Bandai Namco is one of the most diverse gaming publishers in the industry, with a wide range of games that stretch across different art styles and genres. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree was pitched as “Bandai Namco’s first-ever roguelite” at Summer Game Fest, and from that alone, I was quite interested to check it out.
I had the opportunity to check out Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree at Summer Game Fest: Play Days, and I walked away impressed by the game and eagerly wanted to play more. However, I do have questions about whether or not Towa can separate itself from the rest of a very dense genre.
My preview session started out with a brief presentation presented by Towa herself, which I thought was a very fun touch. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree follows the titular character and the guardians on a journey to fight an ancient evil known as Magatsu. While narratives aren’t usually the focus of roguelites, Bandai Namco and developer Brownies made it clear that this is a focus of this game. As someone who is often drawn to story-heavy RPGs, I really appreciate this.
Right off the bat, it’s hard to ignore the vibrant and charming hand-drawn world of Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. Every area you run around in is beautiful to see, with charming animations all throughout. The character designs are incredibly unique and stylish, with some very eye-catching designs that I see spawning a boatload of fan art. A total of eight different guardians are available to play as. You must pick a Tsurugi and a Kagura, which means the power of the sacred sword and the staff, respectively. You can think of these as your damage dealer and support character.
You start out playing as the Tsurugi, but you can utilize the Kagura’s abilities on the fly to deal damage to surrounding enemies. I ended up sticking with Nishiki as my Tsurugi guardian for both of my runs, mainly because his design is straight up incredible – who wouldn’t want to play as a half koi, half man? Even with just 15 minutes of play time, I came away impressed with how much personality each of the guardians had.
I was able to try all four guardians available in the demo, and they each had something to offer. Brownies has given all guardians unique abilities and swords, so each plays differently and can offer a new playstyle to learn. With eight different characters available at launch, this feels like an area that will give a lot of replayability to the game.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree draws inspiration from the widely popular Hades, which features a similar approach to combat and camera. This is a roguelite in and out, so you can expect some legitimate difficulty, permanent upgrades, and more. I think fans of Hades and other similar games will feel right at home here, but there are a few defining features that are fresh for fans of the genre.
Towa has a really unique feature built into the combat system: you are required to switch between two different blades, as the blades quickly dull with each hit. I was able to ask the Director of the game about the decision to implement the sword-switching mechanic, and he shared that this is something tied to the narrative of the game. I’m curious to see what this means, but we likely won’t know until the full game is out.
To me, this was by far my favorite aspect of the combat. You cannot just sit there and mash buttons; you have to pay close attention to the sharpness meter and switch whenever your equipped blade is about to dull. In the roguelite genre, it can sometimes be easy to shut your brain off and spam attack while dodging out of the way. You cannot do that efficiently here, and I think that curveball makes Towa very appealing.
Another huge highlight was the music, which shone with the demo’s limited runtime. Renowned composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, known for his incredible work on Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and Final Fantasy Tactics, is in charge of the music for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. If you’re familiar with Sakimoto’s work, you understand that this soundtrack is almost guaranteed to be incredible.
My biggest complaint regarding my preview? The fact that I only had 15 minutes to check out the game! I managed to squeeze in two runs during that time, easily clearing the mid-run boss and falling just a bit short at the final boss. I was right in the middle of my second attempt at the end boss battle as the “Thanks for Playing!” screen popped up, which left me desperately wanting to play more. To me, that’s about the best thing I can say about a demo, as if I’m eager to play more, I usually had a great time with what I played.
Beyond the sword-switching mechanic, I’m quite curious to see if and how Towa will manage to separate itself from other roguelite games. I really loved what I played, as it has a lot going for it, but I’m interested to see what else might lie beyond the surface. There is so much here that is great: a gorgeous art style, fun combat, and a score by Hitoshi Sakimoto. However, the impact of the narrative and depth of combat will need to be judged with the full game.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is set to launch on September 19 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
