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It’s said that timing is everything, and one can’t help but feel for Brownies Inc and Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree in that regard. It’s a roguelite action game in the Hades vein, and it’s hard to imagine a worse time for something like this to launch than the week before Hades 2 hits. Still, this developer has a way of infusing a certain charm in its games. If there’s anything this game has over similar titles, it’s how much character it has. Is that good enough to carry it?
The evil Magatsu threatens to envelop the land in darkness, and only Shinju Village’s priestess Towa can seal this villain away for good. She’s assisted by eight guardians, each of which has their own personality and fighting style. Working in pairs, the guardians will clear the path for Towa to complete her sacred mission and save all of Shinju. The plot of the game isn’t anything new or exciting, but the interactions between the colorful cast of characters compensate for that quite well. Depending on who you pair up, you’ll get to see different conversations unfold. It adds a little spice to the repeated runs that this genre brings with it.
The pairing concept is the main gimmick in Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. For each run, you must choose one character to be your Tsurugi and one to be the Kagura. The Tsurugi is the character you primarily control. They’ll largely be engaging in melee combat and hopefully attracting most of the enemy’s attention. The Kagura supports the Tsurugi with magic and other special abilities. They’ll typically hang back and try to stay out of trouble, but you can manually move them or make them stay put if the need arises. If you have someone willing to pick up a controller and join you, they can take over the role of the Kagura.
Another interesting aspect of the action is that your Tsurugi character carries two weapons. You attack using one of them at a time, but after a few swings it will temporarily “break”. When that happens, its power significantly drops. You can swap over to your other weapon at any time, and ideally what you should be doing is juggling between to the two in order to avoid any breakages. Mastering this is essential to ensure the damage keeps on flowing. Otherwise, combat mostly unfolds in the expected fashion. Combat rolls, getting out of the way of big red markers on the floor, and using helpful abilities that either require a meter to be charged up or a cooldown to pass.
The structure of each run is also rather familiar if you’ve played other games of this sort. You’re working room by room, clearing out the enemies within or engaging in some kind of event. After that, you’ll get some kind of reward and move on to the next room by choosing an exit. Sometimes there’s only one, but sometimes you’ll have to pick your poison. The door will always give you a heads-up as to what kind of room is next, so you aren’t fully in the dark. Taking a big risk usually means a big reward, and you’re not going to get far if you don’t push the envelope wherever and whenever you can.
Between runs, you’ll spend time in Shinju Village. This is the usual safe harbor, and like those in other games you’re able to upgrade its facilities with the resources you collect. Some of these provide temporary bonuses, while others are more permanent. Interestingly, you’ll also see time pass in the village over the course of the game. It’s just the right size to become acquainted with everyone who lives there, so seeing all of them change as you make progress is almost as satisfying as watching the numbers go up.
The most heart-wrenching aspect of Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree comes when you successfully complete a run. You’ll have to sacrifice whichever character you designated as your Kagura, and seeing your eight dear friends slowly disappear one by one actually hits hard. The theme of sacrifice is strongly woven into the narrative of this game, and it’s probably the most powerful thing about it. If more of the game’s beats hits as hard as this one, it would be easier to recommend. Ultimately, this is just another decent roguelite action game, albeit one with a couple of interesting ideas and a lot of personality.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree
With a gorgeous aesthetic and a lot of character, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree falls just short of standing out.
Pros
- The art style is really nice.
- The soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto has a lot of power.
- All of the characters are charming in their own way.
- When the story hits, it hits.
