The Tower of Power.
Throughout the past year or two, I’ve played several games looking to make their mark as another Vampire Survivors. From colorful characters or realistic visuals that feel at home in something like Diablo, to cute and pixelated heroes wielding a wide assortment of auto-attacking weapons, several titles have succeeded in creating a fun experience while also making it their own. God of Weapons is the latest, and while its content is fairly thin, it certainly has you itching for one more run.
God of Weapons shakes things up by having you climb a tower instead of one wide-open arena. You’ll survive while a clock ticks down and you’ll collect the gold and experience that allows you to level up and purchase new weapons or additional slots to equip a wide range of weapons, both used for close-combat, ranged attacks, and more. It doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it does some interesting things with it.
As an unnamed warrior, you are climbing the Tower of Zhor in hopes of defeating the boss at the top of the tower. While that premise is certainly a tried and true scenario, God of Weapons is more about the journey than the destination, and I’ll explain why. God of Weapons only has two bosses, one that is set to the basic difficulty, and then Zhor himself when you take on difficulty 2 or higher. The fights themselves are no different than anything you’ve faced, which makes these encounters completely unsatisfying. There are no mechanics to learn, or systems that make these fights anything more than an enemy with a much larger pool of health.
Each run consists of 20 floors, with most battles lasting around 30 seconds to a minute. At the end of the timer, the enemies are vanquished, and you collect your gold and experience. Experience allows you to tinker with your inventory, while gold will enable you to purchase new weapons. Unlike Vampire Survivors and its ilk, the way you equip weapons is vastly different, and may satisfy those who love to sort their inventory in Resident Evil.
Whether it is swords, axes, hammers, bows, crossbows, magical staves, or various objects that can wield magic, each of these weapons can be equipped in your case as if you were shifting around Tetris pieces in a Resident Evil briefcase. They have different layouts and sizes that need to be slotted into the correct number of squares and spaces. Some weapons will even see bonuses when slotted next to another weapon, such as having bonus lifesteal, that can refill your health incredibly fast when equipped properly. You’ll also be able to fuse duplicates should you have the set amount needed to do so. You can even find items in the shop that will increase their quality as well.
Each time you level up, you can add another square. The options they give you wil vary, but you can use gold to reshuffle the pick and look to increase the number of squares in a given area, allowing you to add in a new weapon. You can adjust and move weapons and items around freely, provided you have the space, or having one weapon or item places aside while you sort and adjust your layout.
Weapons, items, and armor can be purchased at the shop, with eventual additions being locked to show up next time. You’ll find weapons to add, items that can enhance your kit, to a variety of stat-increases, especially as each class favors increases in certain stat paths. And, you can unlock new classes by hitting stat milestones as well, so it’s always good to keep an eye out for certain items.
You’ll start with a few unlocked classes and slowly unlock more as you achieve the challenge required to unlock them. Each class has three sub-classes, allowing for dozens of classes across the entire game. From hunters, mages, and warriors, the subclasses are focused more on certain stats, making them either quicker to move around, or tanks that can take tons of punishment. While I certainly favor the hunters, due to their increased projectile damage, the mage became a favorite as well with some of the most intense spells that would autocast across the entire playing field.
Combat is the same auto-battle mechanics you’ve seen before. Choosing the right types allows you to build some insane builds. My hunter would usually be equipped with multiple crossbows, with a huge emphasis on lifesteal, which kept me alive while I would attack from afar. Still, the mobs of enemies would close in quickly, so having a few melee options would help me out there. The Mage, however, was another story, as I would keep equipping more and more laser spells that would melt anyone who approached. The Warrior, once properly equipped and a large focus on armor increases, would tank through anything, and when mixed with lifesteal, they simply couldn’t die.
As you continue to beat the boss and move to the next difficulty to challenge Zhor, you’ll unlock new currency used to buy new weapons that get added into the rotation. This, alongside upgrading a series of permanent stats via a stature in the main hub, is technically the progression of the game, as well as unlocking new heroes, allowing you to feel like you are actually progressing through the game.
Visually, God fo Weapons is great for a few runs, then the repetition of fighting in the same environment starts to really zap the fun out of the experience, as well as the game only having two bosses at the moment. The classes all have these fun unique looks to them, with the hunter totally reminding me of the protagonist from Bloodborne. The enemies all satisfy with some fun designs, but adding in new environments and music would do wonders for this game.
God of Weapons has a solid foundation to see more added to it. New locales, bosses, and more music, would do wonders to enhance what is already here. The weapon grid system is incredibly fun, and the buildcrafting across its dozens of classes is the real star of the show and shines incredibly bright. While repetition can settle in quickly, you’ll still find a few fun hours as you become the God of Weapons.
Developer - Archmage Labs. Publisher - Archmage Game Studio. Released - June 12th, 2025. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. Rated - (E 10+) Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.