Willow Guard is a single-player, story-driven action RPG, set in the fantasy world of Tersa, a land of anthropomorphic animals abandoned by their gods. The game blends hack-and-slash combat, light deckbuilding, and choice-based interactive fiction. You play as Ghweros, a veteran Willowguard tasked with protecting sacred Willow trees and investigating monstrous invasions tied to the fallen Moon Goddess, Louksna.
Story Choices Outweigh Bland Combat
It is split between intense dungeon-crawling battles and slower, dialogue-heavy exploration in the village of Woikos, where choices shape the story and Ghweros’s personality. It offers a 10-20 hour campaign with a branching narrative, plus a story-free Dungeon Run mode for combat-focused play. The core combat is retro-inspired, real-time, but not so challenging. The game is built around slashing, dodging, and casting spells against over 10 enemy types.
However, no matter how different each enemy might be, Willow Guard’s combat quickly becomes repetitive, even after just two hours. The combat is neither unique nor imaginative, and the minimal animations ruin much of the fun. Watching the same basic slashes while enemies remain overly static genuinely ruins the experience. Likewise, the dungeon design feels bland, with a monotonous layout that quickly becomes tedious to navigate. The mini-map only indicates how many zones remain.
There’s little need to time dodges carefully, as enemy attack patterns become predictable after a short while. The game also includes a “Honeybadger Mode”, which slightly boosts stats after deaths to help newcomers, but in truth, it’s unnecessary. Healing plants and skills are plentiful, stamina for card abilities refills quickly, and dying is not punishable enough. The only real threat comes from accidentally stepping on traps, but even then, it’s not a true game over. Instead, you’re simply teleported to the start of the map, forced to redo everything.
As mentioned, the game features a card-crafting system where you equip and upgrade ability cards. While this mechanic is a welcome addition, it suffers from poor explanation, mostly leaving you uncertain how to optimize it properly. The shared resource pool also adds to the further frustration, as Focus is used both for crafting cards and scanning the environment for hidden clue.
Pixel Art Meets Deep Story
Progression is non-traditional: instead of leveling up, you upgrade gear and expand your deck using materials gathered from enemies, dungeons, or quests. But the biggest issue is the unpredictable loot system. Since materials drop randomly from enemies, progression is sometimes baed on luck. You might clear entire dungeons and walk away with almost nothing, only to later stumble into a windfall of rare materials by sheer luck. This inconsistency can leave you stranded, unable to upgrade cards or craft new ones simply because the game refuses to cooperate.
Outside of combat, Willow Guard does have its strengths. The game excels in accessibility, offering smooth and easy navigation as traversal remains effortless whether exploring by day or night. There’s a huge amount of animal NPCs like wolves, badgers, and foxes that you can properly meet through dialogue trees. The Inclination system tracks your choices across four philosophies (empathetic, creed-bound, instinct-driven, or detail-obsessed), shaping Ghweros’s personality and story outcomes. Maintaining good relationships with NPCs is crucial, as your affinity level directly impacts how they treat you. Higher affinity can lead to better rewards, including more gold and improved loot opportunities.
The clue-and-item gathering mechanic adds detective-like depth. You collect hints from conversations or environments to unlock new locations, characters, or secrets, making exploration feel rewarding. The narrative is lore-rich, weaving a tale of absent gods, uplifted animals, and eldritch horrors inspired by the Voynich Manuscript and Cthulhu mythos. However, the sheer amount of reading required may feel overwhelming. While the story itself is merely passable, not particularly gripping or worth investing much time in, it’s surprisingly well thought-out compared to the uninspired combat system.
Willow Guard boasts a hand-drawn, pixel-art style that’s both nostalgic and lush, reminiscent of 16-bit classics like Secret of Mana but with modern polish. However, the game struggles to impress in this department. The color palette often feels dissonant and unappealing, while environmental designs lack variety, many zones blend together with little to distinguish them from one another. The soundtrack is simple, uses chiptune-inspired melodies to set the mood, shifting from serene village themes to tense battle tracks which change from time to time.
Ending Thoughts
Ultimately, Willow Guard is difficult to recommend. In today’s saturated ARPG market filled with higher-quality alternatives, this title settles for being merely “good enough”. While the world-building shows promise outside of combat, the repetitive gameplay loops and underwhelming battle system drag the experience down. The boss fights offer some refreshing moments of creativity, but they can’t compensate for the good storytelling.
That said, genre enthusiasts looking for a authentic indie ARPG experience will find this a worthwhile purchase at its price point. Despite its flaws, Willow Guard offers substantial content; the art style grows on you, the deck-building mechanics reward experimentation, and the NPC relationships develop surprising depth for those willing to invest the time. While not without its rough edges, there’s enough content here to merit a spot on your wishlist for when you’re craving a story-driven adventure.
| Prednosti | Nedostaci |
|---|---|
| Sadržajno bogata igra. | Borba je dosta repetitivna. |
| Predivan pikselasti stil. | Animacije su mogle biti bolje. |
| Odluke imaju svoje posljedice. | Priča vas neće držati dugo, može se preskočiti. |
| Jednostavno i zanimljivo prikupljanje karata. | Solidan naslov koji ne donosi ništa novo. |
Recenzentski primjerak ustupio izdavač
3.5
Hrvatski 
English (UK)