Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory

"A rushed feel makes this a sub-standard game."

I went into Blockbuster today, and this was pretty much the only game of their limited selection that I was interested in. So $7.55 later I pop in the UMD and see the rather cool background and demo movie that appear on your Home menu. I start the game and watch a paragraph appear on the screen a few words at a time, that talks about death/destruction and the like. After that's done I start a "scenario" game(main story mode). Instantly I am thrown into a tutorial that goes so fast you don't even have a chance to read what's on the screen in some parts. Then you start in the Tower of Purgatory. For the first few rooms, the game will hold your hand and tell you what to do and where to go. After that, you're on your own. Let's break it down now.

Graphics: 6/10
Nothing special here. The graphics look like a first-gen PS2 game, and have their fair share of glitches. Sometimes balck dots will appear on the screen if you are running, and in crowded rooms the walls tend to turn invisible. Your character (an andriod named ADAM) looks good enough, and as you change his weapons(more on that later) his model will change accordingly. Graphics just "get the job done" but nothing more. Next to the various enemies, each level looks essentially the same. The rushed feel begins here.

Sound/Music: 8/10
This is the highpoint of the game. SFX sound realistic and fitting to each weapon. A couple guns sound generic, but other than that it is great. Music is decent also. It is that ambient music that doesn't annoy you, but you don't really like it either. The couple tunes are easily forgettable and you probably won't even notice them during the game.

Story: 3/10
Here's the sotry in a nutshell: You control an andriod with human-esque emotions named A.D.A.M, who is on a search for answers about his past and his purpose for existence. Yawn. That's only been the story of countless video games and dozens of si-fi movies. The robot with feelings that is on a quest for answers. Apparently if you reach to top of the tower all the answers will be revealed or something, the game isn't very clear about it. Again, it feels like a rushed afterthought.

Gameplay: 3/10
The biggie, and also where the game takes a turn for the worst. Your mission is to guide your robot friend ADAM to the top of the tower. To do that you have to go through each room of each floor and defeat all the enemies in said rooms. Some enemies will drop weapons, and all will drop "elixir skin" which is like money in the game. After all rooms have been cleared, you can use a teleporter to fight the floor boss, which will put up a good fight. Repeat. Then repeat again. And again for the rest of the game. Too lazy to make new levels each time? No Problem! Just scramble around the previous level! The game says each floor is randomly created every time you play. Not true. You get a random arrangement the first time you boot up[ the game. After that, they stay the same forever.

On each floor there is a "terminal". This is the only place you can modify ADAM's body. You can equip the weapons you have collected, upgrade his body by buying mods(more item slots, more armor, more heat resistance). Adam's body consists of the head, two arms, a torso, and two legs. Sound familiar? You can equip weapons to his head or arms. The torso can be equipped with better armor. The legs can be upgraded for faster movement. As you use each part of the body, it heats up, as is visibly by an icon in the corner of the screen. If you use it too much in a short time, it will over heat and become useless for a few(1 or 2) seconds. With an upgrade or two it will never overheat unless you are a deticated button masher.

Now lets talk about the controls. They can be summed up as such: Terrible. You would think that in a 3D world you would use the analog nub, but alas, all it does it flick the camera around(as soon as you let go of the stick the camera returns to its old position) in a very useless manner. So you have to use the 8-way Dpad to move ADAM around. New controls are added to the Dpad when you press L to "lock on" to a nearby enemy. Double tapping left or right can make you do a barrel roll to avoid some attacks. Often times this gets in the way and makes the controls ackward and tough to get used to.

Now let me say this game is HARD. You WILL die, and often. Don't come into this game thinking you will breeze through it. If you fighting multiple enemies, they will always double/triple team up on you, depleting your health rapidly. Enemies have much higher health levels and much better weapons than you, making one a challenge. Enter more baddies, and you're toast. Your health will slowly recharge if you lay low for a while, but this is pretty useless since you cannot leave the room until all the enemies have been defeated. Wait, it gets even better. Every time you die, you lose ALL of your weapons and ALL of your items, and reset to the bottom floor. You can teleport back to the one you were on, but not before waiting for each floor to load as you go up. Talk about fun. The way around this is to backtrack to each floor's terminal frequently to save. When you die you reset the game. Once you are in the story mode, the ONLY way to exit the game is to press the "home" button on your PSP. You cannot even get back to the main menu from in the game.

Bottom Line: 4/10
I can't recommend this game to anybody. Its extremely repetive gameplay(made up for by a half-ass "randomizing" feature) and excessive difficulty(not adjustable) make for a game that feels like it was just rushed out the door to be the first shooter/RPG on the market for the PSP. If you are hell-bent on playing this game, give it a rent. Otherwise save your money and play much better games like Twisted Metal, Ridge Racers, or Lumines. This is the worst PSP game I have played to date.

Buy/Rent/Don't Bother: Don't Bother, Rent if you must.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/05