If the King’s Field & Shadow Tower can be said to be Demon’s Souls & Dark Soul‘s gaming grandfathers, then Shadow Tower Abyss can be said to be Bloodborne‘s. Shadow Tower Abyss is a 1st Person Dungeon Crawler by FromSoft for the PS2 that sadly never released out of Japan though luckily a fan took the time to translate it. With a modern setting but a dark fantasy theme, it pulls no punches when it comes to kicking your ass at every moment as you make your way to the top in search of a magical spear said to have great power, enough to build kingdoms, as you traverse what’s left of it dodging traps & all manner of twisted creatures.
If you have played any of the Elder Scrolls games, with its 1st Person Perspective, then Shadow Tower Abyss will be familiar to most, that is after changing its original control scheme to #4 which uses Right analogue for camera movements instead of the L1/L2 & R1/R2 like in the King’s Field games. It works pretty well after making that small change though playing it old-school is fine as well. One thing that is unchanging though is the Start button being a shortcut to whatever item you’ve set to it & not a pause which takes some getting used to at first.
Gameplay is entirely in a 1st Person perspective which makes traversing treacherous walkways a challenge, like that time I wasted an hour of work as I accidentally walked of a ledge after clearing the whole place, not once but twice, forcing me to redo that specific section. Sigh. In any case, to help you along in your quest you’ve got your choice of weapons ranging from swords, axes, clubs, etc. to the more modern ones like pistols, assault rifles & even a grenade launcher… & I guess magic too. Nothing like taking down a Lovecraftian monster with a grenade launcher.
Weaponry all have that signature FromSoft designs, from the lowliest rusty blade to grand magical two-handed weapons, all art works of art in their own right. Seriously, you can feel & know by design alone that this new sword or club you’ve found is most likely a step up from your previous one, FromSoft is that good at this aspect. Alongside your vast selection of weaponry you have an equally vast selection of trinkets & armor… about 800+. I mean sure, there’s only so many bucket hats one can wear at a time but there’s like 3 or so & that’s what counts. In any case, all of these add into your stats, which unlike traditional RPGs, stat gains come from equipment & a very specific consumable. Of course what each stat means is anyone’s guess really. HP, Strenght, etc are self-explanatory but you’ve got Mind, Spirit & Concentration & well, good luck. Ultimately, throw caution to the wind & equip stuff that gives big numbers & call it a day.
After so much exploring & combat you will realize you either have too much weaponry to open up your own weapon shop, your favorite sword is broken &/or you feel like buying some healing item & well there’s a place for that. Economy in Shadow Tower Abyss is interesting, you can use the tragically named cunes, found by exploring or sell your extra items for a pitiful amount at specific color-coded pedestals, to buy healing items & the like or you can save your hard earned cash & sacrifice your health to repair that fancy sword you’ve been lugging around for a while alternatively you sacrifice an obsolete or broken weapon/item to heal yourself, again at specific pedestals. It is a vicious cycle & one you must use to survive. Of course, in regards to the healing or repairing aspect, good luck reading what it says because it isn’t formated correctly, just rest assured that the game will not outright be a dick & let you kill yourself when repairing stuff. A slight knock to the translation, some typos & the aforementioned error exists but nonetheless a big thank you to the translator for taking the time to do this.
Plotwise, I dunno what the hell is going on outside of the initial plot bit & what is shown to you. Dude gets abducted by some wacky old mystery man into the abyss that is actually a tower & you are down below & must go up a tower but these locales you visit clearly are not in a tower buuuuuuuuut your ultimate goal is finding a spear said to grant any wish& you meet otherworldly creatures, both good & evil & a very fine looking Rurufon (a total cutie). Ya know, the typical FromSoft vagueness… sadly there’s is little lore research to be found online unlike the game’s modern Soulsborne series. Soundwise the game is not all that bad, what little of a soundtrack it has is mostly ambient sounds & whatnot that often times will have you questioning whether or not the sound you heard was part of it or an enemy just of sight ready to have a wack at you & your squishy bits. Graphically, is not bad… in the areas where you can see more than 5 inches in front of your face. Limitations of old. Joke aside, monsters, the locations & items are pretty damned neat to look at & otherworldly, spooky in design. Again, Rurufon. Top-tier.
Shadow Tower Abyss is a pretty damned good game, it is on the short side at about 8-10 hours of gameplay that once you get to the end you feel like wanting more because it really feels like the end. FromSoft awesome designs, coupled with a decent amount of challenge & mystery is to be found here & I wholly recommend giving this game a go & a big thank you to the translator. Go play it, really.
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