A boy and his shadow...
There is a Tower that rises above all in an alternate world. No one knows who built this or why it was built. One thing is certain, the Tower both casts a large shadow and at the same time is filled with moving shadows...
There is a shadow of a boy that climbs this tower. He runs through the shadow of the Tower, solving mysteries and puzzles along the way, and fighting off enemies that try to impede his progress. The boy is not affected by gravity but his movement is restricted within the thin border between light and shadow....
There is a winged sylph known as a "Spangle" that supports him in his journey. The boy is not alone in his endeavors as this creature of light joins him on his quest.
The game is, essentially, a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer with 3D segments in the latter half of the game, all presented with an aesthetic very reminiscent of the
Team ICO Series. Brought to you by
Hudson Soft.
This game provides examples of:
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The Shadow Soul
- Attack Its Weak Point: During the actual fight with the Shadow Soul, it will occasionally open up a large set of glowing red eyes. Three guesses to what its weak point is.
- Backtracking: So much of it!
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: How you kill one particular shadow monster.
- Block Puzzle: Due to their three-dimensional nature, most Block Puzzles appear once you gain a body of light.
- Boss Corridor: The Well, before the final boss.
- Character Level: Unusually, leveling up only increases attack, while health is gained by recovering memories.
- Check Point
- Cutscene
- Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Happens in a handful of Shadow Corridors.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Well, not all of it, anyway...
- Dark World
- Death Course
- Door To Before: The elevator.
- Dual World Gameplay: The game alternates between being a 2D shadow in action/platforming segments and a temporary 3D body of light which mostly solves puzzles.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Shadow Soul.
- Epic Race: Happens a few times within the tower.
- Event Flag
- Experience Points
- Exposition Break
- Fairy Companion: The Spangle
- Final Boss Preview: The Shadow Soul makes it quite obvious that you're going to fight it eventually after chasing you through several different hallways.
- Floating Platforms: Interestingly, while some platforms float due to light manipulation creating a shadow in the air, some platforms just float.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The 90 Memories, as well as all the Shadow Corridors.
- Groundhog Day Loop: It turns out that several shadows have tried to climb the tower already. Hopefully this shadow can make it to the top.
- Heroes Prefer Swords
- Hit Points
- It's Up to You
- Level Goal
- Living Shadow: The point of the game.
- Market-Based Title: It's called Lost In Shadow in the Americas, and A Shadow's Tale in Europe.
- Musical Spoiler: The Shadow Soul has a distint theme which starts on a level before it appears, letting players get ready to run quickly.
- New Game Plus: ...Kinda. After beating the game, you can unlock two hidden swords which you can carry over to another file.
- Rule of Three: Most floors require you to touch and unlock three Monitor Eyes before you can continue on.
- Run or Die: The Shadow Soul
- Pressure Plate
- Puzzle Pan: This happens often when you flip a switch or pull a lever by showing you what was unlocked and where.
- Run Don't Walk
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The whole reason the boy's shadow was cut from him to begin with.
- Shadowland
- Steam Punk
- Story to Gameplay Ratio: On the "high gameplay, low story" end.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Those poor, poor shadow spiders on 1F of the tower once you begin to backtrack...
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: While you can find fountains of infinite life in many shadow corridors, the only ones you find in the actual tower are right before encountering The Shadow Soul
- The Tetris Effect: After playing this for a while, you might pay more attention to shadows... and maybe start matching your shadow to them.
- Trap Door
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