Togawa: Among Shadows (REVIEW)

Looking like something inspired by Don Bluth animated films, and the Mayan apocalypse, "Togawa: Among the Shadows" brings the fight of the light to the armies of darkness through a surviving tribesman known as Chimu. Through Chimu, and his aid that is Kurro we find out that not only has Chimu's tribe been turned into evil spirits by the corruption of Metnal the Voidmonger, but that Chimu is the only thing standing between the growing darkness, and it's intended remaining victims. As Chimu the lightbringer you must utilize your light beam, and spells to exorcise the dark beasts that come at you in seemingly never-ending waves. Ultimately cleansing five shrines at both their respective alters, and the skies above. Your goal, in the end, is to defeat Metnal once and for all. Restoring light, and banishing the darkness forever.

The game, as it were, is setup into several separate, but interconnected modes. These modes include a story mode with 42 phases spanning across five different shrines as well as a secondary story mode known as Chaos in which your final fight with Metnal, and his armies takes place within the remaining altars at the Chaos realm. In the story campaign you'll face off against phases, or waves of enemies as they swarm you. Each enemy harboring a different type of attack, and position on the land or in the air. Completing each phase is dependent upon the phase you are in. Sometimes you'll find yourself fixed in a stationary position on land or atop an altar as enemies approach from all sides. The same with flying phases, and their waves of enemies. The exception there being that your movement is more freely done.

At your disposal, in any phase, is a concentrated damaging light beam that is activated and aimed in all directions using the Right Thumbstick. That, and unlockable elemental spells that will aid you in your fight, and help get you out of a pinch. The spells, like the beam, and base character attributes can be upgraded for a price. A price that is paid with the souls that you release in each phase. With the base upgrades, specifically, you'll be able to increase your beam's strength, and width. You'll also be able to upgrade life points, mana points, and regeneration of each. On the spell side you'll be able to upgrade the effectiveness of the spells. Spells that include such things as the ability to freeze, stop, damage, or even leech life off of enemies among other things. Spells are all activated by pressing the ZL button, but only when you have a mana point to spend. Mana regenerates after emptied. Besides those to staple upgrades you'll be able to unlock special costumes that both add bonus benefits to the mechanics as well as take away benefits from others. Things like an extra mana point, or quicker mana generation with only two mana points. Things of that sort.

Outside of the survival phase cleansing on the altars and shrines you will find aerial combat in flying phases with free movement tied to the Left thumbstick. The premise is the same here as it is with the fixed in place survival phases. It too requires that you clear a certain amount of enemies while avoiding complete loss of health. Completing any phase will reward you with soul points to spend on upgrades, and give you the prompt to access the profile menu where the upgrades can be done, or an out to the main menu afterwards. In the early phases of your story mode playthrough you'll also be introduced to 10 enemy types that can be viewed in the main menu's Codex within the Bestiary dial. Complete with detailed descriptions, and visual image. You'll even unlock pages of the diary of Ikala as you progress which gives deeper background on the characters in the game as well as the game's lore.

After clearing the survival, and flying phases of a shrine/altar you'll sometimes face off against a boss, and depending upon the phase they are in you'll have to abide by that phase's base mechanics. Within the main story mode there are 42 phases in total with several phases per each of the five shrines, and in Chaos, 20. Each shrine is located in thematically different location with different groups of enemies to deal with. The same can be said for Void mode which continues the fight between Chimu, and Metnal in the Void realm, but only in the sense that the phase plays out in a similar manner without access to your base upgrades. You'll only have access to upgraded spells here making the fight more difficult, and survival equally as tough.

When it comes to replay value you'll find three alternative modes outside of the main story. Two of which are centered around the types of phases found in the two story modes. One being survival, and the other flying. Each of these modes is score based, and will throw wave after literal wave at you in a non-stop fashion as you try to survive. You'll be able to bring along your unlocks, and upgrades, but do know that this is a far more challenging experience than with the story or it's continued counterpart, Void mode. Lastly, you'll find that Togawa also contains a 2 -4 player local multiplayer versus mode with a mana gimmick. In it players will be able to damage each other via a dash.This attack requires mana, and mana has to be collected within the given stage. It's a little something extra that may or may not appeal to you considering the entirety of this game feels like a series of mini-games with light story elements tacked on. In the way of options the game's story modes do have an "Assist" toggle which will effectively overly power-up Chimu making the playthrough much easier.

The verdict ...

Togawa is a game that is both visually, and audibly stunning. As I said at the beginning it looks like something Don Bluth would have animated, and sounds like it has the score of such a film. While the story is engaging, and the extra modes interesting I find that this game feels more like a series of mini-games than something you'd think a story should be tied to though. With the codex diary entries you do get some back story, and through character interactions you get the gist of it all, but I feel this game could have been so much better were it's gameplay centered around another genre. I think were it to have been a fleshed out Metroidvania with flying combat included it would have been big. Here though, with what you get, it becomes repetitive, and seemingly short lived. My hope in saying this is that the developer does not take offense, but instead realizes that they could create something big with this lore, and artistic design. Something more than a series of mini-games. For what it's worth the game is alright. It's not horrible by any means. You'll find it possibly worth a playthrough or two, but beyond that there's nothing really worth going back for.