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Sacred Reviews: To The Tower's Top

Foreword

To be honest, I probably should have reviewed this one a while ago. After all, I did originally play through this game shortly after "The Swap in the Middle with You" event ended, but for whatever reason I never got around to it. Though if I had to guess why I didn't get around to reviewing this game. I'd guess I either got caught up in a newer game or let my attention wander to some older projects that had been sitting on the back burner for a while. With that being said it's time to jump into my review for "To The Tower's Top".

Introduction

"To The Tower's Top" was developed by unity and Someoneman for The Swap in the Middle with You event that was held back in February/March of 2016. An event that involved developers creating half of a game and then giving creative control over to someone else to finish it. As for this project, it was started by Someoneman and then finished by unity, whose one of my favorite developers on this site. Though, I suppose I should move away from praising unity and move onto discussing the game itself.

Story

"To The Tower's Top" has a pretty standard narrative that's just ripe with a lot of the usual cliches. After all, you have your standard plot to save the world from world ending peril #1,546,753,014,874. And while the need to save the world from destruction is overly cliche the story is told well enough to be engaging over the course of the 45 to 60 minutes it will take you to beat this game. So at the very least it does it's job even if it's pretty forgettable in the long run.

Of course, a game like this also has to include a main protagonist who was originally on the same side as the villains. In fact, my biggest gripe about this game is that it probably tips it's hands on this topic a little too early and too much. After all, Rua is way to knowledgeable about the Cult of the Griffin Eye to not be associated with it in some way. After all, this has to be a rather small or at the very least obscure cult if Leta has never heard of it. And his constant statements about how deadly and dangerous they are implies that he has way more knowledge about this group then even law enforcement probably does.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things the game is clearly split in two sections. The first section is Someoneman's logic puzzle at the start of the game where you need to gather and use items to your advantage whether be using a branch to spear a fish or using the bones of said fish to try and pick a lock. It's all rather straight-forward and follows a logical progression. Of course, this opening puzzles ends in a funny bit where Rua vaults through a window in order to get inside the tower itself.



The second half of the game is all about rather mild combat. This isn't to say it's mindless. After all, you can definitely get hurt if you don't exploit the enemies elemental weaknesses in order to do massive damage. And you'll definitely end up in a tight spot if your not monitoring your health during the game's final battle with World Ender Zaglan. And while normally I'd probably rail at the game a little bit for being too easy. The reality is that the game's difficulty is about right on the money. After all, this is an event game that's meant to about an hour long when both halves are put together. And it'll probably take the standard player about 45 - 60 minutes to beat this game.



Graphics

The game definitely has some unique monsters and tile assets. And as I always love to point out. This really helps in giving a game a unique identity. Especially from all of the games out there that simply rely on the RTP for all of their assets. Even so, I really do question the decision to make Rua's former friends in the Cult of the Griffin Eye go from appearing to be around the same size as Rua to being the size of giants when you engage them in actual combat.



Conclusion

"To The Tower's Top" is a pretty solid game for what it is. So if you've got an hour to kill and an irresistible urge to kill a Great Old One. Then this is a game you should definitely take a swing at.

Posts

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unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thank you so much for this review, Sacred ^_^ I've always been a bit disappointed in the lack of attention this game got, so I really appreciate you covering it.

Your criticisms are pretty much spot-on. When I'm on a tight deadline, I let the cliches flow even more freely than normal, and the issue with the huge battlers for enemies that are your size is also both something that I struggle with that bothers me. I could write an entire article on my feelings on this subject, but needless to say, these days I'm more in agreement that they're a bit ridiculous and to keep people the same size as you with graphics that aren't massive giants.

Thanks again and so glad you enjoyed the game :DDDDD
In my opinion there isn't anything inherently wrong with cliches. After all, a cliche is merely a commonly used plot point/device. In my opinion the problem comes from people using these plot points/devices poorly.

After all, you can look at the Harry Potter books and easily come to the conclusion that J. K. Rowling really loves the damsel in distress idea. After all, it's used in books 1 - 5 in some fashion.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Haha, true ^_^
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