Miden Tower

Miden Tower is a Japanese-style role-playing game (JRPG) set in a fantasy world, featuring 2D scrolling graphics with anime/manga art and turn-based combat. Released in 2020 across multiple platforms, it offers an immersive experience with creative progression systems that evoke the charm of mid-’90s RPGs, centered around a tower and maidens as hinted by its alternate title ‘Innocent Revenger: Kabe no Otome to Miden no Tō’.

Miden Tower: A Retro-Futuristic Tower of Babel

Introduction: The Wall That Rebuilt a Genre

In the vast, often-overlooked archives of the modern JRPG landscape, few titles encapsulate a studio’s legacy and the contradictions of its era quite like Miden Tower. Released in 2020 by the venerable publisher KEMCO and developer EXE-CREATE, this title arrives not as a revolutionary spectacle but as a deliberate, curious act of archaeological reconstruction. It is a game that, on one hand, feels plucked from the mid-1990s shelf of a Japanese specialty store, complete with turn-based grids, sprite-based characters, and a plot fueled by revenge and magical towers. On the other hand, it is unmistakably a product of 2020—a Unity-powered, multi-platform release with a mobile-first design philosophy, laden with post-launch experience boosters and a pricing model that straddles the indie and mobile spaces. Miden Tower’s central, bizarre conceit—a heroine who is literally a sentient, walking wall named Leila—serves as the perfect metaphor for the game itself: a structural, supportive element that is simultaneously its most novel and its most conceptually jarring feature. This review will argue that Miden Tower is a flawed yet fascinating artifact, a game that succeeds not in spite of its anachronisms but because of its unwavering commitment to a specific, niche design philosophy. It is a love letter to a bygone era of RPGs, written in a language that occasionally stutters between nostalgic reverence and modern mobile-game pragmatism, ultimately creating an experience that is greater than the sum of its frequently criticized parts.

Development History & Context: KEMCO’s Digital Time Capsule

To understand Miden Tower, one must first understand its creator, KEMCO. A company with roots stretching back to 1980, KEMCO (originally Kotobuki System) is a living fossil of the Japanese game industry, having survived the 1983 crash, the 16-bit console wars, and the seismic shift to mobile gaming. By the 2010s, KEMCO had largely transitioned to developing and publishing mobile RPGs, often for the Japanese market, with titles like the Asdivine and Alphadia series. Miden Tower, known in Japan as Innocent Revenger: Kabe no Otome to Miden no Tō (“Innocent Revenger: The Wall Maiden and the Miden Tower”), represents a conscious pivot. Released simultaneously on iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in early 2020, it was part of KEMCO’s strategic push to bring its mobile-centric portfolio to consoles and PC, leveraging the burgeoning “retro JRPG” nostalgia market on platforms like Steam and the Nintendo eShop.

The development fell to EXE-CREATE Ltd., a studio with a long-standing collaborative relationship with KEMCO, as evidenced by overlapping credits on titles like Asdivine Kamura and Alphadia Neo. The team, led by Director Ryuji Takumi and Scenario Writer Yoshimi Sagawa, operated within clear technological and economic constraints. The Unity engine was chosen for its cross-platform deployability—a necessity for a simultaneous multi-system release—but it also speaks to a production scale designed for efficiency rather than graphical one-upmanship. The FMOD sound engine further indicates a focus on adaptive audio within a modest budget. The game’s visual style—2D scrolling, anime/manga-inspired sprites against static or slowly panning backgrounds—is a direct callback to the SNES and PlayStation 1 eras, a cost-effective aesthetic that also happened to be surging in popularity among a certain demographic of Western indie and niche publishers.

Miden Tower entered a 2020 landscape crowded with “retro-inspired” RPGs, from Chained Echoes to Sea of Stars. Its competition was not just other KEMCO titles but a wave of games mining similar nostalgic veins. Its distinct selling point, the sentient wall Leila, was a gambit to stand out in a crowded field. The critical reception, as will be explored, reveals a schism: reviewers who evaluated it as a “budget retro JRPG” versus those who judged it by the standards of acclaimed indie titles. Its price point—$14.99 on Steam, varying on consoles—placed it in a competitive mid-tier, where expectations for polish and depth are higher than for typical mobile ports.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: Revenge, Walls, and Found Family

Miden Tower presents a plot that is both archetypically simple and strangely layered. The inciting incident is a classic JRPG tragedy: the Alroval Empire invades the titular tower, a sanctuary and fortress for a community of mages. The mages are forced to retreat to the upper floors, and in the chaos, the protagonist Valen witnesses the brutal murder of his parents and his childhood friend, Neena. This trauma births a singular, consuming drive: revenge. Valen’s journey is a counteroffensive to reclaim the tower floor-by-floor.

The narrative’s true innovation, and its primary thematic anchor, is the introduction of Leila, the “Wall Maiden.” Leila is a Magicka, a creature created as a familiar by a mage’s will. Her form—a brick wall with expressive eyes—is not a joke but a profound narrative device. She represents patience, resilience, and passive support. Where Valen is active, violent, and driven by the past, Leila is contemplative, defensive, and present. Her abilities in battle—merging with walls to create barriers, acting as a “wind breaker”—are literalizations of her character. She is the tower’s protective spirit, a walking, talking embodiment of the homeland Valen seeks to avenge. This symbiosis is the game’s core relationship: the brash, hurting youth and the steadfast, ancient guardian. Their dynamic elevates the story beyond a simple revenge tale into a meditation on how we protect what we love—through aggression or through unyielding presence.

The supporting cast follows JRPG conventions with a twist. Mia, the Eternal Sage, is a physical manifestation of accumulated knowledge trapped in a child’s form, exploring themes of wisdom vs. appearance and the burden of history. Gruff, the grumpy old man with a heart of gold, subverts the trope by being openly, comically grumpy, yet his backstory ties directly to the tower’s deeper lore. The world-building is revealed incrementally: the tower itself is a catastrophically large magical construct that literally houses entire towns on its various floors, a brilliant concept that explains the dungeon-crawling structure and makes the “reclaim the tower” mission feel geographically massive and personally significant for every resident.

Thematically, the game grapples with cyclical violence. Valen’s quest for revenge risks making him as monstrous as the empire he fights. The narrative’s “twists and turns,” as noted by TheXboxHub, do occasionally rely on KEMCO’s tendency for heavy-handed messaging, but the central question—is vengeance a sustainable foundation for a future?—is given weight by Leila’s contrasting philosophy. The final act, where “the entire narrative is stood on its head,” suggests a deliberate deconstruction of the revenge fantasy, common in darker JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI. However, the execution is hampered by what Pure Nintendo and Nintendojo call lackluster characterization and cliché. Dialogue often defaults to archetypal quips (“awful puns,” as noted by LadiesGamers) rather than the deep, personality-revealing exchanges that might have made the thematic core resonate more powerfully. The story is structurally compelling but emotionally inconsistent.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: Grids, Growth, and Grind

Combat in Miden Tower is its most consistently praised element, a 3×3 grid system that recalls classics like Breath of Fire or Final Fantasy Tactics but in a traditional, side-on turn-based presentation. Each character occupies a single square, and their position on the grid modifies stats: the vanguard (front row) increases attack but lowers defense, while the rearguard (back row) offers protection. This simple mechanic injects constant tactical consideration into every encounter. Do you place your squishy mage safely behind a tank, or risk her in front to boost her magical damage? The system is “surprisingly clever,” as Video Chums observes, transforming standard turn-based combat into a fluid chess match.

Character progression is where the game’s depth—and its mobile heritage—become apparent. Skills are not learned from leveling but from repeated use. A character’s Wizard skill rank increases with every magical attack, enhancing future magic potency. Physical fighters see their Sword or Fist skill ranks grow. This “learn by doing” system encourages diverse party composition and experimentation, a hallmark of deep JRPG design. It is paired with a robust weapon synthesis system: players can merge unwanted weapons into their primary armament, transferring stats and effects. This leads to potent, customized builds, like the famed “Bear” weapons that deal 1.5x damage but trigger a deadly “swoon” (essentially a kill) on a missed turn. This creates a high-risk/high-reward playstyle that dedicated players can optimize, a feature TheXboxHub highlights as “all part of the fun of experimentation.”

The alchemy system allows for item synthesis, typically using materials gathered from the field or dropped by foes. It’s a standard but satisfying loop that feeds into the crafting of healing items, stat-boosting concoctions, and gear. Meanwhile, the golem-summoning mechanic, mentioned in the official description, provides a tactical wildcard—a temporary party member that can absorb hits or deal area damage.

However, this depth coexists with design choices that feel explicitly mobile-oriented. The game features an Auto-Battle system far more advanced than simple “battle,” allowing per-character AI scripts (physical-only, magic-only, mixed). While TheXboxHub finds it “pretty decent” for grinding, its existence underscores a design philosophy where combat can be, and sometimes must be, automated to manage the immense grind. The difficulty is spiky. Major boss fights can annihilate an underprepared party, necessitating deliberate “power levelling.” LadiesGamers candidly admits spending hours grinding, and TheXboxHub recommends using Prismic Fruit (earned from guild missions) to buy EXP doublers to mitigate the grind, eventually reaching ludicrous levels like 916. This isn’t accidental; it’s a designed loop that encourages engagement with the game’s numerous side quests and repeatable content, but it can feel like a * Skinner box* to critics like Nintendojo, who decry the “grindy” nature. The in-app purchase-style DLC (the “Damage x2,” “Experience x3” boosts) released alongside the game confirms this mobile-game DNA, making the base game’s progression curves feel intentionally throttled to upsell solutions—a major point of criticism given its $14.99-$21 console price tag.

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Patchwork Tower

Visually, Miden Tower is a study in controlled nostalgia. The character sprites are charmingly detailed, with expressive animations for attacks, hits, and status effects. They occupy beautifully painted, static backdrops that depict the ecologically diverse floors of the tower. The Magma Sea glows with oranges and reds, the Watered Town of Matarl is a study in blues and greys with perpetually falling rain, and lush forests provide a stark, peaceful contrast. This variety makes “dungeon crawling” feel like a genuine exploration of a massive, multi-biome structure. However, the visual fidelity is undeniably of its budget and engine. Backgrounds are static, animations in battle are minimal (characters simply “fly across the screen”), and effects are basic. To critics like BonusStage.co.uk and Nintendojo, this reads as “cheaply-made” and “looks and feels like a mobile game.” To its defenders, like Video Chums, it successfully “recreates the magic of that era,” evoking the aesthetic of SNES gems without the development cost of fully 3D worlds.

The sound design is a universal high point. The soundtrack, composed by Goro Asano and Rie Yamane, is praised across the board as “melodically enchanting” (LadiesGamers) and dynamically effective. It shifts seamlessly from soothing, melodic town themes to urgent, driving battle tracks that “speed up and give you that feeling of needing to be focused.” This audio feedback loop is a crucial part of the game’s immersive pull, compensating for visual simplicity with strong emotional cueing. The sound effects for spells, weapon clashes, and environmental ambiance are clear and fitting, if not groundbreaking.

The interface and UI is functional but utilitarian. Menus are text-heavy and clearly ported from a touch interface, with small text and occasionally clunky navigation on a controller—a reminder of its mobile origins. The map system is a clear, square-based grid, helpful for navigation but lacking in flair.

Reception & Legacy: The Great Schism

Miden Tower‘s launch was met with a severely polarized critical reception, making it a fascinating case study in review consensus. On MobyGames, its Moby Score sits at 6.5/10, ranking it in the bottom 20% of all games tracked. The critic average is 61%, but the range is extreme: from Video Chums‘ 82% (8.2/10) and LadiesGamers‘ 80% to Pure Nintendo‘s middling 70% and Nintendojo‘s scathing 25% (D grade). BonusStage.co.uk splits the difference at 50%.

The schism is fundamentally about expectations and context. The positive reviews (Video Chums, TheXboxHub, LadiesGamers) approach it as a retro JRPG enthusiast’s title. They praise its “creative and immersive game world,” “satisfying combat,” “surprisingly clever” progression, and a story with “relationships that grow” and “strong story.” They acknowledge its mobile roots but see the clever systems (grid combat, skill ranks, synthesis) as outweighing the aesthetic limitations. For them, it’s a successful homage that captures the “magic” of 90s RPGs.

The negative reviews (Nintendojo, BonusStage.co.uk) judge it by the standards of the indie renaissance. To them, its “$21 price point” is inexcusable for a game that feels “generic,” “lackluster,” and “cheaply-made.” They point to the weak characterization, clichéd plot, and the blatant presence of balance-altering DLC as signs of a cynical, cash-grab mobile port that lacks the “polish” of even superior mobile RPGs. Nintendojo’s verdict is damning: it’s “not enough to say that it has the feel of a cheaply-made mobile RPG, because mobile RPGs have shown they can have polish.”

Commercially, it was a modest success for a niche title. Its placement on all major platforms (including Xbox Game Pass rumors, though unconfirmed) gave it visibility. The fact that it collected only 4 players on MobyGames and had minimal user reviews on Steam (8 as of this writing) suggests it found its audience—a small, dedicated cohort of retro JRPG fans—but failed to break out. Its legacy is that of a cult curiosity, not an influencer. It did not spawn clones or shift trends. Instead, it stands as a paradigm of KEMCO’s 2020s output: technically competent, mechanically deep in places, narratively uneven, and perpetually overshadowed by the ghosts of the genres it mimics. It is a game you discover when you’ve exhausted the Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveler II of the world and crave something that feels older, weirder, and more stubbornly itself.

Conclusion: A Tower Worth Visiting, But Not a Monument

Miden Tower is not a great game by any objective, industry-standard metric. Its story is uneven, its presentation is dated even for a retro homage, and its fairness is compromised by design choices rooted in the free-to-play playbook. Yet, to dismiss it entirely is to miss its peculiar, heartfelt ambition. It is a game that cares about its systems—the 3×3 grid, the skill-rank progression, the weapon synthing—with a fervor that many bigger-budget titles lack. It asks the player to think tactically, to experiment, and to engage with its loop over dozens of hours. Its most daring idea, a walking wall as a protagonist’s moral compass, is executed with a sincerity that transcends its silliness.

Its place in video game history is not as a landmark but as a touchstone. It represents the final, awkward phase of a legacy publisher’s full-throated embrace of the “retro JRPG” niche on modern platforms, complete with all the baggage (monetization, rough edges) that comes with that lineage. It is a testament to the fact that a game can be both profoundly flawed and deeply engaging. For the patient, forgiving player who yearns for the strategic density of a 1995 SNES title without the artificial difficulty or opaque systems, Miden Tower offers a genuine, if bumpy, pilgrimage. It is a tower built on familiar foundations, with a bizarre, beautiful wall holding it together. You may not want to live there, but it is undeniably worth a tour.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10 – A deeply flawed but mechanically rich retro JRPG. Its innovative heart (the wall mechanic and grid combat) struggles against the weight of its mobile-genre baggage and inconsistent storytelling. Recommended only for dedicated fans of the genre willing to overlook its significant shortcomings for its unique payload of tactical depth and nostalgic atmosphere.