When you initially think about the essence of a traditional ARPG, the first descriptors that come to mind may not necessarily be “charming” or “cozy”. Such games typically opt for fast-paced action with a good dose of dramatic flair. However, Towerborne is a new IP that seeks to bring a whimsical and approachable dynamic to the subgenre that we haven’t seen in some time.
After its decorated history with the classic Banner Saga series, Stoic is returning in true form with Towerborne. With gameplay honorably reminiscent of that franchise and undeniably endearing (and surprising) aesthetic inspiration from Studio Ghibli, Towerborne is a vibrantly delightful adventure that is honestly hard to put down for many reasons.
The premise of the game brings players into a world where the biggest human civilizations, including the City of Numbers, have been ravaged and overrun by a mysterious plague of monsters called Gobos. The last bastion of safety for survivors is the Belfry, a gigantic windmill tower that stretches high into the clouds. Its walls are encased with actual houses and buildings, forming a city all its own that looks straight out of a Ghibli film. From a creative standpoint, this visual feature is an achievement in itself.
The game kicks things off with an impressive character customization system that’s got an incredible amount of options to select from. Given Towerborne’s overall aesthetic, the options are clearly heavily influenced by anime stylizations, from the classic to the eccentric. So if you’re into that kind of style, you’re definitely in luck with this one.
One very small quip I had was the inability to rotate my character while customizing them, meaning you have to rely entirely on what the icons show for things like hairstyles. Given that most character creators in games allow you to rotate and see the full visage of your creation, this was a bit surprising to me, especially with the amount of detail the creator has otherwise. A future update could easily fix that, however. Also, you can easily change your character’s look as often as you want at no cost from the Facewright found at the Belfry.
The player takes the role of a character known as an Ace, a league of specialized fighters who can be brought back to life from the spirit realm to battle another day. The game begins with us being revived as well, though our memories of our past life are strangely gone. Comrades such as Courage and Paloma, the founder of the Aces, help our character get back on their feet and into the sword swing of things.
A handy tour of the Belfry gets us acquainted with various resources such as the Forge, the World Map, the Job Board, Danger License Trials, and other NPCs that help further establish worldbuilding. The story itself takes a bit of time to really get going, as the start of the game focuses on you exploring the world around the Belfry and unlocking more of it by completing missions in each “tile” quadrant. The more tiles you complete, the more your character levels up while obtaining piles of loot that consist mostly of gear and weapons and special items such as aspects.
When it comes to combat, there are four unique offensive classes to choose from. Sentinel is a classic sword-and-shield class that is probably the easiest to pick up first. Another is Pyroclast which wields a giant warclub that harnesses the power of fire in various ways. This class can feel a bit cumbersome at times, and while still satisfying to play, it does take practice and I’d recommend trying it after you get a good feel for the game’s combat.
Rockbreaker is probably the most fun of the four, as you get to wield giant fist gauntlets and give any Gobos you run into some devastating sucker punches. It’s not only effective against big groups of enemies but also bosses with plenty of HP to burn. The fourth and final class is Shadowstriker, which is essentially the game’s Rogue (or Ninja) class. Brandishing dual daggers, this class opts for stealth and swift consecutive strikes and prioritizes agility as its means of defense.
While playing through Towerborne, you can easily switch between these classes as often as you want, allowing you to level them simultaneously. You’re not required to do so, however, if you’d rather focus on just one that you feel most comfortable with. It may seem a bit strange that there are only four physical attack classes to choose from, and that they don’t include one that harnesses magic or focuses on healing. While Early Access is starting with these options, Stoic has assured that plenty more classes will be added to the roster down the road.
When diving into a tile mission and taking on hordes of Gobos and other creatures, the combat is gratefully satisfying in many ways. It functions in a “left to right” fashion with inspiration from other sidescrolling indie classics like Castle Crashers. It can take a bit of time to get used to recognizing the hitboxes of enemies and making sure you land your combos. If you’re angled too “high” or “low” from the enemy’s lane of attack, your hits may miss entirely. That’s honestly the most challenging aspect of Towerborne’s combat.
Otherwise, beating up those pesky Gobos comes relatively easy, and Stoic prioritized making the game as approachable as possible. Whether you’ve seldom picked up a videogame or you play on a daily basis, Towerborne is intended to be easy for anyone to dive into, regardless of skill, and that’s commendable for this new installment in the ARPG genre.
This is further emphasized by how the game’s difficulty scaling functions, as each new combat tile you unlock has different levels you can choose, depending on your overall gear level. While the best rewards lie in the higher tiers of difficulty, if you want to keep things as easy as possible, you can absolutely do so.
On top of all that, Towerborne includes a multiplayer feature that allows you to invite up to three friends to come along on your adventures. Each party member can go as a different class to fully diversify your group’s abilities, or if you all want to be Rockbreakers and punch everything, that’s totally doable too.
As you level your desired class, you can thoroughly customize your character’s loadout with an incredible variety of unique gear pieces that each have different traits and equipped abilities. What’s more, you can augment them with special stones called Aspects, that provide further beneficial buffs to your character. Perhaps the most adorable feature of all, however, are Umbras.
These special little floating creatures act as powerful companions that you can wield in combat with different abilities. The game starts you off with the so-called “cat ball” named Iska (seen above), and you can unlock numerous other Umbras found at Umbra Shrines around the World Map. Not only are they fun to simply collect, they can help you turn the tide of battle.
Towerborne definitely has many, many positive elements going for it so far during Early Access, but I’m just as anxious to see how it intends to grow going forward, and how certain things can be adjusted. For instance, while it’s very responsive and implemented well, the character UI and HUD during combat could still use a few improvements. The ability gauges displayed under a character’s name aren’t entirely distinct and can be easily confused, particularly during the first hours of gameplay.
The ability icons in the top left corner are evidently meant to help distinguish which ability is which, but there’s no text or (better yet) color coding that coincides with the ability gauges to help verify that. Telling us what the controls are for them helps, but implementing clear visual cues is what actually helps the player gain confidence in memorizing and familiarizing those controls and ultimately improving their combat skills as they reach more challenging areas of the map. To bolster the game’s commitment to approachability, this is fundamentally important.
Aside from those technical points of note, there is still more than plenty to appreciate about what Towerborne has accomplished and what it desires to provide to the player community going forward. An undeniably charming ARPG that adheres to the allure of mystical adventure while paying abundant respect to the one-of-a-kind visual marvels of Studio Ghibli.
As Towerborne finds its home among the clouds while protecting the remnants of humanity, it has done well so far not to get lost in them and holds plenty of potential that I personally can’t wait to see unfold.
Published: Sep 10, 2024 08:00 am