Tower of Druaga is an animated reboot/loose continuation of an old, classic videogame franchise. The games weren't released outside of Japan and the only major 'this is a game adaptation' moment is a comedic episode parodying the game (that still works as an episode with just basic videogame knowledge anyway) so don't worry about it being an adaptation, the show is absolutely standalone.

The story follows a party of adventurers climbing a magical tower during a special period of time where the monsters within are weaker. We follow their journey, from the other parties & factions they encounter to the bizarre monsters, traps & locations found whilst ascending. Rather than just a simple monster-filled dungeon, the tower even has cities and settlements that make livings using the respawning tower resources and so on which is a nice spin on the game-like Tower of Druaga setting.

The cast is fairly solid and entertaining. Aside from the protagonist who is more of your typical underdog hero, you have a stoic experienced older woman warrior, the kind of role usually reserved for a side character and a borderline useless and irresponsible mage & his assistant that barely keeps the whole group together. Even the female lead who often plays the straight man is very weird and unusual at times. The show completely steers away from your classic fantasy roles and instead has lots of great twists on the aesthetic execution of your typical warrior, mage etc. The protagonist uses nothing more than a giant shield complete with extendable spike, the cleric-like character slots different runes into her wand to cast different spells, the mage picks out different staffs like golf clubs and fires off his spells like golf balls and the stoic warrior has a rotating drill spear. Even side characters get some fun & unusual weapons and skills.

Druaga's tone is changeable but not inconsistent. Most episodes are light-hearted & fun adventures, with a predictable shift to more serious stuff at the end along with a couple of notable episodes that go hard on the comedy, including the very first. The humour was executed very well to me with the first episode getting several laughs and making me want to see more. It avoids the tonal whiplash that can be found by having comedic & serious moments too close together.

Visually, the animation is consistently decent but rarely impressive. There are no real examples of it going downhill. Character designs are largely fun and have a different art style to most anime around this time much to it's credit, and the various locations in the tower and different monsters faced are pretty fun, though I'm sure some will be put off by the major CGI villain later in the story. Music doesn't really stand out but the voice cast all do a good job.

It's worth watching if you want a fun & different twist on classic fantasy.