‘Hades II’ is a Perfect Sequel

Living up to ambitious standards is tough. Surpassing them is tougher.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Hades is one of those genre-changing, one-in-a-million video game events any developer can only dream of making. Improving upon and expanding from something so beloved and streamlined is nothing short of a daunting task to face.

Supergiant Games did it anyway.

Hades II takes the good and the bad of its predecessor, makes them both better, and feels fresh all at the same time. Supergiant Games has struck gold twice. The core beat ‘em up, mad-dash mechanics throughout the Underworld for supplies and godly boons are as fun as ever, and the story somehow lives up to the standard set by the first game.

This time, the player sees the world of Hades through the eyes of a new protagonist, Melinoë.

Not only is she a Princess of the Underworld with familiar mismatched eyes, Melinoë is also a witch. Taught by Hecate, Melinoë uses a special meter for extended abilities alongside her health bar. This changes the game in the best of ways and allows for even more options and combos during combat.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Story Basics

There was a fair bit of speculation in the early days of Hades II around the identity of our new hero. As it turns out, Hades II begins in a relatively near future to the first game’s timeline — as far as the lifetimes of Greek gods go. Melinoë is unmistakably the younger sister of the former game’s protagonist, Zagreus.

Rather than the impetuous youth and curiosity that fueled Zagreus to escape to the Earth’s surface… Melinoë must balance different priorities. She must choose whether to fight down into the depths of Tartarus or upwards toward Mount Olympus itself to save both sides of her family equally in need of her help. This split focus aspect adds immense value to the game. It’s essentially two versions of the original game in one package, while managing to be balanced and well-developed despite there being so much ground to cover.

Chronos usurped the throne of Hades, captured the God of Death, Persephone, and Zagreus just after Melinoë was born. Hecate got to the Princess in the nick of time, raising her as a witch and to be the one to bring down Chronos. The story stakes are much greater this time. Melinoë was raised with only one task in mind: to bring death to Chronos.

Credit: Supergiant Games

If you know anything about Greek mythology, Gods and Titans are extremely difficult to kill and rarely stay dead. Melinoë and Chronos are no different. She will fail a number of times before even getting close to Chronos only to try again. Each failure returns her to the Crossroads to regroup. Just as in the first game, it’s important to fail and retry to see all of the story and get better at the mechanics. It never feels like a punishment.

Merely getting to Chronos is the warm-up, he still needs to be brought down as he sits waiting with full health while Melinoë has worked through multiple dungeons and bosses to get there.

The Crossroads are a secret base of operations where Melinoë and her sort-of-but-also-not-really adoptive mother, Hecate, live. Additional members of the rebellion also reside here, waiting to share their tales.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Aside from talking to the people of the Crossroads, it’s also the main place to use items collected from your travels to boost your power. There are several kinds of currencies at play and materials to create new features for the base.

In the next room over from the main chamber, the Training Grounds, Melinoë can create weapons and tools. As new features are unlocked, there are all kinds of features to swap between before starting a fresh run. From there, all that is left to do is begin a new attempt at getting to Chronos.

The Loop

To complete the task of killing the Titan of Time once and for all, Melinoë needs to become much stronger. Supergiant does this classic power loop better than almost everyone else.

In order to get stronger, Melinoë must go through the dungeon. Just like before, a full dungeon run includes four dungeon types, intermediary rest areas, and four major bosses at the end of each dungeon biome.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Along the way, Melinoë has her main abilities with their own witchy twists:

• a Dash and Sprint
• a weapon of choice
• A Cast, a spell that temporarily traps enemies in place
• A primary weapon Attack
• A Special Attack
• Magick to enhance attacks, specials, and the cast into Omega moves, stronger versions of their base forms

Besides the Cast, the base forms of attacks and specials are different for each weapon. Godly boons and Daedalus Hammers (a weapon-specific modifier) further change how weapons and abilities work as you progress through each dungeon.

God boons have rarity levels that make their modifiers even stronger, and there are chances to make even more improvements to boons along the way. Point being, there’s so much room to experiment. This is all the very top of the iceberg.

Boosting her power depends on boosting her base form strength before any godly bonuses come into play. Melinoë’s magical abilities have to expand just to have a chance through the Grasp mechanic.

Credit: Supergiant Games

The more Grasp she has, the more room there is for abilities. These abilities require Ash (and other items later) that can be found in a dungeon run. These Arcana Cards may sometimes have their own unique requirements to be used beyond the amount of Grasp they require to be used at all.

Having more abilities within your Grasp will make each attempt easier as you go, similar to the mirror in Hades. It is fully customizable to what you want, and most cards add a noticeable improvement. Slowly, more Grasp points add further flexibility to what you’re able to select, with a limit of thirty points total. There are a limited number of loadouts to customize and freely choose between, so there’s an abundance of leeway. It sounds like a ton of stuff to keep track of, but it’s endlessly captivating.

Many kinds of resources, or Reagents, can be found in each dungeon run attempt. These items can go towards goals across the Crossroads, like

• weapon upgrades
• improvements to the Crossroads itself
• unlocking improvements to one of the dungeon subtypes
• unlocking more Arcana and upgrading them
• story plot points
• and so much more.

This all happens at the cauldron in the middle of the Crossroads, where Incantations add new areas to the hub, gameplay quality-of-life improvements, create new materials, and much more. The vibe of witchiness as Hecate and Melinoë chant, “So mote it be” after each spell is just the cherry on top of the atmosphere.

Reagents can be found either as a selected reward choice for completing a room or as something to collect within one. Resources need to be dug up, mined, picked, and even compelled to later be used within the Crossroads.

Building the Crossroads’ amenities and restoring lost parts of both Tartarus and Olympus dungeon types along the way is an incredibly fun part of the process.

In Hades I, most of these features were already there. Seeing familiar, yet different, elements from the past just feels right. If it’s been a while since you’ve played the original game, sometimes you might not even realize certain things were missing in the first place. Each unlock also brings you one step closer to Chronos.

There are levels to gameplay elements to really dig into them all. The requirements for items aren’t tedious enough to get annoyed over, but they will take time to get to.

It’s one of those games where a boss or weapon set needs time to settle, but once it clicks… everything is incredibly smooth. The peerless gameplay makes the hours just melt away.

A Game of Conversations

Credit: Supergiant Games

As you may expect from its predecessor, Hades II is also a conversation-heavy game full of intricately connected moments of dialogue. The voice acting quality alone is a major highlight, and probably worth seeing on its own if you’re at all interested in the current capacity of video game narratives.

Melinoë meets with many new and familiar faces both during her travels and within the Crossroads. From the smallest of details like low health, to making progress in your journey against facing Chronos, they will all comment and interact with any bit of information pertaining to the current run. The level of detail in the writing here makes these figures of Greek mythology spring into life.

A handful of Olympians from the prior game aid their relative against Chronos, alongside other new faces I won’t spoil here. Melinoë’s character gets her moments to shine during these interactions, as she is quite different from her brother. She is quieter and less self-assured than Zagreus, but no less brave or resolved in her mission to unite her family.

Gifting Nectar to a character will boost their friendship with each use. The first time you offer Nectar to a character, they’ll offer you a Keepsake in return — an item with unique modifiers for a run. These Keepsakes can influence which god appears initially, a health debuff for a boss, gaining another Death Defiance, and more.

After enough Nectar, additional items are needed to boost a bond higher. This slow feed of items makes each relationship move at a believable pace. Characters change away from introductory impressions as they begin to trust Melinoë more, revealing new things about their motivations and personal stories. Every time you think the game must be out of unique dialogue, it’ll surprise you with yet another new line.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Next Steps

Soon enough, you’ll make your way to Chronos and finally defeat him. The day is saved! Except, it’s not. Congratulations, you’ve completed the tutorial.

From here, even more possibilities for gameplay customization and difficulty open up, if you can believe it. This is where the game truly begins — and where the plot really becomes interesting.

After this point, there are sixteen aspects of a dungeon run that can be influenced. Most of these also have an intensity scale as well.

Exactly like the Hades Heat mechanic, the Fear Oath adds a range of additional difficulty that you can choose from as you please. If you thought getting to Chronos was tough before, it only increases in difficulty. The difference is, you’re in control of how difficult you’d like a dungeon run to be. It forces you to stay somewhat uncomfortable fighting bosses you’ve fought dozens of times by now.

The level of Fear required will depend on what weapon you choose and how successful you’ve been at completing runs with it if you want the resource reward attached to the weapon and boss you’ve been slated to defeat. Meaning, depending on your goals for a run, your most comfortable weapon might require a great deal of extra difficulty, or it will list a boss in the direction you don’t want to go if the RNG gods deem it.

The final resources needed for endgame upgrades are hidden behind completing Fear goals. After choosing a new layer of difficulty for an attempt, a boss will be tied to one of the five weapons to defeat them with.

Credit: Supergiant Games

Making a sequel to any highly successful piece of media is no easy feat. Many people will discuss the highs and lows of Hades II since its 1.0 game debut in 2025. How does it fare compared against the original?

While the sequel vastly improves upon an already great system from its predecessor, the game isn’t perfect. Nothing is, but this gets pretty close. As far as sequels are concerned, Hades II is the stuff of dreams. The upgrades are immediately obvious, but it still feels enough like the original game to capture the same magic.

My favorite improvements are mostly in the smaller details. Character portraits have more background art elements that feel alive and add a nice extra bit of flair as they display a character’s personality. They look especially nice. Depending on where Melinoë is… the background location of her portrait changes, too. It’s one more piece that engrosses us into the world.

Sound-wise, the music is above-and-beyond. All of it makes you feel awesome and engaged, even in the quieter moments. I don’t want to spoil a certain musical surprise lurking in the depths below, but it also has fun details and a catchy tune. The soundtrack is the perfect complement to the game’s atmosphere, which is compelling on its own already.

The cast of voice actors bring an electric energy to every line, especially Judy Alice Lee as the Princess of Darkness, Melinoë herself. Even then, it’s difficult to pick a favorite from an all-star caliber team like this.

Some players may dislike the new additions to combat or having to unlock different things they were used to in the original title from the ground up. Some may dislike the new story beats, how the game ends, or the main protagonist herself. There’s plenty to critique just as there is to praise in good faith.

The only major controllable player choice is whether Melinoë heads to the depths or up to Mount Olympus. Any individual character you meet along the way is mostly a matter of luck. If you’re after a particular outcome, your best bet is to cross your fingers and praise the RNG overlords for their favor. This is fun as a gameplay mechanic, not so much as an unpredictable (and maybe unintentional) obstacle for story-lovers.

On the other hand, the sheer number of mechanical customization possibilities provide options without ever becoming overwhelming to the player. Layers of difficulty come along at an excellent pace, never letting the loop get stale.

Melinoë’s magical abilities and extensions to weapons add a fluidity to combat that already felt instantaneous and snappy in the first game. Right from the very first attempt, I could feel an immediate improvement. Zagreus had more focus on using dashes to outmaneuver enemies, whereas Melinoë has a shorter dash. She relies instead on using abilities to stave off enemies alongside a quicker sprint. Familiar, but not the same. It’s an incredibly smooth transition. Supergiant Games should feel nothing but proud about keeping the game loop consistent yet fresh all the same.

The Hades franchise is an outstanding entry point into the rogue-like genre if you’ve never tried it before. Whether you prefer one entry over the other, the franchise itself is just so effortlessly cool no matter which you choose. There’s a great deal of things to enjoy for everyone. I highly recommend you try it out yourself.

Personally, Hades II is an excellent game to fall into for days, gameplay and story wise. Melinoë might not be as sarcastic or easygoing as her brother, but I truly bought into her story. Where Zagreus is lackadaisical and resentful of his responsibilities, that’s everything that Melinoë craves to have in her life. It’s a nice contrast.

As for the gameplay, the improvements and smoothness of the mechanics are absurdly fun and stand proudly next to any other title on the market. The shakeup to the formula is so cleverly done that I enjoy it even more than the original. A vast majority of what this game has to offer both improves upon and surpasses what Zagreus’ story brought to the table, even if it isn’t a perfect game itself.

Hades II absolutely lived up to its lofty expectations. Death to Chronos!

Thank you for reading! The original Hades set an excellent example to follow. Smooth fighting mechanics, Greek mythology, and a game that rewards you the better you get at it.

Hades II is all of that and so much more. It’s an all-time favorite of mine. Despite this exhaustive explanation of the game, this is only the beginning of what it has in store. Fated goals, godly boon combinations, Melinoë developing character relationships in the moments she isn’t solely focused on her task… there’s so much more.

If you haven’t had the chance to try either of these games out before, give them a shot if you’re curious. It’s tough and extremely rewarding. If I can make it through, you can!