Classic: Tower of the Sorcerer

By: Paul Eres

On: June 1st, 2009

Tower of the Sorcerer is an old (first released in 1998) game created by two indie developers in Japan, Oz and Kenichi. Although its site is still up (linked to above, charming 90s design and all, complete with an auto-playing midi), the download link doesn’t seem to work on it, but the one here does.

It may look like an RPG, but it’s actually more of a puzzle game. The video Let’s Play by Malefact will give you a feel for how it works. The game bears some resemblance to another game series, Deadly Rooms of Death, in particular DROD RPG (which Tower of the Sorcerer served as inspiration for), but is otherwise unique in its play experience.

It’s very addictive, it had me playing it most of today, and it’s extremely difficult — do save often because it’s very easy to get yourself into a situation where you can’t advance. The video Let’s Play does go through the entire game for those who may have trouble solving the game.

TIGdb: Entry for Tower of the Sorcerer

Posted in Freeware, Puzzle, RPG

Derek

That site is amazing.
Dusty Spur

Malefact is my favorite LPer since DeceasedCrab. Especially with his mega-sexy accent. Teehee.
Paul Eres

I agree, I love how he gives each character a different voice in his Let’s Plays. I should get him to do some voice acting for my games one day or something.
shockedfrog

This was one of the earliest freeware PC games I remember playing (that’s worth remembering), and that makes me miss Gamehippo more than ever, damnit. :/ Excellent choice for a classic.
Ezuku

I love how everyone he fights is Dutch. *cough cough*.

But all in all, pretty enjoyable LP.
Flamebait

TBH I find the site more fun than the game. It seems to be an excruciatingly slow puzzle game involving tons of memorization.
A friendly green grocer

Game is brilliant!
Manpon

It is a really fun game, though, if you stick with it. It’s more about weighing your options at any given time than memorization. Always doing the most efficient thing and planning ahead. Definitely very tough, but rewarding, too.

There is some memorization, for sure, but it’s not the main focus.

DROD:RPG (like he mentioned) is like an updated version of this, with a much more wide open game. It’s a ton of fun.
Hiacynt

It’s a very fun little game. Oh – and contrary to what is said in the video – it does have music, you just have to manually turn it on.
Paul Eres

yeah, i mentioned that there is music to malefact in one of the comments to his videos — although the music is a bit annoying in that it restarts every single floor instead of continuing, so i usually leave it off.

and yes, there’s no more memorization involved than in your typical shmup or run and gun platformer, perhaps less, since you don’t really need to memorize anything as after you get the flying orb you can immediately go through the different floors to see the different things in them (no memorization of floor configurations required) — it’s just a really extended and well-designed puzzle game with many solutions (some more optimum than others)
Paul Eres

although the final areas are a bit too easy because of the sacred shield — that’s my only criticism of the game, once you get the sacred shield around the end of the game (if you get it — it’s easy to miss of course) the game becomes a cakewalk. but for the bulk of the game the challenge and entertainment is wonderful
http://www.youtube.com/user/Malefact Malefact

MICROPHONE MUFFL’D!

Well, damn. Thanks for posting up my LP Paul.

Even if you guys aren’t especially impressed by my first foray, you should still check out the proper game, which rocks. Hard.

Or at the very least, check out the website. As Derek said, it is AMAZING.
Anonycat

Velkom to ze Magik Towa.

Looks epic, I’m ashamed I never played it.
Anonycat

Oh, and it awfully reminds me of DROD:Tendry’s Tale.
Paul Eres

yes, it served as the inspiration for that game — i mentioned that and linked to tendry’s tale in the review, y’know…
Anonycat

I read the reviews only after playing for some time. They can spoil too much :-p
Ben

Anyone know how to get the save function working? (Im on Vista)
Paul Eres

it works fine for me, and I’m also on Vista