Does Shadow Tower PS1 have multiple endings?

[EdmondDantes]

So... Shadow Tower's ending doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Is there another one? ‎  Cuz I mean, you're here to save some town, but now the game says I'm after a magic crown or something? ‎  And the town isn't even mentioned? ‎  Huh?

Related.... I notice the game actually tells you how many monsters are in the tower and keeps count of how cleared each area is. ‎  Has anyone ever 100% cleared every area in the tower? ‎  I tried this, and almost succeeded, but there's one last monster in the Screeching Area that simply refuses to spawn and I'm not sure if something triggers it, or if the game is bugged.

Do you get anything for 100% clearing the tower?

[Holy_Diver]

The ending is the cherubic hero succumbs to the corrupting power of the evil crown. If there's another ending it's among the most well kept secrets of gaming, but it would not be so surprising because these games are so little played. I never could enter a hallway that has a window peering into it, in the area with the magic books, and maybe with the goat man NPC.

I thought maybe that section was crucial to an alternative ending, since the window is tantalizing. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a video on the WWW that really addresses that section. I have seen a video that says there is an event glitch if you enter a section from the wrong direction (which seems more commonly taken) and if so you cannot see one monster, who is like an NPC. They may be a goat too, but smaller if so, like a little man. My goat man is tall and wears a cape.

[EdmondDantes]

I think I know the area you mean. ‎  On my recent playthru I entered the area thru the normal door (which you have to kinda take a fall of faith to access from the Tower since its on a fenced-in platform), then found a telepor slab, took it, came back... and suddenly there was this dude there who called me annoying and "sealed" my magic. ‎  Which honestly its kind of amazing monsters in this game think sealing magic is all that harmful to you seeing as how you barely use it.

But yeah, I have a previous game where I've killed all the monsters in each area (which means I must've found all the secret rooms)... except for the Screeching Room Area, tho again I've found all the secrets there (Screeching Room has a door you need to buy a key from that snake lady to open. ‎  Which yes, I bought the key).

My only guess about my situation involves a strange conversation. ‎  In this room you can meet Auriel, who first tells you something about the tower. ‎  If you talk to her again, she says "are you prepared to battle me?" then disappears. ‎  You never actually battle her (unless you attack her before talking to her). ‎  I actually tried killing her and no, she does not count towards monster kill percentage.

I'm guessing you have to talk to her again after beating the game and making an end-of-game save (which, loading this save puts you back at the top of the Tower, but with your kill percentage, stats and belongings intact. ‎  It seems like clearing the tower is the sole reason this feature exists), but if you talked to her and made her disappear the first time around, you've lost your chance. ‎  Unless she appears somewhere else (in the main game you do meet her again elsewhere and she gives you a soul pod... kinda wondering what happens if you kill her).

So many unsolved mysteries in this game. ‎  I posted on another forum that this is actually a boon to the game in some ways, since it makes it creepier--something like Silent Hill has been analyzed so much that you know, for example, how the sound of a second set of footsteps that stops soon after you do is done... but in Shadow Tower, you don't know how a lot of it works. ‎  I found a lot of creepy things that I could never get to happen a second time.

[Holy_Diver]

https://hg101.proboards.com/thread/14583...ame?page=1 isn't loading for me. The title comes up, but it freezes.

That sounds like the glitch monster. I'm not sure what the repercusions are, but the video I watched is probably still on YouTube.

I haven't played ST in, god, probably 20yrs. I don't know if I noticed the game restart system or not. Abyss had one, which didn't really work in practice. I mean, there's not much point in playing again with the dynamic of eking out an existence removed. I felt like I'd missed things in Abyss too... it seems rushed/incomplete... that I could never really verify. I would be amazed if there is more to these titles undiscovered, but I think probably they only offer the illusion of indomitability.

Sword of Moonlight actually bears more resemblance to ST than any other title. It's a little ironic, but it makes sense given its date of publication.

EDITED: I did later purchase the game on Japan PSN. I played some, but didn't get back into the groove of it. I read that there is a weapon switching system that I don't believe is in the manual.

[EdmondDantes]

hg101 is kind of a glitchy forums. ‎  Sometimes I have to hit reload then press Stop whenever I actually see text.

[Holy_Diver]

The link worked today, after reloading the page once. I read (https://jispylicious.wordpress.com/2019/...any-vlogs/) from your blog link. I've stopped playing video games for at least a decade. I've been busy of course, but mainly I just could no longer find any pleasure in them, for the same reason. I kept waiting for them to mature, but they never did. I will bookmark your vlog links.

I'm trying to do something super mature with King's Field if I can resurrect the franchise. Like commercial suicide on paper. I found a partner (after years) earlier this year, who seems very promising. We are clones pretty much and they have all of the skills I lack. But I'm also pretty frustrated there because we haven't once discussed King's Field itself. They found me through Dark Souls, that lead them to SOM. And chance meetings. Right now they're swamped in freelance work. So all I can do is wait I guess. I also had a lot of luck with VR around the same time. I usually don't have any luck with people and relationships.

[EdmondDantes]

Man, a new reader of my blog! ‎  ... God now I find myself hoping my most recent post (which hopefully is a one-time topic) doesn't scare you off. ‎  I hate talking about social/semi-political things and would prefer to only talk about fun things.

.....

Also, for future convenience (and I'm sorry I didn't think to do this sooner) I'm just reposting the contents of that "Shadow Tower: PS1's Unsung Horror Game" here on this more stable forum.

THE POST:

So after Eternal Ring, I decided to play Shadow Tower. I probably shouldn't have because I'm having "too similar games back to back" burnout (just like with Fatal Frame) and now need to go a few rounds with Fatal Fury as a palate cleanser.

However, among Shadow Tower's qualities... it has to be one of the best games out there for screwing with the player, in ways Silent Hill didn't even do until the Ps2 era (and even then I think Shadow Tower goes further).

Just for example: At random points you will hear a woman chuckling, or a child crying, with no visible cause. These sometimes are triggered by pausing and unpausing the game, but they can also happen at pure random. Which sound you get seems to depend on the area.

The very first location you visit is a morgue-like place. Click on the bodies... in one playthru, one of the bodies played a voice clip (I couldn't make out what it said but it sounded like it was begging me not to disturb its rest). Another time, a different body wiggled as if it was struggling against its bonds, then was still and I could never get it to wiggle again. What makes this freaky is this stuff rarely happens--its not like the sanity effects in the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness where you can trigger them at will. With Shadow Tower I legit have no idea what causes anything to happen.

It's funny, actually, because Shadow Tower seems like it shouldn't work at all--there are NPCs you can talk to (a lot of them being demons who are kinda likable), and you can actually look up stats of how many monsters have been killed in the current location (open the menu and hit triangle). That there even IS a finite amount of enemies should get rid of all the scares... but actually even that is odd, because the enemies don't always spawn on a clear trigger. Actually, when I first beat the game (about a decade ago) one thing I wanted to do was 100% clear all the areas of the tower, and I almost did it... except in one area where the last enemy just would. Not. Spawn. In another room on my current playthru, I swear an enemy spawned out-of-bounds (I was able to hit it with a Cleaning Ray spell, but them spawning out of bounds sucks because each enemy has a chance of dropping treasure and so I've perma-lost whatever this enemy had... unless its just in a secret room I don't know how to access. I think dropped items stay until you pick them up).

The thing I think will be the biggest sticking point with people is the breakable equipment system. It certainly hurts magic--really, the reason you'll stop casting spells isn't because you're out of MP, but rather because the ring that enables spells (early shades of Eternal Ring here) is about to break. At the same time tho, there are repair depots all over. Oh, the cost for repairs comes out of hit points, which sounds steep at first, but I actually had lots of health potions (all health potions totally restore your HP) and a ring that makes me gradually heal before I even got to this depot. Actually, health potions are so abundant you can pass them out at a college party and still have enough for next time.

And yet... even with all these advantages the game gives you, stuff keeps happening, and details keep popping up (not the least of which is the "WTF" writing on the walls) which make me wonder what the HELL is going on in this tower. It's something rare in video games--to have a location whose mysteries are never totally explained. I mean, even Silent Hill, you know what caused it to be a messed up little town. There is NO explanation for the Tower. Unless one was provided by the PS2 sequel (which I never got a chance to play).

[Holy_Diver]

Man, a new reader of my blog! ‎  ... God now I find myself hoping my most recent post (which hopefully is a one-time topic) doesn't scare you off. ‎  I hate talking about social/semi-political things and would prefer to only talk about fun things.

To be honest the retreat into "fun" things is something I find tedious and pathological personally, more than anything. I will try to watch some of your videos that I've left opened into tabs. I take it you refer to this (https://jispylicious.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/695/) vlog. I don't know if it was up yesterday. Most people are very fallible. I don't know what "anti-SJW" people expect or what they are against. SJW people aren't good people (they couldn't possibly be) but their interest is aligned with the poor at least in principle. If you are against that you are a monster. No they are not good people. How could they be? Most people aren't and never will be and can never be, and siding with the poor (the vast majority of people) doesn't bestow magical properties on people that defy human nature or suddenly make people any less obnoxious.

[EdmondDantes]

Without going too far into it... you can't take social justice warriors at their word. ‎  Their words say one thing, their actions paint a completely different picture. ‎  There's plenty of videos pointing out times they've focused attacks on the poor people and minorities they claim to defend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ctRfI7cuM ‎  Keep in mind this video is by someone who identifies as a social justice warrior openly.

[Holy_Diver]

Without going too far into it... you can't take social justice warriors at their word. ‎  Their words say one thing, their actions paint a completely different picture. ‎  There's plenty of videos pointing out times they've focused attacks on the poor people and minorities they claim to defend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ctRfI7cuM ‎  Keep in mind this video is by someone who identifies as a social justice warrior openly.

I encourage you to not develop private vendettas with affinity groups. Instead of "you can't take [social justice warriors] at their word" you can also say [people] or [men] or [women] or [youth] or [literally anyone] instead. Besides it's a mistake to take anybody at their word, including people close to you, and certainly online strangers

P.S. If you mean don't trust "SJW" then yes, of course. But I encourage you to expand your net to all people, not just SJW. We don't know if we can trust our own thoughts to tell us the truth.