Hades (from Supergiant, maker of Pyre, Bastion, Transistor)

prob the shield dash

like most well-made games, all the combos and weapons are pretty viable. Dead Cells was the first roguelike that I got into so I was pretty prepared for it, but I think Hades prob does the best job of any of these games in making this framework propel the story. I haven't played too many of these types of games besides hollow knight and the souls series, are there any more big ones I've missed?

Yeah, shield dash was the number one essential boon for me.

But you can't plan on or keep the boons, right?

Hollow Knight and Souls aren't roguelikes at all - the closest I've come to this is Inscryption, which is fantastic. But generally I prefer to find my build and cling to it until the end, so I'm still getting used to this.

xpost Roguelike? Hollow Knight or Souls ain't that. Oh, wait, games where any approach is viable? Probably lots. Like Hitman, or games where you can go either stealth or aggro, say.

But you can't plan on or keep the boons, right?

No, but you can make sure you choose an Athena room if you're given the choice! Possible spoiler but there is a way to guarantee who the first god will be, but for me those calls feel like a waste and I prefer to leave it to chance.

In terms of similar games, I just bought Slay the Spire in the Steam sale, and that has the same "multiple runs with many possible paths" vibe. The story is much more sparing, but I'm still pretty sucked in to the whole cyclical journey. It's also card-based combat rather than hack'n'slash, so maybe not actually all that similar aside from in my own brain?

I mean, I was friends with felicity for over a year before we discovered we both were huge roguelike junkies (she: Nethack, me: ADOM).

Souls games are definitely inspired by rogue-likes insofar as they have a version of permadeath, kind of a permadeath-lite (dying before retrieving your souls/runes), and a similar feeling of “having to learn something cryptic by just attempting it over and over”…

…but I think the inspiration river flows the other way: Hades and Dead Cells are inspired heavily by Souls games. Doesn’t Dead Cells even have a “git gud” Easter egg?

xp Slay the Spire is fantastic though be warned, I'm something like 500hrs into it and I still find myself going back for more, though maybe it's that I'm just not very good at it!

I can now get past the first boss consistently! But I'm getting a bit shredded in the next area, of course. Still using the shield, being able to block if necessary is just too good.

I get that it's integral to the game system to do a full run each time in order to keep acquiring stuff and strengthening your character over time, but I would still kill for a checkpoint after each main area.

Beat the Hydra on my first try! So I've gotten through some of Elysium once, mostly thanks to some Ares boons (the ones that add doom to your special attack).

Going to play this with God mode switched on tonight, have only ever managed to beat the first boss once, died instantly in the next chamber.

I really needed God mode. It helps but isn't a panacea. Just makes things a tad easier over time

OK, this game is insanely fun and addictive, and while I'm still struggling to figure out all the mechanics and approaches, all while trying to enjoy the writing and voice acting, I have been making steady progress, or at least what counts for progress in a game that keeps booting you back to the beginning. My own general impatience has started to become an impediment, though. I've beat Meg a few times, but usually I'm so kind of latently annoyed with the run back that I get sloppy.

Beat the Bone Hydra and made it a bit into Elysium, but I think I may switch to God Mode.

Playing on God Mode has been a lot of fun, since it makes it gradually easier but not always easy. Regardless, it's been a great way to grind, should I ever choose to increase the difficulty again (which I guess you can toggle on and off on the fly).

It kinda lost its hold on me, I got sick of doing the mostly-same thing over and over (although I know I'm partially to blame for sticking to the same weapon). Maybe I should try god mode.

Here's something I just started doing that's kept me interested. Rather than focus on level/enemy progression, focus on all of the other little meta progression things you can achieve. For example, just work on accumulating keys, to unlock certain things. Or try for purple crystals to unlock mirror boosts. Or grind for gems to complete chores and whatnot. A lot of these things will ultimately help you in the end, afaict, and they're kind of fast and fun things to focus on, making each run productive even if you don't make it that far.

Yes! That's much closer to the way I played it. Honestly, while I did think about using God Mode when I got a bit frustrated I would have never actually done it. Trying and failing and making small bits of progress is the thing, not just winning as fast as possible.

Finished my first run. Obviously God Mode gave me a big boost, though I think it was also because I (literally) lucked out with a great Chaos boon that gave me special up to 300% more damage. I was loaded out with the machine gun/rocket launcher, so I would typically just run around firing off bombs that, as I progressed, would just get more and more powerful. Plus, I had leveled up the mirror to give me health back based on a percentage of Darkness, and since I just kept accumulating Darkness, it kept me nice and healthy. Of course, one thing I can try to gauge God Mode vs. boon combination is doing another run with the current setup, but turning God Mode off, to see how far I get. Maybe I'll try that.

Nicely done! I think my first completion was with the gun yet that would eventually not be the weapon I found most succuss with overall.

Hades..... 2

it's pretty fun

Also just in case anyone was thinking of trying it: don't save scum. It doesn't work. It'll make you sad (heard this from a friend, wouldn't try it myself obviously)

Apparently no date for a switch release? I really enjoyed playing 1 on that platform, wondering if I'll have to borrow another of my bf's consoles to be able to play.

Assuming the format is the same as the first game, I'm not sure why you'd save scum??? The whole thing is a loop, right? And I'm saying this as someone who absolutely does save scum games like Baldur's Gate.

Game is amazing so far. They've done a great job of reworking the gameplay into something fresh while still maintaining the feel of the original. I'm so excited for the full release.

Saving does work the same as the first game; you can "quit" if you've reached an autosave point (e.g. clearing a chamber), otherwise you can only "give up" and start the run over. Though I only played the original on Switch so maybe alt+F4 was an option if you played it on PC.

I took an item I thought was going to raise my max health from a certain person in the second area, but turns out it just refilled your health which was already full. Immediately alt-f4'd and it cancelled my whole run out (and I really liked that run lol)

It was a good thing. I need to learn to stop doing these things and I only learn stuff the hard way.

Hades launched early access in December 2018, then released in September 2020. So all you Switch users (myself included) who are hoping to get your hands on this, you might want to be patient. My guess is the game officially launches late 2025 at the earliest.

That said, who knows how far they are into this one vs the OG. I recall the early access for Hades being pretty raw, and only Tartarus was playable

To clarify - this drop of Hades 2 is early access, not the full launch. Switch was a day 1 supported system for the official launch of Hades in 2020, before PS4/PS5 and Xbox, so I'm hopeful that's coming sooner than later.

Decided to wrap up Hades before trying Hades II, so I created a new game and had a week of button mashing to kill Hades a dozen times... now on to Hades II, which has really good music so far (and everything else)!