Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Dawn and Dusk Towers, one Gordian Knot

I've finally set up my Wii in my new place and so I've finally returned to playing Pandora's Tower. Normally time away from a game in which I'm stuck helps me to work through whatever Gordian Knot I'm trying to undo. However, such wasn't the case with the Dawn and Dusk Towers.

It's not that these towers, which I hope and believe are the final two in the game, are particularly difficult. Really, they're among the more straightforward of the towers as far as actual in-tower mechanics go. What's giving me so much trouble in them is that they're too similar.

Warping between the Dusk and Dawn Towers is necessary to get around debris in the one or to access a higher floor in the other. But this warping is only viable because the two towers have nearly identical floor plans. Often in tonight's play session (hunting for those last few chains that need breaking), I found myself going through familiar doors over and over again. In different towers. Or I stumbled into one or the other of the towers' slightly different rooms.

What makes my situation still worse is that the guides that I've found for the game describe these towers in a very linear fashion. Shy of working through those guides from their beginnings, they won't be of much help. Nonetheless, doing so is probably the fastest way for me to clear these towers and finally move on in the game.

And that state of affairs in itself is proof of the difficulty that adding a timer to dungeons offers. Were it not for Elena's imminent transformation (and for enemies respawning after you leave their rooms), getting through the Dawn and Dusk Towers would just be a matter of brute forcing my way through with relentless exploration. In other words, I could just chop this Gordian knot in two.

No comments:

Post a Comment