Shadow Tower (1998): FromSoftware’s Forgotten Dark Souls Blueprint

Shadow Tower (1998) is one of those older FromSoftware games that feels strange to look at now because so much of it feels familiar after Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. It’s a first-person PS1 dungeon RPG built from the same kind of foundation as King’s Field, with slow exploration, vague progression, strange NPCs, soul-based growth, brutal equipment durability, and a tower that keeps pulling you deeper without giving much direction. In this video, we’re going through what Shadow Tower was, where it came from in FromSoftware’s history, how its combat and leveling systems worked, why the game landed rough with critics at the time, and why it feels a lot more interesting now when you look at it through the lens of FromSoftware’s later games. 01:24 Why Shadow Tower exists — King’s Field, FromSoftware history, and PS1 RPGs 04:28 Exploring the tower — first-person controls, world design, and no direction 09:59 How leveling works — Soul Power, stat growth, and enemy knowledge 13:52 Everything breaks — combat rhythm, durability, repairs, and health as currency 20:16 Shadow Tower’s plot — Ruus Hardy, Zepter, the Dark Ones, and the Crown 23:57 Why Shadow Tower reviewed poorly in 1999 26:57 What Shadow Tower is now — cult legacy and early Dark Souls DNA Intro animation credits: Jacob Lewis (MeatyLazerEyes) - https://linktr.ee/meatylazereyes Music - Grim Horror Atmosphere by Universfield -- https://freesound.org/s/702863/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 #ShadowTower #FromSoftware #DarkSouls #KingsField #PS1 #PlayStation #RetroGaming #DungeonCrawler #GamingHistory #Soulslike