Pandora's Tower (Wii)

[kryss]

Well the postal strike here in Canada has finally finished, and this was the first thing that arrived...a month after release.

Seres is cursed to being a monster if Ende doesn't give her the flesh of monsters to eat. As she eats, the curse weakens. Only by eating the flesh of the biggest monster can he free her of the curse.

The cutscenes showing her reluctance to eating the flesh and actually doing it are more than a little disturbing. She was raised vegetarian of course. But she has to so she does.

Ende has a sword and a chain. With the chain he can pull flesh from larger monsters, kill smaller monsters, grab items in hard-to-reach places and generally pulling himself up to greater heights. A attacks, hold for a stronger attack. L guards, L with the left stick dodges. R aims the pointer at which Ende throws the business end of the chain, with a push of B rending flesh from the larger monsters. X examines or reels in the chain if something has been snagged. Nice simple controls which is exactly what you want from an action RPG.

Just beat the Master of the first tower - The tower of the giant tree. 'Twas a good fight, not too easy but challenging enough. There are 13 towers which I imagine will get progressively more difficult in both monsters and puzzles.

->Open Spoiler<-

In the first tower you have to snag the rose-monster to a big vase and then kill it to enter a room and then break the giant chain that's holding the door closed to the Master of the tower. Straightforward enough.

Looks good, plays pretty tight. Overall feels promising.

[kryss]

After getting Last Story under my belt last week, this week I'm back to this and enjoying it.

I've changed from using the CCPro to the wiimote and nunchuk. Using the right stick on the CCPro to aim the chain was far too slow but the remote makes it a lot better. The only gripe with this method is to rip items/meat from monsters' corpses is to shake the remote. The controls are as follows: aim the chain with the remote and holding B, fire it by releasing, reel in/strengthen with C, rip by shaking, release with -, quick select items with left/right on the D-pad and use with up or down, block or dodge with Z, and open the menu with +. By holding C and strengthening your pull on the chain it's possible to one-hit kill a snagged monster.

Other attacks include the chain-toss, by snagging a monster with your chain, then using B to aim and A to throw the monster, damaging it and anything it hits. This can also be used to throw rock pieces into special wall sections to making climbing holds. The chain whip is performed by aiming the chain as normal but pressing A to attack rather than releasing B to fire it.

It does feel like it's a part-time dating sim (in between sections of monster killing and subsequent feeding of the meat to Seres). You have to talk to her and give her gifts to strengthen your relationship with her.

I've broken the two chains binding the door to the 2nd tower boss but had to head back to the watchtower to slip Seres some meat (!). I'll be heading back to the finish the Rockwall Tower soon!

[kryss]

3rd tower boss battle:

[Mr Ono]

Out next month here and tempted by the Limited Edition.

Reviews are mixed. How did you guys get on with it after 9 months

[kryss]

I think I'm the only one playing the import. It's not a bad game, solid but not groundbreaking. Still not much further in but will be finishing it soonish and posting my review.