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With the success of the roguelike Hades, we’ve seen a number of other games like it, and Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree from Brownies and Bandai Namco is among the next ones. While Supergiant’s prioritized a single character as the hero everything is centered around, it feels like many gameplay and story elements are designed to make a player prioritize and appreciate a larger cast both for who they are and what they can do. It helped me feel like I connected with certain characters in the hands-on session.
Towa is the god child of Shinju and the guardian of the town that bears that god’s name. When the evil and chaotic god Magatsu unleashed miasma and Magaori on the land, Towa gathered eight Prayer Children to assist her from the village to fight back. It seemed they had a chance after facing one of his Magatsu-hi bosses. However, that’s when Magatsu banished the Prayer Children to the end of time. With the village now frozen in time and the heroes away, Towa needed to prepare to fight back.
This means gameplay is balanced between two parts. Towa is in the village. She can talk with people to get items, see their stories, help with upgrades, enhance characters, and fish. When she leaves the gates, she can visit the Prayer Children. Going into the dungeon means setting one of them as your Tsurugi and the other as the Kagura. The Tsurugi is the active character who attacks with the Honzashi and Wakizashi swords. The Kagura uses spells, two of which are tied to the left and right triggers, that have cooldowns and can deal damage or inflict effects.
From what I’ve seen, the Tsurugi character role is the most influential and the one that actually made a Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree run feel unique. Each one has one of two different types of attacks tied to the Honzashi and Wakizashi swords. There is a durability system that requires you to swap between them to continue to deal damage. Rekka, who is used in the tutorial, has a standard sword strike type of Honzashi attack that almost feels sweeping. When she switches to Wakizashi, it’s a brief, small area of attack in a circle around her. Akazu almost feels like he’s quickly stabbing with a small knife with his Honzashi, and his Wakizashi summons a series of orbs around him when charged to attack any enemies nearby. My favorite, Shigin, basically fires off boomerangs with his Honzashi, while his Wakizashi lets you set out an AOE attack either right around you or in a designated place nearby with the analog stick for a brief period.
Meanwhile, the Kagura takes some getting used to. From what I found, their spells are on a cooldown, so I’d sometimes even forget to use it. Since the Kagura and Tsurugi each take damage, they might get hit even if I dodged with a dash due to their positioning. Characters’ spells as a Kagura also repeat and aren’t unique in the way their Honzashi and Wakizashi are. So both Akazu and Origami have Inferno Arrow in their moveset, while Mutsumi and Akazu both can use Adamantine Slam.
While each unit playing differently as Tsurugi, I also appreciated the flavor text present when picking a pair for a run. You choose your Tsurugi and Kagura. When they’re going through different areas, they’ll exchange small talk at some parts. For example, when running between different biomes. Even more fun is when you happen upon a bonfire. The pair will actually sit down and talk with each other. This lets you see the relationship between the two of them, learn about memories from their pasts, and even find out what life was like in Shinju village before everything went awry. So as an example, my first Akazu and Origami conversation had him admiring how healthy and strong she is, while she expressed concern hearing how often he would get sick. When Shigin and Mutsumi headed out together, she explained how he reminded her of one of her brothers and talked about a past festival.
Even early on, it feels like a big focus of Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will be on making each of the playable characters feel important. After I spent time going hands-on with it, I really felt like I started to connect to people. Part of it came down to looks, as Nishiki the fish dude just looks fun. Some of it involved relationships, as I liked seeing how people interacted at bonfires. But most importantly is how they work during battle. The Tsurugi seems like it could be really unique and allow someone to find favorites not only based on appearance and personality, but how they work in certain situations.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will come to the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on September 19, 2025.
