Sometimes the simplest ideas are the ones that hook you the fastest. No sprawling lore dumps, no overwhelming systems, just a clear concept, a loop, and the promise that maybe, just maybe, it’ll keep you climbing for one more run.
That’s exactly where Towerlings sits. It’s quick to understand, easy to jump into, and quietly ambitious in how it flips the usual hero narrative on its head, even if the demo doesn’t quite stick the landing.
When the demo starts, you get hit in the face with a quick screen about what’s happening in this world. Then they’re off.
Killing slimes, goblins, and eventually dragons. In short, Towerlings is Tower of God if you were the Tower, spawning new heroes.
It’s a deceptively simple game, and in the demo, I got to see the potential of the idea. However, it was bogged down by limitations that should’ve been ironed out in the planning phase.
A good example of the simplicity here is its appearance. Each floor is small, and its UI provides only limited information. Your heroes are basic, looking almost like stock characters. The hero, rogue, mage, warrior, and priest are at least visually distinctive.
Honestly, it works. I know it’s simplistic, but for what the game is, it works quite well. Gameplay is a mixed bag. Sometimes it’s easy, but you also quickly get bored as you discover how little influence you have.
On the first floor, you can summon heroes, and they will automatically create a party of four. From there, they start climbing.
Priests heal, warriors fight, thieves unlock doors. In total, there are five classes, and you’ll need each one to complete the tower. Which leads us to the enemies, there are multiple types, and as you climb higher, they become more challenging.
From simple slimes to orcs, imps, and eventually a dragon. You skill-up your active heroes, using the same resource across parties. Fortunately, they level up on their own. But skills use the same resource to learn as you need to summon more heroes.
That’s as far as I can tell you, though. Each time I approached the upper floors, around 12 in total, the game crashed.
Usually, this was around 28 minutes of gameplay. Apart from the crashes, the gameplay was simple, fun, and mostly glitch-free. Also, if you’re wondering what the story is, you’ve got to conquer the tower. That’s it. Simple, isn’t it?
Towerlings really is a fun little romp up a tower with basic graphics and an easy to learn gameplay loop. Unfortunately, there are still a few issues that undermine the overall experience, including frequent crashes.
Right now, Towerlings feels like it’s still a few floors short of where it needs to be. But with some polish, a bit more player agency, and, most importantly, a lot more stability, this could turn into something worth sticking with all the way to the top.
