Hades is a roguelike for roguelike haters



It’s not a surprise that Hades is Polygon’s 2020 game of the year: even roguelike haters adore the game. So how did Supergiant Games make such an appealing game in such a hardcore genre?

0:00 Hades is Polygon’s GOTY 2020, but why??
0:30 Divine gameplay
2:43 Very Good Art (respectful)
5:08 Storytelling
7:18 Sound design, voice acting, and music
9:28 Death, over and over again
11:19 WE BEAT HADES!

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22 thoughts on “Hades is a roguelike for roguelike haters”

  1. TL;DR: Your thesis is incorrect and your supporting evidence makes it a little bit insulting.

    Ummm…no. I think the title you want and meant is "Hades is the roguelike for people BORED of roguelikes". Because I hate roguelikes and nothing you described makes the core design feature of roguelikes any more appealing. Does it have constant death and total loss of progress along with a continuous string of random powers, levels, and bosses?
    Yes?
    Then I still hate it/have less than zero interest in playing it.

    It doesn't matter how juicy, or full to bursting with content between runs the game is, the very presence of the core and fundamental aspect of roguelikes instantly destroys any amount of enjoyment I can get. And the fact that you have so little faith in gamers that you think that something shiny will distract them, for long, from a gameplay loop that only frustrates them is insulting.

    The procedural generation forces more emphasis on learning systems and mechanics totally independent of each other, rather than memorizing ideal paths and broken builds. But I LIKE ideal paths and broken builds. If there is a power-up I like, just let me get the darned power up and not be at the whim of the cruel RNG gods!

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  2. The great polygon pantheon: the goddess of gameplay, the mighty Spsmthps; Brpsdp, decadent god of art; wise god of narrative, Rhltrpsck; Jthsae, innovative god of sound; and the just goddess of death, Jsppl.

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  3. I def have to agree. I don’t like rogue likes or super difficult games but I’m still enjoying the hell out of Hades. I can only play for a couple hours at a time to avoid fatigue from the level of concentration required (it’s difficult with neurological issues, I get a bit overstimulated when having to track so much at once), but it’s really fun and I like that it’s challenging without making me want to pull my hair out.

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  4. one thing I wish this game had was a way to rig what boons you get as a different mode, because sometimes I wanna do that perfect theory craft build Ive been thinking of and not get the same only the boons that dont synergise with my build (and yes I know you can reroll and use trinkets but I wanna be able to fully rig it sometimes)

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  5. I've never played a Roguelike before, and from all the game reviews and analyses I watch I surmised that it's just not for me. I'm more of a Metroidvania/RPG guy. But goddamn Hades slaps so hard. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe it's just special. We'll see, because now I'm willing to give other roguelikes a try. Only if they have a story though, I don't care for gameplay for gameplay's sake, unless it's like…Tetris. Or a puzzle game.

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  6. I had to remap all the buttons, I unmapped directional buttons, and mapped the menu junk to those things. Anything where I require action, I wanted to make sure i could hit any button combo at once, so I use X and Y for regular and special attack, ZR for Cast, L for Dash and R for call.

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