Behind closed doors at Summer Game Fest, I sat down to play a new game published by Bandai Namco that’s tailor-made for Hades fans: Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, which has its own take on the roguelike hack-and-slash genre. And, yes, a playable hot hybrid fish-man.

Towa’s isometric combat looks a lot like Hades at first glance, and shares some of the same basic structure. Players start at a hub area and start runs going through a series of gated battlefields filled with enemies. After they’re defeated, you’re granted a boon — an upgrade to your skills, weapons, currency reward and so on. Hades players will be able to pick this up with ease when Towa launches on Sept. 18.

Towa, developed by studio Brownies, Inc., has its own anime style and diverse group of fighters that sets it apart from Hades. In it, the titular Towa, a priestess of the tranquil Shinju village, charges eight guardians with defeating the evil Magatsu and his minions. With different combat styles, players pick one of these heroes to control and another for spell-casting backup (which a second player can pick up and control, too) to send into battle.

Setting aside, it’s clear that Towa takes a lot of inspiration from Hades in its gameplay, which Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree director Shuhei Yamashita acknowledged.

«Of course, we have respect for Hades, and I had early access to that, and when I played it, the maneuverability was interesting, so that’s something that we referenced,» Yamashita said. «And the roguelike system, you have a unique maneuverability and you can really incorporate a unique element to it, so that’s something that we have put into our game.»

Towa is visually striking, with an anime look and vibrant colors — and even though players wield two swords like samurai, the game stands apart from the recent vogue of period titles like Assassins’ Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima with its setting in a peaceful village. 

«Rather than going with samurai and historical days with a more realistic style, Brownies created this game that we wanted to be more fantastical — not necessarily Japanese, but the kind of Eastern fantasy-type artwork that would be more attractive,» said Yamashita.

Apart from the game’s aesthetics, Towa stands out for its different take on combat. The players’ two swords — a main-hand honzashi and off-hand wakizashi — wear down quickly with every slash, kind of like the durability meter in Monster Hunter World’s weapon system. You’ll need to swap between the two swords to sharpen them (a move that comes with a short dash), which adds a rhythm to combat as you switch back and forth.

But unlockable boons and upgrades will add variety to your play style. Some are straight damage, others add effects to your swords like knockback or trigger things like shockwaves when using a spell. The devs sitting alongside my demo hinted that you may even find boons that incentivize unorthodox strategies, like keeping your blades dull to unleash different attacks. There’s a depth to the combat that I didn’t scratch the surface of during my brief time with the game.

I also didn’t get a deep look at how the eight fighters differ — aside from the fish-man Nishiki, there’s a rotund Shiba Inu and six other anime-looking heroes to choose from. I chose the hunky fish-man as my main while selecting Origami, the fighter covered in folded paper armor, as my spellcaster and dove into a run.

With a mix of melee and ranged enemies, the latter of which show the path for their attacks, Towa has some overlap with Hades’ design. But the weapon switching mechanic is a notable difference, as are the spells — my sidekick Origami had one with an area of attack mechanic that I could splash groups of enemies with. 

In practice, remembering to switch between weapons when they dulled took time to learn, and I kept forgetting to use my spells. It also took me a while to sort out that my health bar at the bottom of the screen was split between my main fighter and backup spellcaster. But the game can get overwhelming with all the area attacks and flashy skill effects, so it’s easy to lose your hero in the fireworks.

After several rooms of enemies, I squared off against the mid-run boss and soundly defeated it, then moved into a merchant room where I could spend currency on upgrades — all familiar territory for Hades fans. But just before advancing on the main boss, I entered a calm room overlooking a vista with a campfire. Here is where your heroes will take a breath and chat to share their backstories and more details about the world, fleshing out the characters and the game’s lore.

«Towa is a very story-focused game, so you could find as much story as you would normally find with RPG games,» Yamashita said, noting that the characters you bring on runs with you deepen their relationships as you converse at these campfires.

Brimming with confidence — a little too much, sadly — I waltzed into the boss room and gave it everything I had, including Nishiki’s ultimate ability for massive AOE damage. These charge up with attacks, and certain upgrades can speed up their recharge rate. Despite some nimble dashing and damage, and whittling down the boss to a quarter of its health, I succumbed. (Later in the weekend, I was told that only seven players at Summer Game Fest had taken down the boss at the time.)

Players won’t have long to wait for their own chance to try out a unique spin on roguelike combat. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree comes out Sept. 18 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch for $30.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

So, there’s kind of a dad joke in today’s NYT Mini Crossword. 4-Across is «dessert wine,» and 6-Across is «desert whine.» You can almost hear the rimshot from here. Thankfully, today’s puzzle is no joke, it’s pretty simple. But you could still get stumped. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue:  House and Doogie Howser, for short
Answer: MDS

4A clue: Dessert wine
Answer: PORT

5A clue: Mugful after a sledding excursion
Answer: COCOA

6A clue: Desert whine?
Answer: IMHOT

7A clue: «Like, yesterday!»
Answer: ASAP

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Chocolate-and-coffee drink
Answer: MOCHA

2D clue: Sag
Answer: DROOP

3D clue: Three-point percentage, e.g.
Answer: STAT

4D clue: Poofy toy dogs, familiarly
Answer: POMS

5D clue: Org. that employs Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy novels
Answer: CIA

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Amazon is now showing four to six minutes of advertisements per hour on its Prime Video streaming service. That’s about double the ad load from when the company introduced ads in January 2024, according to a report from ADWEEK.

According to the report, which is based on information from six ad buyers and documents, Amazon notified investors of the increase in ads but has not made a public announcement of the change.

Despite initial grumbling from consumers, Amazon introduced ads to Prime Video in January 2024, with ad loads of two to three and a half minutes per hour.

«We remain focused on prioritizing ad innovation over volume,» an Amazon Ads spokesperson said. «While demand continues to grow, our commitment is to improving ad experiences rather than simply increasing the number of ads shown. Since the beginning of this year alone, we’ve announced multiple capabilities, including Brand+, Complete TV and new ad formats — all designed to deliver industry-leading relevancy and enhanced customer experiences. We will continue to invest in this important work, creating meaningful innovations that benefit both customers and advertisers alike.»

The higher volume of ads serves at least a couple of purposes. It brings Prime Video more closely in alignment with the larger amount of ads shown on other streamers such as Hulu, Tubi and Paramount Plus, and it also allows Amazon to sell many more ads in relation to its inventory.

It’s unknown whether Prime Video will further increase its ad load, but nonetheless ads on streaming channels will be more and more a major space for revenue growth for streaming services. A recent report from subscription analyst firm Antenna noted that «3 in 4 individuals who face an Ad Choice choose ads» and that nearly half of subscription video on demand customers are what Antenna calls «Ad Managers» — users who select both ad-free and ad-supported tiers.