Watch and Learn About Pandora's Tower
It is rather difficult talking about a game here on RPGSite when so little meaningful information has actually been revealed about it, but such was the case with Pandora's Tower. A few months ago, publisher Nintendo and developer Ganbarian, who you may know as the people behind the One Piece games and the Smash-Bros-with-manga-characters JUMP Superstars, announced that they were working on an RPG together. A teaser site was posted that had a young woman proclaiming, "Dying and becoming beautiful, or living even though you’re ugly. Which will make you happier?”, followed by the playing of soft, downtrodden piano music.
On that somber note, Nintendo finally premiered a teaser trailer (when will the teasing end?!) on a game that is only 7 weeks from release in Japan. The story takes place on the continent of Graecia, in the kingdom of Elysium. The Harvest Festival is about to begin, where a young woman named Ceres has been carefully selected out of the population to receive the honor of singing at the event. As she is about to go on stage, however, strange creatures begin to appear, throwing the kingdom into chaos (because beasts are always great at crashing parties). In the midst of the confusion, she is knocked unconscious and cursed by the beasts, as evidence by the tattoo on her back. Ende, a male friend of Ceres (and the hero of our story), tries to help her from the kingdom's army who wants to bring her in for questioning by hiding her in a nearby tower, but they discover that the only way to remove her curse is by harvesting the flesh of the servent beasts (or bosses) that live in the deepest part of these 12 Towers, and Ende decides to take up this challenge.
Ende is given what's called an Orichalcum Chain given to you by a merchant (Graiai) that helped Ende and Ceres escape. This does not only act as his main weapon, but also sort of a gauge to explain what Ceres' condition is currently with a timer that ticks down as the game goes on indicating the progression of the curse on Ceres. If the timer runs out, Ceres dies from the effects and the game is over, so the only way to extend her life is by beating these servants in as little time as possible. Each of the 12 Towers has a theme, such as a Red Tower that blocks your path with fire, and so on.
Pandora's Tower as a whole looks pretty dark and perturbing, a theme I have always personally enjoyed in story-focused game. Check out the video below to find out what I mean. The title will be released on May 26th in Japan, with no word on whether we will see a release in Europe or the United States. We can only hope, because the Wii is definitely in need of more solid-looking games like this one.