Hades (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.38233 Update

Hades Escapes the Underworld and challenges the god of the dead in this dungeon crawler with rogue-like elements, brought to you by the creators of Bastion and Transistor. Take on the role of the immortal Prince of the Underworld and use the powers and legendary weapons of Olympus to break free, while gaining strength and uncovering the story with each daring attempt.

This is a 2020 Raguelike video game developed and published by Supergiant Games. It was released for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows following an early access release in December 2018. It was later released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in August 2021. It is also set to release for iOS in 2024 through Netflix Games.

With the support of the Olympians, including Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon, you can choose from a multitude of powerful Boons to enhance your abilities and discover thousands of character builds. Along the way, you’ll encounter a diverse cast of fully-voiced characters, from gods to ghosts to monsters, and grow your relationships with them through unique story events.

The ever-shifting Underworld is built for replayability, with new surprises and challenges each time. As you battle through the guardian bosses who remember you, the Mirror of Night offers permanent upgrades to make you stronger for your next escape attempt. Experience exciting combat and a gripping story, with permanent upgrades ensuring that even mortals can thrive. For gods seeking a challenge, push your skills to the limit with some white-knuckle action.

GAMEPLAY

The player takes the role of Zagreus, the prince of the Underworld, who is trying to escape the realm to get away from his unloving father, Hades, and reach his mother Persephone in the mortal world. His quest is supported by the other Olympians, who grant him gifts, called Boons, to help fight the beings that protect the exit from the Underworld. He is also helped on his quest by notorious residents of the Underworld, such as Sisyphus, Eurydice, or Patroclus. The game world is divided between four main dungeons, each representing one of the regions of the Underworld, namely Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and the Temple of Styx, with each new region being unlocked upon clearing the previous locale.

The game is presented in an isometric view with the player in control of Zagreus. The player starts a run-through of the game by trying to fight their way through several rooms; the rooms are drawn from a pool of pre-determined layouts, but their order and the enemies that appear are randomly determined. The game has a hack-and-slash combat system. The player has a primary attack and a secondary “special” attack depending on their pre-determined weapon of choice, a magic “cast” that can be used from long range, a dash providing momentary intangibility and mobility which can deal damage when combined with an attack or Boon, and a summon attack that can call tremendous power from one of the Gods.

Throughout a run, the Olympians will provide Boons, each of which provides a choice of three persistent boosts and effects for that run that the player can select from. The Boons are themed based on the Olympian; for example, Zeus’s Boons provide lightning damage effects and Poseidon’s provide push-back wave effects. The player will move through rooms to gradually climb up the Underworld; after clearing a room, the player will be given the room’s rewards, allowing them to grow stronger or recover lost health points, however should Zagreus’ health points drop to zero while he has no “death defiance” tokens left he is defeated and taken by the river Styx back to the House of Hades, which effectively acts as the game’s overworld between attempts.

Hades features a combination of roguelike and dungeon-crawler elements, where obols and certain types of upgrades are lost upon death and must be collected anew each time, while other types of currency can be used at the House to purchase permanent upgrades that affect all future attempts. After clearing a certain number of rooms in a region, the player will have to fight the bosses of the region to advance to the next, namely, one of the three Furies in Tartarus, the skeletonized Lernaean Hydra in Asphodel, Theseus and Asterius in Elysium, and Hades himself at the very gates of the Underworld. Between runs, Zagreus can explore the House of Hades before setting on a new escape attempt. Here, the player can use items recovered from run-throughs to impact the meta-game.

The player can unlock and upgrade abilities for Zagreus, order the construction of new Underworld features that may appear in future run-throughs, or obtain or upgrade new weapons. They can also have Zagreus interact with the various characters of the Underworld and improve his standing with them, which provides narrative elements to the game and may also provide quests with additional rewards. The player also has the option to romance some non-player characters (NPCs) as the plot progresses. As the game progresses, the players can manually customize and increase the difficulty of the gameplay by using the Pact of Punishment, which allows the player to add extra challenges or modify some aspects of the game.

For example, the Pact can increase the attack power, health, or the number of enemies on the run; it can even drastically change part of the gameplay by changing the boss fights, like allowing Theseus to use a machine-gun-mounted chariot or adding an extra phase in Hades’ boss fight. By continuously increasing the difficulty, the player can continue to receive rare rewards after the runs, unlock some special decorative items back at the House, and progress certain NPC subplots. Alternatively, the player can activate a setting called God Mode. This setting makes the player’s character stronger after every failed run through the Underworld. This means players having difficulty with the game can progress more easily and experience the full story of the game.

PLOT

Zagreus (Darren Korb), the son of Hades (Logan Cunningham), seeks to escape his father’s realm in the Underworld. He is aided by his adoptive mother Nyx (Jamie Landrum), the Gods of Olympus to whom he has reached out, and many other inhabitants of the Underworld. Hades claims that no escape is possible, and hinders Zagreus by unleashing the Underworld’s monsters on him. As soon as Zagreus is slain, he is revived at the House of Hades, the palace where he and other Chthonic gods reside, which he leaves to begin another escape attempt. It is eventually revealed that Zagreus wishes to escape the Underworld to find Persephone (Laila Berzins), his birth mother whom he never knew, having always been told he was the child of Nyx.

Hades refuses to even allow her name to be spoken in his House and it is said that unimaginable punishment should befall anyone who disobeys his order. Nyx decides to help Zagreus find the truth about his birth mother by putting him in contact with his relatives on Olympus. After reaching the exit to the Underworld and defeating Hades, Zagreus finds Persephone at a cottage in Greece. After a tearful reunion, Zagreus discovers that since he is bound to the Underworld like his father, he will quickly die after reaching the surface. Despite this, he promises to keep escaping the Underworld to spend time with Persephone and learn the truth of her absence.

Throughout these visits, it is revealed that Hades was “given” Persephone by Zeus (Peter Canavese) as a reward for ruling over the Underworld, with the other Olympians believing that she simply disappeared. The two had a loving marriage until Zagreus was stillborn due to the Fates having decreed that Hades would never have an heir. Persephone ran away in grief but refused to return to her birthplace on Olympus, which she disliked due to the constant bickering of the Olympians. Zagreus was eventually brought back to life by Nyx after she made a deal with the Fates.  Persephone refuses to return to the Underworld because she fears retribution towards Hades if the Olympians discover the truth about her disappearance.

Zagreus eventually convinces her to return by reminding her of the bonds of family, and they are ferried to the House of Hades by Charon (Logan Cunningham). Persephone resumes her duties as Queen of the Underworld and Hades, now with a renewed respect for his son, allows Zagreus to continue his escape attempts under the guise of finding security vulnerabilities in the Underworld. In an epilogue, Persephone tells Zagreus of her idea of reconciling with the Olympians by inviting them all to a feast in the House. At the feast, they claim that Hades and Persephone eloped and had Zagreus while saying that due to her having eaten Underworld pomegranate seeds, she can only leave the Underworld a few months out of the year. The Olympians readily accept this explanation, though it is implied they know the truth and simply wish to move on. With everyone reconciled, Zagreus’ duties to escape his home continue.