"The Tower of Druaga" - NES/Famicom

AKA - ドルアーガのとう - "Druaga no Tou"

The Tower of Druaga! When I first got my converter to let me play Famicom carts on my NES, this was actually the first cartridge I bought. Unfortunately it's also one of the games that everyone hates.

Druaga was apparently conceived as a "fantasy Pac-Man," by designer Masanobu Endo, who also designed Xevious, which should immediately put the fear into you if you've played that game. Originally, in the prototype called "Quest," there were more RPG elements and the game was more heavily inspired by games like Wizardry. Eventually that was scrapped and the game became more of an action game like it is now.

Druaga saw some serious success in the arcade scene in 1984 in Japan, where it's revered as one of the shining ancestors of the RPG genre, and they loved its puzzle gameplay that basically required being 'in the know' and sharing hints with your friends. In America however, everyone hated it, because the game's practically impossible to finish without a guide, and none of us have any friends.

Endo apparently said in a 2003 interview that he regretted making the game as difficult as it is, because it might have made people "paranoid" about secrets in games... I don't know what that means but I'm suspicious of it.

Anyway, let's check it out:

That typography really makes the tower part seem unimportant.

----- Playthrough -----

I know a little bit about Tower of Druaga already, namely that the main gameplay loop involves meeting some secret requirements on every floor to acquire an item that makes you able to progress later on-- but what you have to do in each level is a complete secret with no hint from the game. Perhaps you're now figuring out why people didn't like this.

If you simply rush through the levels collecting keys and going to the exits, it won't be long before you find yourself backed into a corner you can no longer get out of.

Or just, like, wandering around-- you know what I mean.

On the face of it, Druaga's loop is simply avoiding or killing monsters, finding the key, heading to the door, and being let into the next level. But in every level, there's a trick that's more than that.

I played for a few minutes and accidentally uncovered a secret chest without any guidance, which is probably how most people found a lot of these things-- in level 2, killing all the black slimes uncovers a chest which contains boots that make you almost twice as fast. Essential, considering every level has a rapidly decreasing time limit for you to get to the exit.

Just imagine speed lines coming off his back like the Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros. cover.

It didn't take me long to die to enemies just because I'm trash, not because I got stuck but at any rate I decided to open up a guide and see what I was missing out on by just playing the game blindly.

Items you can get while playing the game and doing the random hidden things you have to do (such as defeat X enemy, or step on X,Y location on the map, or block X shots with your shield) range from essential to harmful. A good example of essential items would be sword upgrades which eventually allow you to get the best sword in the game, or the aforementioned speed boots with double your speed.

An example of a useful but not necessarily essential item (insofar as the few levels I checked out) would be something like the pickaxe, which allows you to dig directly through the walls on the map to save yourself some time if you're running out.

I can't show that on a picture so here's some blue knight enemies instead. Faaaancy.

I played through the first 7 or 8 levels a few times but I had trouble getting several of the items and to be honest the main point of the game is clearly trying to puzzle out how to get them on your own-- playing the game by itself while looking up what to do really isn't very compelling.

And I'm also not really looking to live a second life inside The Tower of Druaga trying to figure this stuff out. Maybe I'll play it again a little longer some day.

----- Impressions -----

I'm changing this to say 'impressions' because I feel like calling it a review when I only played a few levels is kind of unintentionally disingenuous.

How long did I play?
20 minutes.

How much did I beat?
8/60 levels.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

This game is kind of like the grand-daddy of unintuitive design.

To be clear, it's obvious enough that you move with the d-pad and hold a button down to lower your sword, and it's reasonably obvious that holding your sword out while walking into an enemy will kill them. What's not obvious is all of the secret items in the game and that some of them are essential to progress, but that whole secret aspect of the game was what made it a hit in Japan.

So depending on how you feel, it might be bad or good. I personally like the idea, but I don't have a group of friends willing to tackle Tower of Druaga with me and I imagine it would take years to figure out some of the tricks by yourself.

Gameplay / Difficulty: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

Playing the game itself really isn't that rewarding or fun, you're basically just walking around a maze holding your sword out infront of you and looking for a key and a door. I imagine the real pleasure would come from solving the puzzles, which again, is unreasonable to expect anyone to do in 2019 alone.

Some enemies seem to be particularly difficult to beat-- the wizards for instance pop up and give you little time to respond, so dying to their thunderbolts (or whatever) seemed to be a frequent thing for me.

I know you're around the corner, just-- just stop shooting at me okay, I don't have a ranged weapon, this isn't fair, bro.

Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

With 60 levels and secrets hidden so deep that they ruined the game's selling potential in the US, I imagine that you could probably have quite a lot of entertainment with this game were you to take on its challenge directly.

With a guide I'm sure you could probably beat all 60 levels in an afternoon (though some levels still seem pretty tough), but I'm sure there'd be no joy in doing so.

Sound / Graphics: 

How's the sound? How are the graphics?

The graphics in the game are pretty much fine, if not particularly exciting. The sprites are all serviceable and the brick background is fine but a bit dull and repetitive.

As for the sound-- well, I hope you really like this one music loop. Because that's the only music I ever heard aside from the opening. If you scroll down the list though you can hear some of the later level themes, but none of them are really that spectacular. They're pretty good mood building the game though if the game was a little more exciting to go along with it.

Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I actually really like the idea of a game that has secrets that are difficult to find out and require the team effort of a large group of people, but in the age of the internet, nothing can ever stay secret for that long. Considering that you'll never be able to play this game with that kind of group of people again, you're basically out of luck on experiencing it how it's intended.

What's basically left is a kinda boring slog of a little action RPG... with no actual RPG elements.

So in short, not really.

Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

For all the reasons stated above I'm going to say probably not. However if you ever find yourself in Japan in 1984 and have some time to kill at the arcades, I bet talking to anyone who is hanging out around one of these machines and trading secrets might actually be pretty fun.

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