NOT
Camera Angles
Minor complaints I have with this game is the camera angles. There is no way to fix or adjust how the camera would focus on Aeron, though at most times, the camera does its job in providing clear views. However, at certain times, it will focus on weird angles. Don’t expect everything to be smooth when taking down enemies as most of the time, you will have a hard time trying to focus onto something that you can’t due to the fixed camera angles.
Time Limit Can be Annoying
The major goal of Aeron is to make sure Elena does not turn into a beast. By going through the towers, there will be a timer at the bottom of the screen where if it runs out, the game will end, thus giving you the game over screen. At the first couple towers, it may seems that you have a lot of time but as you go deeper, the annoyance will start to kick in. The deeper you go into the towers, the harder it gets, thus making you to backtrack more often to the Observatory. If you decided to keep the meats that you get from regular monsters and waited hours, the meat will spoil and the time you spent meat collecting will be worthless. It’s not a bad thing but more of an annoyance.
Average Graphics
Compared to the visuals of Xenoblade and the Last Story, I must say that Pandora’s Tower is the weakest in the group, although it’s not bad. The creativity within the game wasn’t really explored throughout as we’re limited to dungeons where one way or the other, they pretty much look the same. Though the level designs are simply phenomenal. While it may have average graphics for the environments, the character designs are decent, as well as the bosses that you find within the game.
VERDICT
In the end, Pandora’s Tower is quite the enjoyable experience. It may not be on par with Xenoblades in terms of quality, but it certainly stands on its own merits and is sure to make almost any JRPG fan happy. The melancholy story and well-designed dungeons will keep you hooked throughout the game. While it might have some flaws, the gameplay and storytelling more than make up for them.
[Editor’s Note: Pandora’s Tower was reviewed on the Nintendo Wii platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
I completely agree with the review. While Pandora’s tower had some technical flaws, I felt that the story and the chain combat made things feel fresh. It’s pretty simplistic when you get right down to it, but I felt that was a strength of the game in some places.
I wrote a review of it here if anyone wants to check it out: http://condemnorcondone.com/2013/05/24/pandoras-tower-review/