Another
RPG standard. (perhaps I should create a
metanode)
A Tower of Doom is something no evil wizard, demon prince or dark knight can be without. Usually Towers of Doom come with some form of camoflauge so that they will not appear until the party of heroes learns of the villian's plot. These include the ability to hide underground or to simply turn invisible.
Usually the appearence of a Tower of Doom marks one of two things in a console RPG:
1) The end of the game. This is it, climb that tower, kill the evil guy and you win. Example: Final Fantasy 6
2) Major turning point. The story is about to take a huge turn (usually for the worse) once you climb that tower and do whatever you're supposed to do inside it. Example: Xenogears.
Towers of Doom are also usually decked out with a convenient airship landing pad for quick bad guy getaway and subsequent Cid (or one of his clones) appearence to whisk the party away.
Towers of Doom also must have a self-destruction device. Once an evil villian is done doing his dirty work, he must be able to trigger the tower to collapse and hopefully kill his nemesi. Sadly, no evil villian has ever caught on that setting a timer for the collapse of a tower is a Bad Thing.
Finally, no Tower is complete unless it is fitted with surround-sound speakers pumping dramatic music into its hallowed halls.