Behind closed doors at Summer Game Fest, I sat down to play a new game published by Bandai Namco that’s tailor-made for Hades fans: Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, which has its own take on the roguelike hack-and-slash genre. And, yes, a playable hot hybrid fish-man.
Towa’s isometric combat looks a lot like Hades at first glance, and shares some of the same basic structure. Players start at a hub area and start runs going through a series of gated battlefields filled with enemies. After they’re defeated, you’re granted a boon — an upgrade to your skills, weapons, currency reward and so on. Hades players will be able to pick this up with ease when Towa launches on Sept. 18.
Towa, developed by studio Brownies, Inc., has its own anime style and diverse group of fighters that sets it apart from Hades. In it, the titular Towa, a priestess of the tranquil Shinju village, charges eight guardians with defeating the evil Magatsu and his minions. With different combat styles, players pick one of these heroes to control and another for spell-casting backup (which a second player can pick up and control, too) to send into battle.
Setting aside, it’s clear that Towa takes a lot of inspiration from Hades in its gameplay, which Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree director Shuhei Yamashita acknowledged.
“Of course, we have respect for Hades, and I had early access to that, and when I played it, the maneuverability was interesting, so that’s something that we referenced,” Yamashita said. “And the roguelike system, you have a unique maneuverability and you can really incorporate a unique element to it, so that’s something that we have put into our game.”
Towa is visually striking, with an anime look and vibrant colors — and even though players wield two swords like samurai, the game stands apart from the recent vogue of period titles like Assassins’ Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima with its setting in a peaceful village.
“Rather than going with samurai and historical days with a more realistic style, Brownies created this game that we wanted to be more fantastical — not necessarily Japanese, but the kind of Eastern fantasy-type artwork that would be more attractive,” said Yamashita.
Apart from the game’s aesthetics, Towa stands out for its different take on combat. The players’ two swords — a main-hand honzashi and off-hand wakizashi — wear down quickly with every slash, kind of like the durability meter in Monster Hunter World’s weapon system. You’ll need to swap between the two swords to sharpen them (a move that comes with a short dash), which adds a rhythm to combat as you switch back and forth.
A list of potential upgrades earned after defeating a room full of enemies.
But unlockable boons and upgrades will add variety to your play style. Some are straight damage, others add effects to your swords like knockback or trigger things like shockwaves when using a spell. The devs sitting alongside my demo hinted that you may even find boons that incentivize unorthodox strategies, like keeping your blades dull to unleash different attacks. There’s a depth to the combat that I didn’t scratch the surface of during my brief time with the game.
I also didn’t get a deep look at how the eight fighters differ — aside from the fish-man Nishiki, there’s a rotund Shiba Inu and six other anime-looking heroes to choose from. I chose the hunky fish-man as my main while selecting Origami, the fighter covered in folded paper armor, as my spellcaster and dove into a run.
With a mix of melee and ranged enemies, the latter of which show the path for their attacks, Towa has some overlap with Hades’ design. But the weapon switching mechanic is a notable difference, as are the spells — my sidekick Origami had one with an area of attack mechanic that I could splash groups of enemies with.
One of the eight fighter’s ultimate attacks, which can clear a whole room of enemies.
In practice, remembering to switch between weapons when they dulled took time to learn, and I kept forgetting to use my spells. It also took me a while to sort out that my health bar at the bottom of the screen was split between my main fighter and backup spellcaster. But the game can get overwhelming with all the area attacks and flashy skill effects, so it’s easy to lose your hero in the fireworks.
After several rooms of enemies, I squared off against the mid-run boss and soundly defeated it, then moved into a merchant room where I could spend currency on upgrades — all familiar territory for Hades fans. But just before advancing on the main boss, I entered a calm room overlooking a vista with a campfire. Here is where your heroes will take a breath and chat to share their backstories and more details about the world, fleshing out the characters and the game’s lore.
“Towa is a very story-focused game, so you could find as much story as you would normally find with RPG games,” Yamashita said, noting that the characters you bring on runs with you deepen their relationships as you converse at these campfires.
Brimming with confidence — a little too much, sadly — I waltzed into the boss room and gave it everything I had, including Nishiki’s ultimate ability for massive AOE damage. These charge up with attacks, and certain upgrades can speed up their recharge rate. Despite some nimble dashing and damage, and whittling down the boss to a quarter of its health, I succumbed. (Later in the weekend, I was told that only seven players at Summer Game Fest had taken down the boss at the time.)
Players won’t have long to wait for their own chance to try out a unique spin on roguelike combat. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree comes out Sept. 18 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch for $30.
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