Towers of Aghasba

Recovering flora and fauna is at the heart of Towers of Aghasba, an open-world sandbox recently released in Early Access on PC and PlayStation 5 by Dreamlit Games. It introduces some fresh ideas compared to other survival games, while also drawing on exploration, combat, crafting and more.

Towers of Aghasba is an open-world sandbox adventure that focuses on exploration, survival, combat and construction, but more importantly on restoring destroyed ecosystems and rebuilding civilisation there. Decades after the Shimu were forced to flee their homeland by the invasion of a mysterious force known as the Withered, the Shimu have returned to reclaim their homeland. As Junior Architect, it's up to the players to rebuild the villages of the once mighty civilisation and restore the ecosystems of Aghasba. It can be played alone or in cooperative multiplayer mode for up to four players with shared progress. At the moment. Players cannot progress the main quest line in co-op. Dreamlit is currently working on making this possible in a future patch.

First and foremost, the game is about exploring the environment, fighting enemies using a solid combat system, gathering resources, and completing quests. In the process, players will plant the first great seed, which will grow into the first great tree, transforming the desolate world into a vibrant oasis. This will also bring mysterious creatures back into the world, bringing life back to the island - plants will grow, animals will be attracted and fed, and the island will be revitalised.

This new ecosystem has a practical use. It provides access to new sources of resources, which in turn is important for building a village, where many crafting buildings can be constructed and where players can let their creativity run free. In time, members of the Shimu tribe will return. Later on, it will be possible to create other settlements in the world or in different biomes, such as one that specialises in agriculture and one that specialises in mining.

In order to get there, players will have to face the Withered and equip weapons, armour and elixirs to prepare for battle. Character progression is currently tied to items. An RPG-style progression system for the main character is not currently included, nor is character customisation, although the latter will be added during Early Access.

An artistic inspiration for the world of Towers of Aghasba was Studio Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Dreamlit Games' CEO, co-founder and game director, Khang Le, sought out one of Studio Ghibli's background artists, Yoichi Nishikawa, to create hand-painted background textures for the game.

"When they first approached me about Towers, I had my doubts. But I decided to make one sample for them anyway. I was surprised when they showed it to me in the game. It's just like the background for a Japanese anime, but it’s inside the 3D game world! I thought we could make something never-before-seen." Yoichi Nishikawa

Dreamlit Games is a small, remote indie studio founded in 2020 - currently with just over 20 employees. The team is funded by Kowloon Nights. "Kowloon Nights gives independent developers the ability to focus on making games while still holding on to power and influence. The team continues to seek more titles to add to its Portfolio," the gaming fund said.

Towers of Aghasba is currently in Early Access on Steam and PlayStation Store. It currently features six regions to explore, three types of settlements to build, three types of ecosystems to grow, and over 50 unique creatures. The Early Access Roadmap extends to mid-2026 and includes new regions, a new mount management system, offline play, time of day related gameplay, character customisation, new creatures, creature relationship systems, more quests, a city happiness system, and more.

Conclusion

Towers of Aghasba is an open-world sandbox game with some interesting ideas. In particular, the recreation of flora and fauna in a destroyed world so that a civilisation can settle there again is well done. In many places you can still see the Early Access status and some systems are a bit rudimentary, but if you look at the roadmap, Dreamlit Games still has a lot planned...

Features

• Unique approach to flora and fauna restoration
• Open-world sandbox mix of exploration, combat and cozy building
• Single player + co-op Gameplay