This review contains spoilers

Started this on PC and finished it on Switch. Of course, this is a wonderful game as everyone has said and its artistry is unmatched. I think my issue was that after "beating" the game the first time, I was at the peak of my enjoyment and it was great, but after beating it to get the real ending, that had lessened. Then, getting to the "real ending" or the epilogue was an extremely tedious grind. There's a couple points: First, there are of course diminishing returns in any roguelike just because of the built in tedium of the genre. At a certain point, I had already climbed the mountain, but then was being asked to go back through just for RNG, over and over, and I wasn't ever failing. This is because in Hades, to progress your familiarity with a God, requires both new runs (because each God will only say a progression dialogue once per run) AND RNG to progress certain dialogues that will let you give them ambrosia. This is the way to get the epilogue. This is something you have to look online for to to know, so I spent a good 15 hours just doing more useless runs, not min/maxing my ability to get to the epilogue. Of course, I wanted to see the epilogue. I enjoy beating games and seeing all they have to offer! We shouldn't blame this desire on gamers, who have been conditioned to this behavior by the industry, but rather design with it in mind. I don't want to play your game for an extra 20 hours, give me clear objectives that don't require tedium. So, in that sense, everything I liked about the game started to become tedium. The witty writing became overwritten and corny. The frantic combat became boring. Even beating Hades meant nothing when it happened for the 30th time. That said, I still enjoyed my time with the game, but there might be something different in true "Rogue" games that don't exist in their subsets. Something where the challenge is constantly modulated and oppressive. Yeah, it be can be painful in its own way, but I would rather experience pain than ennui in my gaming. Anyway, it was still a wonderful game and deserves all of its accolades. But developers don't need to stretch out content until its thin and see through, ESPECIALLY in this genre.

Reviewed on May 02, 2021


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