Finally Beating Hades (Game)

I am not much of a Gamer, at least when it comes to non-turn based stuff. Turn-based, I can do, especially roguelikes like Sil (https://www.roguebasin.com/index.php/Sil), which is great for any Tolkien Geek. But in collaboration with an acquaintance, I’ve been diving into the much-praised Hades these past few weeks. In one sense, it’s something new – as noted, I’m not much of a Gamer – but on the other hand, I do understand roguelikes. The whole concept of dying and starting again at the beginning is something that breeds patience in players. Hades is actually kinder in that respect, compared to what I am used to, in the sense that you don’t lose everything between runs, and there’s an actual story you can pursue back at the House. Also, I have a decent knowledge of Classical Mythology, so I enjoy Hades’ subject matter too. Hell, courtesy of Overly Sarcastic Productions, I’d even heard of the highly-obscure mythological Zagreus before (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5brAr51ip_k).

Anyway, as of yesterday, I can report that I have finally had a successful run of the game. It only took me 168 attempts – I told you I was bad at this. On the other hand, my past experience with roguelikes meant I was more than happy to experience the slow and futile rinse-and-repeat of dying and starting again. Turning on Hades’ God Mode (which gives you increasing levels of damage resistance as you die) was never an option for me there – I wanted to feel the full reward of winning for the first time on ‘Normal’. Plus, I have one hell of a stubborn-streak.

So far as the actual runs themselves go, I first hit a brick wall with Megaera, but got through that with time. After learning the ‘don’t dash into lava’ thing, I didn’t find Asphodel (or its boss) monstrously hard. Elysium, however, remains nasty for me, and not just for the infamous final bosses – the Shield Guys along the way are just frustrating. But if I’m lucky enough to get through Elysium, I find I’m generally good enough to get to the Final Boss. Where I would invariably die.

You see, not only did it take me 168 attempts to escape Hades overall, it was the 19th time I had fought the game’s Final Boss. Why, yes, I found him quite nasty. I was even keeping a list of which runs I encountered him – 73, 90, 100, 101, 119, 121, 123, 131, 135, 138, 147, 149, 150, 160, 162, 163, 164, 166, and 168. Those first ten ‘final fights’ were with the gloves, the next three were with the shield, the next was with the bow (I stumbled across Flurry Shots with the Daedalus Hammer early on), and the last five – including the first escape – were with the rail-gun. That last build had Zeus on Attack, Athena on Special (and Dash), and was largely reliant on getting Hazard Bomb from the Daedalus Hammer. Yes, Hazard Bomb can do damage to you, but I found it does far, far more damage to your opponents. Glorious.

My prolonged quest for a first win in the game also saw me complete certain side-quests:

• Getting Orpheus and Eurydice back together.
• Freeing Sisyphus from his torment.
• Romancing both Megaera and Thanatos.
• Getting Zagreus to learn the lyre.
• Nearly maxxing out the Night Mirror – I’m only missing maxxing out Fated Persuasion and Fated Authority.

All done without ever actually escaping the Underworld once. But such is the weird nature of side-quests over a long period of time – and 168 runs is a long time.

• June 27, 2023
• Classics Stuff, Games, Random silliness, RPG, Youtube
• 8 Comments