Just like Soulslikes and Metroidvanias, the roguelike genre has become a crowded space. And it’s easy to see why — they deliver a great blend of dopamine hits and challenges, culminating in that “just one more run” feeling. Unfortunately for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, after several hours and several runs, I’m not craving more, but eager to get back to Hades 2 already.
The villainous Magatsu has unleashed corrupted beasts known as Magatsu-hi, and it’s up to Towa and the eight guardians to put a stop to them. While saving the world is certainly an important endeavor, there’s also ample time to spend at the Shinju Village hub world to get to know other characters, purchase upgrades, and craft swords.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is easily compared to Supergiant’s Hades series as its combat and gameplay loop feel extremely similar. I dash between enemies, slicing them up with my chosen guardians’ sword, and am rewarded with an upgrade or augment upon clearing a room. Succeed in enough rooms and I’ll encounter a boss fight, which will make or break my run. But the comparison isn’t a terribly flattering one for Towa. You’ve played this before, and likely better versions of it.
Like other 2025 roguelikes Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, with its dice-throwing attacks, and Panta Rhei, with its time-reversal powers, Towa has a gimmick to set itself apart: pairing up guardians for each run. I select one of the eight playable characters as the Tsurugi sword-wielder and another to control the Kagura staff. I control the sword-wielder, and the game-controlled guardian provides support via offensive and/or defensive spells, like slamming down a magic fist for high damage or briefly shielding the characters. (You can also play in a co-op mode, though I haven’t tested this yet.)
Each guardian wields two swords, and I have to swap between them frequently due to the durability system. Origami, for example, delivers slow, heavy attacks with her Honzashi, and charged-up multi-attacks that knock enemies back with her Wakizashi. In this respect, Towa encourages experimentation. Instead of trying out new weapons, I swap between combinations of guardians, testing out how their various attacks and spells complement one another.
But after a handful of runs, the limits of that experimentation begin to show. Beyond their sword attacks, the guardians don’t play all that differently from one another, and there are surprisingly few spells at their disposal. It also doesn’t help that most upgrades are passive boosts that don’t alter the experience much. In Hades, the different Daedalus Hammer upgrades and Boons can drastically change my approach to combat run-to-run, even when using the same weapon. The deeper I get in Towa, though, the more I find myself sticking with the guardian Origami or Shigin, whose primary attack sends boomerang-like blades flying. There’s just too little incentive to mix things up.
Combat is serviceable, though lacking a certain spark. Most regular enemies won’t pose too much of a challenge; be on your Ps and Qs dodging their highly telegraphed attacks, and you won’t have to worry much. Some minibosses require a bit more thought, but I mostly found myself going through the motions until the Magatsu-hi boss fights. It doesn’t help that some levels feel unnecessarily long; I could clear the first level in under fifteen minutes, whereas the second would take 35-40 minutes of very mid combat to reach a somewhat engaging boss fight.
There are also a multitude of minor annoyances that pile up the more time you spend with the game. Characters never shut up, espousing their worries during the middle of a fight or saying the same catchphrases after clearing a room. Campfire conversations, which typically occur before the level’s final boss, are too dull to get me to care about the characters. And Towa’s chats with the villagers drag on way too long for little reward. The game doesn’t make me care about the relationship-building like in (you guessed it) Hades and Hades 2.
Look, it’s not Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree’s fault that it came out a week before Hades 2 releases in 1.0. (Though the mouthful of a title is certainly someone’s fault.) It was slotted for its Sept. 18 launch for some time, while Supergiant only just recently gave Hades 2 a 1.0 release date.
Maybe if publisher Bandai Namco had known earlier that Hades 2 would launch on the tails of Towa, it would have considered pushing its roguelike back, like how Hollow Knight: Silksong caused other indie publishers to delay their games. Because, as it stands now, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree feels like unceremoniously chomping through a fast-casual salad right before a Michelin-starred meal.
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is out now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a prerelease download code provided by Bandai Namco. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.