I have also been playing Hades on and of for the last couple of months. Took me 50 tries to finally beat the last boss, but today on like attempt 75 or so I managed to reach the ending credits.
I must say, this is without a doubt one of the single best games I have ever played, and as difficult as it was to do so, it superseeded The Binding of Isaac as my favorite roguelike of all time (and I am quite a big fan of the genre). Of course it is more of a rogue-lite as it very much is dependent on continuous progress that allows you to unlock weapons, abilities and items, as well as upgrade them with currencies that you pick up, so perhaps purists would see them as distinct, but the game is not simply grinding for this but also very much depends on you improving your skill at it and lets you feel this improvement as well.
Like thewhaleshark remarked above, this game is a perfect balance of chance and skill, and the difficulty curve is just exquisitly crafted allowing for one of the best gamefeels and is what allows for the feeling of progress I just mentioned. The fact that it also placed the inherent conceit of a rogue-like (repeated short-term attempts) as the foundational piece of the story itself is also just a brilliant move.
And what an amazing story it is. Every character is written beautifully and while I havenāt completed every side-task yet, I have seen the attention to detail they have put into it and the fantastic job they have done in working in the finer parts of greek mythology is also wonderful. And no praise would be too much for the just astonishing performances by the voice cast that gives these characters life.
Hades is easily in my favorite 64 video games (I actually made a list of my top 64). I had so much fun. I was looking for something new and exciting to play and this came at the perfect time.
Iām going back to Slay The Spire for now because I still need to beat Ascension 20 as The Silent (Iām on 15 right now). In 34 Hades attempts, I escaped 11 times. I usually pick whatever the dark thirst weapon is, get Athena boons and hammers, and then use the Chaos Gate like crazy, and it works out most of the time.
Yeah, Iām the opposite of that. Extremely deliberate. Constantly hit and run. Figuring out the strongest attack pattern to use on each enemy and then attacking only one. I also love ranged AoE to get through the game easily, but thatās not great to use on the final boss which is one guy.
There was a bit in Hades where I started to reach final boss regularly, but wasnāt able to beat it, where I got somewhat bored and frustrated on the early bits of the game. I wanted to practice the final boss, not deal with trivial opening stuff again and again. But then I beat the final boss and that went away. And few rounds after that I reached a point where I can clear the game seemingly no matter what, even if I feel like I only get and pick shitty boons and my build plans fail, Iāll manage a clear anyways.
This is what happened to me with Faster Than Light. Then I missed my train stop due to being too into the game, had to pay another ā¬80 for a new ticket and almost missed my flight later that day. Hades seems like a game I should treat with caution in case it sucks me in.
I absolutely love FTL: Faster Than Light. Also one of my favorite games.
For Hades, my favorite weapons were the sword and spear, and over half of my successful escape attempts were with those two weapons. I find it really helpful to build around dash attacks, because dashing and attacking means you can balance your dps, survivability, and mobility. On those two weapons, I NEVER build around the specials (even though I think speedrunners do).
The most helpful boons for me were always the Athena boons, especially around my playstyle (I dash a ton). The community seems to generally agree Athena boons are the best. I also frequently looked for Artemis and Hermes because Artemis enhances your dps and Hermes enhances your mobility. Other than that, hammers and Chaos boons, and also Aphroditeās god gauge is absolutely amazing for boss battles (one time I almost died to the final boss, then shot Aphroditeās fully charged god heart and just BARELY won). I have no idea how to use the other weapons well besides the sword and spear.
Spear is definitely my favorite too, and similarly I prefer to build around Dash attacks (the Dadelaus triple strike combined with Artemisā boon to make your Dash-Attack crit more is just chefās kiss). The other one I seem to have the most success with is the Twin Fists, which I also wind up playing a lot like a dashing Spear; I dropped some Titan Blood to unlock the Magnetic Cutter, and that lets you build a crazy special.
Athena and Artemis are where itās at. Honestly Athena might be a little too good in practice, because deflectling shots both protects you AND damages the enemy. Way better than just taking less damage.
Iāve heard amazing things about Hades. I was hoping it would come to console (solely because I like achievements, and I donāt think my macbook can handle running it for Steam) but there arenāt any current plans to port it, so I might just bite the bullet and get it on Switch.
My favorite is actually the bow. I just really like the rhythm of dashing, then charging up a power shot, then dash again, etc.
As for Athena being OP: I think the deflect is balanced by the fact that only very few enemies fire projectiles, and even fewer do so that you can reliably reflect, most of them being just the various kinds of witches. Of course you can dash spam but that also reduces your damage output overall.
Dashspam also really bites you in the ass in the fourth zone where spaces are cramped, traps are wicked dangerous, and shit poisons you and also the ground.
Well, 50 was also my magic number. It was remarkably easy, honestly, once I stopped just spamming shit. Also helped that I had the spear powered up with a ludicrous spin attack.
Are you running Lambent Plume? Because if youāre going mad rush, thatās probably a decent tool to support you.
Beat the game somewhere in the mid-30ās, currently running towards the āfinalā ending and just picking up whichever weapon has the purple smoke coming out of it each run. Leaves me kind of surprised Iām on 4 heat with the spear when itās not my favorite of the weapons.