On the surface, Bandai Namco’s roguelite game Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree may look like a mystical take on the classic roguelite formula emerging in the wake of Hades’ huge success. And, with Hades 2’s arrival looming, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree could easily go unnoticed, but it absolutely shouldn’t; there’s a lot to like in this dual-character adventure.

You play as Towa, the child of a god and the eternal guardian of Shinju village in a far-off mystical land. The forces of evil Magatsu are on the rise, and thus eight allies from Towa’s village and beyond joined forces to help her defeat the evil and purify the land.

From its lucious, sprawling levels to its dynamic characters and enemies, it ticks a lot of boxes at first glance, but what stands out among an increasingly crowded genre is its teamfighting mechanic. Two guardians from your party at a time will take on the roles of Tsuguri, the main damage dealer, and Kagura, the spell caster, with a great variety of combinations and playstyles to tinker with.

Just as enjoyable as playing these combinations is learning about the relationships between those characters, and seeing how they progress during short rests along the way. Throughout the game, tender moments and the passage of time tinge the vibrant world with an air of wistfulness; it’s very welcome, though there are often moments of extensive dialogue that can interrupt the pace of grinding through runs.

It’s awkward in places, yes, and sometimes the control system for the Kagura feels like an afterthought, but I’ve found it hard to put down – and a welcome excuse to play on my Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode.

Stark beginnings

Your journey begins with a short tutorial level, in which you play with Rekka as Tsuguri with Towa as Kaguri to learn the ropes. You primarily control the Tsuguri, switching between two swords with different movesets as their durability decreases and amping up the combinations by dashing, slashing, and landing Fatal Blows when your mana maxes out.

The Kagura trails behind and can trigger two spells to support your main damage dealer. Each character has two elemental attributes (water, fire, fighting, earth, lightning), and you can unlock different spells ranging from AoE to automatic projectiles. You can also control this character, but with a console controller that involves using the right trigger along with the left while also trying to land hits, so it’s only really something you’ll want to do in a pinch or for specific combos.

Worth noting is that there is an optional co-op mode where a second player can control the Kagura; however, the tether still applies, and it’s really quite a limited play experience. It would have been cool if they could have somehow transferred the weapon switching ability or Fatal Blow to the Kagura, so there’s a bit more to do.

With the tutorial out of the way, you learn that Towa’s godly gifts allow her to mess with the flow of time to revive companions, but at a terrible cost. When Magatsu pushes back against Towa, her allies are whisked off into some sort of purgatory where they must endlessly fight against Magatsu’s forces. Meanwhile, Shinju village continues to evolve and grow, and Towa, severed from her companions, must instruct their movements from across dimensions while continuing to protect the townsfolk.

Certainly, in the early levels, there’s a learning curve to lugging around your Kagura and learning which guardians pair best with each other’s movesets. For example, I quickly learned that some guardians like Koro and Akazu didn’t really gel with me as Tsuguris, but both made excellent Kaguras to my favorite frontliners like Nishiki, the buff koi man, and Bampuku, the giant furball puppy.

Once you’ve started to get the hang of the controls, it’s great fun, although it took me a while to get past the annoyance of the tethered Kagura constantly taking huge hits from powerful enemies. Weapon switching on top of all of the other attacks in the game is perhaps one thing too many for my brain to handle when I’m not totally locked in, and I often found myself letting my weapons durability drain completely and just button-mashing through weaker enemies – however it feels great when you make the effort and execute a killer combo.

That’s only the start of the fun; there’s a lot of configurability and some really fun pairups, and as the game progresses these only amplify in ridiculousness, landing combos in the hundreds as you mash through waves of enemies. You can switch out your weapons, customize buffs, increase skill stats and choose different spells for each of your eight guardians, but the game keeps this relatively high level of customization balanced by sharing unlocked content across all characters.

Those who we protect

While most of the action in the early game takes place with the banished guardians in another dimension, the village serves as the main hub between runs. As Towa, you use this area to level up your party and loadout, but also to check in with the townspeople and keep their spirits high.

There are various shopfronts and tradespeople around the village; you can exchange ores and resources from your travels at the emporium with the grumpy stooge Kafuu, or head to the Eureka Tower to purchase and equip inscriptions for the Kagura staff to boost your champion’s base stats. At the Dojo, you unlock skill points to tweak each champion’s abilities, while the shrine offers boons that effect the odds and effects during each run. As the game progresses, the village grows with more tradespeople, and you can upgrade buildings for more perks

There’s even a fun blacksmithing minigame, in which you select a sword design, build materials and buffs and can bolster these further by scoring highly in each stage of smithing. It’s very Cooking Mama-esque, but instead the feedback comes from a burly blacksmith who barks encouragement at you.

This, and a slightly rootless fishing game that earns you points redeemable with the bird-like Kei shopkeeper, are the main interactive features that give the hub an almost cozy game-esque softness, but it’s the cast of lively NPCs and shopkeepers who breathe life and love into the village.

Through their loving (and sometimes love-hate) relationships with Towa, the guardian that has protected them for generations, you gain a sense of the stakes for the main characters; there’s a lot to lose and a lot to protect in their hometown, and they’ll go to any and all ends to do it.

Any and all ends, in this case, might just involve self-sacrifice, as the guardians learn that each time they defeat a powerful Magatsu-hi, the bosses at the end of each run, the Kagura in that pair must sacrifice themselves to restore Towa’s mana and protect the village. None of them know what that might mean, or whether they will escape purgatory through their sacrifice, but each commits to the cause.

Each time a Towa absorbs the mana generated back in the village following a successful run, time moves forward, and the village can develop once more. New faces appear, and familiar friends fade; the passage of time is treated with an air of melancholy that undercuts the otherwise vivacious aesthetics of the game, and it makes for an excellent hook.

The rocky road to Magatsu

Practically speaking, the party sacrifice mechanic has a big impact; once their mana is absorbed, the Kagura won’t appear in camp, so you have to think long and hard about which pairings you want to save and which are good enough to run with but not too good to lose. Later in the game, this is further augmented; the fun is in adapting to this yourself, so look elsewhere if you want spoilers.

The core mechanics of each run are pretty similar to the likes of Hades: fight a room full of enemies, grab your reward, and then choose between different gates that hint at the next room’s rewards. Each run is split into different terrains with their unique enemies, traps, and layouts, and generally, each terrain will contain seven rooms, including mini-boss fights to offer a little more challenge along the way.

The waves of enemies are great fun throughout the game, with some inventive designs and a lot of variety across the board. I particularly liked the flamethrowing giant eyeballs and the kamikaze snails; there’s plenty here to keep you on your toes. Combat is rewarding and varied enough, and though farming can be somewhat of a slog, the scaling is decent, and there’s always a good amount to do.

Most often, you’ll be choosing between Graces as your reward for a battle well fought - collecting and upgrading these will boost stats and unlock abilities for the course of the run. These are cards from different elemental decks offering different effects that can make or break your matchup, so learning how to optimize these helps blast through the baddies.

Otherwise, some gates at the end of levels lead on to resources, or else timed battles and other challenging mini-bosses with decent payouts. However, you’ll also encounter friendly faces of the shopkeeper and food stall, too, where you can spend the in-level magamutsu currency for ores and Graces or to receive buffs for the next few levels. Hot springs can also be found along the way for health regeneration, and there are usually two campsites along the way where your heroes can take a slightly longer rest.

In these quiet moments, each pairing has different conversations and relationships that unfold over a series of short rests. Tender moments of openness, the resurfacing of long-buried hatchets, and even philosophical debate weave a wonderful picture of the main cast, and I found myself becoming attached to each party member through listening to their interactions – even those I initially couldn’t relate to, like the impetuous Shigin and carefree Origami.

Plus, the more you play a pairing, the further you’ll see their conversations develop. I particularly enjoyed the brother-sister duo of Bampuku and Mutsumi, whose misunderstanding of each other’s love language causes some unrest that gradually eases through conversations over the campfire, but even more obscure pairings like the Academic Akazu and devout Nishiki bear unexpectedly heartwarming fruit.

A home worth fighting for

These moments of reflection, however, do feel at odds with the game, and that’s a running thread throughout my whole experience with Towa. Roguelite as a genre doesn’t just imply fast pace; it demands it, and I don’t always want my focus to be pulled out of high-octane combat to listen to idle chitchat.

You’re rewarded for listening, not just with resources, but with depth and worldbuilding, much the same as the progressive interactions that crop up in the village as your journey continues. Of course, you can choose to avoid these or just fast-track through the dialogue, but I find it hard to skip through because it’s so charming – and that’s not a problem I often have with games! It’s obvious a lot of care went into the richness of the narrative, so I find myself at an impasse when it comes to maintaining the energy to play sometimes.

The game does compensate for this with progressive feature unlocks and twists, but ultimately, I did find myself needing to break from the game a little more than usual because I kept losing my flow. However, I couldn’t put it down for long.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree envelops you in its rich world, abloom with color and light as well as the gorgeous OST from Hitoshi Sakimoto of FFXII and Final Fantasy Tactics fame, and its grip is as strong as the poisonous tendrils of Magutsu’s miasma. You have to work around its quirks and give it a little room to breathe, but patience is rewarded for those who play with their heart.

Should I play Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

Within the settings, you can change the difficulty to story-led mode, which weakens the enemies and allows you to focus more on the storyline. All dialogue has voiceovers with lively acting as well as subtitles, and there are nine supported languages - English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.

How I reviewed Towa and the Guardians of the Scared Tree

I played Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree for 30+ hours, making my way through most of the main storyline. I tried both story-led and regular difficulty levels to measure accessibility for players at different skill levels, and played in both handheld and docked modes on my Nintendo Switch 2.

I love roguelikes and roguelites, so I compared my experience to popular titles like Hades, The Binding of Isaac, and Dead Cells. I considered factors like the art direction, pacing, and complexity within the pairings.

First reviewed September 2025

Had Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush been released as a free update, I would be singing its praises.

After all, if I had one complaint with Donkey Kong Bananza in the weeks since it launched, it’s that there’s no real reason to keep coming back for more after the credits roll, and this new downloadable content (DLC) expansion remedies that somewhat by bringing back the fan-favorite Donkey Kong Island and introducing a replayable side mode to dive into.

It’s an enjoyable diversion for a couple of hours and gives you a delightful excuse to rediscover some of the best locations from the main game, but for $19.99 / £16.99, the content on offer is just too slim to fully recommend.

That’s the exact same price as the recently launched Drag X Drive and most Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades, not to mention indie titans like Hollow Knight: Silksong if you venture outside the first-party catalog - all of which would be better value purchases.

Switching sides

The entirety of DK Island & Emerald Rush takes place after the main game, with the new DK Island layer appearing the next time you visit the Eelevator. Situated on the surface, a short distance from Ingot Isle, the map is a novel interpretation of how the setting appeared in the original Donkey Kong Country. It’s a joy to explore for a little bit, with memorable landmarks like Donkey Kong’s little hit and the massive Kong head-shaped volcano sure to delight long-time fans.

There’s loads of gold to hoover up, particularly in the smattering of small challenge levels hidden in its various nooks and crannies, which makes it all feel like a fitting celebration now that you’ve finished the game.

Unfortunately, there’s very little to do beyond exploration. There are a few locations clearly designed for taking screenshots in the photo mode with the likes of Diddy Kong and Cranky Kong, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that there’s no real progression like a standard Bananza stage. There aren’t even any enemies to defeat, which leaves it all feeling rather empty.

Most of your time on DK Island is clearly meant to be spent in the Emerald Rush mode, accessed by visiting Void Kong on a wrecked piledriver adjacent to the island. There’s a sliver of story content, with Donkey Kong and Pauline unwillingly drafted into joining Void Company in order to collect a new emerald substance, and then you’re thrust straight into it.

In the mode, you run around a past level in which all of the existing gold has been turned into bright green emerald. Your task is to smash through it quickly and hoover up as much as possible within ten timed rounds, meeting a certain threshold in each in order to continue into the next.

Void Kong feeds you objectives as you go, which usually boil down to defeating some special green enemies that have spawned on the map or completing a quick task like dipping yourself in water or using a nearby barrel launcher.

Completing objectives or collecting one of the now green Fossils or Banandium gems lets you choose a perk, mainly centered around increasing your rate of Emerald collection.

There are a decent number of them, and they stack in interesting ways, leading to some satisfying rogue-like progression. On one run, for example, each enemy I defeated at full health would result in a deluge of Emerald thanks to multiple similar bonuses, and on another, I earned hundreds of times the usual reward for each completed objective.

Climbing the corporate ladder

Finishing Emerald Rush runs awards Banandium Chips that can be spent placing statues of characters on DK Island.

There's no real way to interact with these statues beyond bashing or throwing them, so this whole addition feels completely superfluous unless your idea of enjoyment is tossing around an inanimate idol of Squarks the Parrot.

Thankfully, there is a much meatier progression system tied to your current employee rating, which increases with each successful run. Working your way up the ranks gives you the chance to return to other past maps (there are a total of six), puts new perks into rotation, and unlocks some cool Void Co outfits to wear.

Beyond messing around with the option to increase the difficulty of each Emerald Rush run, which raises the required quota to progress and removes some starting abilities, there’s really not much else to this DLC, and you’re going to have had your fill after just a few hours. The perks add plenty of variety, but many of the objectives in Emerald Rush are quite samey and mean that it gets stale before you’ve even managed to max out your employee level.

What’s here certainly isn’t terrible by any means and does successfully extend the game’s overall runtime, particularly if you want to unlock everything, but it’s not unreasonable to expect something more substantial at this price.

Should I play Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

As an expansion, Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush has the same suite of accessibility features as the base game. This means you can access an assist mode, which makes the game easier overall, in addition to the various difficulty options for each Emerald Rush run.

Camera controls can also be inverted, and your main actions can be customized using some presets. Subtitles are enabled by default.

How I reviewed Donkey Kong Bananza

I spent over three hours in the DK Island & Emerald Rush expansion using a Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode using the standard Joy-Con 2 controllers and the system’s built-in speakers.

Having written our Donkey Kong Bananza review, I compared my experience to that of the base game and carefully considered the value for money offered by this DLC compared to other Nintendo releases and various Nintendo Switch 2 games.

First reviewed September 2025