In this post:
I think a little about the Hades series by Supergiant Games.
…Yes, you should play these games.
Note: There are mild spoilers for these games within this post.
Hades was released in 2020 and its sister, Hades II, was released in 2025.
Both games involve complicated family relationships, steadily increasing strength, the expectation of failures along the way, and dealing with the seemingly intentional, but often seemingly indifferent effects of Fate. In both games, you may pursue self-inflicted, escalating difficulty.
In both games, you make due with what you’re given. When you are inevitably defeated, you return to a previous point with limited gains based on your most recent progress and luck of the draw.
In Hades, you play as Zagreus, the son of Hades, with the initial goal of escaping Tartarus for the Surface. Zagreus hopes to find his mother, Persephone, whom he has never met before. Further, he hopes he can convince her to return to The House of Hades. When this quest is completed, the in-story reason for continued play is to satisfy the role of Security Specialist, which involves the straightforward, enduring task of constantly testing the Realm of the Keeper of the Dead to ensure none can escape.
Increasing the difficulty is done through interacting with the Pact of Punishment, which allows the player to increase the Heat by activating ranks of various Pacts. Some of the pacts make enemies more powerful, and some cause undesirable effects for Zagreus directly, such as reducing incoming healing or making purchases more expensive.
In Hades II, you play as the daughter of Hades, Melinoe, with the initial goal of breaking into Tartarus to eradicate her grandfather, Chronos – the Titan of Time – to rescue The Fates and her family. (Kill Time!) Eventually, the Surface also becomes open to Melinoe, and she can pursue the additional goal of reaching the peak of Mount Olympus to defeat Typhon, the Father of All Monsters in order to alleviate the pressure on the Olympic gods and goddesses.
I’ll minimize spoilers here since Hades II is much newer:
Melinoe ultimately succeeds in rescuing her family and is given a similar maintenance role as rationale for replayability.
Increasing the difficulty in runs of Hades II involves interacting with the Oath of the Unseen, which allows a player to increase Fear through Vows, which work similarly to Pacts from the original Hades.
Both games involve navigating mythological regions while receiving rewards on the way to the final region and its final boss.
Rewards include meta progression items such as Darkness, Titan’s Blood, and Gemstones in Hades or Ashes, Psyche, and Bones in Hades II, that can be spent to permanently enhance Zagreus or Melinoe (or their weapons) across a save file.
Rewards that only affect the current run include Boons, Centaur Hearts, Magick, Obols/ Gold, Daedalus Hammers, and Pomegranates.
Gold can be spent in Charon’s shops for any of the above rewards.
Hearts increase Maximum Health.
Magick grants Melinoe Max Magick (which is a resource unique to her as a Witch).
Daedalus Hammers provide a helpful effect to the weapon being used.
Pomegranates increase the potency of a Boon.
Boons are the most interesting rewards.
Zagreus may receive Boons from Athena, Artemis, Dionysus, Ares, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hermes, and Demeter.
Melinoe may receive Boons from all of the above as well as from Apollo, Hestia, Hephaestus, and Hera. She can only receive one Boon per run from Athena, Artemis, Ares, and Dionysus, but they are dramatically stronger than Boons from the others. Melinoe can also receive a single boon from Hades, himself.
The Boons of these gods and goddesses follow their own themes with some variance between the games. There are often benefits to investing into as many Boons from a singular god as you can, as some Boons are prerequisites to stronger Boons.
One such example is Demeter’s Legendary Boon, Winter’s Harvest, which can instantly defeat any enemy with the Frozen effect active if their health falls to or below 10%.
There are also benefits to investing into multiple gods, most evident in Duo Boons, which pair the powers of two gods together.
An example is the “Beach Ball” Duo Boon that Melinoe may receive from Apollo and Poseidon, which causes an increasingly large orb of water to follow Melinoe when she sprints. When she stops sprinting, the ball’s momentum carries onward, exploding in a massive burst of damage. As far as I am aware, there is no real cooldown to this, so you can effectively Dash to initiate a Sprint, Attack to stop the Sprint immediately, and thereby throw a massive projectile forward.
Zagreus and Melinoe can also form Bonds with the other entities in their respective games, which eventually reward Keepsakes.
These Keepsakes can be exchanged amongst each other per region and grant different effects. Zagreus can benefit from a Keepsake from Eurydice that protects him from the first five times he would take damage from a region boss. Melinoe can benefit from a Keepsake from Arachne that perpetually grants her Armor so long as she has any Armor remaining.
Relevance
In real life, we all play as ourselves. We each have unique goals, though most of our pursuits are likely not met with death if we fail along the way. We get help along the way. We get better or learn new things or the nuance of things as we go along.
Our goals vary as we age. Many of us start with academic goals and pick up social, professional, fitness, and recreational goals as we continue being exposed to new things.
Progressing through different parts of our lives brings us rewards and regrets: improved minds, stronger, more flexible bodies, access to certain organizations, and wealth. I suppose the inverse could also be said…
Sometimes, we get help from others. Sometimes, lessons from completely unrelated people or completely different parts of our lives come together in interesting, powerful ways. Sometimes, our experiences yield internal conflicts.
Sometimes we develop relationships with unique benefits or quirks, even if those relationships are sometimes those of Rivals. While relationships in Hades cannot degrade, however, our relationships in life can, with varying effects.
Occasionally, we make appeals to stronger powers, real, imagined, or manifested. No doubt, we sometimes offer curses instead of seeking blessings.
We can increase the difficulty of our pursuits, though less with digital menus and more with our wider selection of options available to us. We aspire to greatness and dedicate ourselves to causes – for better or for worse.
We may not need to kill our fathers or grandfathers with help from family members, but sometimes we do need to unlearn the lessons of our upbringing. Sometimes, we need to make peace with our pasts.
We should try to enjoy the journey, especially since:
“There Is No Escape”, and “Time Cannot Be Stopped.”
72 Airman's Writings 