I do really and truly enjoy this game and when you realise what's actually at the end of a run you feel so incredibly compelled to get back there. One of the most emotional endings to any game and it inspires you to relive it again and again. Perfectly integrated story and game design. In its favour is that this is by far and away the best written roguelike out there, a genre often completely barren of any semblance of narrative cohesion. Reimagining and recontextualising characters from Greek mythos has been done to death in other media (I really wanted to make a pun and say Medea there), but not video games, other than God of War ofc. So its refreshing to see them actually get pretty creative with it, these would be great characters in any artistic space.

I have to say though its gameplay falls slightly shorter than what I was lead to believe by its critical acclaim. Not a lot, just a little. Runs do become a bit samey and while I could add extra challenges and equip weapons I don't often use, it does not change the fact I am always seeing the same Gods, fighting the same bosses/enemies in the same room layouts, getting the same boons etc.). It could really do with a few more rare surprises to make runs feel unique, because the few it does have such as the various Greek caricatures of each layer and chaos are exemplary

I find the best parts of Hades are when I am not playing it. Instead, taking in the world; chatting at the palace, staring out into the hellscapes' vistas and resting. And once again I will never recover from the ending.