With gorgeous artwork and a tale rooted in Eastern mysticism, Bandai Namco aims to break into the roguelite genre with their upcoming Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, developed by Brownies Inc. During Game Days at Summer Games Fest, I had the privilege of checking out a behind-closed-doors hands-on demo of this upcoming game. While I may be feeling a bit of rogue fatigue lately, with a new rogue-adjacent title either being released or announced on what feels like a weekly basis, Towa offers some unique mechanics that have made me take notice, despite it feeling familiar at the same time.
If you have played a roguelite title in the past few years, particularly so if you’ve played Hades or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fates, Towa will feel familiar. Before each run, you will pick two characters, one main character that you will control, referred to as the Tsurugi (sword), and a second, the Kagura (staff), that you can call in for assist attacks. A run consists of fighting through various types of rooms, powering yourself up with new skills, abilities, and equipment, all to make sure that you are ready to beat the big boss at the end of that route.
In the demo we tried out, only a handful of the roster were available to choose from. I opted for the sneaky-looking ninja guy as my Tsurugi character and the blonde wizard lady as my backup Kagura choice, and off we went. Each character will have different skills, depending on their role as either the Tsurugi or Kagura, making for some strategy in deciding your party composition before you set off. The main character you control will have access to two swords, which in essence are just two main attacks they can choose from, while your secondary will have access to two different assist skills that go on a cooldown after use.
One neat thing that Towa does revolves around requiring players to switch their main character’s swords out, doing so not only toggles between what your attack is, but also will perform a special quick attack when you swap. This mechanic gave me serious Muramasa: The Demon Blade flashbacks, and its inclusion is another unique twist to Towa’s gameplay compared to its peers. For my ninja guy, one of his attacks was an area-of-effect explosion that could set enemies on fire, and the other hurled a spinning blade out that would fly back to me like a boomerang. With seven different characters to try out, I’m excited to check out what other sorts of attacks they offer and see how differently each one plays.
As my time was short and only really involved a run through a dungeon, I didn’t get a chance to check out many of the other features that Towa is promising players. There is a progression system that allows players to unlock and upgrade abilities in the Hub area of Shinju Villages, crafting that allows you to forge and upgrade the various characters’ swords, and even a system that allows guardians to form bonds with the tolksfolke. How all this plays out, we will just have to wait and see in the final release.
Despite there being no shortage of new roguelikes on the market, I found Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree to be a solid offering with enough tweaks to the established Hades formula to pique my interest. Between the roster of characters with their attacks, along with assist pairings, it seems like this will offer a good amount of flexibility and replayability. To say nothing of the multiplayer functionality – both locally and online – that we weren’t able to try, this game feels pretty jam-packed.
I can’t wait to dive in and explore this world and its story when Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam on September 19.
