(Image: Hades Title Screen)
I have the faintest idea what a rouge-like (or lite?) game is. I’ve been in love with video games since I was about 5, so how did this term slip under my radar so easily? The genre isn’t entirely new either. Based on what I’ve been hearing, a rouge-like game is a kind of game where you battle a bunch of enemies using your skills and you keep on going until you beat the final boss. The big difference here is the games are harder than usual and you’re going to die. A lot. But, each death is a new chance to try again with new strategies, equipment, powers, and even new pieces of the story and dialogue. It’s basically like the video game version of Edge of Tomorrow only each run is different. The earliest game that I remember playing that was rouge-like was The Binding of Issac. I remember that game being hard (and extremely dark). I think I beat the first boss and that’s it. That was many, many years ago though. So, when I started playing Supergiant’s Hades, I was walking into something I never truly played before.
Like my other essays here, let’s first talk about the plot of Hades. Hades tells a tale based heavily on the classic Greek mythos. You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades: King of the Underworld. Zagreus, being the rebellious soul he is, wants to leave the Underworld and join his extended family up on Olympus. It’s not hard to see why at first. Hades is a very angry and strict father to say the least. He’s doing everything he can to make sure that Zagreus doesn’t make it to Olympus. He’s launching a large variety of monsters such as The Furies, Hydra, and other demons to make sure you die and end up back at the House of Hades again and again. He will try to berate and literally murder Zagreus to try to kill his drive to leave home. Thankfully, Zagreus can’t truly die, so he’ll still do whatever it takes to reach the top. A simple premise with a developing plot and an ultimate goal.
(Image: First Floor of Tartarus)
Fortunately, the gods of Olympus are there to help him on his journey. Throughout the game, Zagreus will meet with some of the most notable gods in Greek mythology. They are there to grant Zagreus a part of their power so that he will be strong enough to take down all his opponents and reach Olympus. Some of these gods include Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, Athena, Dionysius, Aphrodite, and a few more. Each power comes with its own special ability. Zeus can grant you the power of lightning, Poseidon grants you the power of water to push back foes, Artemis gives you more critical-rate to do massive damage, Athena creates shields for you to deflect enemies’ attacks, Dionysius basically gives you the ability to use poison to gradually deplete health, Aphrodite can help weaken foes so they do less damage, etc. There a small chance the gods might team up with each other to give Zagreus Duo powers which basically combines their power into one insane power-up. Some of these are super broken, but not entirely game-breaking. The same goes for some upgrades to your weapons which can give your abilities like higher critical-rate, more damage to armored foes, chain attacks, longer reach, etc. They’re all great abilities, but they won’t automatically defend you from death.
And that’s the beauty of Hades. The game is not easy by any means. Most likely because I’m not an expert on fast paced combat (I think my years of turn-based RPG Pokémon training has put a dent in that…), but I’ve tried to escape 40 times at the time of writing this and I still haven’t beat the final boss. This game is hard. Like I said, you’re going to die a lot. You’ll be hit by combo after combo. You have to watch out for traps on the ground. You have to be careful of those dreaded witches and butterfly spheres (I really hate those things; they rally up on you like no tomorrow). Thankfully, it’s not impossible. Once you have a good idea of what you’re doing and you have a good build on you, then you can probably reach the end. I had this one run where I had this build that did SO MUCH damage! And then I lost all my chances to revive and got killed by the final boss with only 1/10th of his health left. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you can’t regenerate your health automatically. You have to find and/or buy health in the dungeons and the shop. You have at least one chance of revival each time you escape. Unless you’re REALLY lucky, then you won’t be able to get another chance to come back from the dead during the same run. If you’re low on health and have no revives left once you fight a boss, then I am so, so sorry. Once you’re dead, it’s back to the start.
(Image: Hades: God of the Underworld)
But, going back to the start isn’t entirely a bad thing. Hades’ story actually does progress each time you die. Every time you talk to a character, you’ll get new pieces of dialogue and lore that you probably couldn’t get otherwise. You’ll also help progress side-quests as well as you meet new characters during your escapes who are connected to characters within the House of Hades. Right now, Zagreus is trying to play matchmaker and get Orpheus and Eurydice back together after being sent to the Underworld. You’ll know why they’re down there if you’re familiar with their story. You can also strategies more with your playthrough and basically learn from your mistakes from your last one. For example, I had one run where I didn’t have a lot of power from the gods and I was basically on my own. Unfortunately, I didn’t get too far. But, I learned from that and made sure to get more god power in my next one. Thankfully, I did reach the final boss with that build. I also got better and better with progression overall. In the beginning, I couldn’t even get through the first major boss of the game. I think it took me at least 5 tries to beat her and when I did, my adrenaline was so high, I could only just process what happened. Now, I can reach the final chamber without nearly as much trouble as before, though the second to last boss is still really difficult. Ultimately it boils down to: try your hardest, fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again.
I would love to talk more about the story in Hades as I already talked so much about the gameplay. But, I fear that would be spoiling the game for a lot of people. From what I know, the game has been live on Early Access for a while now, but the full 1.0 version was released back in September. I was gaining steam then, but it’s really picking up steam now. Definitely enough to catch my eyes. I’m not far into the story much myself, so I could probably only tell you 1/50th of what’s even going on. I say that because apparently there’s about 100+ hours of content in this game including gameplay, dialogue, artwork (which is so good and they were very aware of the designs because most everyone is stupidly attractive), and music (which is also great thanks to composer (and smooth-as-silk voice of Zagreus), Darren Korb). There might be 200+ hours? I’m not entirely sure, but it’s a lot.
(Image: The House of Hades)
Really, this game has no right to be as amazing as it is. Supergiant is known for creating good games, but it seems like Hades is their magnum opus. There is so much they did right with this game from everything I mentioned before to the incredible voice acting and writing that I can’t believe I didn’t mention till now. No matter how many times I have died in this game, I have always had a different run each time. I have always learned from each run and gotten better because of it. Some bosses are still insane and difficult to beat, but again, it’s not impossible if you play your cards right. I love the characters, I love the artwork, I love the gameplay! It’s all just really, really great stuff. Hades is currently either 2nd or 1st on the Nintendo e-shop last I checked beating big names like Animal Crossingand Super Mario. That’s absolutely insane! I’m not sure how it’s doing on its other platforms, but I can only imagine it’s doing very well. All for great reasons. Hades is only available on Steam and on the Nintendo Switch, so I don’t know if it’ll ever reach other platforms like the PlayStation anytime soon, though I have a feeling it will eventually due to popular demand. I play the game on my Switch and it runs very well. The developers recommend a controller for this game, so even if you’re playing on a PC or Mac, maybe you should take their advice. But, please play Hades if you haven’t. This is probably the most fun I’ve had with a game since Persona 5 Royal earlier this year and now those two are top contenders for Game of The Year. And I’m not even remotely close to finishing Hades yet. So, what are you waiting for? Olympus, here we come.
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