Preview: “Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree’ adds a twist to the roguelite formula
Roguelites have grown to become one of the more enduring genres in video games in the past decade. It’s a style that works with smaller teams because it emphasizes tight gameplay loops and procedurally generated levels that offer nearly endless replayability.
Cellar Door Games found success with “Rogue Legacy.” “Dead Cells” put Motion Twin on the map. Supergiant Games found massive success with “Hades.” Brownies Inc., a Japanese studio founded by Shinichi Kameoka, who worked on the “Mana” series, hopes to find similar success with “Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree.”
NARRATIVE SETS UP GAMEPLAY
It has all the roguelite hallmarks. It has procedurally generated levels with players able to choose their path and focus on power-ups called graces that last through a run. When players eventually die, they lose all the perks they earned. Over the course of each run, players collect ore that can be used at the village to upgrade buildings and earn more permanent benefits like upgraded levels or more powerful spells.
What’s different is how the narrative sets up an unusual situation in “Towa.” An evil entity called Magatsu has been spreading its miasma around the world and that has consumed mana. The only safe zone left is Shinju Village because it has a sacred protector named Towa to help the locale.
To fend off Magatsu and its magaori monsters, Towa and eight villagers who are called Prayer Children are tasked with fighting back. They go together in teams of two. One is the main character called the Tsugiri, or sword, which directly attacks foes, and the other is the Kagura, which means staff, and is responsible for support attacks such as spells. The duo shares a health bar, and they both have distinct ways to attack enemies.
‘HADES’-LIKE COMBAT
Players run through levels until they meet the boss, which is a lieutenant called the Magatsu hi. Fans of “Hades” will recognize some of the gameplay elements with players ability to dodge attacks and enemies telegraphed attacks shown on the ground. What’s different is that the Tsugiri has two blades that have different attack patterns. When one wears out, players have to switch to the other by pressing Y. It means players must master two weapons as well as learn how to position and deal backstab damage to enemies for more damage.
Meanwhile, the support Kagura character has two magic attacks that deal damage at range, defends or traps enemies. It depends on the upgrades and character. Lastly, players build up a meter that lets the Tsugiri deal a Fatal Blow, which causes major damage while also making them temporarily invincible. All of this combines to create a satisfying combat system.
PICK THE TEAMS OF TWO WISELY
The element that adds depth is that players have eight Prayer Children, and they each have differing stats and abilities. Some are slow and heavy brutes that have tons of health while others are slightly but deal more damage. As a Tsugiri, one character may have a fantastic slash attack but pedesterian spells as a Kagura. They even have different numbers of dashes with bigger ones having just one. Players can level up the Prayer Children at the dojo in the village or upgrade them elsewhere.
Players should be careful who they pick though because at the end of each journey, the Tsugiri has to sacrifice the Kagura, and that hero becomes unavailable.
To balance this out, players will discover several amenities at the village. One is a blacksmith, where players can craft their own swords focused on traits such as more power fatal blows, upgraded slash attacks and other attributes. It’s an involved process full of minigames to max out the item, and players will repeat it often to build Tsugiri weapons for the campaign.
For the Kagura, players can use some of their ore to purchase inscriptions at Eureka Tower, and those add status perks, which are key for surviving the longer runs. They’ll also stumble upon upgrades and helpful items at shops. They can find temporary boosts at restaurants. Players have the option to build out the village even more by giving the craftsman resources to build new facilities such as ports.
“Towa” has plenty of customization and ways to modify characters for certain builds. It’s a game that will encourage experimentation, especially when fewer character are available. With that said, I had a difficult time, beating the first boss, but getting hung up on runs through the second level. Thankfully, the game does have varying difficulty levels.
The “Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree” demo has out now. The game itself is scheduled for release Sept. 19 on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S and PC.