Hades (from Supergiant, maker of Pyre, Bastion, Transistor)

just wait till you get the Chiron bow. Rama bow is super fun as well, especially with Zeus's boon on the special.

BEAT THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR THIS MORNING

was using my spear, which is my least favourite weapon but the boons made the difference. Theseus is such an annoying cunt.

Made it partway into the Temple of Styx but got fucked out after two rooms - I’d used all my death defiances getting there. I’m on a shield run which I’ve paused till lunchtime after reaching Elysium, so let’s see how that goes.

Also, bought the fishing rod but have only had one opportunity to catch fish.

those fish are bastards

nice job gyac!!

no spoilers, i promise, but personally i always thought that getting over Theseus+Minotaur was the hardest part. you're well on your way, if you keep going :)

the fishing rod will definitely come in handy, too, it's very worthwhile.

if you want a little bonus tip that anyone with a fishing rod can use:

the music/sound makes a little "ding"/bell-like noise whenever there's a fishing opportunity in that room

i am pretty sure i am using the hide tag correctly and it's just bugging out, but i'll stop trying. sorry for the spoiler there

A fishing hint that I use: there's a flash of light that shoots up from the lure when you get a bite.

Is this still the hidden text tag? Testing. Let’s see, cos I have thoughts on Hades.

RIGHT SO

I’ve beaten this! Well over twenty times since I last posted. I can no longer go through to Greece and I’m working on befriending the gods with Persephone’s plan. Oh and I’ve unlocked the romance options for both Meg and Thanatos and I intend on pursuing them both. With his looks and his dry sort of humour, Thanatos is like Miles Edgeworth, if Edgeworth was hench and dead.

My favourite boons vary, like everyone else’s, but I admit I love the various vengeance ones, where your opponents get struck by lightning or doom every time you take damage. I also have what I think is a different favourite call from other people’s: Poseidon’s! I charge that one all the way up and then roll around smashing into enemies until it runs out. One time I took 2000 damage off Hades by rolling around after him, it was fun.

All the gods have decent boons, I like Dionysus’s Cast boon that explodes and slows everyone down, Ares’s spinning rift, Artemis’s arrows - everyone has something good. I go to Hermes whenever I can for dashing/speed boons, though.

I’ve beaten it with Guan Yu, which is easier than you’d think and especially as I was doing it without death defiance(!). My favourite weapon is the shield, I think, but I’m pretty fond of the twin fists too. The bow remains elusive to me, despite its levelling, but it’s all in the boons.

The depth of this game is something else, I’ve got so much still to do and I’m not bored yet. Really pleased I started playing it.

congrats gyac!!

finally getting into this. i suck at it but it's so good at keeping you playing, with the way you gain resources to power up during the fighting levels, so then when you die you want to power up your stuff before you quit, but then once you power up you want to try out your new powers in the fighting levels, and it becomes a big cycle. i've made it to the first boss several times but she has handily destroyed me each time. i like most of the weapons except the bow-and-arrow, which feels too slow. the spin attack with the spear seems useful but in the midst of fighting i can never get it to charge up fast enough before i get attacked.

i was the same way with the spin attack. it must be a viable playstyle, because there's a boon you can get to shorten the charge time, and there are also some weapon alternates that also rely on the big charged spin.

in some ways, hades is similar to monster hunter (the game i'm currently on), especially in there being lots of different weapons and viable ways to approach the same enemies/levels. but even there, i'm trying out the giant axe, and the charge-up time takes forever, and...nope

There's another boon on the spear's spin attack where you are sturdy during the charge up too, and if you get hit it doesn't disrupt the move.

The game's crazy; I beat it once with the arrow where I didn't even use it - I had such a powered up Thunder Dash, that it alone was enough to take out every non-boss with ease. Just dashed around and Palpatined half the underworld

finally beat meg (a couple of times) last night. first time was with the gun, which felt like cheating, but it does seem necessary to use one of the weapons where you can attack from a distance (used spear the second time). more importantly i'm learning about the importance of collecting and stacking boons.

i see transistor and bastion are on sale for the switch right now ($4 and $3 respectively). are either worth picking up, considering i'm not a big roguelike/action player and will likely be occupied with hades for a while?

if you like Hades, you'll probably like the earlier Supergiant games too. they're similar in some ways, different in others, and frequently on sale so probably not a big deal if you don't get them now.

They just announced Hades 2. Literally Hades 2.

Fuuuuuuuuck!

https://www.pcgamer.com/supergiant-announces-hades-2-at-the-game-awards/

Just started Hades, one of those games I knew was really so great and beloved that (ironically) I was in no rush to dive into. And you know what? It's great.

Yeah this has been on my pile for ages and I know exactly what you mean about not wanting to start it because I know it'll be great

One of the all-time greats, imo.

i beat it a few rounds but couldnt bother to figure out how all the stuff worked enough to win once the heat got turned up, pretty cool tho def, i like the weapon thats a lil freezing laser tower

Maybe it's finally time for me to try this, I need a new game (after this Sekiro playthrough)

I played this a lot, I got pretty addicted. I told myself I'd play it until I'd ascended, and did so, but kept playing. Then I told myself I'd play it until I'd ascended enough to finish the main storyline, and did so, but kept playing. Then I told myself I'd complete all the aux storylines, and I did so, but kept playing. I finally stopped after I maxed the game, got Skelly's final stupid statue, and I haven't played it since.

I've got this on PS and Switch. Playing the Switch version is hammering home the idea that I possibly need to get glasses

I completed the main storyline and did all the extra stories but there's no way I'm good enough to max everything out - I'm impressed, fgti.

I think I bought this game three times before I ever played it, lol.

I'd guess that this is my most-played game by a significant margin

My heat settings (32 heat): Hard Labor x3, Extreme Measures x4, Benefits Package x2, Middle Management, Forced Overtime x2, Tight Deadline x3

I also use Ruthless Reflex instead of Greater Reflex which I guess is unorthodox

I've barely played this so far, but I hope the nuance and detail and benefits of all these different boosts and whatnot become more clear through playthrough, though I think that's the design.

32 heat, that’s impressive crüt. I don’t remember what I hit my max on but it was almost certainly with one of the bows

I've barely played this so far, but I hope the nuance and detail and benefits of all these different boosts and whatnot become more clear through playthrough, though I think that's the design.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, July 5, 2023 11:24 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they do, and you'll figure out which weapon/playstyle/boon combo works best for you.

don't forget to upgrade in the mirror, either

Ok, I tried this (read: played for hours) yesterday and I'm properly hooked now. I made it to the first boss with the bow, and then started doing even better with the shield (especially on a run that turned the bull rush into a shot where my character stayed in one place).

It's funny to me that so many 'casual' gamers I know, who get all intimidated by Dark Souls, have beaten this game. The runback to the first boss is longer than anything in a From game, and I get the sense that even when I beat the boss, when die I'll start all the way back at the beginning? That's way more punishing than getting to learn a boss without too much preamble and then never having to fight them again. So yes, it's my first real roguelike. :) I guess the accumulation of base stats and weapons is supposed to balance that out? But it puts a lot of pressure on learning a new boss fight, dang.

Anyway the game is great, super impressed with all the voice acting etc and it's as addictive as everyone says.

the first time it started getting a little easier for me was when I got the shield.

And I know I need to figure out things like equipping keepsakes and using the call. Special attacks (triangle on PS) can be used without restriction, right? Not sure what makes them special then.

xp

The shield seems to have it all, right? Melee, range, and defense. The bow was cool but I couldn't deal with the flying skulls, just couldn't shoot fast enough to counter their zippy attacks (and it wasn't always possible to dodge). The shield totally trivializes them.

I think the shield was my favourite in early runs, too. My tactic was to always use whichever weapon gives you extra darkness - not just for that bonus but to force myself to get used to using all of the different weapons and not just rely on one.

The runback to the first boss is longer than anything in a From game, and I get the sense that even when I beat the boss, when die I'll start all the way back at the beginning?

I guess the difference is that the run is the point? Each run is different, you get new things and talk to different characters while buffing your stats/currency. Obviously beating the boss is ALSO the point, but if you're brilliant at combat and beat the whole thing in only a few tries then there's a massive lot of game you're missing out on. I mean, I'm not a combat gamer, really, so for me the fighting is a means to befriend Artemis or to hang out with creepy perv Dionysus or whatever.

Oftentimes I’d surprise myself with a victorious run with a collection of drops that I’d never have anticipated… the one time that I won with a pile of Dionysus-offensive stuff was very satisfying because I never expected it! Everyone was drunk

It’s been a while since I played so I can’t remember what it was, but there is one Athena boon that I considered a must-have, I relied on it. Some kind of shield thing

prob the shield dash

like most well-made games, all the combos and weapons are pretty viable. Dead Cells was the first roguelike that I got into so I was pretty prepared for it, but I think Hades prob does the best job of any of these games in making this framework propel the story. I haven't played too many of these types of games besides hollow knight and the souls series, are there any more big ones I've missed?

Yeah, shield dash was the number one essential boon for me.

But you can't plan on or keep the boons, right?

Hollow Knight and Souls aren't roguelikes at all - the closest I've come to this is Inscryption, which is fantastic. But generally I prefer to find my build and cling to it until the end, so I'm still getting used to this.

xpost Roguelike? Hollow Knight or Souls ain't that. Oh, wait, games where any approach is viable? Probably lots. Like Hitman, or games where you can go either stealth or aggro, say.

But you can't plan on or keep the boons, right?

No, but you can make sure you choose an Athena room if you're given the choice! Possible spoiler but there is a way to guarantee who the first god will be, but for me those calls feel like a waste and I prefer to leave it to chance.

In terms of similar games, I just bought Slay the Spire in the Steam sale, and that has the same "multiple runs with many possible paths" vibe. The story is much more sparing, but I'm still pretty sucked in to the whole cyclical journey. It's also card-based combat rather than hack'n'slash, so maybe not actually all that similar aside from in my own brain?

I mean, I was friends with felicity for over a year before we discovered we both were huge roguelike junkies (she: Nethack, me: ADOM).

Souls games are definitely inspired by rogue-likes insofar as they have a version of permadeath, kind of a permadeath-lite (dying before retrieving your souls/runes), and a similar feeling of “having to learn something cryptic by just attempting it over and over”…

…but I think the inspiration river flows the other way: Hades and Dead Cells are inspired heavily by Souls games. Doesn’t Dead Cells even have a “git gud” Easter egg?

xp Slay the Spire is fantastic though be warned, I'm something like 500hrs into it and I still find myself going back for more, though maybe it's that I'm just not very good at it!

I can now get past the first boss consistently! But I'm getting a bit shredded in the next area, of course. Still using the shield, being able to block if necessary is just too good.

I get that it's integral to the game system to do a full run each time in order to keep acquiring stuff and strengthening your character over time, but I would still kill for a checkpoint after each main area.

Beat the Hydra on my first try! So I've gotten through some of Elysium once, mostly thanks to some Ares boons (the ones that add doom to your special attack).

Going to play this with God mode switched on tonight, have only ever managed to beat the first boss once, died instantly in the next chamber.