Not even the term "roguelite" feels appropriate anymore. I'd say Hades is closer to a roguelite-lite, because now the meta-progression is the main event and the actual randomized dungeon crawl more of an afterthought. In hindsight, I'm surprised it's taken Supergiant, who historically develop games for the sole purpose of padding out a seemingly pre-written script, this long to make this game, since they're now given infinitely more nooks and crannies to cram situational dialog into. Critiquing it as a roguelike wouldn't be fair; it's not even trying to deliver a fulfilling, high skill-ceiling experience that hinges on the player's ability to take advantage of good luck and creatively adapt to overcome misfortune. It's addicting, yes, but for all the wrong reasons- instead of embracing the arcade philosophy of only giving players enough motivation to break through to the next level on their own, it buries its gameplay shortcomings under a mountain of extrinsic reward. It's specifically designed to be too hard with no upgrades and too easy with upgrades, in an effort to dripfeed the player story details in a way that appears natural. Though, it seems like this approach requires a substantial amount of willful ignorance to actually be effective. For me, at least, finally beating Hades (the guy) felt like less of a monumental accomplishment and more of an item on a checklist that I'd crossed off before being carted away to the next stop on the assembly line, which nullifies any potential benefit of the roguelike structure. That's not to say the concept is broken at its core, and it's hard to deny the appeal of the dynamic hubworld and the overall level of contextualization given to a traditionally abstract genre. I can certainly imagine falling in love with this game if it really did feel like all the dialog corresponded 1:1 with your actions, but I'm skeptical that this accurately describes every fan of Hades. Not to pluck my own lyre, but NPCs consistently felt behind the times for me, still praising me for reaching Elysium after I'd already escaped the Underworld several times, for instance. And it's not like the writing is exactly stellar- Zagreus's near constant quipping tells me that Supergiant's not fully confident in a tone that's more comedic than their previous games. But then again, this is all stuff that, in my eyes, would only serve to elevate an already good game and not to excuse combat that's fundamentally a slog. I don't think I have a single compliment for Hades's action gameplay, but despite runs that always feel the exact same, upgrades that are all roundabout stat modifiers with no room for personality, and non-boss enemies that never pose a threat, what's most offensive to me is that Supergiant hasn't at all evolved since Bastion. It's the same weightless, uninspired, utterly boring mashfest that it's been for the past decade, entirely inexcusable. Or maybe my heart only has enough room for one randomized trek through the realm of the undead.

Got this game for free on EGS at some point. I didn't know what this game was, it's genre, story - nothing. What I've experienced really shocked me.

I'm not a big fan of strategy deck-builders, but this game really scratched my itch real nice. I could not tell you how excited I was by unlocking another seal and seeing what cards there are and what combinations you could do with them. Every time I saw an upgrade to an already used card (for example exchanging a regular waste card to a well-versed one), I was elated. However, I thought that every seal would focus on a different strategy - aspen seal could be waste, fern seal could be waste and so on. It's more of a mish-mash of different status effects, though some of them dominate one or another seal.

I cannot give all the credit to just the deck building though, since it is pretty bare-bones. The atmosphere that this game creates with it's visual artstyle, it's audio tracks and VA is phenomenal. As of 5 seconds ago, I've checked that the devs are from the same region of Russia, as the game plays in. The XIX century Russian region, with all of it's mythology, really shines and from what I could tell, most of the VA's are Russian themselves, so it really adds on to the realism (with how real kolduns, chorts and zagovors can be). Jammed to all of the folk songs.

Won't talk about the story, it's alright. No real ground-breaking work there, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. Most of the main characters are great, some are at most okay.

The little side content always rewards you with an item, experience or knowledge on how to not make the same mistake next time and incentivizes you to explore every dot on the map. The travelling is akin to games like slay the spire or inscryption, with every location on the map having some kind of encounter, whether it be enemies, friends or something else (spooooky).

All in all, if you want some narratively typical story with great characters and good beginner deck-building mechanics, please try this game out, it's an absolute treat.

I’ve started to realize that roguelikes scratch a major itch in my brain in a real dangerous way. The satisfaction of seeing yourself progress, feeling yourself improve run after run… The core gameplay loop hits a specific nerve in my body that makes me hyperfixate on the game for hours and hours on end. Meanwhile, Paper Mario holds a special place in my heart. It's my favorite franchise, bar none. The joy, the world, the humor, and the masterful rpg mechanics all bundle together into a package resting perfectly in my heart.

So this game broke me under its knee. I was under its thrall for an alarming number of hours. I only managed to force myself to step back when various due dates began piling up. This is a mod that was tailor made to wreck my brain into pieces so I’m obviously going to be biased going in. But with that in mind, the craft going into this fan game is truly incredible.

Giving Paper Mario 64 a Pit of 100 Trials is a solid gimmick on its own. The Pit in TTYD works mainly because the gameplay is so fun, you WANT to play through 100 levels of challenges. Yet Black Pit goes beyond just that central idea and crafts an entirely new game. It transforms into a well-crafted roguelike that constantly rewards your efforts. Classic Pit mode runs exactly as the original Pit. Every ten floors, you’ll find a badge and unlock a partner. Using coins, you can upgrade Mario and your squad to get more powerful. Go deeper, unlock more badges and partners, get stronger, etc.

But then there’s Roguelike Pit mode. This goes ever harder into the roguelike Paper Mario concept by stripping you down to your bare essentials each run. Partners and badges and upgrades are all randomly generated on the floors, letting you slowly build up your team and discover how far you can go before you run out of items and health. It's furiously addicting but also rewarding. Any coins you gain in the Rogue Pit will be sent to your bank, allowing you to buy upgrades for the main Classic Pit mode.

On top of THAT is the Maze. A randomly generated maze full of traps and poison air, slowly suffocating you as you try to navigate its twisting corridors to find star pieces. Star pieces unlock chests which contain your Health and Flower Power upgrades. It's the only way to upgrade those stats for your main Classic Pit run. It's my least favorite part of the mod, but it's different secrets and upgrade tree opens up another different gameplay style to work from.

And then on top of THAT, is the achievements. Doing different achievements fills up your star points/(exp in Paper Mario proper). In Black Pit, those Star Points can be used to unlock your special moves, which are allowed in both Classic and Rogue Pit. Those special moves make it easier to complete achievements like “Beat the Pit without items” or “Beat the Pit with minimum badges” and so on. Which then gives you more Star Points to get more special moves and so on and so forth.

And then after beating the Classic Pit, a whole NEW Pit opens up, leading up to the game’s final climactic battle. Beating the game then unlocks new Very Hard modes for the other pits. I haven't even touched that yet, but this is a game I'm gonna be spending a lot of time earning 100% completion on.

The whole game builds on itself, over and over, adding new swerves and gimmicks and modes to craft an entirely new, incredible game. I’ve been interested in finally trying out game hacks and mods for a while, but this was so instantly rewarding in so many ways. It completely changed how I think of a series I already adore and helped me find a new way to love it in ways I couldn’t foresee. It made me stop and think harder about how these games are designed and what it takes to build a satisfying system. How later games tried to reinvent the series and just couldn’t match the perfect crunch of the original Paper Mario system. A perfect labor of love, with surprising swerves and delights that only a dedicated fan could have crafted.

This is definitely one of the best co-op games to come out. The quality overall is through the roof, with an incredible attention to detail in every aspect of the game.

The platforming is smooth, the voice acting is fantastic, and the environments are fun, unique, and are changed up very often. The game effortlessly mixes comedy with more serious relationship issues, and never drops a beat.

The gameplay, while a platformer most of the time, changes it up so often that it's almost like playing a succession of minigames. In
one moment you'll play a plaformer, the next you're flying, then skating, etc, so the gameplay remains fresh throughout.

My main gripe with this game is that while I appreciate that the game wants you to constantly move forward, the puzzles the game gives you can feel like they drag a lot, especially when there are multiple puzzles in quick succession. "Activate 6 of these things, by doing the exact same thing but slightly different 6 times", it is not really fun, and slows down the pace of the game.

Furthermore, while it is great that every chapter gives you new abilities to play with, some chapters leaves one player doing almost nothing. This is especially the case in certain chapters where Cody's abilities boil down to "hold the door so May can play the game".

Despite these flaws, the game is still a blast throughout, and should be at the top of the backlog for any couple looking for something to play together. I highly recommend it.