Topic: Pandora's Tower to Be Released in Europe April 13

[NWR_insanolord]

Europeans get to play the third Operation Rainfall title one week after Americans get the first.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/29263

Pandora's Tower will come out in Europe April 13.

This action RPG has players taking on the role of Aeron, a soldier, as he battles through monsters in a series of towers on a quest to break the curse on his friend Elena. The game features multiple possible endings and a New Game+ feature that promises to offer a lot of replay value, and a complex and unique relationship system to offer different ways to approach the game.

Nintendo sent out some twisted game-themed Valentine's Day cards, which you can find in the gallery below.

[Sarail]

Trifecta complete! Thank god that I'll be able to play all three Operation Rainfall games via importing. Thanks NOE! You're the BEST.

[motang]

I am so getting a European Wii U...since NOA is stupid! 

[KDR_11k]

Nice but more immediately Last Story comes on the 25th.

I am so getting a European Wii U...since NOA is stupid! 

I guarantee that you will regret that.

[ejamer]

Glad to have the chance to import this game. It's odd. The Last Story was the game that had me most excited initially, but now I'm wondering if it might be the least impressive of the three.


Glad NoE took the risk on bringing these games to an English speaking audience, and hope their efforts are rewarded.

[NWR_insanolord]

I am so getting a European Wii U...since NOA is stupid! 

I guarantee you that you would regret that. These games are the exception, not the rule, and going all-European would be much more expensive and delayed with almost no benefit.

[broodwars]

I'll get Pandora's Tower if it comes to NA (which I find extremely unlikely), but unlike its 2 predecessors I will not be importing this one.  Xenoblade and The Last Story fill a quality JRPG void that the HD consoles have not managed to handle, but Pandora's Tower just comes off to me as an uglier version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (as much as I liked that game).  And I've seen the whole "climb an impossibly high tower" cliche in way too many JRPGs for me to find it the least bit interesting.  I hope it works out for those who are interested, but I just can't manage to care about this game.

[ROiDS]

Is it me or NoA is getting more lazy about localizing games? I mean, we've missed some good games that the Europeans have gotten like Last Window, Another Code: R and maybe we won't even get to see The Last Story and Pandora's Tower here in the states.

[TJ Spyke]

You can't blame them for being reluctant to localize games that may very well sell poorly. I am not saying I wouldn't like them released here, but I understand why they aren't.

[MegaByte]

You can, and I do. They might sell poorly by Nintendo standards, but they should easily be able to break even.

[Luigi Dude]

I am so getting a European Wii U...since NOA is stupid! 

I guarantee that you will regret that.

Yeah more people need to know that NOE isn't exactly all that great either.  The last Professor Layton game had an entire 100 hour mode removed for the Europe release because NOE didn't want to translate it, while NOA kept it in the North American version.  Plus Legend of Starfy, the first Fossil Fighters and Glory of Hercules weren't released in Europe either.  Not to mention they released Kirby Super Star Ultra an entire year after it was released in North America, despite the game having barely any text to translate.

[Leont]

Probably gonna pre order this one. All ready pre ordered Last story the limited edition. And the entire story and game play look great for both games, plus both games got very positive reviews.

[Kytim89]

Pandora's Tower will always have a special place in my Wii game collection whether it is released in North America or not.

[ejamer]

I'll get Pandora's Tower if it comes to NA (which I find extremely unlikely), but unlike its 2 predecessors I will not be importing this one.  Xenoblade and The Last Story fill a quality JRPG void that the HD consoles have not managed to handle, but Pandora's Tower just comes off to me as an uglier version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (as much as I liked that game).  And I've seen the whole "climb an impossibly high tower" cliche in way too many JRPGs for me to find it the least bit interesting.  I hope it works out for those who are interested, but I just can't manage to care about this game.

I might agree that Pandora's Tower seems less appealing than the others if not for the fact that Wii has incredibly few games in the genre, and that incredibly few quality games being released on Wii at all these days. Pandora's Tower seems worth importing on both counts if you ask me.


As for NoA vs NoE discussion: both have faults, and just because NoE has done a nice job of bringing out some niche titles this generation doesn't change the fact they have (in the past) done a less than spectacular job in many cases. Smash Bros release date?  Excitebots?  How quickly we forget...  I will say that NoE has scored some big points with core fans recently, and that gamers should appreciate those efforts.

[KDR_11k]

Glad to have the chance to import this game. It's odd. The Last Story was the game that had me most excited initially, but now I'm wondering if it might be the least impressive of the three.


Glad NoE took the risk on bringing these games to an English speaking audience, and hope their efforts are rewarded.

My gut feeling pegs Pandora as the weakest (says 7/10) and on par with Kid Icarus Uprising (which it also says 7/10). I don't see "it's the only game like that on the Wii" as a valid excuse, I'm not limited to the Wii and I don't think anyone else interested in games like that is either.

[ejamer]

... I'm not limited to the Wii and I don't think anyone else interested in games like that is either.

*raises hand*

I'm interested in many different types of games. Even though it's fair to say that Pandora's Tower doesn't fall into my favorite genre, I'm still interested in trying the game to see what it has to offer.

Not everyone who is interested in games can afford (in time or money) to support multiple consoles.  Take a moment and appreciate how lucky you are to be able to own and enjoy multiple consoles.

[Mop it up]

This game never looked that good to me, and it wouldn't surprise me if the reason NOA passed is an issue of quality. Even though I typically enjoy a good action RPG, it isn't any real loss to me if this never comes here.

[Luigi Dude]

I'd imagine NOA has a problem more with the content in this game.  Since the game is about a guy killing monsters and feeding their hearts to his girlfriend to prevent her from becoming a monster, that doesn't exactly sound like an easy sell to a North American audience.  Actually that wasn't a good sell to the Japanese audience either because Pandora's Tower only sold around 30,000 copies over there which is much worse then Xenoblade and The Last Story which both managed around 150,000.

Of course the mediocre gameplay didn't help the word of mouth in Japan so yeah, that's where the quality doesn't help either.  I've watched a lot of gameplay on Youtube on this game and while it doesn't look bad, the action gameplay looks as generic as possible with nothing that really sets the game apart from any other action games out there.  The only thing that makes this game somewhat unique are the dating sim elements with your girlfriend that you have to do if you want the best ending which didn't look very interesting to me and I've heard people who've played the game say isn't very good either and makes the game pretty tedious if you want the best ending.

[Ian Sane]

NOA doesn't want to release it for the same reason they don't want to release any of these Project Rainfall games - they're not guaranteed mainstream hits.  Now perhaps you feel that they won't sell with the Wii audience but that's Nintendo's own fault for scaring the core audience away.  NOA does not feel that pleasing their customers (ie: every Wii owner starving for games in this barren release schedule) is worth the potential risk of not making a profit on one game.  The possibility of turning off potential Wii U customers with shabby treatment is never considered.