Tower of Shades

Embrace failure on the road to your dreams. That's the main theme here. I don't know. I guess that works ok in video games; not so great in skydiving. So maybe it depends where you fall on that continuum. I mean, to start with, what are your dreams? Why are they your dreams? Are you sure they're yours, or are they someone else's, projected onto you? What if your dreams are misguided, the product of a less-than-noble motivation like vanity or greed? What happens when your dreams conflict with a higher duty, George Bailey-style? How do you know you're following your dreams and not merely being controlled by your impulses? See how easy it is to be a jerk about a simple, wholesome message like this? They say something nice, and then some @^$#%&* like me comes along and starts picking on everything. No wonder they felt the need to make this game. So maybe the other side of the coin is that you don't always need to overthink things. It goes without saying that you're going to learn new stuff along the way that makes you readjust your goals. Nobody's going to have it all figured out from the beginning, and most of the time you'll be better off doing something as opposed to n…

Just finished the game and I'm going to recommend it but I wavered a lot in my feelings about it - it basically went from 'this is a cool idea and a good message' to 'this is way too warm and fuzzy to be taken seriously'. The reason for that being that either I don't get being meta-ironically-actually-not-ironically cheesy (the devs calling themselves "Lame Jam" and all and i googled for an event called lame jam,nothing came up) or the story (not the message,see next paragraph) has no depth and contradicts itself by basically saying 'if you try hard enough,a miracle will be cast by god (the in-game dev in this case) so that all your dreams will come true'.Also,the main characters dream being $cash money$ is understandable given the poor farmer background,but it's probably just because of my tastes taht the message is also not told well by the story. As for the message itself - I have attempted suicide and have suffered from depression and a bunch of other TMI ♥♥♥♥ for 10 years and what I learned is what the game is saying,only in a much less fluffier way.My way of saying the message of the game is this:If you off yourself,your chances of enjoying life become exactly zero.Yes ther…

A bit cringe and heavy handed with is message but otherwise a good short game. Its is barely a turn based rpg however, if you go into it expecting one you are going to be very disappointed, this is closer to a puzzle game/visual novel. The battles are basically a puzzle, the story is delivered by cut scenes and text. There's not much else, no exploration, no looting, no leveling up, no dungeons. Like I said a puzzle game/visual novel.

The art style, music, and overall feel of the game are superb in my opinion. But the UX falls kind of flat. For one thing, there is no options tab/setting that I could find anywhere which meant the controls were permanently bound to what they were (which was a little annoying but I could get used to). This also meant the sound and audio levels were fixed too and for me, they were a little loud. I had to turn my entire system volume down to affect it (or the application in Windows sounds - which I don't think I should be needing to do). The gameplay while fun for a little while is rather minimal and un-interactive as it is now. I would say this application reaches it's current price point and can be good for an under an hour completion with low brain power needed. It felt more like watching a movie or story or even somewhat interactive visual novel. If that sounds like your cup of tea, by all means check it out. ---SPOILERS AHEAD--- Now, on to some more spoiler-y talk. The first time I brought the boss down to 1 HP, the effect it did caught me completely off guard and was quite neat in my opinion. However when the save reset to 0% I got really excited that I would be able t…

If you need a reminder for the strength of your inner spirit - play Dark Souls. It too is repetitive. But at least that game is not an interactive cutscene. This works as a jam game, but word to the wise who tires to make an artsy meaningful game - let the mechanic speak for the experience you are trying to take your players through. Let the content speak for itself. Don't just write it I guess...

Fair enough