Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: love-hate

Hades II (Supergiant Games): I think I’m done, part two

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have subtitled this, “I think I’m done”, but I’m really not. It’s more that I’m dealing with the frustrations that I have while continuing to play the game. I found out what the last incantation I unlocked does.

*SPOILERS*

It makes it so that you can change the seed of run you’re on when you’re at the Oath of the Unseen (the statue that lets you add different hardships to your run in order to up the Fear factor). When I first found out what it did, I thought to myself, “That’s it?? That’s what I needed five of the items from the upper path last boss for?” So I could choose a different seed? Who the fuck cares about that?

Then, I was trying to unlock the last aspect of a Nocturnal Arm I needed (the staff, Descura), and I soon realized how this ability (to quit a seed) was handy. With the staff as my weapon, I had to make it to the second biome of the upwards path. I had to find the NPC of that level, and she was usually to the back of the level. I had to talk to her with the staff in hand. It didn’t have to be her aspect activated, but that’s the one I liked to use, anyway.

I knocked the difficulty down to minimal because I was just trying to get to her. Oh, wait. I first did it for the aspect I needed for the skull. The NPC I needed to talk to was in the first biome of the upwards path, so I thought I could get there pretty quickly. First run, her room wasn’t there. I could tell at a glance of the map (the NPC rooms are marked with two clasped hands), so I undid the night (how to get back to The Crossroads as if run had never happened), and then realized I would have to reset the seed to get a different run.

That was the reason for that incantation! Was it worth it? Ultimately, yes. It  would have been nice to know before doing the incantation, though, or at least right after. It is useful because if I quit and go back, I’m in the same run. The only way to get out of that run is to die. That can take a long time with all the Death Defiances I have equipped.

I was able to get the skull aspect fairly easily. It did take several runs, but at least it was quick. I would look at the map as soon as I got into the city. If I did not see the NPC room, I would quit the night and change the seed. The first time I got into her room, I didn’t actually have the skull equipped so I quit out, but did not change the seed. When I went in, she noticed the skull and told me the wakening phrase I needed to use back home.

Easy-peasy! I naively thought it would be that simple with the staff as well. Spoiler: it was not. I did several runs to the second-level boss in which I did not see the NPC. Once I reached the second boss, I undid the night and changed the seed. I have killed the first level boss enough that I don’t care that I lost a few rewards from doing so.


Continue Reading

Hades II (Supergiant Games): I think I’m done

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have played a surprising number of games this year (I tend to only play FromSoft games), and there is a theme that sums up how I feel about many of the games. That theme is love-hate. Or, in social media talk, it’s complicated. My relationship with the games, I mean. Those include Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock), and now Hades II (Supergiant Games). Oh, and I would put Date Everything! (Sassy Chap Games) in that category as well. I have not played that much of the last game, but I have my issues with it, which I will not talk about in this post. Here is yesterday’s post, to which this is a continuation of sorts. But not really.

I want to emphasize once again that Hades II is a great game. I don’t want the takeaway to be that I think it’s a shit game. In many ways, it’s a better game than it’s predecessor. However, I have had my frustrations with it, and I need to vent about them. Needless to say, there will be spoilers. I will try to keep them vague, but I can’t talk about my issues with the game without at least mentioning them.

*SPOILERS*

Today, I was doing a quest/mission on the Fated List of Minor Prophecies. It’s another one that was given to me ages ago, but I knew that I would not be able to finish it until after the true ending of the story. It had several different pieces to it; most of them were done just by playing the game–and meeting very specific conditions. Then, I reached the end of the mission with just one vague, cryptic instruction on what to do for the final piece. I had to read it a few times to understand what it was asking for.

Then, I had to do a run on the downward path in which I had to die in a very specific way in three consecutive rooms before dying for good (don’t ask) in a fourth room. All of this had to happen while having a certain keepsake equipped.

I cannot tell you how many times I fucked it up. First of all, this area is the second biome of the downward path, so not that hard. I had several variants turned on to make the run harder just so I wouldn’t cruise my way through each room. I also had my cat with me so I could breeze through the first biome. You have to prod the cat in order to get her to attack, and then she’ll attack several times (depending on how much you upgrade her) before going to sleep. I thought I could use her in the first biome with a Fear level of 10 (that’s still a relatively-low Fear level), but that made the last stage of the mission impossible.


Continue Reading