A Dark Journey Through Shadow Tower | Series Retrospective

Majuular, disturbed by the self-reflection necessary to complete Ultima 4, flees to the comfortable, morally ambiguous embrace of FromSoft.

Tracing the growth of a series or studio through these lengthy retrospectives is much more enthralling than an individual game review.

i loved it when Ruus Hardy went "it's like a Shadow is Towering over me..." One of the most emotional scenes in Fromsoft's lineup

1:15:30 I feel like it's worth pointing out that Yui Tanimura didn't just codirect Elden Ring, but also effectively salvaged Dark Souls 2 as a replacement director once Shibuya flaked. With less than a year to go as well as having to develop for consoles that were now rapidly becoming pastgen, it's kind of terrifying that the game came out as solid as it did even with all the flaws. Not to mention, the DLCs with him fully in control and with none of the deadline crunch ended up head and shoulders above the base game. The man deserves so much more credit than he gets.

I love this kind of content. It is like anti-clickbait where you click on the thumbnail because you know what you are getting: A long, fascinating deep-dive into a certain topic with wonderful commentary!

Some say if you go and binge every video on this channel 3 times and say majuular into a broken mirror. A new video will appear.

Majuular has joined Civvie 11, Accursed Farms and GrimBeard on my "must watch immediately" list--though they mostly cover games outside the genres that I like and play.

I love that Miyazaki is completely unaware of the poison swamp memes and From just genuinely include them in every game instinctively through pure passion for them.

I'm pretty sure Miyazaki commented previously on how much he likes poison swamps, which tells me he repeatedly forgets how much he likes poison swamps before he makes the next one, which... explains a lot.

The phrase "you're lucky Moleman isn't here, he'd never let you talk to me this way" pops into my head every day. Thank you for this gift.

2 hours?! You're spoiling us!

Alright, you get a pass on that “who’s that Pokémon?” Ad break. You earned it

Thank you for this. Shadow Tower Abyss is my favorite "old Fromsoft" game. I adore it

Yessss, now everyone can learn about Fromsoft's best NPC. Fat Mole. One thing I find interesting about these games that isn’t mentioned in the video is the completion ratings for each level. The completion % is tracked for each zone, which is a bit weird considering the loot is semi-random. Some enemies have guaranteed drops but most have a loot pool, including bosses. A boss may drop one of three or so good weapons, or nothing at all. But apart from tracking secrets and items you’ve collected, it tracks how many enemies you’ve killed, because while enemies respawn there’s actually only a set amount of them, so it’s possible to kill every single enemy in the game and have a completely empty tower to explore! Some rare/unique enemies, or some that have a rare drop, will only spawn after you’ve killed X amount of enemies in the zone, or in a certain room. So it’s a nice incentive to kill as many enemies as you can because you never know what you’ll get. As well as enemies in the first game increasing your stats when you defeat them.

Mole Man ran so Undead Merchant could walk.

I really enjoy learning about how a given studio's DNA winds it way through their catalog of games. Details large and small, like the curse jar giggle sound effect. Design thinking like "poison swamps create tension and reframe the exploration experience". All this stuff that you can only see clearly if you explore many games going back into the catalog. I love ER and DS. Your work exploring and documenting their predecessors grounds my experience of those games and connects them to a very tangible lineage that I wouldn't be privvy to otherwise. Good stuff.

Please, never change your opening.

It’s such a bummer Abyss never made it to America. Swords, sorcery, GUNS, and dismemberment? I think a ton of us Americans woulda gotten a big laugh from it!

1:19:46 I legit went "hell yeah brother" and pulled a beer out of my mini fridge to crack it open. I had to dude. The sheer force of the M1911 overtook me.

it's been such a treat seeing you grow and get the attention you've always deserved with your comfy and informative videos