Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree Hands-On Preview – Planting Seeds
Roguelites are one of those genres I bounce on and off with. Sometimes I love the grind, sometimes I’m just not in the mood to get wrecked over and over. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree falls into that sweet spot where even when I failed, I didn’t feel annoyed, I just wanted to go again.
Bandai Namco gave us an early look at the upcoming roguelite in development at Brownies Inc., and this could be one tree that bears fruit.
Jumping In
The setup’s simple: peace is gone, the world’s a mess, and Towa plus her crew of companions are the only ones who can fix it. There aren’t cutscenes or anything fancy, just dialogue between your duo as you play. It’s all voiced in English or Japanese, and honestly, that worked way better than I expected. The back-and-forth chatter keeps runs from feeling empty, and the art style does the rest.
Of course, being a small slice of what seems to be setting itself up for a much larger story, I didn’t get a chance to explore it much. But what was there, which can be experienced similarly to say Hades’ story, where characters will talk to you during and between runs, seemed to be enjoyable and rather charming. Despite the short time I had with them, I really grew fond of some of the characters and world-building the game was building up to.
Messing Around With Swords
For combat, the first thing that hooked me was the sword system. You don’t just pick up a random blade; you make it. Shape, handle, colors, all of it. It sounds small, but it makes your weapon feel like yours. And the way it ties into your companion choice is clever. Each one can be either a Kagura that has the specific handling of spells or a Tsurugi, which involves melee abilities, with different attack styles like Honzashi or Wakizashi on top. It gives you a lot of room to mess around.
This is where Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree truly stand out, as you aren’t playing through this rogue experience alone, but rather with two characters, the main, and a support that follows you around. There’s a good deal of variety with this system, swapping between partners and weapons to see what clicked, and discovering different combos that all felt great.
No two runs played the same. Sometimes I’d run into tougher monsters, sometimes the mini-boss count went up, sometimes I just got unlucky with loot. Along the way, I picked up cards that buff stuff like attack or defense, and magatama that you can spend in shops depending on the path you take. There are also Persimmon Ores that let you boost your companions with more health, stronger attacks, and things like that.
One thing I really liked: before committing to a run, you can test out your chosen duo’s abilities. That’s a lifesaver. Nothing worse than going 20 minutes deep and realizing your setup sucks.
As for the difficulty, you get two difficulty options in Towa: Story and Normal. The story is there if you just want to take a stroll with a smidge of difficulty, and Normal if you want the challenge. I played on Normal, and it can be tough, but it never felt cheap. Bonfires and healing spots show up enough that you’re not constantly on life support.
Every run ends with a Magatsu-hi fight, which is basically the big boss fight. These things are brutal. They’re designed to check if your build works. I made it to the fourth one before my session ended, but it took me a few tries. Still, even when I lost, I got new materials to craft better swords or boost my team, so it never felt like wasted time.
Final Thoughts
What makes Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree work is the loop. Craft a sword, pick your duo, dive in, get wrecked, come back stronger. It’s simple, but it clicks. The sword crafting is the standout feature, but the companion system adds a lot too. And the game just has this cool, artsy vibe that makes it stick. The story shows a lot of promise, and it has that same kind of drive that I got with Hades, where I want to keep doing runs over and over to learn more about the story.
I can see this being one of those games that people discover, start talking about, and then quietly blow up. It’s not flashy, but it’s fun, and that’s all I wanted out of it. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final game, and this small glimpse has me hopeful that it’ll be something special. Especially for those looking for a co-op game, as while I didn’t get to test it out during my preview, it was clear that this would be even more fun with another player than it already was.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree launches on September 18, 2025, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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