'Towers of Aghasba' Early Access Impressions
This week, Dreamlit Games launched their debut title, Towers of Aghasba (ToA), into Early Access on Steam and PS5. It’s an open-world, fantasy builder that takes inspiration from the likes of Studio Ghibli and Animal Crossing. After spending some time with it, I’ll be sharing my thoughts of the game in this article.
After a seafaring voyage, the Shimu people are back to their ancestral land of Aghasba. Decades before, they had to flee due to life-draining infestations brought about by the mysterious force known as the Withered. Now, the Shimu have decided to reclaim their homeland and clear it of this plague.
However, upon their arrival, they find that much of the land is barren and much work needs to be done in order to support a whole community. This task falls upon you, a young Shimu turned architect-explorer, to gather resources to develop Aghasba and explore its islands to clear it of the Withered while also learning about its dark past.
ToA is a visually attractive game and might be the main reason it draws players, even in its Early Access state. The fantasy world of Aghasba is original and detailed. Its curious cast of main characters are well animated, with emotive facial expressions. Its intricate sound design is also notable and it makes the experience feel like playing through an animated movie. In many ways, it reminded me of Kena: Bridge of Spirits and it does its Ghibli-inspirations justice. In fact, Dreamlit Games even recruited Yoichi Nishikawa, one of Studio Ghibli’s background artists, to produce hand-painted background textures for the game.
Tasked with building a thriving community on Aghasba, you will have to explore new territories, collect resources, build infrastructures and farm crops to support the Shimu. With its open world design, you are free to roam, climb and swim across Aghasba; that is, as much as your stamina permits. Once you have the adequate resources, you can craft equipment and build structures to support your community.
Initially, you will have to plant special seeds to develop an ecosystem. This will lead to fauna and flora populating the area, which will further provide the raw material that you can harvest for crafting and building. You can further interact with the ecosystem by feeding creatures and planting seeds. Such a balance between nature and human activity is interesting and is integral to the gameplay and ToA's story.
Aghasba has different biomes, based on which the ecosystem will vary and attract different types of life forms. Each biome allows for the establishment of different types of villages, with their own unique structures. It is always satisfying to see ecosystems develop and the land getting repopulated thanks to your efforts.
There’s a strong survival element to ToA’s gameplay. You are provided with the bare minimum and have to source the rest by yourself. This means performing tasks like chopping down trees for wood, breaking boulders to get flint and hunting creatures to collect hide.
As you explore the lands, you will encounter native fauna, some of which aren’t as welcoming as others. You will have to defend yourself while also replenishing your health gauge with food that you have collected. You’ll also need to keep an eye on the integrity of your weapons as they do break over time and you’ll have to craft new ones to support your journey.
This adds a layer of immersiveness and challenge but the balance could be optimised. The main issue is that resources have an irregular drop rate. For example, flint can be harvested from boulders but you don't know if you'll end up with a stone or flint when you do break down a boulder. This principle applies to other resources as well, which can be frustrating when you might need a specific element to craft a certain item.
However, as a game with a heavy focus on building, you will need to go through this ordeal over and over again. The game follows this template where you need to farm elements, craft and build while occasionally fending off hostilities. This need to grind is far from favourable, unless this level of “realism” is something you enjoy.
Combat in ToA also needs some polish. Despite its focus on survival and building, there is a hint of action-RPG inspirations in this title. You will have access to the likes of spears and a bow and arrow that allow you to hunt creatures and defend yourself. There’s an interesting tension in combat as killing creatures will make you lose Amity or your bond with nature. This can be restored by other acts such as growing ecosystems and serves to balance between needs and exploitation.
However, you have limited movesets during combat and your attacks aren’t fluid. They do not feel very effective with fast-moving fauna while you aren’t allowed enough freedom of movement during attacks. I found that the combat mechanic to be lacking in depth as well as fluidity to make it feel engaging akin to its action-RPG inspirations.
Dreamlit Games have also developed a co-op feature for ToA, although this aspect isn’t as flesh out yet. Once you unlock the ability to play in multiplayer, you are able to play with up to 3 other players to collaborate on activities such as fighting the Withered, build ecosystems and visit each other’s island. But currently, you cannot complete the campaign in co-op. Co-op does not seem like the main focus of the game, which might be a downer for those looking for more of a multiplayer element. The fact that you have to grind through the opening hours before unlocking multiplayer isn’t encouraging either.
My experience playing ToA on PC has been rather smooth, with no crashes and only some occasional glitches. My main complaint is that on PC, the controls somehow use the PlayStation layout which can be confusing, and some environmental collisions need to be optimised as they can be distracting. I also think that an option to reposition structures would be handy as sometimes, the blueprint of structurex isn’t totally reflective of the final product.
A minor downside that I encountered is that NPCs have the same dialogues. This is likely due to these being placeholders until the final version and I hope this gets addressed over time. The game does have an original cast with quirky personalities, but the cast seems limited and would benefit from a wider cast, especially as the game is currently more focused on single-player experience.
Indeed, it’s best to consider ToA as a single-player survival game with an emphasis on crafting while it has a bonus co-op mode. You can even complete the main campaign in its current state, if you can make peace with the near-constant grind.
With the range of genres that ToA includes, it seems like Dreamlit Games wants to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. That’s understandable considering that this is their first game; but the balance isn’t optimised to appeal to everyone. The large focus on resource management and building offsets the combat, character development and multiplayer. The developer could adopt an approach similar to No Man’s Sky where you can tune your experience based on your preference for each aspect of the gameplay.
There is clearly more work to be done with this game; and such need for polish is reflective of the Early Access state of the game, which the developers estimate will last for around 12-18 months. I don’t recommend Early Access games myself but ToA does hold promise and the developers have been pushing patches since launch. It is an ambitious game and I hope that Dreamlit Games achieve their vision for it. Even if its name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, it’s worth keeping an eye on its evolution.
