Towers of Aghasba is a fascinating melting pot of ideas, both novel and new, and borrowed from other games, movies and anime. It’s one of those games that feels almost impossibly ambitious, Dreamlit inc. crafting a truly gorgeous game world that you’ll shape as you fill it with life.
The game will take you to the desolate landscapes of Aghasba, a region that was once home to huge amounts of vibrant life, both in nature and with the Shimu people settled there. That civilisation and the balance of ecosystems was torn apart by the Withered, forcing the Shimu to flee. Now you, as a junior architect for your people, are returning to restore Aghasba to something of its former glory.
Dreamlit inc. CEO and game director Khang Lee is refreshingly open about how he came to the core concept of Towers of Aghasba, and how it’s morphed over time. Minecraft, Shadow of the Colossus, and the films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Labyrinth were all amongst the early inspirations for this game – essentially, looking to harness the creativity of Minecraft within a much prettier art style and world – and Towers of Aghasba actually started out as a 2D side scrolling game. But then came Breath of the Wild to push the studio’s ambitions further – you can see it in the free climbing and glider – and Animal Crossing: New Horizons to refocus the game in a different direction. What was a survival game in 2019 has had some of the edges of that genre sanded back to morph into more of a building and exploration game.
You’ll naturally need to start off small as you plant your first Colossal Tree – it starts off relatively small, but will grow to live up to its name over time – a life-giving tree that will instantly spread grasses and other plant life in the immediate surrounding area. It will define the biome of the region, bring creatures back to the area and create a little pocket of vibrant life for you to live in. There’s some really fantastical creature designs here, that blend the familiar with utterly alien.
It will also provide the foundation for a lot of the general activities you’ll be doing, giving you the opportunities to hunt, to fish, to feed the animals and more. One point of emphasis here compared to other survival and builder games is that you will likely want to try and be sustainable in how you do this, ensuring the the ecosystem can continue to thrive alongside your actions.
In parallel to the local ecology, you’ll also look to rebuild villages for the Shimu. You’ll come across the ruins from before the Withered forced your people away, and have to rebuild structure-by-structure. You’ll need to find and harvest the minerals to build the structures, and then use them to foster things like farming, production and more.
Helping to guide you is the world’s lore and a menagerie of characters and ancient gods that you’ll meet along the way. They’ll explore some of the backstory of the world, helping you figure out what happened to the island, giving you quests and missions to follow along the way. It’s really more about onboarding you and nudging you along the way to restore the island in your own way.
And that will mean fighting to push back the Withered and unlock new areas that you can restore. Still filled with a poisonous atmosphere and more horrific creatures, you’ll have to battle against towering monsters to loosen the Withered’s grip on the region.
Your time within the Withered will be limited, every second that you spend within these dark places seeing an inky black miasma bubbling around you, slowly poisoning you over time. The survival aspects of Towers of Aghasba won’t extend to needing food to satiate your hunger – it’s more casual in that regard – but as you step into the Withered, you’ll need to have crafted potions to help build a resistance to the atmosphere, armour to defend against the monsters and soldiers you face, and weapons to help you fight back.
Thankfully you won’t have to go alone. You can play in groups of up to four, inviting friends to your personal island, trading with them, and heading in to fight back the Withered together.
Towers of Aghasba is a fascinating endeavour that looks to strike an intriguing balance and blend between its various inspirations. It’s a lovely looking game, with an impressive scale and ambition to let you shape it as you please.
Thankfully it won’t be too long before we can try it for ourselves. Towers of Aghasba will launch into Early Access on PC and PS5 on 19th November, a little less than a month from now.
