One of the more exciting aspects of covering a marquee gaming event like Summer Game Fest: Play Days is that sometimes you’ll be signing up for appointments that you don’t actually know about. This is exactly what happened with both of my appointments with Bandai Namco, and with the one game I got to play, I left even more intrigued than I was when I first scheduled the meeting.
Unveiled during the SGF Showcase, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree really came out of left field. While the roguelite genre is one that’s getting a lot of attention, it’s not something I’d expect a developer and publisher like Bandai Namco to dive into. But after 15 minutes going through a run, I definitely do want to jump back in sooner than later.
I can’t put it more plainly than this: this is one of the most beautiful 2D roguelites I’ve ever seen. While the story is largely about evil miasma poisoning the environment and bringing terror to the world and the young priestess (Towa), the colorful world in the distant lands of the tranquil Shinju Village are beyond lush and inviting, despite all the danger being there. The hand drawn setting along with each individual character, enemy, and NPC really pop. It’ll draw some comparisons to Hades in both its style and its art, but it’s obvious Towa treads completely on the anime side of things.
A fish talking about eating fish. That means you know he’s badass.
Its looks aside, it also plays very well. I’m honestly not the biggest roguelike or roguelite guy. In fact, I haven’t even beaten either Hades game. Despite all that, I have a lot of respect for the genre, and like I said, this is a game I do want to dive back into as we approach its release this fall.
At the beginning, players choose two of Towa’s Guardians — one of them has to be a swordwielder (tsurugi), while the other manages a staff (kagura). In my playthrough, I don’t remember who I chose as the kagura, but I definitely used this buff fish Nishiki to be my sword. As soon as you choose them, you can play around with them and figure out their controls, but we only had 15 minutes to play, so I made a beeline for the gate to start the run.
The main thing to take note of with this game when compared to other roguelites is your usage of two characters. One follows the other fine, but most of your control is with tsurugi, while you can have your kagura use their spells using the shoulder buttons. Gameplay is simple enough: rid each room of its enemies and move on. As soon as you kill the last enemy, various items appear which will make your run easier. The main thing you’ll want to do is stay alive.
We got to the end of this serpent boss just as the clock ran out, so we have no idea if that was the whole demo.
Unfortunately while most of the easy damage will come with your swords, they also both suffer from decay and will blunt after overuse. Luckily, you have two swords at your disposal–one of them is quicker but weaker, while the other one is slower but has more range and power. If one weapons dulls, you just use the other one, and the weapon you put away will get its edge back. I actually found myself really enjoying the bigger sword, and I’m not sure if I inadvertently found an exploit, but whenever that edge started to dull, I just tapped on the button to switch my swords twice so I can quickly can get back to the sword I was using. I don’t know if the swords were designed to not worry about grace time after switching, but that’s something I took advantage of.
Because of this, I didn’t find the demo overly challenging. I even actually beat the boss, but once I beat the boss, I ran out of time. 15 minutes really isn’t enough for a game like this, but those are the brakes sometimes.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will be coming to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC on September 19. It’s definitely a crowded time to come out, but as I mentioned, I still look forward to jumping back in, and at an MSRP of $29.99, this could be a budget gem.
One of the more exciting aspects of covering a marquee gaming event like Summer Game Fest: Play Days is that sometimes you’ll be signing up for appointments that you don’t actually know about. This is exactly what happened with both…
One of the more exciting aspects of covering a marquee gaming event like Summer Game Fest: Play Days is that sometimes you’ll be signing up for appointments that you don’t actually know about. This is exactly what happened with both of my appointments with Bandai Namco, and with the one game I got to play, I left even more intrigued than I was when I first scheduled the meeting.
Unveiled during the SGF Showcase, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree really came out of left field. While the roguelite genre is one that’s getting a lot of attention, it’s not something I’d expect a developer and publisher like Bandai Namco to dive into. But after 15 minutes going through a run, I definitely do want to jump back in sooner than later.
I can’t put it more plainly than this: this is one of the most beautiful 2D roguelites I’ve ever seen. While the story is largely about evil miasma poisoning the environment and bringing terror to the world and the young priestess (Towa), the colorful world in the distant lands of the tranquil Shinju Village are beyond lush and inviting, despite all the danger being there. The hand drawn setting along with each individual character, enemy, and NPC really pop. It’ll draw some comparisons to Hades in both its style and its art, but it’s obvious Towa treads completely on the anime side of things.
A fish talking about eating fish. That means you know he’s badass.
Its looks aside, it also plays very well. I’m honestly not the biggest roguelike or roguelite guy. In fact, I haven’t even beaten either Hades game. Despite all that, I have a lot of respect for the genre, and like I said, this is a game I do want to dive back into as we approach its release this fall.
At the beginning, players choose two of Towa’s Guardians — one of them has to be a swordwielder (tsurugi), while the other manages a staff (kagura). In my playthrough, I don’t remember who I chose as the kagura, but I definitely used this buff fish Nishiki to be my sword. As soon as you choose them, you can play around with them and figure out their controls, but we only had 15 minutes to play, so I made a beeline for the gate to start the run.
The main thing to take note of with this game when compared to other roguelites is your usage of two characters. One follows the other fine, but most of your control is with tsurugi, while you can have your kagura use their spells using the shoulder buttons. Gameplay is simple enough: rid each room of its enemies and move on. As soon as you kill the last enemy, various items appear which will make your run easier. The main thing you’ll want to do is stay alive.
We got to the end of this serpent boss just as the clock ran out, so we have no idea if that was the whole demo.
Unfortunately while most of the easy damage will come with your swords, they also both suffer from decay and will blunt after overuse. Luckily, you have two swords at your disposal–one of them is quicker but weaker, while the other one is slower but has more range and power. If one weapons dulls, you just use the other one, and the weapon you put away will get its edge back. I actually found myself really enjoying the bigger sword, and I’m not sure if I inadvertently found an exploit, but whenever that edge started to dull, I just tapped on the button to switch my swords twice so I can quickly can get back to the sword I was using. I don’t know if the swords were designed to not worry about grace time after switching, but that’s something I took advantage of.
Because of this, I didn’t find the demo overly challenging. I even actually beat the boss, but once I beat the boss, I ran out of time. 15 minutes really isn’t enough for a game like this, but those are the brakes sometimes.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will be coming to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC on September 19. It’s definitely a crowded time to come out, but as I mentioned, I still look forward to jumping back in, and at an MSRP of $29.99, this could be a budget gem.
by Danreb Victorio
