Roguelikes have been around for decades, with games evolving from barely having a few pixels moving on the screen to featuring Hollywood-level acting, incredible art, and varied gameplay.
A derivative genre known as the roguelite takes elements from roguelikes, makes them less hardcore, and introduces a more streamlined way to experience permadeath runs, one filled with continuous upgrades, smaller stages, and massive boss fights. The pinnacle of the genre is certainly Hades, a game that added so much into the mix it could very well be called its own thing, and many games have tried following in its footsteps, to more or less success.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is one such title, taking an established formula and expanding it with incredibly unique and different mechanics, most of which I have never seen before in a video game. Combining these new elements with a JRPG and Visual Novel flair has produced a title that feels like a breath of fresh air in more ways than one.
With stunning visuals, a breathtaking color palette, and an approach to combat that is as interesting as it is frustrating, Towa is well beyond what I expected, and could have been a lot better if it weren't for certain combat-related issues that significantly take away from the experience.
Charming, beautiful, rich with story
More of a Hades-like than a rougelike in itself, Towa is a charming, stunning game, placing you in the shoes of Priestess Towa and her Prayer Children, who must go through various combat challenges in the effort to beat a powerful demon, Magatsu, who is plaguing the land.
The game unfolds as a series of challenges, where you have to select two characters who you will control simultaneously through these stages, which are more or less identical to what Hades has. Your first pick, the Tsurugi, is the melee attacker, whereas the second, the Kagura, is the spell caster. The Tsurugi is the one you control directly, while the Kagura is tied to your primary character.
Both are controlled at the same time, meaning you'll have to pay attention to each character's positioning and use their spells in unison for maximum effect.
Each stage is packed with enemies, and beating all of them in various challenges leads to rewards in the form of currency, resources, or, most importantly, power-up cards which should be familiar to you from other games in the genre. There are levels of respite and healing which you can use to restore your characters before storming into boss fights, which are varied and quite formidable.
The game is rich in story, as its world and characters are all fleshed out and have tons of dialogue and lore. But they're told to you more in the way of a JRPG or visual novel rather than a Western roguelike or other story-rich genre, so if you're a fan of those, you'll definitely love what Towa has done here.
Since you have to pick two characters at once, they will usually synergize well story-wise, exchange dialogue, and have deeper conversations during rests, adding a layer of RPG to this otherwise combat and action-oriented roguelike title.
On the other hand, the game has stunning visuals and perhaps the best art direction of any game launched in 2025. I know Clair Obscur fans will rip into me for that one, but Towa's style, 2D art, and overall color palette is something out of this world, and undoubtedly one of the game's strongest points.
Combined with unique gameplay mechanics which I've never encountered in any similar game thus far, Towa ends up quite the interesting title, innovating on the roguelike formula on the same level as Hades, which itself is a revolutionary series.
Unique in more ways than one
Towa is among the most unique games I've played this year, not least because it gives you control of two characters simultaneously, which you have to micromanage to a degree to avoid taking unnecessary damage. Each character has its own set of skills, both in the role of the Tsurugi and the Kagura, and you can place any character in whatever role you wish.
All characters can be individually leveled up, equipped with different weaponry, given specific spells and abilities, and buffed with passive effects. This adds a lot of layers to the core gameplay loop, as your whole game can drastically change between runs depending on which characters you chose to bring along, in which roles, and with what abilities, passives, and other upgrades.
This further means most players will have dramatically different experiences between each other, which is something not a lot of games can say. The replay value is massive as well, especially due to particular story elements that I won't get into to avoid spoilers. But I can just say returning to Towa can and will be definitely different and varied, with multiple replays never getting stale.
What's more, Towa has one of the best mechanics in a game I have ever seen: you can forge your own katanas. The forging system is so detailed and realistic that it's honestly incredible, and I can't say I ever expected to see this in a game as cute and quirky as Towa.
Katanas can be made from the ground up, with the ability to create custom designs, use your own preferred material to achieve various passive effects, sharpen the blade in whatever way you see fit, and hammer it into perfection. If Towa were just this mechanic, with some trading on top, it'd be the best blacksmith simulation game of all time, bar none. I can't describe how much time I've spent at the forge, tinkering and making my own sword just how I like it.
All of the above, though, amazing though it is, falls short of greatness when Towa's actual combat and gameplay are taken into account; various design flaws, inconsistencies, and other detractors leave a sour taste.
Artificial difficulty, floaty combat, and confusing gameplay
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree's combat feels exceptionally floaty, much in line with its heavy JRPG inspiration and lean, and attacking enemies oftentimes doesn't give that feedback and “kick” you'd expect in a modern title. This is more true on some Tsurugi characters than others, and it definitely is inconsistent and varied, and not in a good way.
This often leads to your sticking to just one single Tusurgi character for the entire run, based on how much you like their attacks, and I'm almost certain it'll be Rekka, whose slash attacks and AOE sword swings are simply the most effective in the game. The Kagura don't vary all too much between each other, at least initially, and often add more to confusion than to combat versatility.
They will frequently be hard to aim with, positioned in places where you don't want them, and taking great chunks of damage for no good reason. Managing both the Tsurugi and the Kagura effectively can be overwhelming at times, especially against more challenging enemies, of which there are many.
The game also features weapon durability, which can deplete fast, forcing you to either pick up a Grace to make your abilities restore durability, or to switch to your other sword and back, which refills the bar. Given that you can instantly restore it, I feel the durability is somewhat unnecessary and more superficial and tedious than mechanically interesting.
Towa has an incredibly inconsistent difficulty curve, where things are cranked up from 0 to 11 in basically a single stage. In one level, you'd be clearing entire waves of enemies without getting hit or feeling any sort of challenge whatsoever, while in the other a powerful boss will be doing 600 damage per hit, while you have 1200 total.
Additionally, the boss will have so much HP and various defensive AOE abilities that beating them proves more of a chore than a challenge, leading to resets, which can be quite tedious to make up for.
As opposed to Hades, where you're expected to clear the game in a single go, Towa has several massive stages you need to beat, with several boss fights and levels before the final fight. Clearing all of these without dying is no small feat, especially in some cases, and dying at the end takes you back to the very beginning, meaning a single stage can take literal hours to clear at no fault of your own.
Mixed with the game's floaty combat, this artificial difficulty becomes more exacerbated, since you'll sometimes get hit or take massive damage without ever really feeling like you did, or that you should have, which is ultimately very frustrating. End-of-stage design also lacks a lot, and doesn't add to the gratification one should experience when defeating a challenging enemy.
Towa, however, does have a story mode for those who don't wish to fight it out, so that's a welcome addition. The story is fairly interesting and, with characters as fleshed out as they are, alongside those other cute, calm, and fun bits of the game, this could prove a significant relief if you've had a negative experience with the combat, or a way through the game for players who just want to kick back and relax.
When all is taken into consideration, Towa is nonetheless a solid game, with visuals and mechanics the likes of which we rarely see in modern video games. If its issues were to be ironed out post-launch, even if it were just a tweak to numbers, this could potentially be a great title. As it stands, though, it's certainly the roughest of diamonds.
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