I am still thinking about whether I want to continue playing Hades II (Supergiant Games) or not. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I suddenly realized that one of the boses I thought I could not beat might not be the last boss on that path (of the two paths available). Well, I beat that boss, and I was right. It’s not the last boss on that path. I have no idea why I thought it might be as it’s the third boss, and there are four on the other side. There were four in the last game, too, so why did I think there would be three on this path?
Well, one, this path is markedly more difficult after the first level. The second level and boss are a leap up. The second boss on the down path is no joke, but for the most part, I can get comfortably past that boss with the right acoutrements. There is a mini-boss on that level, however, who is an absolute nightmare. The level of difficulty with the mini-bosses varies way too much.
Weirdly, the third boss on the downwards path is relatively easy. I have little problem with the boss and–
*SPOILERS*
I’m still going to try to keep this as vague as possible, but the third boss on the downwards path is an NPC in the first game. I have a theory that the reason this boss isn’t that hard in this game (compared to the other bosses) is because they (generic they) don’t really want to hurt you. They know you’re Hades’ daughter and Zagreus’s sister, somewhere deep inside them. Otherwise, I can’t made sense of why they are so easy. I appreciate it, mind, as the boss of the final area is way too hard in my opinion.
I have maxed out my relationships with three NPCs, and they’re all siblings. It’s been interesting to pursue each character–wait. I might have maxed out another. One of my Olympiad relationships. With two of the siblings I mentioned before, I eavesdropped on two of them talking–about me. One of them was a bit jealous that I was paying attention to the other. It was strange because in the prior game, no one was jealous of anyone–and I romanced everyone I could in that game as well. In fact, I was able to have a threesome, which I have yet to see anyone else mention. As I’ve said before, there are a lot of steps to make it happen and I was not expecting it, so it was a surprising delight when the scene unfurled before my eyes.
I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in the romance dialogues this time. I still thoroughly enjoyed maxing out each relationship, but I felt that I got to the conclusion to many of them so quickly. In the last game, it took ages to conclude some of the relationships. I understand why they wanted to make it easier in this game (it really did take too long in the first game), but I think they overcorrected.
Then again, I’m taking forever to actually beat a run, so most people probably wouldn’t be able to max out their relationships as quickly as I have. On the third hand, I’m sure that certain steps of the relationships are procked by events in the game. At least I’m pretty sure. I just find it a bit hollow to get to the final unlocked heart of a relationship this early in the game.
Then again, I’m also impatient with the ones I haven’t unlocked yet. I’m guessing it’s tied to game achievements, like beating the final boss of the downward path. I’m not that impatient because I’ve maxed out all the relationships I really wanted to save one. For that one, I don’t know how to trigger the final event. I think it may be that this NPC is on the upward path, and I’ve been focusing on the downward path for the last few runs. Or doing trial runs set before me by Chaos (don’t ask) that are on the NPC of my desire’s path, but I’m not sure if the NPC shows up in the trials. Or rather, I would bet the NPC doesn’t show up because that’s not part of the trail.
I just did a few runs, and, yeah, I had to do an upwards path run to see the NPC I wanted to see to get said NPC to go back to The Crossroads. In that interaction on the battlefield, I was able to give them the item I had crafted for them so we could get together for one night. I thought that meant we would be bonking when I got back to The Crossroads, but instead, I got to listen to a really sweet convo between this NPC and another I had maxed out my relationship with.
One thing I really apppreciate is that each of the NPCs remain true to their counterpart in Greek mythology, but Supergiant doesn’t stick to what we know about the characters. They expand on the basic character and flesh them out a bit. Not all of them, but most of them. You don’t have to know much about Greek myithology, but it certainly helps if you do. When I meet Medea, and she’s a bitter witch who is intent on brewing curses and poisons to rain misery on her enemies, I get a thrill because I know her backstory.
It’s the same when I’m talking to Odysseus in The Crossroads and he mentions his travels. I learned that he and Penelope split after he returned home, and by several of his allusions, I can say it’s because of his infidelities and because maaaaaybe he was a bit bored being home once again. Circe is still miffed at him and will not talk to him.
There is a boon called the Daedalus Hammer, which was also in the first game. In this game, Icarus is an NPC as well, and I forgot that Daedalus was his father. When Melinoë mentions Daedalus to Icarus in context of the former being the latter’s father, I remembered the whole story. And in this game, a very interesting fact about Daedalus is revealed, telilng me something about Icarus as well.
I’m in the weird position of thinking this is a better game that the original Hades, but preferring the first game because I could actually play it. Again, I am not blaming the game for this, but the deterioration of my abilities/skills. Well, I blame the game a bit because the visual clutter/noise is really bad. Honestly, It’s like the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree. There was so much going on, I could not see the boss. In all the fights, I resign myself to not being able to see/track what’s going on and taking twice the damage than I should.
That’s all for now. I’ll probably write another post about it tomorrow.