Nintendo fans in the Americas had to fight to get games like Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower released in their territory. But because of Nintendo of America’s indifference to these games, Nintendo of Europe ended up taking charge of the localization. Instead of going for American voice actors, they went local and added a European flair to all the characters.
Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story feature large casts, but Pandora’s Tower is centralized around only three. The player character named Aeron, a guiding hand called Mavda and then Elena, who has been afflicted with a curse.
Aeron is largely mute and Mavda acts as a supplier and a source of wisdom for the player. However, Elena is quite chatty. It’s a bit cliché but she essentially acts as a house wife waiting for her lover to return. She chats with Aeron about daily activities, memories and research she’s been doing. She’ll even help fashion raw materials into new gear and furniture.
The game itself is pretty average, but I fell in love with Elena’s voice. The voice actor does a great job delivering Elena’s mood. As mentioned earlier, she’s cursed. If she doesn’t eat enough monster flesh, she’ll slowly transform into a monster herself. When you return to her while she’s still human, she’s incredibly joyful and sounds happy to see you. But the more she changes into a monster, the more uneasy her voice becomes as she tries to play off the amount of suffering she’s going through. It’s hard not to feel for her as she tries to cover herself up to hide her deformed body.
It’s been two years since I’ve played the game, but her voice still randomly appears in my head. It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear it and I’d love to get back to the game and complete it one day.
I bought my first copy used from Europe and it freezes halfway through the game. Eventually I replaced it with a North American copy, but I’m not sure I’m ready to replay the entire game yet.
