Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree First Impressions
Bandai Namco’s action roguelite shakes up the genre formula.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Credit: Bandai Namco / Brownies
The demo for Bandai Namco’s upcoming roguelite action game Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is now available for consoles and PC, but I got the opportunity to spend a few hours with the game for an online preview ahead of that. The game is a vibrant, Japanese fantasy experience that resembles other games in the genre, such as Hades, on the surface, but it quickly becomes apparent that Towa is doing a lot to make itself unique.
Towa is a priestess of Shinju who gathers eight guardians to help defend her village from a great evil known as Magatsu. After failing their attempt to seal Magatsu in the prologue, he exiles them to another timeline and freezes Towa’s village in time. Towa can lend her mystical help to the guardians despite their separation, so they continue to fight Magatsu and his corruption. The story is quite good, especially once some key twists come into play, but its execution is a little wanting thanks to overwritten dialogue.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Credit: Bandai Namco / Brownies
The game’s structure is what you’d expect from games inspired by Hades. On each run, completing a room grants a reward and offers you a choice for your next room based on its rewards. There are also shops and rooms with healing or bonuses, as well as a miniboss and a boss. After a run, you return to a hub for upgrades.
The combat features unusual mechanics that took me some time to get the hang of. On each run, you control not one, but two out of the stable of eight characters; the pair must complement each other well to succeed. The first one is the Tsurugi, wielding the power of the sacred sword in melee combat, and the second is the Kagura, who carries the sacred staff and casts supporting spells. Each character has two unique skills for each of the two roles. As Towa, you pick two of the eight guardians and give them their combat role.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Credit: Bandai Namco / Brownies
The Tsurugi carries two swords, one for each skill. Swords have durability and will quickly wear out, forcing you to switch to your other sword to refresh the first. The melee combat is about juggling the skills of the two swords as you swap them, building a rhythm with the quickdraw attack you trigger whenever a blade is unsheathed, and waiting for the right moment to unleash your powerful Fatal Blow attack after it’s powered up.
Meanwhile, the Kagura follows the Tsurugi automatically. You can trigger either of the Tsurugi’s spells whenever you wish, though they have a lengthy cooldown. These spells can be offensive or defensive, and it’s a good idea to make sure you pick a Kagura with skills that will complement the fighting style of your Tsurugi. Your health is the life of the Tsurugi and Kagura combined, and both characters can be hit by enemies. I found this frustrating and distracting during the frenetic combat, even when I tried controlling the Kagura’s position manually. Perfectly dashing to dodge a boss’s attack only to have my Kagura take damage sucks. I would have preferred either eliminating the Kagura’s hitbox or having a tag-team mechanic to swap between characters.
After a run, you return to Shinju village as Towa. Here you can interact with the villagers, many of whom offer services for upgrades or shops you access by spending materials you’ve gathered during your runs. The dojo lets you upgrade stats and perks for each guardian individually, which is crucial because it allows you to focus on each of their strengths that augment your playstyle. The carpenter can upgrade buildings. The most interesting villager is the blacksmith, whose shop you use to craft new swords that you can equip on your guardians.
Swordsmithing involves playing minigames simulating each individual step of making a Japanese sword. Your success helps determine stat bonuses, ranging from the strength of attacks to the durability of the blade before you have to swap it. You can skip these, but it was fascinating to see each part of the process. There’s a lot of customization that plays into this, beyond just picking colors for your hilt and scabbard. The coolest bit is that you can change the shape of your blade and then actually see it in the hands of your champion as you fight.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Credit: Bandai Namco / Brownies
The game’s graphics are beautiful. The characters are in an anime style, featuring some unique, memorable designs. Most have a human appearance, but then you have guardians who are an anthropomorphized giant shiba inu or koi with huge muscles. Enemy designs are just as good, from the low-level mobs up to the massive bosses. The 3D isometric world is colorful and rich in painterly detail. Towa stands out visually, and best of all, the game performed well on my Steam Deck, never dropping below 60 fps.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Credit: Bandai Namco / Brownies
I plan to spend more time with Towa once the game is out. Despite finding the two-character combat system a little frustrating, I want to get more comfortable with it and see how I do. Bandai Namco and developer Brownies have done a lot with Towa to shake up the typical action roguelite formula, and it’s worth keeping this one on your radar ahead of its September 18 release.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will be available on Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S. You can check out the demo on each platform now.
