This ain’t it, fam.
For a couple of years now, I’ve lamented the endurance of the “roguelite” subgenre which has managed to contaminate genres that don’t should be roguelites (I nonetheless mourn GetsuFumDen: Timeless Moon). That stated, some video games handle to embrace and excel within the discipline, maybe none extra so than Supergiant Video games’ 2020 masterpiece, Hades. By constructing the sport’s construction and story across the central conceit of “attempt once more,” Hades handily torpedoes most of its friends. After all, its success has impressed a cadre of aspirants. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Destiny was one among these Hades-lites, and whereas I loved it fairly a bit, it didn’t have the endurance of Zagrius and his Olympian pantheon. The multiplayer was a pleasant contact, although.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is one other entry within the post-Hades rogueliteverse, and whereas it does try and differentiate itself from its towering predecessor, the sport has some deadly flaws that may possible see you abandoning Towa and her secure of warriors.
Towa is the chief of a gaggle of warriors known as the Prayer Kids, who’re trying to cease the demon lord Magatsu and its plethora of villainous monsters from overrunning historical Japan. You already know, such as you do. Towa isn’t, herself, one among these warriors. Relatively, she stays again within the village to run interference and improve the Prayer Kids’s skills in between their runs by fantastical (however repetitious) environments.
Essentially the most rapid differentiator between Towa and Hades is that, right here, you’ll management two characters: a “Tsurugi” swordfighter, and a “Kagura” magic-user. Every of the eight playable characters has their very own distinctive Tsurugi movesets, a few of that are extra helpful than others. Every Tsurugi has entry to 2 swords which have to be swapped (with the X button) once they break. This appears like a ache, however if you happen to discover a Tsurugi assault you actually like (Mutsumi’s secondary sword is objectively one of the best), you possibly can actually swap proper again to the damaged blade and it will likely be healed once more. Tsuragis even have distinctive “Deadly Blow” assaults which…aren’t deadly or all that helpful.
You management the Tsurugi character immediately, shifting, attacking, and dashing to your coronary heart’s content material. Sadly, the Kagura character is, partly, managed by AI. It would comply with you wherever you go, at a brief distance. Kagura characters all have entry to the identical pool of spells so that you’re not selecting a specific companion as a lot as a helpful pair of spells. Sure, every Karuga solely has two spells, each of that are on a cooldown timer. In apply, that is irritating. You (often) management when magic assaults are used (with the ZL & ZR buttons) however they at all times have a little bit of a wind-up, throughout which period the Kagura is a simple goal. Moreover, you’re dashing for 2, however, once more, the Kagura character is on a bit of little bit of a delay so they may typically take among the harm that the Tsuguri is making an attempt to keep away from, particularly with bosses, who’ve quick assaults which change targets with little discover.
The magic assaults, I must also point out, simply aren’t very highly effective and have to be leveled up considerably each in Towa’s village and by way of run-specific boons. The Kagura character typically appears like lifeless weight as a result of they only aren’t contributing all that a lot. Actually, after absorbing a variety of low cost hits and turning into much less and fewer impressed with the accessible Kagura spells, a query started to formulate in my thoughts:
Why does Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree require two characters?
Their command buttons don’t overlap. The Tsuguri makes use of R (for some purpose) to assault, X to modify swords, and Y for the particular assault. The Kagura character makes use of ZL & ZR. The L button is used to sprint. That’s your complete management scheme. A single character might do all of those actions and also you wouldn’t should babysit an easily-targeted secondary character. Sure, you could have the power to play Towa co-op with a buddy, however whoever controls the Kagura can have much less enjoyable, as they’ve to remain inside a set distance of the Tsuguri and their assaults are on a timer.
(There additionally seems to be a strategy to arrange on-line video games between pals–I didn’t get an opportunity to do that out)
Fight is just like Hades in that you just’ll face a gaggle of enemies who announce their assaults so you may get clear, and every room can have three or 4 “waves” of creatures to defeat. None are particularly onerous or fascinating, and in contrast to Hades (however like TMNT), you’ll see a variety of the identical creatures between zones, typically with palette swaps to indicate variations in assaults or HP.
Nonetheless, in contrast to both of these video games, Towa’s stage construction isn’t set in stone. Every time you efficiently defeat a Huge Boss, you’ll be required to run by an extended set of zones, every ending with a miniboss. A few of these minibosses are surprisingly robust. However when you do lastly arrive on the Huge Boss, your characters could also be so drained of well being that defeat is inevitable. As with all roguelite, defeat implies that you’ll return to the beginning however you’ll maintain all of your distinctive gemstone-like currencies for Towa to utilize. One factor that makes minibosses and large bosses a ache is that they’re unapologetic harm sponges.
One other distinctive high quality of the extent construction is that Towa doesn’t ask you to clear your complete sport in a single run. Relatively, your purpose is to beat one Huge Boss, as a result of there are solely so many to combat. Nonetheless, because the highway to every subsequent Huge Boss is tougher than the final one, you’ll die extra typically making an attempt to get to the third Huge Boss than the second, as an example. I discovered this construction tiring as a result of you may be going by the identical zones–or not less than palette swapped variations of different zones–preventing the identical enemies, navigating the identical room layouts, and preventing the identical minibosses many occasions over simply to get to 1 new Huge Boss.
It doesn’t assist that the “boons” that your characters discover aren’t very thrilling in comparison with their fellow Hades-lites. At no level will your Tsuguri-Kagura duo turn into a whirling dervish of loss of life daring any enemies to step into your line of sight. I by no means felt overpowered in Towa. For me, one of many pleasant features of a superb roguelite is that you just often end up geared up with a mix of boons and weapons results that make you an order of magnitude extra highly effective than anything on the battlefield. The Binding of Isaac nonetheless does this higher than any of the roguelites I’ve sampled through the years, even Hades.
Anyway, as a way to even method that feeling of energy, you’ll depend on Towa again on the village. You’ll accumulate a variety of totally different currencies throughout your runs, with which you’ll enhance each share you possibly can consider. Improve the Tsuguri’s major sword harm. Improve their secondary sword harm. Improve their “Fast Draw” (sword change) harm (sure, that’s thought of a separate assault which is bonkers). Improve the Kagura’s velocity. Improve the Kagura’s mana regeneration. Improve the probabilities you’ll discover this sort of boon or that form of boon. Customise every character’s Kagura spells. Enhance one of many buildings on the town. Go fishing! Craft new swords to your Tsuguri!
It’s simply an excessive amount of. There are too many issues to improve with too many sorts of gems and the outcomes are really troublesome to understand on a run-to-run foundation. And, in fact, every factor you possibly can improve regularly requires an rising variety of gems to proceed upgrading, so it should take a number of failed (or profitable) runs to improve only one factor.
There are simply so many issues.
(I’ll say that sword crafting may be very enjoyable and jogs my memory a variety of rice farming in Sakuna: Of Rice & Smash in that you’re actively studying how Japanese swords had been made)
The opposite a part of village life is speaking to individuals for a really very long time about nothing. After these lengthy talks, Towa will often be rewarded with extra gems. The fish that Towa catches may be traded in for extra gems. When you’re quick a specific gemstone, you would possibly be capable to purchase it at one of many merchants, however they may want…totally different gems. One thing that must be impactful is that every time your Guardians defeat a Huge Boss, time will cross within the village and a few characters will age or die and get replaced with new characters. Moreover, each time you defeat a Huge Boss, your Kagura should sacrifice him or herself to cleanse the world. This must also really feel unhealthy, however it actually doesn’t as a result of all of the Prayer Kids pull from the identical spell listing. You’re probably not dropping something.
Numerous occasions, a sport that’s in any other case mid may be hoisted up by its artwork course, however whereas Towa is a beautiful sport to take a look at, it’s additionally unremarkable. Its greatest energy is its character designs, however I discover the character artwork seems to be extra spectacular than the character fashions. On the entire, Towa seems to be like a sport I might’ve performed on the PlayStation Vita not all that way back. Good, however nothing I haven’t seen earlier than. The palette-swapped enemies and overly-busy environments, which even have palette-swapped alternates, don’t assist and it’s generally troublesome to inform the place you possibly can and might’t stroll.
General, there’s a bit an excessive amount of holding Towa again from a suggestion. There are higher Hades-likes on the market, most notably Hades II: Melinoe Goes West. When you’re a dyed-in-the-wool roguelite fan, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree will certainly fill your cup, however I feel it’s too simple to stroll away from.
