I’m Having a Bad Time (and Loving it)

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #192. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.

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Here’s the Thing is where Rob dumps his random thoughts and strong opinions on all manner of nerdy subjects – from videogames and movies to board games and toys.

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Whether back in 1999 or, like, a few days ago, and regardless of being a King’s Field veteran or newbie, most people’s initial reactions to playing Shadow Tower for the first time typically involve a lot of frustration. And possible resignation. That was certainly my experience when my 18-year-old King’s Field groupie self excitedly popped the disc into my PlayStation nearly three decades ago.

In hindsight, my adoration of Fromsoft’s earlier first-person action RPG series resulted in unrealistic (maybe even unreasonable?) expectations that weren’t so much dashed as they were shoved to the ground while being pointed at and openly mocked by a game that very clearly wanted me dead. Sounds miserable, right? Well, here’s the thing: While returning to Shadow Tower after roughly 25 years hasn’t been any less… unwelcoming… I’ve been having a blast all the same.

The thing about Shadow Tower – the thing I didn’t realize going in and hadn’t figured out before giving up in anger – is that it’s a very, very mean place. People often talk about how punishing the various Souls games can be, and they’re not wrong, but as far as I’m concerned, no amount of skulking through the blood-soaked alleyways of Yharnam or desperate scrambling through Lordran’s poisonous muck has made me feel this consistently on edge. Or feel as accomplished and elated.

Like the King’s Field series before it, you begin the game with nothing but a basic sword and an almost obnoxiously vague goal: Descend into the depths of the tower. Unlike the King’s Field games (except maybe The Ancient City), you can get yourself killed immediately if you aren’t careful. And I do mean immediately. You assume control in the middle of a very narrow walkway somewhere close to the top of the subterranean structure, where one misstep will send you careening to your death. We’re talking an “I was just testing out the controls and sidestepped off the edge” kind of misstep.

It only gets worse from there as you encounter poisonous slimes that could very well wear down all your health before you’re able to get any anti-venom, some very creepy and spindly spiders that love to jump towards you from a distance, and if you make it past the spiders? Twisted bat-like creatures that melt your HP from a distance with sonic blasts.

This is only in the first few rooms, by the way.

Shadow Tower isn’t completely unfair, however. Slain monsters give you small but permanent stat increases (i.e. +1 Strength or Spirit or Defense or whatever per kill), and they often drop random items or equipment that will be a big help. Not always, but often. And it will help, because you’re going to need everything you can carry to survive the oppressively dark corridors that are still waiting for you.

Until you find your first save point – which could take a while if you don’t know where to look or manage to accidentally pass it while exploring – death means you’re starting from the very beginning again. And you’ll die super fast if you’re not careful. Hell, you’ll probably die even if you are careful. The denizens of the tower don’t care about whether or not you’re having fun; they just want your head.

I’m not sure I can overstate just how unsettling many of these creatures are, either. Sure, this is an old original PlayStation game with limited hardware capabilities, but some of these designs have legitimately made me pause – like physically freeze up, in real life – when I saw them for the first time. Even the somewhat goofy stuff like the eerily humanoid carrot monsters with vaguely human faces are still kinda creepy, but that giant toothed caterpillar/centipede thing that can slow you down (thus making you easier to eat) just by making eerie noises? No thank you.

Every new room (not area, room) could potentially reveal some new uncanny horror; from a gory zombified knight with an oozing stretchy arm to very large eyeless serpents with rows of jagged teeth. Or maybe you return to a room you’ve already cleared out to find bony humanoid bugs with mouths that open wide enough to split their faces in half. Lengthwise. Or you open a treasure chest and suddenly hear a skeleton creeping up right behind you in a previously empty hallway. And this is all just the stuff I’ve encountered in the first two major areas; there are still six or seven more to go.

Outside of the extensive and often disturbing bestiary, the tower itself is also plenty terrifying. All the various corridors, rooms, burrows, chambers and whatever else are pretty much all filled with a darkness so thick it almost feels like it has physical weight. There are some items you can find and use to temporarily give yourself more light, but far more often than not you’ll find yourself wondering if there’s anything lurking in the shadows, just beyond the range of your light.

Did you just hear something scuttling around in the dark, or was it the tower messing with your head? The game does occasionally make random creepy sounds regardless of whether or not any enemies are close, so you might not actually be in any immediate danger. Then again, there might be a hulking monstrosity waiting for you right around the next corner – you won’t know for sure until you look for yourself.

And the best part (I’m not being sarcastic) is that there’s no music, really, in the entire game. At least not for 90% of it. All you’re going to hear as you slowly walk ever further into this hellish nightmare is the sound of your own footsteps echoing off the stone walls, maybe some softly howling wind when you reach one of the tower’s many death-defying narrow staircases between layers, some dripping perhaps and the murmur of whatever might be getting ready to pounce.

It’s this combination of elements – the brutal and unforgiving challenge, the constant threat of death as you venture into new areas, the sparse opportunities to save, the often limited visibility, the feeling of desperately scraping by as you start to run out of supplies or your gear starts to break down, the unnerving sounds and the even more unnerving monsters – that make Shadow Tower so damn nerve-wracking. Unless you’re retreading familiar ground after eliminated section’s boss, which makes things way brighter for that specific layer, there are very few opportunities to relax.

This is a game that wants you to have a bad time. It wants you to feel like a feeble insect that it could squash whenever it wants, but also know that the only reason you’re still alive is because it delights in making you jump at every little bump or shadowy movement. And I want more.

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Rob Rich is a guy who’s loved nerdy stuff since the 80s, from videogames to Anime to Godzilla to Power Rangers toys to Transformers, and has had the good fortune of being able to write about them all. He’s also editor for the Games section of Exploits! You can still find him on Bluesky and Mastodon.