Don’t trade in that Wii just yet: XSeed announced today that the last of the “Operation Rainfall trilogy,” Pandora’s Tower, will finally be released on North American shores this Spring.
Originally released in Japan two years ago, Pandora’s Tower, along with Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, were part of the “Operation Rainfall” fan campaign, where long suffering Wii owners petitioned Nintendo and other publishers to release these games in America. While Xenoblade and The Last Story finally received North American releases in 2012, Pandora’s Tower languished in limbo — developed by Ganbarion Studio (the developers behind most of the One Piece games,) and published by Nintendo in Japan, the God of War-esque Pandora’s Tower was considered by most publishers to be a harder sell than either of it’s RPG counterparts (both of whom came from more established, respected developers,) and most people assumed that Pandora’s Tower would never make it stateside.
Thankfully, XSeed has once again decided to give us all a reason to dust off our Wii’s. XSeed released The Last Story on Wii this past summer, and the game was reportedly XSeed’s most profitable release ever, so now the company is hoping to repeat that success with Pandora’s Tower. While I wish XSeed all the best, Pandora’s Tower certainly has the odds stacked against it: the Wii still holds substantial stigma from hardcore gamers, and Pandora’s Tower is a hardcore focused action game with no casual appeal. Most peoples’ attention is focused on the Wii U and the upcoming next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony, so it’ll be tough to get people to take notice of an original Wii release this late in the system’s lifespan. Still, I’m always in the market for a good game, and by all reports Pandora’s Tower is a very interesting take on the GoW/DMC formula, so I’m certainly looking forward to it. Here’s hoping XSeed’s gamble pays off.
