At first glance, Towerborne offers colorful, appealing graphics and fun co-op battles. TECHBOOK was able to take a second look at the title during Gamescom 2023 and allude to it.
So far, the Stoic studio is best known for “The Banner Saga”. Inspired by an old Disney film, the hit game brings together an exciting mix of Norse mythology and an entertaining game system. So there are certain expectations of the studio’s new title. However, “Towerborne” looks very different at first glance. What can Stoic’s comic-like new game do?
That’s what Towerborne is about
In contrast to the Banner saga, which is essentially about dark themes, “Towerborne” is supposed to strike a different note in terms of optics. The developers have opted for a colourful, comic-like style. And although “Towerborne” is also intended to be aimed specifically at families, death is an important theme of the game.
You play namely so-called aces, reincarnated heroes who protect the belfry. This is the eponymous tower of the game. Lots of dangers lurk outside the protective walls, while various quests, a crafting system and detailed characters await inside. Other than that, not much is known about the story, just that it’s a well-polished plot penned by the Banner saga’s author – which again sounds very promising.
The seasonal concept is intended to provide variety
The special concept behind the title is the seasonally changing map around the tower. This is constantly changing accordingly, also triggered by updates from the developers. “The premise we came up with is about how you can make a game with different seasons without it feeling artificial,” explains Alex Thomas, Principal Game Designer on Towerborne. This concept would allow the developers to keep the game updated indefinitely and provide players with new content.
Although the brawler-style game also offers a single-player mode, it is actually designed as a co-op title. Up to four people can play together and design their characters individually. However, this requires an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox Live Gold. The controls are intuitive and low-threshold. Normal and heavy attack, block, jump, dodge – the basic mechanics of an action game are all there. In addition, you can unleash a special attack with a correspondingly charged bar, which is particularly important in boss fights.
First play of “Towerborne” at Gamescom
The action RPG was available for the first time at Gamescom 2023. The almost half-hour demo led through a linear area to a first boss fight to demonstrate the basic mechanics. Afterwards there were still insights into the belfry and additional explanations from the developers. TECHBOOK was also able to briefly play “Towerborne” on site.
Relaxed, beautiful to look at action fun
“As a Banner Saga fan, I was already very excited about ‘Towerborne’. Especially the first pictures, which visually completely differed from the previous Stoic games, made me very curious. Admittedly, without a tutorial, it’s always a bit tricky to start a fight straight away. However, the arguments were so low-threshold that our group had no problems up to the mushroom-shaped boss – but then almost failed there because none of us had the special attack on the screen. In fact, it worked quite well without them and the fairly undemanding banging was fun in any case.
Personally, I particularly liked the look of the game. The colorful world of colors fits perfectly with the character and opponent design. The brief glimpses we got of the Belfry were also very promising, however the game seems to have a long way to go in terms of development.
I’m also excited about the seasonally changing map that the developers have announced to us. In fact, there wasn’t much to see of the map itself during the demo. It remains to be seen how exactly Stoic will then implement the concept – and above all monetize it. In any case, I’m looking forward to ‘Towerborne’ as a nice to look at harmless action-adventure game with role-playing elements.” – Marlene Polywka, editor
Towerborne Pricing and Availability
The action-adventure Towerborne is scheduled for release in 2024. The game from the creators of the Banner Saga, Stoic, will then be available in Xbox Game Pass and as a PC version on Steam as soon as it is released. Nothing is known about the price yet.