You absolutely need to be a certain kind of player to enjoy this, ESPECIALLY nowadays. Tower of Druaga is the definition of "guide game". It has cryptic unexplained nonsense coded into its DNA from the instant you insert a coin into the godforsaken machine.
So the game itself is a pretty standard maze game, you move through the maze, find a key, use the key to reach the end, defeat enemies along the way, yadda yadda. The gimmick here is that each of the 60 floors contains an item, and the conditions to make the item appear change between floors. The requirements to make an item show up range from the simple-to-run-into "defeat all the enemies on the floor" to things such as "walk over these exact two tiles on the map in this order", "break your preexisting item" or my personal favorite, "press the game start button". Some items are mandatory to progress further, some items are optional upgrades, and some are permanent downgrades. You need to know EVERYTHING to even remotely have a shot to clear this game, and even then you'd still need the skills to navagate each of the 60 floors without getting a game over.
So how did people do it? Well, in western markets, they didn't. The game bombed all its western test placements hard and never got any widespread popularity. In japanese arcades, however, this game garnered a sense of community between players as everyone worked together to uncover all the secrets. Rumors would spread around, arcades would keep notebooks near the machines for players to write down anything they've noticed while playing and read what past players have discovered, and general word of mouth gave this game a rather substantial following, aided by the home ports which allowed players to discover the secrets at their own pace without needing to spend thousands of yen scoping out secrets. Basically this game took advantage of the social aspect of arcades in order to create a game experience that goes beyond the cabinet, and I think that's really neat.
But in todays day and age, all the secrets have long been found. Not only are walkthroughs on the internet commonplace, but rereleases of this game in Namco Museum titles typically have built-in walkthroughs to guide unsuspecting players through the tower. The Switch Namco Museum is the way to go as it not only has a guide at the click of a button, but also save states and a floor continue system to make this game essentially the most accessible it's ever going to be. I'd definitely reccomend giving the tower a challenge as it is certainly an interesting curiosity, but just make sure you have the proper knowledge onhand.
So the game itself is a pretty standard maze game, you move through the maze, find a key, use the key to reach the end, defeat enemies along the way, yadda yadda. The gimmick here is that each of the 60 floors contains an item, and the conditions to make the item appear change between floors. The requirements to make an item show up range from the simple-to-run-into "defeat all the enemies on the floor" to things such as "walk over these exact two tiles on the map in this order", "break your preexisting item" or my personal favorite, "press the game start button". Some items are mandatory to progress further, some items are optional upgrades, and some are permanent downgrades. You need to know EVERYTHING to even remotely have a shot to clear this game, and even then you'd still need the skills to navagate each of the 60 floors without getting a game over.
So how did people do it? Well, in western markets, they didn't. The game bombed all its western test placements hard and never got any widespread popularity. In japanese arcades, however, this game garnered a sense of community between players as everyone worked together to uncover all the secrets. Rumors would spread around, arcades would keep notebooks near the machines for players to write down anything they've noticed while playing and read what past players have discovered, and general word of mouth gave this game a rather substantial following, aided by the home ports which allowed players to discover the secrets at their own pace without needing to spend thousands of yen scoping out secrets. Basically this game took advantage of the social aspect of arcades in order to create a game experience that goes beyond the cabinet, and I think that's really neat.
But in todays day and age, all the secrets have long been found. Not only are walkthroughs on the internet commonplace, but rereleases of this game in Namco Museum titles typically have built-in walkthroughs to guide unsuspecting players through the tower. The Switch Namco Museum is the way to go as it not only has a guide at the click of a button, but also save states and a floor continue system to make this game essentially the most accessible it's ever going to be. I'd definitely reccomend giving the tower a challenge as it is certainly an interesting curiosity, but just make sure you have the proper knowledge onhand.