Similar to Soulslikes and Metroidvanias, the roguelike style has develop into a crowded area. And it’s simple to see why — they ship an ideal mix of dopamine hits and challenges, culminating in that “only one extra run” feeling. Sadly for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, after a number of hours and a number of other runs, I’m not craving extra, however desirous to get again to Hades 2 already.
The villainous Magatsu has unleashed corrupted beasts generally known as Magatsu-hi, and it’s as much as Towa and the eight guardians to place a cease to them. Whereas saving the world is definitely an necessary endeavor, there’s additionally ample time to spend on the Shinju Village hub world to get to know different characters, buy upgrades, and craft swords.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is well in comparison with Supergiant’s Hades sequence as its fight and gameplay loop really feel extraordinarily comparable. I sprint between enemies, slicing them up with my chosen guardians’ sword, and am rewarded with an improve or increase upon clearing a room. Achieve sufficient rooms and I’ll encounter a boss battle, which can make or break my run. However the comparability isn’t a really flattering one for Towa. You’ve performed this earlier than, and certain higher variations of it.
Like different 2025 roguelikes Misplaced in Random: The Everlasting Die, with its dice-throwing assaults, and Panta Rhei, with its time-reversal powers, Towa has a gimmick to set itself aside: pairing up guardians for every run. I choose one of many eight playable characters because the Tsurugi sword-wielder and one other to regulate the Kagura employees. I management the sword-wielder, and the game-controlled guardian supplies assist through offensive and/or defensive spells, like slamming down a magic fist for top harm or briefly shielding the characters. (You may also play in a co-op mode, although I haven’t examined this but.)
Every guardian wields two swords, and I’ve to swap between them incessantly because of the sturdiness system. Origami, for instance, delivers sluggish, heavy assaults along with her Honzashi, and charged-up multi-attacks that knock enemies again along with her Wakizashi. On this respect, Towa encourages experimentation. As an alternative of making an attempt out new weapons, I swap between combos of guardians, testing out how their varied assaults and spells complement each other.
However after a handful of runs, the boundaries of that experimentation start to indicate. Past their sword assaults, the guardians don’t play all that in a different way from each other, and there are surprisingly few spells at their disposal. It additionally doesn’t assist that the majority upgrades are passive boosts that don’t alter the expertise a lot. In Hades, the completely different Daedalus Hammer upgrades and Boons can drastically change my method to fight run-to-run, even when utilizing the identical weapon. The deeper I get in Towa, although, the extra I discover myself sticking with the guardian Origami or Shigin, whose major assault sends boomerang-like blades flying. There’s simply too little incentive to combine issues up.
Fight is serviceable, although missing a sure spark. Most common enemies received’t pose an excessive amount of of a problem; be in your Ps and Qs dodging their extremely telegraphed assaults, and also you received’t have to fret a lot. Some minibosses require a bit extra thought, however I principally discovered myself going by the motions till the Magatsu-hi boss fights. It doesn’t assist that some ranges really feel unnecessarily lengthy; I may clear the primary stage in below fifteen minutes, whereas the second would take 35-40 minutes of very mid fight to succeed in a considerably partaking boss battle.
There are additionally a mess of minor annoyances that pile up the extra time you spend with the sport. Characters by no means shut up, espousing their worries through the center of a battle or saying the identical catchphrases after clearing a room. Campfire conversations, which usually happen earlier than the extent’s ultimate boss, are too boring to get me to care concerning the characters. And Towa’s chats with the villagers drag on manner too lengthy for little reward. The sport doesn’t make me care concerning the relationship-building like in (you guessed it) Hades and Hades 2.
Look, it’s not Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree’s fault that it got here out per week earlier than Hades 2 releases in 1.0. (Although the mouthful of a title is definitely somebody’s fault.) It was slotted for its Sept. 18 launch for a while, whereas Supergiant solely only in the near past gave Hades 2 a 1.0 launch date.
Perhaps if writer Bandai Namco had recognized earlier that Hades 2 would launch on the tails of Towa, it will have thought-about pushing its roguelike again, like how Hole Knight: Silksong prompted different indie publishers to delay their video games. As a result of, because it stands now, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree seems like unceremoniously chomping by a fast-casual salad proper earlier than a Michelin-starred meal.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is out now on Nintendo Change, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PlayStation 5 utilizing a prerelease obtain code offered by Bandai Namco. Yow will discover further details about gamexplore’s ethics coverage right here.
