Aug 3, 2025
Review of Shadow Tower Abyss – survival/horror from FROM SOFTWARE
In the company From Software always created various good games that became cult, but mostly unpopular. Each game of the studio is still primarily an original project, has its own idea and unique details of both setting and gameplay. Working in a variety of genres, From Software always returned to their two favorites – rpg And horror (and they also have a lot of games about military equipment in the style of mechs and upright robots). Sometimes separately, and sometimes combining them. Back in 1998, they created the first hybrid of these genres – Shadow Tower – a game that, in my opinion, is the very ancestor Demon Souls and the whole series Dark Souls. But Shadow Tower was an unforgivably complex and inconvenient dungeon crawler, full of the atmosphere of the dark Middle Ages and, at the same time, monotonous labyrinths that were too similar to each other and sometimes only differed in the color of the walls. This circumstance, coupled with high complexity, unfriendliness towards the player and rather average graphics for its generation, was repulsive and did not allow many gamers to go a little further than the first maze and see in Shadow Tower a wonderful atmosphere, a variety of coolly designed monsters, the beginnings of an interesting, albeit simple combat system, and, most importantly, a unique and comprehensive character development system that was a little like one from the series The Elder Scrolls, but with its own nuances.
But now I’d like to talk about a much more wonderful project – a game that, as a lover of role-playing games, survival horror and dark fantasy, I naturally fell in love with. About the sequel Shadow Tower, which even now really deserves attention and its cult status, perhaps even more than all subsequent projects From Software.
Shadow Tower Abyss was released in 2003 in Japan and was never officially released outside of Japan. It just so happened that the Western publisher represented by Sony Computer Entertainment America didn’t believe in the game. Approximately the same situation will then happen with Demon Souls, but she’ll have better luck. Until 2011, the sequel to Shadow Tower could only be played in Japanese, but now we have a fan translation, it’s not perfect, but it’s understandable. For those who understand English.
The plot can hardly be called the strong point of the game, but it is there. Shadow Tower has a lot of secrets and understatements, just like in Dark Souls, what ultimately happened and is happening to the inhabitants of the tower, what is the power of its main artifact and even what is the meaning of the ending of the game, all this will be shrouded in fog, but that does not make the story worse, because in general it is very simple.
The plot of the plot is very simple – our hero, something like an archaeologist at the end of the last century, is looking for an ancient artifact, the magic spear of a long-dead king, whose kingdom was destroyed and turned into ruins, and is now only a legend. In his search, he, like many other seekers, ends up in a dark tower that is full of various bizarre, creepy creatures and secrets. We need to get to the very top of the tower and find this spear in order to get its magical power or just to get out. The plot is not much different from what it was in the first part, but this time the game takes place in modern times close to us. Therefore, our first weapon will be a pistol, and many of the characters and corpses we meet will look like modern adventurers or military men. At the same time, the game still has the atmosphere of a viscous and very dark medieval fantasy. And some monsters and location design seem to refer us to the works of Lovecraft.
Somewhere I remember Jurassic Park. And in some locations you even encounter a sci-fi setting. It turns out to be a very strange but interesting contrast. So strange and unique that in one place we fight insect-like or demonic creatures with the help of medieval weapons, and in the next location we shoot harpies with a revolver or M16 rifle.
A unique style that is simply interesting to be in and explore the surroundings of different levels of the tower. This will have to be done exclusively in the first person and with tank, almost classic resident, control. The limited visibility and slow movement are annoying at first, but you get used to them. And from the very beginning you need to get used to the unfriendliness of the world around you – in the first hours of the game, death lurks around every corner and with every collision with enemies. But don’t worry, the game will never leave you bare-handed against them, and at the very beginning you may even be surprised with firearms. This is one of the remarkable features of the local combat system – along with piercing objects and magic, you can have pistols, rifles, ultrasound, crossbows, shotguns and even a grenade launcher at your disposal. (RPG in which we shoot monsters with a grenade launcher – How Cool is That?) They help you deal wonderfully with monsters at a distance, but you just need to get used to the lack of a crosshair, slowness when using a firearm, and sometimes it’s not easy to get cartridges, and you need to save them.
This achieves an excellent balance between different types of weapons and between ranged and melee. Moreover, it’s worth using different approaches to almost every enemy – some are easier to kill at a distance, some are better to deal with up close, and some are even worth using magic on. By the way, although it is available here, just like in Souls, it is sometimes inconvenient to use, and in general it is rather lazily executed. There is also the opportunity to dismember enemies or shoot off different parts of their bodies or armor. We can shoot at different parts of the enemies’ bodies and can swing the blade in different directions, thereby cutting off the limbs of monsters or, with a successful blow, depriving them of their heads. This exciting feature adds a strategic element to combat. After all, for example, an enemy who has lost an arm will no longer be able to use his spear against you, and a beetle with cut off legs will no longer be able to jump sharply, and, my favorite, harpies with shot off wings will no longer be able to attack you from the air. Some monsters may even fall into a stupor if they lose a limb.
Sooner or later, you https://reelsgrandecasino.co.uk/games/ will also come to the realization that sometimes it is better to just try to avoid a fight – saving lives and supplies may be more important. And now here I want to point out one very important thing – at some point in the passage it becomes obvious that Shadow Tower Abyss – this is not just a role-playing dungeon crawler, it is also an excellent survival horror, in which every item and cartridge must be valued, it is not always worth going into open battle, and if you do, then be careful. And the gloomy atmosphere and frightening monsters only strengthen the comparison with horror films.
Although with the role-playing part of the game everything is also not so obvious – as in the first Shadow Tower, in the sequel we do not have any experience levels as such – the leveling up of different character characteristics occurs depending on our actions in battle. And the character’s attributes increase with the help of equipped pieces of equipment and slowly grow themselves depending on how you progress through the game and what weapon you use more often. But sometimes you can manually improve some parameters if you find and use a special item called Soul Pod (souls were already here) – something similar to a chess piece. It allows you to distribute several points as needed.
For the sake of balance, no souls, as in Dark Souls, does not drop from enemies and even useful items rarely drop from them. And after each collision, there is a high probability that your armor or weapon will deteriorate a little – the game has an indicator of the strength of any piece of equipment. You need to carefully monitor him, otherwise you will find yourself with bare arms and legs against adversaries who want to devour you. It’s good that you can repair things using a special powder, and later, pay for the repairs with your hit points. At the same time, the number of treatment bottles at levels is strictly limited, but health can also be replenished by sacrificing some item at a special point. In this case, the restoration depends on the value of the item. As you can see, everything is planned for the sake of a precarious balance.
The number of them shows how complex and complex everything is with different stats and attributes. And if with names like Vitality (Vitality), Endurance (Stamina) and Strength (Strength) everything is clear, then this is the difference between Concentration (Concentration), Intellect (Mentality) and With reason (Mind), and what exactly each of these characteristics affects is not easy to understand.
And edged weapons have three separate characteristics – Pierce (pierce), slash (chop), break (break?). Accordingly, it will be more effective to attack different enemies with different types of weapons and different attacks.
You get used to the combat system and leveling up and get into it within the first hour of the game. And then comes the fascinating process of exploring and studying the locations of the gloomy and ominous shadow tower. Secrets hidden in the farthest corners help you go further and get better equipment. Just like in the game series Dark Souls, the plot is not important here, how interesting is the lore of the game world and the atmospheric adventure that it gives. Each meeting with a living and initially non-hostile NPC is intriguing, and sometimes creates an interesting mini-story – from the mystical guardians of the tower and the warlike follower of the ancient king, who is trying to restore the former greatness of his kingdom, to the crazy spear seeker from a modern expedition – he went crazy and began to kill his comrades, and when he met us, he began to deceive and lead us into traps. And the main mascot of the series is mysterious and arrogant… at least he captivates with his design. A beautiful, but clearly dangerous spear keeper with a huge scythe and cute horns in a revealing outfit.
The game, among other things, takes in its quantity. Even though the first playthrough will take no more than 10 hours, you will make your way through completely different labyrinthine locations and meet more than 60 types of unique monsters and about 500 types of equipment. Shmotism here, as mentioned above, plays a big role.
Some of the locations are optional, although they are designed no worse than the main levels, but if you study them carefully, you can find many useful items. And perhaps this is where one of the two main problems of the game will lie. Towards the end of the playthrough, due to the huge amount of first-class equipment that the player somehow finds, survival horror is replaced by diverse action. Yes, you still have to use supplies sparingly and not forget about repairing equipment, but death ceases to be scary – in the end you have to die not so much in a battle with monsters, but from the fact that you fell into an abyss somewhere carelessly. And even the last bosses are completed in just a matter of seconds. Although, perhaps, this is only legitimate in relation to my playthrough, in which I vacuumed all the levels of the tower up and down.
But there is another unpleasant minus – in Shadow Tower Abyss each floor of the tower is an intricate labyrinth, sometimes with very similar sections. At some point, you will suddenly become completely confused and lost, not understanding where and how to go next, wandering through large and long corridor locations. The search for passages and bosses that need to be defeated for the treasured key can drag on for a long time. And then suddenly it turns out that you just had to find a passage in one of the walls of the maze, although this wall is no different from the others. Hints about such secret but plot-important passages can be found, but it is very difficult to understand any of these wall scribbles that other visitors to the tower allegedly left. Yes, there are drawings with clues on the walls, but they are very difficult to understand. And also, as will happen later in Dark Souls, There are all sorts of writings on the walls written in blood. Sometimes it can be a subtle hint or a warning about a trap, but most of the time these notes don’t make much sense.
Any nitpicking that can be said about the game will still be insignificant compared to the amount of emotions and pleasure that I received during the process Shadow Tower Abyss. Yes, the graphics here are not the most advanced, even for its time, but everything is great with the design and visual design. Game situations are interesting, and each new level, due to its uniqueness and differences from the previous ones, can first intrigue and then present many interesting situations, both scripted and not so.
There is almost no music here, but again the sound design simply works for the sake of the horror style – various noises and ambient, growls, movements, moans and sobs of various monsters constantly keep you in suspense, especially considering the presence of three-dimensional 3D sound. The absence of musical accompaniment along with this may not be to the taste of some, but this technique works well for the atmosphere. And the difficulty of the game gradually shifts towards an exciting adventure from the difficult survival that greets the game at the beginning.
Shadow Tower Abyss – this is perhaps one of the most interesting and unique projects From Software, and some of the game’s finds can be easily found in the series Souls. This game is captivating with its quirkiness and dark atmosphere. An excellent mixture of dungeon crawler-rpg and survival horror, capable of providing a real adventure.
Best comments
Interesting, thanks. I would like to get acquainted. Does it make sense to go through the first part first, or can you skip it??
P.S. Just yesterday I passed Kuon from those from Software. Now this is one of my favorite games, after which I decided to pay attention to the studio’s creativity. And here’s a hint:3
In the video version, the upper frequencies of the sound stick out very strongly. Walk through the soundtrack with a de-esser, it hurts your ears.
The first one can be skipped. I would even say that now it is already too archaic, but Shadow Tower Abyss can still provide a cool and challenging experience. It’s a pity that it’s only on an emulator, because even the licensed version is hard to find and run with translation.
Well, I understand that it’s archaic, but you never know, maybe there’s something interesting there in terms of plot)
And I play all PS2 games on an emulator, so I’m no stranger to it) By the way, I don’t seem to be complaining about performance 🙂 Of course, there may be some problems with some games, but usually everything works. The same Kuon was emulated perfectly, so maybe other games from from from will not force you to dance with a tambourine)
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