Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory

"Awesome Game That is Marred By Some Horrible Design Choices"

Awesome Game That is Marred By Some Horrible Design Choices

Rengouku has the player control a robot fighting up a tower, called the tower of purgatory, floor by floor. You fight other robots, and, upon killing them, you attach the weapons of the enemies you have killed to your body, for you to use at your will. The story is told in sporatic spurts, but I didn't really pay any attention to it, as I focused primarily on the robot killing gameplay. It turns out, this game is definitely a case of what could have been.....

Graphics: 5/10. Bland and repetitive environments, polygon tears, and just ugly rooms. However, your character is very detailed and the weapons look really nice. There is a nice sheen to metallic surfaces.

Sound: 7/10. Weapon effects sound good, music is a techno/electronic mix. Serviceable but not my thing.

Gameplay: 5/10 The action is marred by crappy controls (the big problem is no analogue control). Why that is is beyond me, The PSP's d-pad sucks. And, in general, third person action games with a d-pad aren't very good. This one is no exception.

The absolute biggest problem for me is that you have to backtrack to the beginning of the floor to do anything. That sucks, ESPECIALLY on a portable. You want to save? Backtrack. You just pick up a cool weapon? Want to equip it? Backtrack. You want to level up some stats? Backtrack. Ugh. I bet they did this to make the game seem longer, which is the other problem I have with it:

This game is disgustingly short. It can be beaten on one battery charge. As far as challenge goes, It can be challenging; sometimes you will find yourself underpowered, so you will have to grind a bit to match up. Which of course involves more backtracking.

The game has it set up so that weapons have a heating effect, sort of like the plasma weapons in Halo. But you can pick up cooling packs throughout the level. Your health replenishes itself, as well as there being health puck ups, but some enemies can drain it really quickly.

However, it's not all bad. The android customization is awesome, and having a gun on your head and 2 melee weapons (1 on each arm is sweet. Actually fighting, once you get past the d-pad problem, is quite good. You can dodge/roll to evade attacks, you have both ranged and melee attacks. It is really cool in theory, but unfortunately the problems prevent it form being all that enjoyable.

It's an 8/10 game that suffers from some poor design choices and a really unflattering presentation. So I have no choice but to rate this a 6/10.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/05, Updated 11/09/09

Game Release: Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory (US, 04/26/05)