Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree Preview - A Worthwhile Roguelike That Is Perfect For The Steam Deck

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I feel like I talk about roguelikes almost every day to some degree. There are so many of them; the quality and uniqueness vary heavily. Some try to copy the more popular games, while others stand out completely by making games work in this genre that I never expected.

When I first saw Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree at Summer Game Fest, it gave me the impression of something I’ve seen before. The combat is very familiar, especially as someone who has played Hades for hundreds of hours. Still, the Japanese aesthetic, with some awesome-looking characters, looking at you, Bampuku, kept me intrigued. Recently, I tried it out again for myself and see if they stand out enough to justify adding this to our ever-growing list of roguelikes. Now that I have more time, I can see more of the differences, and it’s enough to justify bringing it into our roguelike libraries.

The biggest similarity to other popular roguelikes is going to be its combat. On the surface, it’s going to look and feel a lot like Hades. You run around and utilize different attacks to defeat enemies on the map. In general, the combat loop feels very similar to Hades, with one button to attack and a dash to dodge enemy attacks. However, there are many smaller changes in the mechanics that keep that Hades-clone feeling from creeping in.

When we go into runs, we will bring a pair of characters, a Tsurugi and a Kagura. The Tsurugi is the one you take direct control of, while the Kagura provides support. They don’t directly attack, but provide two skills that can be used to help defeat foes once you press the button. Each character has a different moveset as Tsurugi and different skills as Kagura, so mixing and finding the best combination for your playstyle will help a lot.

As the Tsurugi, you go into battle with two different swords. One provides a basic melee attack, while the other has a chargeable attack with a larger range. Both weapons have a durability meter and require being switched out consistently to recharge their respective meters. Swapping out swords also attacks the enemy, and along with an ultimate attack, rounds out the moves we have to take down our enemies.

With Towa being a roguelike, we will also consistently get upgrades to make us more powerful in the run. The upgrades have their own themes and augment individual attacks and dashes. Choosing wisely will be key, and it will add to the strategic decisions that need to be made to get through encounters unscathed.

In my time, I ended up picking Bampuku as my Tsurugi and swapping out different Kagura. Bampuku is a heavy-hitter, with one sword doing this spinning dash-like attack, while the other charges up a huge shockwave that encompasses a massive area around him. I loved using my main attack to dodge, while switching to my charging shockwave to deal significant damage to everyone around me. I would try to get upgrades to accommodate that. Boy, was it satisfying. It was never overpowered, but just enough to deal with enemies and make it worthwhile to use against bosses.

While the combat is solid and enjoyable, it was the progression systems that caught my eye. Well, one aspect of it hooked me in particular. Well do have general ways of upgrading our individual characters with skill points and gems to augment the Kagura abilities, but all of that paled in comparison to sword forging.

Using materials we collect in our runs, we can create our own swords. There’s an assortment of mini games to play during the forging process, which increases durability and allows us to specifically sharpen the sword to increase specific types of damage, but there’s more customization in play. We can change its sheen, the color of its handle, name, and even the specific look of the blade. Changing the look of the blade was easily my favorite part of customization, since it allowed me to create the weirdest-looking, messed-up blade that in no way would be functional in real life. While it’s small, I loved it, and if you look very closely at the sword your Tsurugi is holding, you can see that customized model of your blade in their hand, if it’s equipped. It’s one of my favorite features, and I can’t wait to see how it expands in the full game.

The aesthetic pushes it further to uniqueness, and I love it. The bright, vivid colors pair nicely with the OLED screen of the Steam Deck, and everything just pops. The design of the town, enemies, landscapes, and characters all just work together nicely.

I also appreciate the emphasis on story. The structure of the runs follows a storyline, which is interesting. There were some surprising twists, like characters dying after a run is completed, but I appreciated that it felt like I was progressing both in the story and getting further in the game. I loved seeing the interactions between characters and following Towa’s journey to fight Magatsu and save the village.

Then, we get to Steam Deck performance. I got to try the game on the Steam Deck during my preview, and I can confidently say it’s fantastic on the go. It easily hit 90 FPS with almost no drops, and battery drain regularly averaged under 15W. There isn’t much more to say other than it feels like the perfect fit for portable play.

There are a lot of roguelikes out right now, especially ones with top-down combat, but Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree seems to be doing enough to stand out and above its competitors. Its visuals, intriguing dual-sword combat, and awesome sword forging make it more enjoyable than I expected. I can't wait to see how the full release will differ, and I can't wait to play more.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree can be pre-purchased for $29.99 ahead of its September 18th release. It's also rated Steam Deck Verified.

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