In the last days of the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo teamed with various developers to release some excellent games on the system. These included The Last Story with Mistwalker, and Pandora’s Tower with Ganbarion, the latter of which was one of the last games released for the system. Pandora’s Tower was an Action RPG with elements of a dating sim and was unlike anything that had been seen before. There was a nice blend of action elements, and the game seemed to borrow the best elements of both the Castlevania series and games like Shadow of the Colossus with its enemies and massive bosses.
The game had some unique puzzles to solve, and multiple endings depending on the character relationship status, and the Action RPG elements were handled very well. What held the game back was a combination of its awkward control scheme that made it difficult for some to get into, and a case of bad timing where most people had already moved on from the Wii. The game may have had striking visuals, but being in standard definition instead of high definition meant they have not aged as well as they could have.
Pandora’s Tower was given new a second chance of sorts on the Wii U as a Wii to Wii U download on the eShop, but that version had several of the issues of the original experience. A remake on the Switch would enable the game to reach a new audience and correct some of the issues with the experience. The visual style could get a makeover in HD like Xenoblade did for instance,, and the control scheme could be revised to make the game more use friendly. The developers could also take the time to fix some of the major bugs present in the game that could not be patched in the Wii version, due to patches not being possible on the system. There were game breaking bugs in some localizations of the game that prevented players from entering certain areas.
In addition, the gameplay could also be rebalanced and a new user interface could be made to allow more people to be able to get into the game as well. There is of course also the option of adding some new content and/or changing some ways the game played out to provide for a new experience that flows better. I for one would not be opposed to a new playable epilogue that explores more of the game world, or new sections being added to expand on the game and add new challenges. Perhaps expanding on ideas Ganbarion wanted to do but were ultimately cut from the game would be possible with a remake like this.
Pandora’s Tower has so much potential as an IP and Nintendo and Ganbarion should not let it go to waste. The Switch is the perfect system to revive the game on, and the time is right for Pandora’s Tower to get the audience it deserves.