This review contains spoilers
[Japanese version reviewed]
Not as interesting as King's Field.
It feels like a big step back, despite being released a full two years after KF3. Instead of an intricately interconnected open world, this is just a series of "worlds" branching off from the central eponymous tower. Beat the boss at the end of each of the six worlds, and a big creepy door opens at the bottom of the tower. Enter the door, fight the last boss(es), and that's it.
The game engine is a slight upgrade from King's Field, but still creaky and sluggish on the PS1 hardware.
There's a weird in-game economy at work. Your equipment is constantly wearing down, and you have to spend your own HP at the smithy to repair it. But now you have low HP, so you drink a health potion. To get more health potions, you can trade in old equipment at the item shop. This motivates you to keep exploring and keep finding new equipment to use, repair, or trade in.
There's no story, really, and the lore is utterly forgettable. But it's interesting to see some of the ideas that would reappear in Demon's Souls a decade later. You don't harvest souls from enemies, but you do find "soul pot" consumables that give you different amounts of skill points to assign to your attributes. There's no inventory limit, but you do have an equip burden.
Even some of the bosses are similar, like the semi-invincible red dragon and the weak, slug-like final boss.
I'm still not entirely sure what they were going for. It's sort of a horror-themed King's Field with some slightly different mechanics, but the gap between the two is far smaller than between Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, for example.
Not as interesting as King's Field.
It feels like a big step back, despite being released a full two years after KF3. Instead of an intricately interconnected open world, this is just a series of "worlds" branching off from the central eponymous tower. Beat the boss at the end of each of the six worlds, and a big creepy door opens at the bottom of the tower. Enter the door, fight the last boss(es), and that's it.
The game engine is a slight upgrade from King's Field, but still creaky and sluggish on the PS1 hardware.
There's a weird in-game economy at work. Your equipment is constantly wearing down, and you have to spend your own HP at the smithy to repair it. But now you have low HP, so you drink a health potion. To get more health potions, you can trade in old equipment at the item shop. This motivates you to keep exploring and keep finding new equipment to use, repair, or trade in.
There's no story, really, and the lore is utterly forgettable. But it's interesting to see some of the ideas that would reappear in Demon's Souls a decade later. You don't harvest souls from enemies, but you do find "soul pot" consumables that give you different amounts of skill points to assign to your attributes. There's no inventory limit, but you do have an equip burden.
Even some of the bosses are similar, like the semi-invincible red dragon and the weak, slug-like final boss.
I'm still not entirely sure what they were going for. It's sort of a horror-themed King's Field with some slightly different mechanics, but the gap between the two is far smaller than between Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, for example.