Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree shows a side of Bandai Namco that we don’t always see. Sure, this is an anime-flavoured Japan-centric roguelike brawler, but it’s one that’s priced as a smaller indie title, and it is doing things just that little bit differently. Personally, I think we could do with more of this kind of thing.
The village of Shinju, named after the benevolent god who watches over it, is home to Towa. A being that is neither human nor god, Towa lives as the village guardian, protecting and nurturing the inhabitants of the village. Shinju remains an idyllic haven until Magatsu arrives. Alongside an army of monstrous Magaori, Magatsu spreads his miasma across the land, poisoning and corrupting everything that lies before him.
Towa, with eight chosen ‘prayer children’ from the village, sets forth against the forces of evil, wielding the Sword of Ablution and the staff of Divination, both of which allow her to tackle the monsters and the corruption that lie before her.
That said, it’s not Towa you directly take control of. You actually control one of the Prayer Children – starting out with Rekka in our hands-on – but Towa is tethered to you, following you into battle, while you protect them from harm.
Combat isn’t quite as you’d expect either, with Rekka carrying two swords, each of which have a finite amount of energy. When you’ve used up the energy, the damage from that sword will halve, forcing you to swap to the other option. Each has specific qualities, and ranges, so you have to plan ahead as you face each foe. It takes some getting used to, with early encounters feeling a bit clunky as you consistently ‘break’ each sword over and over again, but you soon find the rhythm of attacks, and start to learn how to use each one effectively.
Besides your standard attacks, there’s also special abilities which are provided by your support character. Towa is able to cast a zone of protection that freezes enemies, or summon a giant hand to bash the bad guys with. Dodging plays an important role too, made somewhat easier by enemy attacks being displayed via glowing area-of-effect zones.
Defeating all the enemies in an area will drop some kind of reward, with Graces enhancing a character’s attributes, or ores being usable in crafting back at the village. These rewards get better based on your performance, and you’re given a selection to choose from so you can tailor your character through your run – or Journey as the game calls them. Graces come in different levels too, so if you’re lucky you might find an Epic move nestling amongst more ordinary ones.
Once you’ve made it through the opening moments, you can assemble a team of two from the eight Prayer Children. Each of them has their own look, weaponry and abilites, but one member of the team must be the Tsurugi, the main attacker, while the other becomes the Kagura, who supports them with spells. You can switch it so the Kagura stays in place, though the Tsurugi can only go a limited distance from the Kagura.
Playing solo sees you controlling both as a team, and you tend to find that the Kagura ultimately loses a lot of health as they’re not your primary focus, and they don’t quite dash in time with your main character. It feels as though the designers really want you to play in co-op, and fortunately there’s both local and online options to make that possible. It definitely makes the game easier, and you only have the one character to worry about.
As a roguelike, runs feel fairly familiar, with each area housing a small number of enemies or a boss, and collecting better abilities and more power the further you go. I like that you can see the different rewards across each route, but otherwise this remains about making yourself as powerful as possible, while collecting permanent upgrades for further runs.
There’s plenty to keep you busy outside of the Journeys when you return to the village. Forging new swords is a key task, and it presents you with a minigame that lets you design and customise your own blade. It’s a little unclear what you’re doing – it should have a tutorial for all of the sections the first time you do it – but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s an intriguing task. Swords can be equipped by all characters so that removes any issues with swapping between them, but upgrades are limited, so you will need to focus on your favourites from the roster and their upgrade trees ahead of everyone else.
There’s some interesting differences between the in-game visuals and the artwork from the cutscenes. Where the in-game action is an attractive, isometric-view anime battler, the cutscenes boast traditonal Japanese art, evoking a more realistic and human approach. There’s then further comic-like art during the fully-voiced character conversations, and while all of them look fantastic in their own way, there’s some visual dissonance to the way that each character is perceived. Towa in particular is pictured in the cutscenes as a powerful goddess, in traditional Japanese garb, while the in-game version of her comes across as a mildly annoying traditional anime girl. It doesn’t detract from the action, but it’s an odd choice.
That said, I really like the design of the eight Prayer Children, especially the adorably huge canine Bampuku who makes a great companion for the Carp-like Nishiki.
Towa and the Gaurdians of the Sacred Tree makes a good first impression, and the giant boss characters you face along the way add a real sense of scale to the action. The story and characters are interesting, and the action sufficiently unique, to immediately draw you in and, with the game launching on 18th September, I’m looking forward to spending more time with them through the coming weeks.
