My happiness comes at a small price: give me a paraglider that I can whip out at any second and a strangely beautiful open world, and there you go, I’m a happy bunny. It’s the Zelda formula. Or the Tchia formula. Or the Just Cause formula. Either way, it’s good fun. That’s why Towers Of Aghasba caught my eye when it debuted a stunning trailer at last night’s PlayStation Showcase, offering a glimpse at an alien open world and some settlement-building.
Towers Of Aghasba comes from developer Dreamlit who have been teasing the game for many years now, although it was initially known by its working title, Towers. You can see what it originally looked like in a prototype trailer from four years ago. Beware, though, there’s plenty of hairy eyeball creatures stalking about.
After a few years of silence, the team were ready to re-reveal the project as Towers Of Aghasba, a game that casts us as a member of the Shimu tribe who have returned to their ancestral land. From there, it’s your job to run about the alien world, collect resources, and then use said resources to make the land liveable again. Our nameless hero can do this by restoring funky trees and whatnot, and by building towns for your tribe to inhabit. Essentially, it’s an open-world builder.
Building and crafting systems are all well and good, but Towers Of Aghasba also seems to be taking ample inspiration from The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild with its wide-open chill exploration. There seems to be some combat and sneaking, but I’m more interested in befriending the huge flying whales rather than murdering them. Throw in a few more awe-inspiring sights like that and I’ll certainly spend a decent chunk of time in Aghasba.
Towers Of Aghasba aims to release in 2024 on PC via Steam and PS5.
