In a Hades style Roguelike (or I suppose any isometric action game) I think most people would agree that the most important aspect of the game that developers need to nail is the feel of the combat. There’s just nothing quite as satisfying as battering fantasy foes with weapon combos and special abilities, then dashing away as the attacks come back your way. Games like Lost in Random: The Eternal Die and Shape of Dreams have understood this in recent months, and because of this I’ve loved pumping my free time into them. I was hoping I’d feel the same about Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, but its core sword and spell combat just isn’t quite up to par.
In a world fighting a losing battle against darkness, the only reason that Shinju Village can survive is because of Towa. This goddess and her eight guardians protect this once cosy location from Magatsu, until a mission to quell his influence ends up banishing the eight guardians, and a quest to end evil once and for all begins. The characters themselves in this tale are fairly endearing, but the story and the way it’s told is just painfully slow and equally dull.
After sitting through a bit of backstory it’s time to jump into some combat, which admittedly seemed pretty promising at first. Anytime you go on a run to defeat one of the big bad’s mystical henchmen you’ll pick two guardians to play as, and one of these will be the sword fighter while the other uses magic. This means there are lots of different combinations to pick from, as each character has different attacks.
The melee combat is what you have to focus on most in Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, because of how the different attacks at your disposal function. You’ll always have two attack types when in melee combat, and these are assigned to each of your two swords. After using a sword for a handful of attacks it’ll become dull, and you’ll need to switch to your other sword otherwise you’ll only deal half your normal damage. Managing this alongside dashing away from attacks is tough, especially when switching weapons entirely changes the attacks you can use.
As you’re fighting as your melee guardian, you’ll be followed by your staff wielding magic guardian. These characters essentially grant you two special attacks which are assigned to the shoulder buttons, and these are both on a cooldown. The guardian you’ve chosen will have specific spells they can use, and these range from summoning dancing orbs of lightning to conjuring shield bubbles that block incoming attacks. Using your two heroes in tandem is the only way you’ll get far in a run, alongside some handy upgrades of course.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree wouldn’t be much of a Roguelike without a selection of power boosting options, and you’re granted one of these after clearing most rooms of enemies. From a selection of different options it’s up to you to choose the right buff for you, and while some of these are immediately impactful (like adding an extra dash to your character) others are just miniscule percentage boosts to attacks. This means it’s less exciting than it should be to get an upgrade mid run, but at least it isn’t the only way to improve your chances of saving the day.
The hub village you return to between runs is full of helpful locals, all of which are happy to help Towa and company on their quest as long as you bring them some materials. The most in depth of these is crafting new swords for your eight warriors to use, which involves an impressively long Smithing minigame with timing elements and a hell of a lot of customisation. I spent ages adjusting the width and curve of my new blades to make them look as ridiculous as possible, I only wish the stat boosts they provided were worth the effort I put into making them.
There are other more impactful ways to build strength in Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, like adding orbs to characters to improve various combat skills or unlocking new spells for them. This would probably feel quite rewarding if you didn’t have to do it for eight different characters, without any easy way to optimise builds or equip a new badass blade to everyone at once. I soon grew tired of having to go in and out of various menus to create the perfect party, and I imagine I won’t be the only one.
Above all other issues I had with Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree though, it’s the melee combat itself that lets it down the most. Regardless of the character you choose to use in combat, their attacks are guaranteed to feel clunky, sluggish and even slightly delayed. This just makes every encounter unenjoyable, and even other actions like switching weapons feel too slow alongside the actual attacks. In a genre known for its frantic and fluid combat, it’s just unforgivable.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree has plenty of interesting ideas, but it also has a whole host of issues that make it a chore to play. From stilted combat to a dreary story, finding a reason to see Towa’s adventure through is frankly rather tough.
