by Danreb VictorioSmashPad recently had the pleasure of being invited to a private, press and creator-only demo session for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, and after our four hours with the game, I’ll go as far as saying Brownie and Bandai Namco have a truly special title coming out this fall.
I said it in my preview after I first got my hands on the game at SGF. I was really looking forward to jumping back into it, and that was after just 15 minutes with Towa. Now after four hours (and then some, because I figure I’d keep playing until I got kicked out), it’s really all I can think about.
A roguelike with a twist…
At its core, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is a roguelike, dungeon-crawling action game. What makes it stand apart from games like Bastion and Hades is the requirement of picking two guardians with each run, a tsurugi (sword wielder) and a kagura (staff / support). You’ll primarily be in control of the tsurugi, while the kagura follows you around and acts as support, though there is a mechanic where you can take control of the kagura as well. There are eight guardians in the game, and each one possesses different abilities, whether you appoint them as a tsurugi or kagura.
Each guardian in the game can be utilized as either a tsurugi or kagura, and they also have different abilities that give them a distinct feel. Before every run, you’ll be able to select a couple characters to serve as your tsurugi and kagura and test out their movesets to find your comfort zone and strategize your run. Once you begin, it’s no holds barred. It’s up to your two guardians to rid every biome of enemies. For every room you clear, you get an item that’ll hopefully make the rest of you run easier to deal with and make your way to the next room with another power-up.
Thankfully, not every room is an arena battle. Some of them hold much-deserved breaks. Sometimes you’ll find a shop to buy more power-ups in, a bath to replenish your health, or even a restaurant to buff your stats with great food. While the key strategy is to try to not take any damage before you get to the area’s boss, the existence of these rooms gives you some flexibility to be a little bit more assertive in your approach.
…And a turn
Still, this is a roguelike. You’re going to die, and you should expect to die, and while it’s the end of the run, it’s not the end of the road. However, if you are successful, it’ll actually be the end of the road for your kagura. You’ll want to check out this trailer for the full feels.
That’s right. In order to rid areas of their miasma, a kagura must be sacrificed.
This is something that Bandai Namco has kept secret up to this point, and having actually gone through this, it really makes you think about your loadout. If it wasn’t hard enough before trying to think about the ways to attack, defend, and support yourself, adding the fact that your support character WILL die in order to move forward is quite the interesting wrinkle. Not only is it huge as far as gameplay, but there’s quite a bit of narrative depth to each of these characters, and when you get to a point where it becomes necessary to sacrifice a favorite, it’s tough all around.
Chill vibes at Shinju Village
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree isn’t all about dungeon-crawling. In between every run, you’ll take control of Towa back at Shinju Village, and these segments both serve as a wholesome break from the action as well as a way to prepare for your next venture.
At Shinju Village, there are several NPCs that progress storylines and reward you with items or ore that you can use to upgrade your guardians. There’s even minigames like the smithy, which allows you craft weapons by taking part in quick microgames reminiscent to something you’d play in WarioWare. There’s also a fishing game that’ll award you with points you can redeem with various fishermen around the village that provide you with equipment upgrades that’ll also help with the main action.
Because we only had four hours with the game, I didn’t spend too much time at Shinju Village, so I didn’t know it would be all that helpful until members of the Bandai Namco team encouraged me to look around. It’s bigger than you’d think too, because as I perused the menus, I noticed there were people I didn’t talk to who had more ore to give me, which are used to upgrade your guardians.
We’ll be back soon
The 15-minute demo at SGF left me wanting more, but after that four-hour demo, it’s pretty much all I can think about, and once again, I find myself looking forward to jumping back in. To talk a little bit more about the gameplay experience, this was a PC-only demo, and I played on Steam Deck. The build felt very polished, and it was arguably one of the most pleasant experiences I’ve ever had with the handheld. The only thing is that when runs get really long (the second one I was playing through easily went over 40 minutes), my hands definitely started to cramp up so while I really enjoyed playing on Steam Deck, when the game comes out I’ll look forward to playing it on console.
Part of my desire to jump back in comes from the fact that aside from four hours played, we had to stop playing after beating a certain boss in the game, and unfortunately, I didn’t actually get to that point because of my lack of skill. But now that I have an idea for who my favorite characters are (Bampuku is life), I think I’ll be ready once the game is finally out. f you’re looking to dive in and give it a try, a demo for the game just dropped today. In this demo, you’ll get to play through the game’s Prologue, try four of the eight playable characters, and experience a little bit of Shinju Village.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will be out on September 19 for the PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, X/S, and Switch.