Looking at a potential peak point in March, 2025

Hades II Early Access review after the Warsong Update

(Played Playing on a Steam Deck. Spoiler warning for the more sensitive type, obviously. Again, if pre-knowledge can spoil one’s enjoyment of a thing, I deeply doubt said thing is that enjoyable to begin with. Also, bias warning since this humble author is very agreeable with Supergiant Games’ outputs. Here are my thoughts on the rest of their games)

I did it! I killed Time itself! After 53 Nights (A concept different from “runs” on which I will liberate later into this blog.), I had finally beaten the final boss Chronos and being greeted with the infamous “To Be Continued…” text box after Melinoe entered her brother’s room, Supergiant’s “trademark” challenge increasing mechanic also appeared after I went to the hub. There are still a lot to do including but not limited to the Go Up run, but now I feel comfortable to have a say about this game.

Being the first Supergiant sequel, there are aspects in Hades II feeling like the studio was brainstorming some new mechanics to go with a brand new world. Gone were the first Hades’ only several types of resource carried over between runs, the sequel has dozens if not hundreds to keep track of. In fact, the Archana permeant stats up need to be managed given the limited slots. But I am getting ahead of myself, let’s begin with the change of Hades’ titular role.

Turned from 2005’s God of War to the Legend of Zelda

After Olympians settled down and started to have babies again as some Underworld family dispute stopped, their old enemies Titans led by the time leading Chronos became a threat again. Hades’ then infant daughter Melinoe was entrusted to a friendly Titan witch Hecate moments before the Underworld was taken. After Melinoe grew into a fine young lass well-trained in witchcraft and the martial way, she is given the task to take back the Underworld on behalf of the Olympians.

Hades II is going the other direction than the first one. While Zagreus was fighting his way up, his sister fights her way down. Still 4 biomes each book ended by a Guardians with long life bar and enforcement though. Tartarus is the fourth and final biome in the sequel. In terms of the sequel going soft on the player, the final biome here has friendly encounter like the first game’s Temple of Styx would never.

The friendly Melinoe meets there is of course her dear old dad Hades. The lord of the Underworld is heavied down by chains there and eagers his daughter to leg it out of there. He is turned from the first game’s titular final boss to the sequel’s titular “damsel” in distress. Of course, it’s nothing new since “saving the president” was already some games’ objective for players before I was born in 1990. Hades is just another old man needs saving here.

Lord Hades’ similarity to Princess Zelda in this game does not end there. Like all other friendly encounters, player has 3 choices on how to even the odds from dear old dad. In my experience, those are mostly about making the final boss fight just a little easier: take a chunk off final boss’ life bar or make less grunts spawn in. I do prefer the latter given that the right combination of Boons can take that chunk off final boss’ life bar easily enough while less various in the arena is key to victory.

Chronos does not only pull another life bar out of his ass, the game also has the trope of arena switch for the second and last phase during the final boss fight. (To be fair, the corridor of phase one is hardly suitable for final show-down.) During this final for real bit, Chronos has a arena wiping attack that will kill the player character in one shot. The only way to avoid it would be one tiny spot on the arena and it there is an enemy on that spot, the run is doomed anyway. So, less grunts to face the better.

Surface tension

Defeating the final boss would not have been possible for me in May, 2024, back when the game first entered Early Access. The weapon I used in that run is Black Coat, the sixth and final weapon added in October, 2024’s Olympic update and I would not have been able to craft it without the more recent Warsong update loosing up on the resource gathering front.

Black Coat is, for the lack of better term, a partial power armor. Its Attack is punching and Special is missile shooting. Its sprint animation is hovering around. Supergiant turning this basically clock in the clock & dagger into this science fiction nonsense certainly makes me look at Intergalactic: the Heretic Hunter’s blazer-wearing “light saber” wielder and think “What the hell are you doing, Naughty Dog? Why do you insist on wasting money to recreate budget saving method in Hollywood live-action affair, you dumb pooch?”

Anyway, this weapon requires material gathered in the third biome of the game’s Go Up route, which is bit of “Holy shit! This game got its own sequel in it!” provoking thing for fans like me. To keep up with the first game’s Hades’ offspring cannot roam free in the world rule, Melinoe’s life automatically reduces as she keeps longer on the surface until she dies and goes back to the hub called Crossroad.

After a few of such unpleasantry on the surface and the gathering of right material, Melinoe can cook something up in the pot of Crossroad and stay on the surface without dying automatically. From there the surface is her oyster until her life bar is chewed out by enemy attack.

The surface also has 4 biomes of which I had personally seen through 3. The first one is a Necropolis where a seal requires one to choose 6 chambers to unseal. Quite the “choose your own adventure” thing in the first game’s last biome. The second one is the Rift of Thessaly, funny how “biome number twos” of the game’s 2 routes are both sea-themed. The third and four are about on the famous Mount Olympus, where the material for Black Coat can be mined. Why let Sun Wukong have all the Havoc in Heaven fun, heh?

Hold. Hold! HOLD!

The button mapping of this sequel is similar enough to the first game that returning players can pick it up at no time. There are modification and addition though. For one thing, right trigger to Calling for Olympians is changed into Selene, the Moon Titan’s Hex. The thing can be upgraded during runs. Black Coat’s Selene’s Aspect come equipped with one of those.

The face buttons can now be held for other functions. Those all have “Omega” in their names and consume the magic bar added in the sequel. All except the down fact button, it’s push to dodge and hold to sprint. Olympians’ Boons can be attached to dodge or sprint in this game.

The arsenal is all-new and NPCs can be seen wielding the first game’s weapons. Being witch themed, the game has magic staff long and short. Being war themed, there is double headed axe. The axe is an interesting one with shorter range, unless one got Boons for shooting Cast out pushing the right face button, the axe run can end rather prematurely. Then there is skulls I have not used much and the aforementioned Black Coat.

Number wise, it would appear that I am only 2 runs earlier than my first complete run of Hades 1. But “compete run” is a different animal in the sequel given the Go Out or Go Up option. Then there is Chaos’ Trials that would take up one whole Night.

This stone above weapon selection is where Chaos’ Trails are selected and played. Those are about go through one single biome with fixed loadout. The two I went through also give me a ridiculous amount of hit points, about 1000 and 600 respectively while I have only 70 for the real runs. As the screenshot below shows, those trials take much shorter to go through but counts as one night regardless.

Where one can still dream

With its new player character and new ensemble in a hub, Hades II is not a sequel hellbent on welcoming old player back with familiar voices. Of course, I am excluding Logan Cunningham as the Storyteller here. With Melinoe calling the voice-over narrator “Homer” (A rare occasion where the stick-up-her-ass Princess of the Underworld goes completely tongue-in-cheek.), this must also be a new character, right? Other than that, it’s either Greg Kasavin snoozing as Hypnos and Darren Korb as Skelly until Olympians giving out Boons.

The Warsong update giving us a duet titled Moonlight Guide Us. It feels like Supergiant conducting a ritual for the game to be a commercial and critic success. The song is sung by Supergiant’s “resident” female vocalist Ashely Barret along with Alice Judy Lee, the wonderful voice behind Melinoe.

Why view this beautiful and haunting song through a cynical lens, you ask? Well, let’s see. Bastion has Build That Wall, a song sung by Ms. Barret and certainly elevated Supergiant’s debut title. Transistor contains an album of both singing and humming by Ms. Barret. That game'ss reputation got better over the years as people stopped comparing it to Bastion unfavorably. Hades has Good Riddance while Pyre mainly features Darren Korb’s vocal.

Mr. Korb sings as beautiful in a similarly haunting way, but Pyre just got on far fewer platforms than any other Supergiant games. Just as a Hail Mary for “Hades II on Switch 2 (Oh, no. I do not think Nintendo’s 8 years old platform can handle this one’s enhanced visual effects. Not in a playable way anyway.), PS5, PS6 and beyond”, Ms. Barret just got to sing a song in the hub didn’t she?

All right, time to pivot from the cynic into daydreamer. Even with the finale of Building the Bastion telling me that there is slight to none chance that Supergiant joints can be dubbed during localization, I still dream of the games with the voices of frequent Hideo Kojima collaborators, (The fact that those games were written by someone who reviewed MGS 2 and 3 for Gamespot does not help).

Akio Otsuka (More than one Snake in Metal Gear Solid series and Die-hard Man in Death Stranding.) narrating Bastion? Yes, please. Kenjiro Tsuda’s (Sam Porter in Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2 On the Beach) voice out of Transistor? Why not? Banjo Ginga (Liquid Snake, Major Zero and Liquid Ocelot in MGS series) being only one in Pyre not speaking fantasy gibberish? I will take it like those listed below.

I Mama Mia

Sayaka Ohara as Hera

There is certain sense that Zeus’ Boon function of hitting more than one enemy at once is partially given to his queen. Hera’s Boon in Hade II is all about hit one, hit two and hit them both at once. The character design somehow screams “tits out” louder than Aphrodite going 300 here.

For this role, Sayaka “voice of mothers” Ohara will be fitting. It’s always fun to watch high school anime and guess “Which one of these little shit’s mum is voiced by Sayaka Ohara?” Well, just another case of actor who played the blessed should play the blesser.

II Bat-man

Tomokazu Sugita as Heracles

In Hades II expending what works in the first game, friendly NPC aiding is one of those expansion. Nemesis is the closet to his brother Thanatos in the first game, but she spices things up in more than one way, mainly offering trades and reducing options for exits or purchases. Then Athena would appear in all her hoplite glory on Olympus before giving out boons. In between, there are Artemis being a good Sliver Sister, Heracles going berserk and Icarus raining death from above. Let’s settle for the berserker.

Hade II’s Heracles feels like someone out of comic books. No, Supergiant did not repeat Disney’s mistake of making Hercules into Greek Superman. We are talking about a “I’m Batman” dropping motherfucker here. If player kills one enemy he aims for, they earn 20 coin. It’s risky given that there is friendly fire from this hunk. To show Supergiant’s attention to details, the man did grunt when player takes a Boon from Hera in front of him. The goddess did make him mad and kill his family after all…

Anyway, Mr. Sugita had been a Hideo Kojima collaborator for the last decade and a half yet he finally played up his comedy in Death Stranding 2. His part as retconned to hell and back Master Miller is a shitty version of Batman, so I guess Heracles in Hades II is at least a slightly better iteration of Detective Comic’s most popular character.

III Sassy lass with a gun

Chika Anazi as Iris

And yes, this is very much the Megara of this game. I somehow asked this wench to share a bath after defeating her. Taking an axe to her gunfight is not advised. She addresses Melinoe as “babe” and “trouble” certainly implied some romantic or even erotic involvement. Though given when Melinoe was born, it’s bit of a cradle snatching.

Anway, Ms. Anazi had a surge in her popularity after 2022’s Lycoris Recoil (Hideo Kojima claimed that he cast that other lass named Wakayama to dub Elle Fanning in Death Stranding 2 because he saw that show.) in which she played Chisato, the more lively one of a duo. So, I suppose it’s only fitting.

IIII Recasting call

Yuko Minakawa as Demeter

Hades II run can sometimes turn to a song of ice and fire. Ice Boons from grandma Demeter to slow enemies and then burn them from inside with power from the goddess known to Romans as Vista. Too bad Atsuko Tanaka past in 2024 so I am due to imagine a recast.

Ms. Minakawa played Ada Wong in the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4. A performance very similar to the late Ms. Tanaka, so it fits.

V Aptly named

Mamiko Noto as Echo

A series of Persona or Atlus game cast members from here. Ms. Noto appeared in both Persona 3 Reloaded and Metaphor Refantasio of 2024. Her voice carries a certain Echo of itself, very suitable for the mountain nymph who restores Melinoe’s death defiance.

VI Old boy

Akira Ishida as Icarus

In 2007’s God of War II, Icarus’ appearance is weird to say the least. He appeared as a balding old man. On good days, I might consider the possibility that the boy is just aged prematurely by the sun. On bad ones, “what the fuck were Cory Barlog and his team thinking?” is all I have in my mind. Good thing that Jen Zee had better idea when she drew this fairly Persona 3 player character looking lad. Why not imagine his voice as well?

VII Even more of a diva despite being born with a stick down there…

Jun Fukuyama as Narcissus

As for the time of writing, Narcissus has neither portrait nor model in the game. But for

Edit note post June, 18th, 2025: HOT DAMN, That's a good looking lad!

For a role Darren Korb lowered his pitch to play, Mr. Fukuyama’s voice is closer. On the other hand, hearing Fukuyama as a diva like Clayface in 2024’s Suicide Squad anime sure sealed that deal in my head.

VIII Evil but friendly

Rie Tanaka as Medea

No relation to the aforementioned late Ms. Tanaka, this lady appeared in both Persona 3 Reloaded and Metaphor Refantasio as well, playing a party member in the former and some doomed bit player villain in the latter. The older Ms. Tanaka played a Medea before in Fate/Stay Night. There the lover of Argo’s Jason is a wicked witch who is as thirty for the point-of-view character’s sword wife as said pov character is.

Medea in Hades II is another story. She is more friendly than the 2 Hs. Heracles being the friend who would cause friendly and Hecate being the first boss in Go Out route. Medea just chills out in the city of the dead and gives Melinoe some help when visited. She is closer to the characters younger Ms. Tanaka played for a couple of mobile games.

IX Furry godmother

Noriko Hidaka as Circe

Despite having a portrait, Circe is clearly still work in progress here. There is still no model for the character and her famous pigs are still dubbed by some sheep. Circe is also featured in Fate Grand Order, with appearance of a young and bright-eyed stage actor ready for his drag show. In Hades II, she can only be described as a fur ball, the kind ready for plushie.

Anyway Ms. Hidaka was in Metaphor Refantasio as the voice guiding the player through its Archetype who revealed to be the player character’s deceased mum. The role is surprisingly in voice only. Her voice is about the only one I can think of when it comes to Disney animated features’ fairy godmothers.

X The honorable fire thief

Kenjiro Tsuda as Prometheus

Before Gameinformer went out of business in 2024, Greg Kasavin told them that Hades II does contain Roman elements staring with how the number is displayed. Seeing the 2 Titans in the game as short haired and clean shaved men sure reminded me of Romans between about 150 BCE to 150 CE. Then there is points where Marble can be mined, those are just Roman busts.

Prometheus was also featured in God of War II. As a piece of puzzle, the Titan who gave mortals fire is rather unremarkable in this 2007 outing. Here in Hades II, he is the boss of the Olympus Climb biome. So he is sure drawn as if he can put on the cover of comic books to boast sales.

Mr. Tsuda is a 2-time Hideo Kojima collaborator and very much the so-called video auteur’s current boyfriend voicing the playable lead of Death Stranding series. He also appeared in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as 2 separate bit players. Both time as an admirable enemy weirdly. With Prometheus’ last words to my Melinoe before she went back to Crossroad hub being “There is no dignity in this”, the archetypes match.

XI “I lied.”

Kenji Nomura as Polyphemus

Yep, for this one I am going back to the Fate Apocrypha well. Mr. Nomura played a Mad Max looking necromancer there and his voice fits the impression of this blinded cyclops, so I imagine him here. No much else to add otherwise.

More is yet to come

Supergiant having a lot more Hades II to make can be seen from the file size. On my Deck, the original Hades still takes up almost twice the storage please. The conclusion to this epic is going to take up a lot of space. Yet, level count wise, this contains both the second and third installments of the Hades trilogy. It certain fits the bill of bigger and better sequel at its current unfinished state. While many things are still up for change, it’s already worth playing and probably the best thing Supergiant has made so far.