Recent reviews by IncorrectDigit

I was a bit late coming to Hades I, I played it every now and then as sort of a comfort game but never beat a run, then recently ran into some bad times and hades I sort of became my comfort game, like I played maybe 3 hours before, then suddenly dropped 80 hours in in about a week, beat the main story and hit max hearts with most everybody and a lot of the post main story, and when I sort of hit the wall of skill, like, I'm not good at heat levels...I just wanted more...Hades.

I absolutely -loved- the design of melinoe, and looking at the game it looked like just more hades, so went straight from that game to this one after a kind person helped me get it after a bit of a hades trivia game to 'win' it. And it was not love at first sight, the combat at first felt very...sluggish compared to hades 1, which was all very quick, hard motions, but I learned pretty quickly this game's combat is (for the most part) just as well designed, but is more about flow, timing, and combos. So I'm going to sort of list the pro's and cons as I see them (in early access in early october, to date this post well)

Pros:

-Once learned the combat system feels like it has way more options and how fast or difficult you make it feels extremely customizalbe.

-Refreshes on character designs are refreshing, many of the new boons added feel really flavorful.

-The story of this one feels more plot and narratively driven, with a stronger villain, motivations, and deeper themes about time.

-I like a shop and crafting more than being sort of left to the whims of resource chance.

-The cast of characters at home feel way more diverse and the mood of the place feels a lot more coherent.a

-Characters in general, even the event ones at each location are so much fun to interact with.

-Boss design and battles are really interesting if not properly tuned.

-Some great humorous/light moments, though they're few and far between.

-A theme being to learn you can relax, even during stressful situations and that can really help you take things on again.

-The fact just swapping areas in the hub can advance dialogue or have characters show up is super nice.

-You can get a kitty.

-One detail that blew me away is they seem to have recorded a ton of narrator lines for when you end what's finished in the early access with things like 'we'll hear about in the future' or 'because that doesn't exist yet' that didn't have to be recorded and are sort of a beautiful touch.

Cons

-There's a lot of painful grinding for resources early on that feels like it'd be nice if there was a way to speed it up slightly, like the progression almost feels a bit more punishing to start, particularly when later the difficulty is so customizable.

-The amount of resources is a bit overwhelming, and having to do individual runs for a single type of ore can get really repetitive very quickly.

-Some buffs armored enemies get can feel pretty brutal, like it usually triples what they can do, and that makes some damage feel almost inevitable with the lack of stun and only one immunity dash, particularly for up close weapons like the blades.

-Boon randomization feel to me to play a lot more in the success or failure of a run for me as a low skill/mediocre player.

-Some of the progression feels very forced to have more progression options, see the resources and tools to gather them, I feel like stream lining these would be really nice, or a nice upgrade to get later on. Like, upgrading my pick 3 times feels like you're just trying to give me more progression for progression sake, which you don't need with the extra content provided and the difficulty customization. I think there are better resource dumps that could be designed.

Thoughts I don't know how to categorize

With this feeling way more narrative driven, I'm not sure what the justification for 'running' at the end will be. Like in Hades I you're testing the security of the underworld, but if Melinoe doesn't essentially...get to be at home at the end that will feel very very narratively unsatisfying to my brain. It makes me nervous for the sort of 'end game'

The dual narratives is really interesting and ambitious and I'm excited to see where it goes.

I sort of genuinely and truly hate they made Cerberus a boss battle, it felt like they went out of their way to make that not happen in Hades I, and so it just...being true in Hades II is really sad, though it does make the villain feel more...villainous.

To sort of sum up my thoughts, in the end, I think Hades II has a stronger story, different but amazing gameplay, they've retuned some things which feels more healthy, and given a lot more option, in some cases too much option/grinding, and the game is almost overwhelming/bricky to start in a way that doesn't feel good to me. If I wasn't in love with the world and characters already, and coming off of a ton of practice from Hades I, I don't think I'd find the beginning enjoyable. And when my recommendation starts with 'after like, the first 8 hours of dedicated gameplay it really starts to feel good' that's a long time to lose someone you'd catch. I also really worry about narrative closure in this game since it's so much more narrative driven, because I genuinely want good narrative closure and don't want it to end with like 'Melinoe feels the camp is her true family and now she also tests the underworlds defenses through the different paths she wanders' cause that feels really....bleh.

I love this game so much. I've always joked I'm a lovecraftian horror, and so a dating game about smooching one was extremely up my alley, over and over this game felt like it was written -specifically- for me, for my humor, for the sort of jokes I like. I played this on stream on Valentine's day and the whole day was just a blast, with me just fawning over how perfect the game was for me. It's just a cute little dating sim that's a bit linear, not a lot of choices, but wonderful writing, great visuals, a great soundtrack, and while the ending was a little frustrating, an overall fantastic experience.

I still absolutely love this game, the latest update does just add a bunch of polish that makes so many items feel less useless, even just using fiber to craft grass is so nice! It's relaxing pace, plenty to do, awesome multiplayer, just makes me want to spend more time in this world. A true labor of love, this is one of my favorite games of all time.