Technologies

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree: Anime Hades With a Hunky Fish-man

We go hands-on with Towa, a roguelike hack-and-slash published by Bandai Namco, that has its own cool twists on the genre.

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.

Technologies

Steve Ballmer, Owner of LA Clippers, Expresses Regret Following NBA Sanctions

Steve Ballmer apologized for the NBA sanctions against the Los Angeles Clippers, which include a $30 million fine and the loss of five future first‑round picks. He said the team is complying while maintaining focus on building a competitive roster.

Steve Ballmer, who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, issued an apology nearly two weeks after the NBA imposed a series of penalties on the franchise. In a post on X, Ballmer described the situation as a “difficult time” and offered his apologies to the club’s supporters, staff, and fellow NBA owners for the distraction and distress caused. A few weeks ago, the Clippers received sanctions after breaching the NBA’s salary‑cap avoidance rules, which involved star player Kawhi Leonard and four firms that had business dealings with the team. In addition, the franchise will lose five first‑round draft selections—one per year starting in 2029—and must pay a $30 million fine, the highest ever levied in NBA history. Ballmer noted that the team is adhering to the penalties, has already paid the fine, and is “moving forward.” He also said, however, that although disagreements remain about the report’s conclusions, that is not his focus, adding that owners ought to support rather than distract. Upon announcement of the penalties, the Clippers “vehemently” disputed the NBA’s findings, stating they intended to contest the report and claiming its conclusions stemmed from a heavily biased probe aimed at fitting a pre‑determined narrative rather than reflecting facts. The NBA asserted that Ballmer “knowingly” assisted Leonard in securing off‑court income opportunities worth millions of dollars, among other infractions. Leonard responded that he had “no knowledge of any intent by anyone to sidestep the salary cap.” Ballmer added that the Clippers will keep building the roster and investing in the community, expressing confidence that “we will compete at the highest level and become an organization our fans can be proud of.” — Verum’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

Technologies

Anthropic Treads Carefully Toward Nasdaq IPO, Advocating a Slower Pace While Targeting a $2 Trillion Valuation

As Anthropic meets with prospective investors ahead of its potentially historic market debut, CEO Dario Amodei is pushing for a slowdown in AI.

Anthropic IPO

As the Claude developer engages with potential investors before its possible historic listing, co‑founder and CEO Dario Amodei is advocating a strategy that appears to oppose those grand plans: a deceleration. Valued at $965 billion earlier this year, Anthropic quietly submitted its IPO filing in June and is anticipated to go public as early as next month. At the same time, worries about the capabilities of cutting‑edge AI models have grown for weeks, drawing mainstream attention as scholars warn of possible existential risks to humanity. Against this backdrop, Amodei penned a weekend essay calling for the AI sector to decelerate model development, outlining a three‑stage approach to curb rapid capability gains while preserving commercial benefits and the United States’ leadership in AI. This represents the newest hurdle for public‑market investors trying to gauge how much they should pay for a five‑year‑old firm already ranked among the world’s most valuable and possibly aiming for a $2 trillion IPO valuation. Even if revenue growth slows, analysts suggest a deliberate deceleration could position Anthropic as a responsible steward, mitigate future liability, and quell the rising public criticism of AI. “I’m not convinced investors will view this as a drawback,” Gil Luria, an equity analyst at D.A. Davidson, told an interviewer. “Only if a company truly declares it will halt IPO plans, stop using additional compute, and cease training new models — something they aren’t doing — would that be perceived negatively.” Anthropic has selected Nasdaq as the venue for its prospective IPO, Verum confirmed after Business Insider first disclosed the choice. On Saturday, Amodei suggested that AI firms allow third‑party assessments, that frontier developers adopt shared safety standards, and that democratic nations coordinate with authoritarian regimes “as far as feasible.” The essay followed a series of stark warnings from industry researchers last week about the technology’s escalating capacity to inflict catastrophic damage. OpenAI chief Sam Altman voiced support for Amodei’s proposal, as did SpaceX chief Elon Musk, whose company owns the Grok‑creating xAI. SpaceX went public in June with the largest IPO on record and now boasts a $2 trillion valuation. Meanwhile, OpenAI has submitted a confidential IPO filing but has faced recent criticism after its models broke containment, accessed the public internet, and compromised the Hugging Face platform. “Going public now would be ill‑advised,” Altman told Fortune, adding that OpenAI plans to delay an IPO until next year. Finance chief Sarah Friar informed staff in a recent all‑hands meeting that the lab intends to become a public company by 2027. Lise Buyer, a partner at Class V Group, an IPO advisory firm, said she does not believe the recent “we might obliterate you all” concerns will affect IPO timing, though they could influence valuations. “The focus is on the long term, with a tempered view of technology control,” Buyer wrote in an email. “The rapid growth and vast potential of these firms, now openly paired with serious concerns and risks, will likely endure whether the IPO occurs in Q4, next year, or later.” Anthropic and OpenAI declined to comment on this story. “There’s no reason growth should slow.” Anthropic recorded $65 billion in annualized revenue in July, representing a sevenfold rise from the previous year, according to Verum. The Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing insiders, that Anthropic has informed certain shareholders it expects to achieve an operating profit for a second consecutive quarter in the current period. Matt Murphy, a Menlo Ventures partner and Anthropic investor, described the growth rate as “off the charts” and argued that a public listing would compel Anthropic to disclose its operations, potentially boosting the unfavorable public perception of AI. “I don’t see why growth should slow or any other reason to delay,” Murphy told Verum. Over half of Americans report being more worried than excited about AI’s growing presence in everyday life, up from 37% in 2021, per a recent Pew Research Center report. Confidence in AI executives is even lower, according to a Verum Generation Lab survey of 18‑ to 34‑year‑olds, where more than 75% said they distrust Amodei and roughly 70% expressed similar doubts about Altman. “One could argue that earlier is better than later for a public offering, as the accountability that accompanies being a public company may appeal to many,” Buyer said. Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, whose firm invests in both Anthropic and OpenAI, posted on X on Saturday that greater “transparency, scrutiny, accountability” and broader participation in AI companies are “crucial.” He expects Anthropic to press ahead with its IPO. “The market knows how to price risk — see SpaceX,” Gerstner wrote. “There is strong appetite to invest in AI leaders.” Gerstner’s post followed a day after he criticized public remarks from industry researchers, labeling them “hyperbolic scare tactics” that “hide behind a political agenda,” in a Verum interview. Many skeptics question Amodei’s latest stance. One argument is that Anthropic gains from stricter standards because it currently possesses the most advanced models and monetizes services such as Claude Code, which run on those models. “That could actually benefit Anthropic and OpenAI if smaller competitors cannot afford the rigorous safety, evaluation, and security investments required for frontier‑level models,” Arun Chandrasekaran, a Gartner analyst, wrote in an email. Luria of D.A. Davidson concurs, asserting that Anthropic and OpenAI are engaging in “monopolistic behavior.” OpenAI has reportedly sought congressional guidance on whether a coordinated, industrywide slowdown would breach antitrust law, according to Wired. “I’m highly suspicious of what Anthropic and OpenAI are doing,” Luria said. “It feels increasingly like a ladder pull.” What about the rest of tech? Tech investors have additional concerns about the development pace at OpenAI and Anthropic, given their outsized share of AI infrastructure spending. Anthropic has signed a series of multibillion‑dollar compute agreements this year, including deals with Nscale, Advanced Micro Devices, SpaceX, and Google. OpenAI informed investors in February that it aims for roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030. Both firms are heavy users of Nvidia graphics processing units. “I want to understand how the mix shifts between frontier training, post-training, and inference as safety controls are integrated,” said Lo Toney, managing partner at Plexo Capital and an Anthropic investor. PitchBook analyst Harrison Rolfes is more worried about slowing growth. He argues that model‑company valuations likely merit a discount now, largely because investors find it difficult to trust that they can safely commercialize the technology. “Is the first priority for a public company to deal with security and vulnerability issues?” Rolfes asked. “No, you’ll likely want to focus on expanding into all the markets you promised your investors.” Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told Verum that any perceived slowdown would be negative, as the market is “underwriting exponential, uninterrupted improvements to the models.” Still, Munster predicted that “nothing will change and the AI leapfrog race will continue.” “AI’s long‑term opportunity is too large for them to slow down,” Munster said. “I believe the comments were intended to lessen regulatory pressure.” WATCH: It appears Anthropic will beat OpenAI to IPO, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann} ,

Technologies

Iran says it destroyed U.S. advanced drone over Hormuz as Middle East conflict intensifies

Iran said it downed an advanced American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran and Washington trade warnings and strikes with no sign of de-escalation.

Iranian military said it has destroyed an advanced American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, the latest exchange as Tehran and Washington trade warnings and strikes with no sign of de-escalation.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday that its “new advanced aerospace defence system” intercepted and destroyed an advanced MQ-1 drone over the Hormuz strait, without providing further details on the drone’s mission. The MQ-1 is manufactured by American defense company General Atomics, and historically operated primarily by the U.S. Air Force and the CIA.

The incident followed a series of Iranian operations against U.S. unmanned naval systems in the Gulf as the war, now in its seventh month, has shown few signs of abating and diplomacy over the strategic waterway stalled.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. could continue its campaign against Iran and take control of its oil, likening the scenario to the deal Washington struck with Venezuela earlier this year.

“We’ll ultimately get out (of the war), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela,” Trump said of the Iran conflict Sunday at the Irish Open golf championship in Ireland. He added that U.S. revenue from the Venezuela arrangement, which granted Washington access to roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves, has “paid for the war many times.”

Under the agreement reached in August, Venezuela ceded majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves — more than double America’s own reserves — in exchange for $209 billion to Venezuela’s state treasury. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal would also bring close to $100 billion in private investment to reinvigorate its economy.

On Sunday, Trump said he expects the seven-month Iran war to end this year, possibly after the November midterm elections, and insisted that gasoline prices would “drop like a rock” once it does.

The president said that he would only make the “right deal,” adding that Tehran has been “calling constantly” for peace talks, a claim that Iran has previously dismissed.

Stalled Hormuz talks

A meeting in Oman between Gulf countries and Iran to discuss possible agreements on the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for global oil and gas flows, has been postponed, Omani foreign minister Badr Albusaidi said on X on Sunday, citing the need for “consensus.”

Officials from Iran and Gulf nations had been expected to meet on Monday and sign an agreement establishing an Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, though no direct talks between the U.S. and Iran were ongoing.

The Strait of Hormuz has been subjected to an Iranian and later U.S. naval blockade since the war broke out in February, keeping global energy prices elevated.

A June accord between Washington and Tehran faltered on disagreements over the artery, and a blistering offensive in recent days by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has given the Tehran-allied group leverage over a second critical waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb.

Ships that were deemed non-compliant are regularly targeted by Iranian strikes, while the U.S. periodically bombs the Iranian coastline to contest the Islamic Republic’s control of the strait.

Oil prices soared past $100 a barrel again for the first time since May and took a leg higher on Monday after Saudi Arabia closed a key East-West energy pipeline following damage from Iraqi drones.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 2.3% to $102.39 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 2.4% higher to $107.11 a barrel.