If you regularly like to check out the very latest and best Xbox Series X games available, you’d do well to have Towerborne on your radar. This upcoming co-op melee combat game from developer Stoic – known for the excellent Banner Saga trilogy – is finally launching in early access on September 10, 2024, for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.
I previously demoed Towerborne at last year’s Gamescom event and now, having chatted to its key developers, I’m optimistic about the game that’s looking to add a modern spin on co-op brawling classics like Golden Axe, Guardian Heroes, and of course Castle Crashers.
Recently, I sat down with a number of key staff members working on Towerborne for a chat about the game’s combat systems. Namely, combat director James Goddard and lead combat designer Isaac Torres. These are names you may be familiar with, as they’ve previously worked on some of the best fighting games including Xbox’s Killer Instinct. With that in mind, I was keen to learn how the developers’ pasts informed the making of Towerborne, and what kind of experience we can expect come launch day.
It’s a big old world
I opened the interview by asking about the general gameplay loop of Towerborne; what can players expect to be doing regularly as they progress through the game? Well, it all revolves around the expansive world map.
“You go into the world map and you start to fight things, and in doing so you start to expand it,” says lead combat designer Isaac Torres. “The more you play, the more you expand. The world map itself is tile-based and there’s a certain amount of tiles that you have access to at the start of the game.”
What’s interesting about Towerborne’s world map, though, is that it seems like you’ll never quite know what to expect from it. “There’s this fog-of-war type element and it’s up to you to expand that, and you can expand it in a variety of different ways,” Torres continues. “Maybe you have access to something that’s immediately north and you’ll find some cool and interesting missions to do there. But you can also go south, west, or whatever direction that you can, and you can do it at any point in time that you want.”
Torres does note, however, that navigating the map isn’t as simple as picking a direction and sticking to it. Players will often run into obstacles like mountains that’ll need to be traversed around, rather than through. But constant exploration into the unknown seems to be worth it; players will routinely run into new story beats and – naturally – find weapons and gear to improve their build as they go.
Carve ‘n’ spit
Towerborne is perfectly playable solo, but Stoic’s intention is for the game to be played with other folks. And on that note, it’s clear that the developer is intending to make the game highly accessible.
“If you look at [Towerborne] on the surface level, you see a side-scrolling four-player brawler, but that’s just the DNA of it,” says combat director James Goddard. “It is so much more evolved than that, but it’s key to know that this game is super easy to play and it always looks like you’re doing crazy stuff.”
Goddard explains that solo players aren’t being left out in the cold. There are some story-based missions that require solo play, and those without buddies to play with in the moment can still queue up with other players online. If playing with strangers has you concerned, though, Goddard stresses: “There’s no way to be toxic in this game or screw with other players. It’s all about helping each other crush the level and get through it.
“So there’s no reason not to go with random grouping. You can go in with your friends, too, and so the encouragement for solo players is that the game is tuned and crafted in a way that it’s fun to just go out and adventure [with other people].”
Goddard then expands on the beginner-friendly nature of Towerborne, at least in the early stages of the game; things that are going to help players stick the landing after the onboarding process. “All buttons lead to ‘awesome’,” he says. “There’s no dropping combos in this game. There’s nothing like ‘just’ frames. Now, how good your skill is at melee combat will take you farther into the outer Danger Levels… and so you can be stronger as a really good combat player.”
Getting smarter
And honestly, you’ll probably want to be grouping up as much as possible in Towerborne. Especially when you reach missions of higher difficulties. I asked about Stoic’s approach to difficulty in Towerborne, and though the game seems to be easy to just pick up and play, this doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks bite.
“When it comes to bosses and ‘lieutenants’ – which are essentially mini-bosses – we try to make them feel like a player in many ways,” Torres explains. “We notice tactics that we like to use on the combat design side, and we’ll have little things up our sleeve that we know a player’s gonna try, and we are going to have the enemy do something to react to that.
“For example, if you have an enemy that likes to do this really big ground pound attack, you see that as a player. You know how to dodge it. You know exactly what’s about to happen, right? You might dodge roll behind him, where he’s really vulnerable. Well, later on in that fight, maybe he just decides to turn around and do an elbow drop on you.”
Torres explains that these kinds of escalating tactics for bosses in particular seem to permeate throughout the game. Much like a raid boss in Destiny 2 or Final Fantasy 14 Online, gear isn’t the be-all-end-all; you’ll also need to use your head.
“As the difficulty of the game increases through different danger levels, enemies get more tactics as well,” says Torres. “You could be fighting a boss, let’s say at Danger Level 3, and it might be a certain type of experience. You fight that same character again at Danger Level 5 and it’s going to have a lot more tactics. It’s going to be a little bit smarter. It’s not just going to hit harder, it’s going to be more intelligent, and in general, we’ve tried to apply that philosophy to all of our enemies in the game.”
Heel turn
Taking a look at Towerborne’s website, it’s clear that the team has a passion for fighting games especially, with various class descriptions using terminology like ‘air juggling’, ‘specials’, ‘combo enders’, and such. And while Towerborne is primarily a co-op-focused action game, I couldn’t help but ask if the game would eventually have the scope for a player-vs-player (PvP) mode.
“So it’s been talked about,” says Goddard, “but our focus is to create an amazing, deep PvE [player vs environment] game. But the game can expand in the future. There are no promises for that, but it makes a lot of sense that there could be something. So as the game continues and the fan base grows, if they want that, that’s something that could be talked about.
Goddard ends by stating Towerborne has a number of fighting game players and developers working on the game, so a PvP mode “would be pretty interesting. But that’s not our focus right now at all.” And that’s fair; Towerborne will first and foremost be a co-op-centric game. But hopefully, the game’s popularity can grow to the point where there’s eventually consideration for a more competitive game mode.