I will just post some quotes with sources below. I'll let other people tell you what they think, and save my opinion for myself.
