Towers of Aghasba Early Access Preview - A Promising Future

Ever since the hands-off preview event showcasing Towers of Aghasba, I've been excited to get my hands on a copy and see how the ecosystems and biomes work. The art looked amazing, the creature designs varied, and being able to heal animals and the land is something I love IRL. Getting to try out new mechanics related to restoring the environment, as well as the fresh take it gives crafting games, really drew my interest. After multiple ecosystems, two save games, and more, this is my take on the title. 

Towers of Aghasba is a new crafting-building game under the survival genre. To call it a simple survival game, however, is to diminish the unique mechanics that set it apart from other titles. A focus on restoring the natural world, balancing human expansion, and defeating the Withered corruption combine to create a visually compelling and saturated world that is ever-changing. 

There are multiple ways you can play Towers of Aghasba, each resulting in a different world. Depending on where you put your Colossal Seed, the types of animals attracted will change. Different biomes sprout different plants, and each time you grow the tree, you'll see new plants and animals appear. 

You're not tasked with just revitalizing the ecosystems of Aghasba, but the civilization of the Shimu, as well. Collecting resources, building up different villages, and restoring relics of the past are linked to the colossal trees. There's a price for human expansion, however.

Amity, the essence of life found in living things, is used to fuel the environments around the Colossal trees, activate portals, and more. Picking plants, chopping trees, and killing animals all deplete your Amity. Rarer resources take larger amounts of Amity. You'll even take damage if you pick something with no Amity to give.

The give and take of Amity is a mechanic that enforces respecting nature and only taking what you need. Without Amity you won't be able to upgrade ecosystems, unlock any fast travel, or restore Sacred Forests. These are all needed to keep your villages and capital city going. 

On top of that, there's the Withered, the main enemies in Towers of Aghasba. A pestilence on the land, Withered areas sap your health. Withered nests are surrounded by various enemies, all looking to take your life. There's some variation to the enemies, but most of the ones you'll encounter are humanoid, giant hands, or spiders. There's an arachnophobia setting for those who fear the creepy crawlies. With that said, there's not a lot of variety in Withered enemies as of yet. 

The first chapter of the Shimu in Towers of Aghasba is fully fleshed out in the Early Access release. There's humor in the narrative, as well as a serious tone concerning the extinction of the Jubanga and nature. Most of the story revolves around learning the history of the Shimu and their flight from Aghasba. 

This all takes place in a visually rich and diverse land. All backgrounds are hand-painted with inspiration drawn from Studio Ghibli films, such as Naussica of the Valley of Wind. When a shrine is restored or a tree upgraded, the transformation art is amazing. The unfurling of vines, sprouting of grass, and blossoming of flowers is a sight to see. 

While it all sounds fantastic, Towers of Aghasba is an early access title that comes with its own share of problems. Some bugs are to be expected, but you can clip through rocks while swimming, lag can cause enemies to jump locations, game crashes, and inconsistent atmospheric music. Some things have been greatly improved in the few patches that have gone live since the game's release, but there are still various glitches that need to be worked out.

This has caused multiple changes in recipes and items. Some recipes haven't appeared where they're supposed to. Stations are having their plans changed, if they show up at all. Animals and plants aren't loading properly, even though a fix was deployed. The first month may be filled with multiple small updates to improve the quality of the game and address issues players experience. 

Along with the bugs, there's the actual premise of the game. Having different creatures spawn depending on ecosystem proximity, and other location factors, is a complex mechanic. This also impacts resources in the area and what becomes available to the player. Balancing the inputs, outputs, how these resources affect multiplayer interactions, and game requirements all take fine-tuning. 

Thankfully, the dev team at Dreamlit is on top of it all, ensuring bugs are dealt with quickly, while focusing on continuing to create more compelling content. The roadmap for future updates is impressive, and will include access to the region the fourth god is in. It's expected access to the Sea Temple to the southwest of mainland Aghasba will also come soon. 

It was confirmed in the hands-off preview that at least two more biomes are going to be introduced to Towers of Aghasba. Swamp and Mountain are in the works, with a Mountain biome most likely going to the north of Moyo Vale and containing snow. While these ecosystems appear to be coming towards the end of 2025, a new area is set to come in an update in early 2025. With the roadmap going into 2026 it can be surmised that the Early Access phase will last over a year. 

I know I'm excited to see new enemies, new animals, how creature relationships can improve, and potentially expand the game further. For those that are interested in a new take on city building, and crafting, with some survival mixed in, Towers of Aghasba is the game to try. I'll be keeping an eye for future development and new content to see where Early Access takes the game. 

Towers of Aghasba was reviewed on PC over the course of 46 hours. A code was provided by Dreamlit and all screenshots were obtained during the review process.