Hades Redux, Part Five
Feb. 3rd, 2021 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI finally unlocked the epilogue!
It look me 87 runs through the game. If each run was an average of half an hour, that's about 45 hours.
The epilogue itself is maybe a minute long and involves some extra text and one bonus illustration.
The end credits, which I got after about 40 runs (or 20 hours) into the game, were very satisfying, though. I think the epilogue is more about the journey than the destination.
Although a lot of the character interactions are "randomly" triggered, the game is good about ensuring that you'll see everything at a steady pace if you just keep playing. I had to check a FAQ about triggering one interaction, but it turned out to be a simple matter of "have the item associated with the character equipped when you talk to the character." (Specifically, have the max-level Lambent Plume keepsake equipped when you talk to Hermes.) The story doesn't advance if you die during a run; but, once I got to the point where I stopped dying, I didn't die anymore. I know this sounds tautological, but what I mean is that the "randomness" of the game is fair. In other words, the game doesn't throw curveballs out of left field that knock you down due to nothing more than bad luck.
The weapon I ended up favoring were the Twin Fists of Malphon (the boxing gloves). They're difficult at first because they don't have a ranged attack, but they become useful once you learn enemy attack patterns, as they hit quickly and stack damage. I almost always used the Aspect of Demeter, which allows you to stack even more hits in a shorter span of time.
I had a lot of trouble with the Adamant Rail (the gun), which is highly inefficient if you don't manually reload it. In order to do so, you have to press down on the right control stick, which is awkward to begin with and even more difficult given that the game forces you to be constantly on the move. What this means is that you have to use your left thumb to move the character, your right thumb to dash and attack, and your second right thumb to reload the weapon. I know that some people - competitive Super Smash Bros players, for instance - have special controller setups that facilitate this sort of "three-hand" play style, but I am not one of these people.
I found that the most useful power-up "boons" were from Zeus and Artemis. Zeus gives you projectiles that strike nearby enemies every time you land a hit, and Artemis boosts your critical hit rate, which also carries over to the lightning projectiles. Unless you're good at isometric bullet hell, the best defense is a strong offense, so taking out enemies before they get a chance to attack is generally the best strategy.
The character I did not expect to like as much as I did was Ares, who turned out to be the Royce Bracket of this game. He is very respectful, very polite, and very earnestly committed to something that most people would agree is a very bad idea. I think "corporate evil" is probably a good description of the character, who is delightfully well-written.
Another secondary character that resonated with me is Dusa, a disembodied Gorgon head with self-confidence issues. The player can "romance" her, but the romance ends up becoming a romantic friendship, which is very sweet. The player-character's foster mother cautions Dusa against talking to him, but this is less about class (ie, she is a servant and he is a prince) and more about the mom's concern that Dusa is only exacerbating her issues with self-confidence by engaging with someone whose position makes her nervous about her own role in the household. In other words, the mom is encouraging Dusa to grow as a person so that she can make a choice about the relationship that stems from her own feelings, not a sense of obligation. Dusa starts out as a joke character - she's a cute anime maid, but also a disembodied monster head! - but her narrative arc is surprisingly nuanced.
So, in conclusion, Hades was 45 hours of my life well spent. 11/10, highly recommend, fun game about murder with good writing about family.
It look me 87 runs through the game. If each run was an average of half an hour, that's about 45 hours.
The epilogue itself is maybe a minute long and involves some extra text and one bonus illustration.
The end credits, which I got after about 40 runs (or 20 hours) into the game, were very satisfying, though. I think the epilogue is more about the journey than the destination.
Although a lot of the character interactions are "randomly" triggered, the game is good about ensuring that you'll see everything at a steady pace if you just keep playing. I had to check a FAQ about triggering one interaction, but it turned out to be a simple matter of "have the item associated with the character equipped when you talk to the character." (Specifically, have the max-level Lambent Plume keepsake equipped when you talk to Hermes.) The story doesn't advance if you die during a run; but, once I got to the point where I stopped dying, I didn't die anymore. I know this sounds tautological, but what I mean is that the "randomness" of the game is fair. In other words, the game doesn't throw curveballs out of left field that knock you down due to nothing more than bad luck.
The weapon I ended up favoring were the Twin Fists of Malphon (the boxing gloves). They're difficult at first because they don't have a ranged attack, but they become useful once you learn enemy attack patterns, as they hit quickly and stack damage. I almost always used the Aspect of Demeter, which allows you to stack even more hits in a shorter span of time.
I had a lot of trouble with the Adamant Rail (the gun), which is highly inefficient if you don't manually reload it. In order to do so, you have to press down on the right control stick, which is awkward to begin with and even more difficult given that the game forces you to be constantly on the move. What this means is that you have to use your left thumb to move the character, your right thumb to dash and attack, and your second right thumb to reload the weapon. I know that some people - competitive Super Smash Bros players, for instance - have special controller setups that facilitate this sort of "three-hand" play style, but I am not one of these people.
I found that the most useful power-up "boons" were from Zeus and Artemis. Zeus gives you projectiles that strike nearby enemies every time you land a hit, and Artemis boosts your critical hit rate, which also carries over to the lightning projectiles. Unless you're good at isometric bullet hell, the best defense is a strong offense, so taking out enemies before they get a chance to attack is generally the best strategy.
The character I did not expect to like as much as I did was Ares, who turned out to be the Royce Bracket of this game. He is very respectful, very polite, and very earnestly committed to something that most people would agree is a very bad idea. I think "corporate evil" is probably a good description of the character, who is delightfully well-written.
Another secondary character that resonated with me is Dusa, a disembodied Gorgon head with self-confidence issues. The player can "romance" her, but the romance ends up becoming a romantic friendship, which is very sweet. The player-character's foster mother cautions Dusa against talking to him, but this is less about class (ie, she is a servant and he is a prince) and more about the mom's concern that Dusa is only exacerbating her issues with self-confidence by engaging with someone whose position makes her nervous about her own role in the household. In other words, the mom is encouraging Dusa to grow as a person so that she can make a choice about the relationship that stems from her own feelings, not a sense of obligation. Dusa starts out as a joke character - she's a cute anime maid, but also a disembodied monster head! - but her narrative arc is surprisingly nuanced.
So, in conclusion, Hades was 45 hours of my life well spent. 11/10, highly recommend, fun game about murder with good writing about family.
