Playing through the first three King's Field games as a post-Demon's Souls FromSoftware fan was revelatory, with many traits of the Souls games I assumed to be Miyazaki-isms were in fact simply From-isms. Turns out the whole 'spiritual series' thing we get with the Souls games, where a bunch of officially unrelated IPs are grouped as a 'series' by fans due to their obvious gameplay continuity, is in fact also a Fromsoftware staple, with Shadow Tower continuing the King's Field style of dungeon crawler despite its new name and universe.
After the interconnected King's Field II and the sprawl of King's Field III, Shadow Tower is back to basics. This is a no-frills dungeon crawler, akin to the first King's Field. This time each floor is connected to a central pillar, the titular Shadow Tower, giving each floor a bit of physical context.
If KFII was akin to Dark Souls, and KFIII akin to DSII, then Shadow Tower fills in that Demon's Souls comparison I wanted to lazily make regarding the first King's Field but couldn't quite bring myself to. Each floor is a 'realm', themed around some concept (acid, fire, etc.) which features multiple sections leading a boss which must be defeated to face the final boss at the bottom of the Shadow Tower, which acts as a partial hub. While the Nexus and the Shadow Tower are different in many ways (ain't no merchants here), there's a comparison to be made. The realms, with their various sections leading to bosses, are much more obviously comparable to DeS' levels.
Outside of interesting comparisons, how's the game? Very good! It's the most focused of the bunch so far, which means it never quite reaches the heights of KFII or KFIII, but never reaches their lows either. It's initially very off-putting and obtuse, but honestly pretty manageable once you get the hang of things. The degradation system seems scary , but the odds of you actually properly screwing yourself are pretty low. I played very conservatively for a while and steamrolled the last third of the game. Probably don't make this your first King's Field-like, but if you're into this style of game Shadow Tower is a very strong example of it.
After the interconnected King's Field II and the sprawl of King's Field III, Shadow Tower is back to basics. This is a no-frills dungeon crawler, akin to the first King's Field. This time each floor is connected to a central pillar, the titular Shadow Tower, giving each floor a bit of physical context.
If KFII was akin to Dark Souls, and KFIII akin to DSII, then Shadow Tower fills in that Demon's Souls comparison I wanted to lazily make regarding the first King's Field but couldn't quite bring myself to. Each floor is a 'realm', themed around some concept (acid, fire, etc.) which features multiple sections leading a boss which must be defeated to face the final boss at the bottom of the Shadow Tower, which acts as a partial hub. While the Nexus and the Shadow Tower are different in many ways (ain't no merchants here), there's a comparison to be made. The realms, with their various sections leading to bosses, are much more obviously comparable to DeS' levels.
Outside of interesting comparisons, how's the game? Very good! It's the most focused of the bunch so far, which means it never quite reaches the heights of KFII or KFIII, but never reaches their lows either. It's initially very off-putting and obtuse, but honestly pretty manageable once you get the hang of things. The degradation system seems scary , but the odds of you actually properly screwing yourself are pretty low. I played very conservatively for a while and steamrolled the last third of the game. Probably don't make this your first King's Field-like, but if you're into this style of game Shadow Tower is a very strong example of it.