If I did not know in advance that I would play in Tow and Guardians of the Sacred Tree during the days of playing last weekend, I could overlook his trailers during the summer festival. The announcement itself was less than two minutes, and what we saw mainly like Hades, but with the choice of characters. However, after 15 minutes of playing in the days of the game I am much more interested than at first I expected that I would be in the Roguelite genre … Although I will need Waaay for over 15 minutes to do it well.
Towola and the guards of the Holy Tree, the guardian of the village of Shinju and the child of the gods. When the Dark God begins to consume the land around Shinju with a bad miasm, he collects eight inhabitants of the village. These “prayer children” go out onto the pitch, two at the same time to fight the creatures of darkness, one of which takes the role of “Tsuruga” or the sword, and the other takes on the role of supporting staff or “Kagura”.
At the beginning of each gear you choose which of eight characters you want in every role, and all characters have different skills depending on the role. In my preview, I chose the recovers as my sword, which attacks miniature, rapid cuts and a persistent spin attack. My staff was Nishiki, inspired by fish-inspired by fish, which can recall lightning to surround the player and shoot at a wave of water in any direction.
I immediately fought a bit to adapt to double stick control. Nishiki automatically followed the recipient, which I controlled with my left stick, but it was clear that in the optimal game I had to break Nishiki Free from the recovers and throw it at the same time with the right stick when I fought with enemies. It’s easier to say than to do. I think this is a really intriguing turn of what I am used to top -down games, almost reminiscent of the original, which the world ends when you control two characters on two different screens. But I think I needed over 15 minutes in a demo to get used to it. Apparently, you can also play in a cooperative, and one person controls each character, and this is also an attractive perspective.
The second unique element, which really, really wanted more time to master, was a quick draw. In Tuie, your sword owner carries not one, but two swords, but he has only one equipped at once. Each sword has a different ability, and recovers have its miniature cuts attached to one, and its charging spin attack on the other. When you exploit one sword, it begins to exterminate until it is useless, and you need to exploit the quick drawing capacity to turn into the second, so that it can be first. A successful fight in goods turns to make them change smoothly between two swords, so you are never caught in a situation where you need one attack, but you have a matte blade and you will get stuck with ineffective ability. Basically, it is a nice system, certainly unique, and I’m curious how it will play at higher levels of skill.
Everything I saw in Towl will be known to Hades’s average lover. You will pristine all the monsters in the room and get a choice of “grace”. Grace strengthen your power in different ways, from straightforward power to change different skills and interact with each other. The door to the next room can mean enemies, shopkeepers or other types of rooms, and you will break down things to collect currency for improvements in stores and a special Ruda that may be improved by the skills of your heroes when you take them back to the village.
My time from the TOC was shortened when I entered the battle with the boss, so unfortunately I can’t talk about how it would play. But this preview absolutely made me want to play more. I want to ruin various character configurations and see what other updates are available, and I want to practice my double game so that my staff user does not die at me before I even reached the point halfway (UPS). I do not know if the host of the Holy Tree can necessarily meet Hades’s sublime legacy, but I think it can unscrew the space in the Roguelite genre.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior Ign reporter. You can find her post on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.skyla. Do you have a hint with history? Send it to ralentine@ign.com.
