Sean Valjean
Lets Bitch About This Thing We Love
First and foremost, Happy Easter! If youve been playing video games enough, youre probably familiar with the concept of a tower. Theyre usually located towards the end of a game and are giant dungeons, consisting of many floors filled with the toughest of enemies, puzzles, death traps and other dastardly things. They are an arduous test all of the skill youve accumulated up to that point by throwing as many things at you as possible. Heres just a few of the ones that stand out for me personally:
This game is challenging enough with its brain teasing puzzles but the biggest of these conudrums make their home here. This tower is relatively short in terms of floors and require the solution of only a single puzzle to climb to the next. However, these brainteasers are the toughest of its kind, so difficult that they would make The Riddler green(er) with envy. In what should have taken a few minutes to explore could potentially take a few hours. One puzzle in particular extended my stay here for a two weeks. For stumped players like myself who were too proud (or stubborn) to look up the solution online, we were in for the long haul but were treated to a pretty sweet reveal once we reached the top.
The Final Fantasy series has several towers that couldve made this list but when I think of crazy towers, this one is the first to come to my mind. The Mt. Everest of FF dungeons, its by far the largest tower of all others in the series literally taking several hours to explore. Consisting of several boss fights, floors containing different puzzles and stipulations such as banning the use of Magic or Items and plenty of tough enemies. On the aforementioned ban floor, I foolishly choose to relinquish the ability to use magic. I relied predominantly on physical attacks at the time and figured my party was tough enough to take on whatever came. However, I forgot that healing and other cure spells were a part of that category. Essentially handicapped, I was forced to press on using inferior healing items to get by. Though part of the difficulty stemmed from my own idoicy, this place is no joke. The only thing that eases the pain is that youre given a few Espers along the way for your troubles.
Located in the cemetery city of Lavander Town (Who designs a cemetery city anyway? Whod want to live in such a morbid place?), this tower isnt particularly large or challenging. In fact, its quite easy actually. There are a few reasons this stands out for me: One, as a kid, it creeped the hell out of me. All the talk about dead pokemon spirits was a big contrast to the more family friendly TV show. When you first try to explore it, you encounter supposed evil spirits unlike any other pokemon. Being the Poke-whiz that I was at the time, it blew my mind that I was facing an enemy I was unfamiliar with. The other thing is that it was filled with ghost Pokemon, which were my favorite type at the time. There are many notable locations in Pokemon, but this has always been one of the most memorable. Also, I always thought the tombstones looked like a Pop-Tart coming out of a toaster. Unforgettable indeed.
The epicenter of an Oblivion Gate, these towers were spread far and wide across the world of Cyrodiil. First off, it was a challenge to even get inside these things. Some of the towers were located on rocky terrain that required some exploration to find the right path inside. Not to mention that the entire area was teeming with demonic creatures to weaken you before you ever step foot inside the tower. The later towers couldnt even be reached without going through a series of smaller towers surrounding it. Once you final did get inside, you had to climb several floor dodging traps and fighting more enemies in order to obtain the Sigil Stone and close that gate forever; only to discover another one mere yards away.
Going a bit outside of the box with this one. If youve ever played games like Final Fight, TMNT or the X-Men arcade game, you know what Im talking about. While not a tower in the traditional sense, I included it because it has features of one: multiple levels that put your skills to the test. At some point, usually towards the end of these games, youre forced to take an elevator ride to reach a summit roughly 3 miles north of the moon. But instead of relaxing to boring elevator music, youre treated to an ever-increasing downpour of enemies and sometimes even sub-bosses. Wave after wave, they grow in number and difficulty. These were vertical gauntlets designed to eat your quarters and your patience as you wondered how they could possibly expect you to battle so many adversaries in such a tight space. Reaching the final boss at the top was more of a relief than intimidating.
Any towers that stand out for you?
The Tower of St. Mystere - Professor Layton and the Curious Village
This game is challenging enough with its brain teasing puzzles but the biggest of these conudrums make their home here. This tower is relatively short in terms of floors and require the solution of only a single puzzle to climb to the next. However, these brainteasers are the toughest of its kind, so difficult that they would make The Riddler green(er) with envy. In what should have taken a few minutes to explore could potentially take a few hours. One puzzle in particular extended my stay here for a two weeks. For stumped players like myself who were too proud (or stubborn) to look up the solution online, we were in for the long haul but were treated to a pretty sweet reveal once we reached the top.
The Pharos - Final Fantasy XII
The Final Fantasy series has several towers that couldve made this list but when I think of crazy towers, this one is the first to come to my mind. The Mt. Everest of FF dungeons, its by far the largest tower of all others in the series literally taking several hours to explore. Consisting of several boss fights, floors containing different puzzles and stipulations such as banning the use of Magic or Items and plenty of tough enemies. On the aforementioned ban floor, I foolishly choose to relinquish the ability to use magic. I relied predominantly on physical attacks at the time and figured my party was tough enough to take on whatever came. However, I forgot that healing and other cure spells were a part of that category. Essentially handicapped, I was forced to press on using inferior healing items to get by. Though part of the difficulty stemmed from my own idoicy, this place is no joke. The only thing that eases the pain is that youre given a few Espers along the way for your troubles.
Pokemon Tower - Pokemon Red/Blue
Located in the cemetery city of Lavander Town (Who designs a cemetery city anyway? Whod want to live in such a morbid place?), this tower isnt particularly large or challenging. In fact, its quite easy actually. There are a few reasons this stands out for me: One, as a kid, it creeped the hell out of me. All the talk about dead pokemon spirits was a big contrast to the more family friendly TV show. When you first try to explore it, you encounter supposed evil spirits unlike any other pokemon. Being the Poke-whiz that I was at the time, it blew my mind that I was facing an enemy I was unfamiliar with. The other thing is that it was filled with ghost Pokemon, which were my favorite type at the time. There are many notable locations in Pokemon, but this has always been one of the most memorable. Also, I always thought the tombstones looked like a Pop-Tart coming out of a toaster. Unforgettable indeed.
Oblivion Towers - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The epicenter of an Oblivion Gate, these towers were spread far and wide across the world of Cyrodiil. First off, it was a challenge to even get inside these things. Some of the towers were located on rocky terrain that required some exploration to find the right path inside. Not to mention that the entire area was teeming with demonic creatures to weaken you before you ever step foot inside the tower. The later towers couldnt even be reached without going through a series of smaller towers surrounding it. Once you final did get inside, you had to climb several floor dodging traps and fighting more enemies in order to obtain the Sigil Stone and close that gate forever; only to discover another one mere yards away.
Elevator Rides - Almost Every Beat Em Up Ever
Going a bit outside of the box with this one. If youve ever played games like Final Fight, TMNT or the X-Men arcade game, you know what Im talking about. While not a tower in the traditional sense, I included it because it has features of one: multiple levels that put your skills to the test. At some point, usually towards the end of these games, youre forced to take an elevator ride to reach a summit roughly 3 miles north of the moon. But instead of relaxing to boring elevator music, youre treated to an ever-increasing downpour of enemies and sometimes even sub-bosses. Wave after wave, they grow in number and difficulty. These were vertical gauntlets designed to eat your quarters and your patience as you wondered how they could possibly expect you to battle so many adversaries in such a tight space. Reaching the final boss at the top was more of a relief than intimidating.
Any towers that stand out for you?
) is the focal point of Granseal. Underneath it turns out it was used as a Ground Seal to keep devils at bay, the devils escape and shenanigans ensue leading to one of the best games ever made as well as a few epic battles in said tower.
