Highlights

  • Hades 2 introduces Animal Familiars, which offer unique abilities, increasing gameplay variety and strategic options for players during their runs.
  • Frinos and Toula, the current Animal Familiars, provide benefits like blocking projectiles, catching fish, granting health bonuses, and Death Defiance.
  • The addition of Animal Companions in Hades 2 improves gameplay progression and investment by allowing players to actively influence their Familiars' development.

Since its surprise early access launch in May 2024, players have been diving into Hades 2 to see everything it currently offers. With the original Hades transforming the roguelike genre and expertly tying its narrative to its ever-changing dungeon-crawling gameplay, its successor has a lot to live up to. While Hades 2 has more content coming its way, its present state does have animal companions that may outshine the original's Cerberus.

Hades 2 has several changes that separate it from its predecessor, such as the introduction of creature allies known as Animal Familiars. While only two are currently available in the game, each has unique features that make them useful during every player's run through the surface and the Underworld. The difference they can make in combat makes them valuable allies, something that Cerberus was not in the original Hades.

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Melinoe's Animal Familiars and What They Offer

One of the things that makes Melinoe play differently from her brother Zagreus is her Animal Familiars. Unlike Zagreus' equipment-like Companions, Animal Familiars are essentially unkillable pets that follow players throughout their journey, assisting with active and passive abilities. Although they are not necessarily needed during a player's run, their advantages make them too hard to ignore. The two that are available in the early access version of the game are:

  • Frinos - Melinoe's pet frog that hangs out in the spawn area. Frinos' unique ability allows it to block projectiles. It also attacks occasionally and grants health bonuses.
  • Toula - A striped feline encountered in Erebus and the docks beyond Ephyra that Melinoe can befriend to assist in her efforts. Toula has the unique ability to catch fish for the player. She also grants one Death Defiance, additional fishing rod usage, and attacks at least once before losing interest.

Given how long it takes to beat Hades 2, the two Animal Familiars can help speed up the process by giving players the extra edge they need. Their ability to explore with Melinoe makes them notable allies compared to Cerberus, who was only an NPC in the previous game.

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Why Frinos and Toula Are an Improvement Over Cerberus

With the original Hades being one of the games with a unique progression system, its sequel takes what worked and adds new mechanics to give it a separate identity. By introducing the Animal Companion feature, Hades 2 shows that it's not just Melinoe who has the potential to grow with each run, but her animal companions as well. Cerberus is already established as a powerful guardian, giving less for the developers to work with in terms of upgrades should it become a regular companion to Melinoe.

The addition of Toula and Frinos benefits the game by providing players with more to work towards, ensuring they spend more time playing. Being responsible for the creatures' advancement can be rewarding for players, as it shows that they are the reason why their companions are strong enough to help them on their journey.

There are many things to expect in Hades 2 when it breaks free from its early access state in the future, with the introduction of more Animal Familiars being likely. As Supergiant Games continues to work on providing updates to the sequel title, there is the potential to give Cerberus a much bigger role in the sequel than he did in the original title. For now, the hellhound of the Underworld will have to settle for being a boss fight.