| Pandora's Tower | |
|---|---|
Japanese box art |
|
| Developer(s) | Ganbarion[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Wii |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing[1] |
| Rating(s) | |
Pandora's Tower, also known as Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side (パンドラの塔 君のもとへ帰るまで Pandora no Tō: Kimi no Moto e Kaeru Made), is an action role-playing video game developed by Ganbarion and was published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was released in Japan on May 26, 2011 and the second quarter of 2012 in Europe.[4]
Contents |
When the player is not exploring the towers, they may choose to increase Ende's relationship with Ceres. This is pivotal to the game's multiple endings'
The player assumes a 22-year-old protagonist, Ende (Voiced by: Susumu Chiba), a former soldier of Athens. Ceres (Voiced by: Mamiko Noto), an 18-year-old girl who is friends with Ende and a strong believer of the fictional Eos religion, was cursed when monsters attack the kingdom after she was chosen to sing at the Harvest Festival. Throughout the story, Ende and Ceres were assisted by a merchant of the Dvelg race named Graiai (Voiced by: Ikuko Tani) — she gives Ende the Orichalcum Chain needed to lift the curse on Ceres.[5]
The game focuses on Ende and Ceres, who live in the Elysium kingdom, loacted in Graecia. Ceres is chosen to sing at the kingdom's Harvest Festival, but monsters begin to attack when she goes to perform. Ende later finds her unconscious as the army comes to take her because she witnessed the beast. A Dvelg merchant named Graiai helps the two escape the city into a tower. Later, they find out that Ceres has been cursed, shown by a cursemark on her upper back. In order to lift it, Ende must use the Orichalcum Chain to obtain the flesh of the beasts that live in the 13 Towers. If not, Ceres will gradually turn into a beast herself and perish.[5]
The truth of why Ceres was cursed is revealed as the story progresses. A war broke out five hundred years ago between Elusyon and Atenai, two different countries. An unnamed man and woman have a child named Luchil, who they love dearly. In one of the flashbacks Ceres views, for example, when food rations get low they forgo their own meals to feed him. One day Luchil is playing outside and accidentally drops his toy into a busy street. He runs out into the street after it just as the knights are passing through on their horses, and they trample and kill him in a freak accident. His parents are heartbroken and have difficulty coming to terms with his passing. They pray that the gods will bless them with another child, but it is seemingly to no avail. More than anything, they wish for the war to be over so that more tragedies like theirs never occur again.
What happens next is not entirely clear, but presumably the woman gets caught up in a religious movement and cult-type organization that promises to end the war by unifying the twelve gods using the magic and Orichalcum Chains of the Dvelg people, Graiai's race. The woman offers herself up as a vessel, much to the chagrin of her husband who feels she has left him behind. The woman becomes the 6 Yin Goddess, while her husband becomes the 6 Yang God. Ultimately, the two of them would have merged as one to end the conflict. However, the elders called off the ceremony partway through because, as they discover, the Yin and Yang are off-balance. In one of the last flashbacks, we see the husband walking away with a baby as the woman calls out to him. Given that the game is all about building a relationship, it is implied that he didn't love her as much as she loved him, and left her for another woman.
There are six possible endings based on your actions and relationship with Ceres herself, mainly, "S" (the true ending), "A", "B", "C", "D", and the "bad" ending. If the player acquires ending "S", the woman reveals to be pregnant, thus the gods had granted her wish after all, which is why the yin and yang were unbalanced. The experiment was called off, but only her husband and child were salvageable. The woman was too "far gone" and remained a goddess. Again, it's not clear, but it's implied that she was so obsessed with the loss of her son and the devastation the war brought on her family that she went insane and could think only of unifying with her husband. Since that was no longer possible with her actual husband, she would "chase" his genes by cursing the girls who fell in love with his descendants. Ende was one of the man's descendants. Hence why Ceres was cursed, and why there had been so many curses previously throughout the ages.
Pandora's Tower was first revealed to be in development by Satoru Iwata at Nintendo's third quarter financial meeting in January 2011.[3] Nintendo later set up an official teaser site with a spring 2011 release date for Japan. The site features a female voice that says, "Dying with beauty, or living with ugliness. Which would you be happier with?" (死んで綺麗になるのと、醜くても生きてるのって どっちが幸せなんだろうね？ Shinde kirei ni naru no to, minikukute mo iki teru no tte. Dotchi ga shiawase nandarou ne?)[6] On April 5, 2011, the first trailer was released online.[7] Details on the story and characters were published in the April 6, 2011 issue of Famitsu magazine along with the confirmation of Ganbarion as the developer and a Japanese release date of May 26, 2011.[5] The official website was updated to include the new trailer and confirmed release.
A fan campaign dubbed Operation Rainfall began on June 24, 2011 to persuade Nintendo of America to localize the game along with Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story.[8][9] On the contrary, Nintendo of America stated on Facebook that "there are no plans to bring these three games [including Pandora's Tower] to [North America] at this time."[10]
In July 2011, Pandora's Tower was playable at Japan Expo 2011 in Paris,[11] where LiveGen confirmed the European release of the game scheduled for 2012.[12][13] Nintendo of Europe officially confirmed the release in their region the following month.[2] In November 2011, Nintendo of Europe asked players to vote for their favourite artwork to be included as a reversible cover of Pandora's Tower and The Last Story.[14] The voting was closed on November 15, 2011, with a winning reversible cover of the game selected by Nintendo of Europe.[15][16]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Computer and Video Games | 7.1 of 10[17] |
| Famitsu | 31 of 40[18] |
Japanese magazine Famitsu rated the game 31 out of 40, with respective scores of 7, 7, 9 and 8 out of 10.[18] Pandora's Tower sold 21,445 units during its release week in Japan, and was the third best-selling game in that week.[19]
Pandora's Tower received criticism from fans, as they started to share concerns that the cover art's depiction of Ende is copied from pictures of Noctis, the protagonist of an upcoming action role-playing game Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Comparisons have been made by various press outlets in Japan and overseas.[20]