Hades has gameplay that straddles the line between mediocre and solid, and sits firmly on repetitive, but is massively, MASSIVELY elevated by a constant deluge of excellent characters and writing, showcasing possibly the most consistently charming ensemble I've seen in a game. I want to write about how rare it is for a game to have you happy to see characters that go so far across the spectrum, ranging from bashful fangirls to our rebellious demon protagonist, or even to his douchey uncles, but every time I start to write it down I struggle to think of way to say it without literally describing the things I like about every single character. Hopefully it will suffice to say that if this game's story has a problem it is not in being short on anything.

Its narrative's one (and only, in my opinion) problem is that it's so long. It took me less than 20 hours to get to the main ending, but having such a great time I decided I'd go on and complete the epilogue, after more than 20 more hours I still haven't gotten to it, which is a shame considering as the game is getting taken off gamepass (or maybe already has? I didn't check) I doubt I'll manage to get a satisfying conclusion. I guess I would have if I chose to just stop playing at the main ending, but I won't fault the game for what is ultimately the fault of gamepass. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, it's too long! The most obvious justification for this is that with such a huge amount of dialogue, there is no way to let the player digest each storyline without spreading them across a really long game, and considering the stories visual novel style structure I actually think a roguelite is an incredible fit, given how neatly it paces the story. Talk to Zag's close family between runs, talk to Zag's distant family on a run. If one adored these characters more than I loved them I could easily see them shocked at the suggestion of reducing the games length.

Just a real treat.