by Andrew Morais
The single player action roguelike, Hades, developed and published by Supergiant games, serves as one of the company’s most successful projects. The game’s appeal not only stems from its engaging gameplay but also the rich and complex story it offers with a surplus of compelling characters and dynamic relationships. The main character, Zagreus, throughout his adventure, builds relationships with the people he meets and forever changes the relationships with the people he’s known for his whole life.
The stories told in Hades mimic those that happen in real life, the human experience of building relationships and experiencing them change. Hades demonstrates the push and pull that people experience in real relationships through not only narrative and dialogue but game mechanics, music, and visual design. The game shows the part that effort plays in a relationship and what causes strain and the effect it has.
The game begins with Zagreus on his first attempt to escape the Underworld, running away from his relationship with his father, Hades, to pursue one with the Olympians. Nyx, the goddess of night and who Zagreus believes is his mother, initiates contact with them. Following Athena, the other Olympians quickly reach out to Zagreus both to show their support and to grant him access to a portion of their power.
Where Nyx is supportive and kind to Zagreus, Hades is quite frankly not (see Image 1). Their relationship is very rocky. Disciplined, dominant, and rigid, Hades rules the Underworld with an iron fist. He is constantly busy commanding the Underworld and keeping order, and when he does have time to talk to Zagreus, it’s often very belittling and full of reprimands. On top of the unrest and tension in the House of Hades, Zagreus finds out the truth, that his mother is not Nyx but Persephone. Nyx agrees to help him escape the Underworld and meet his mother, guilty about lying to him and ultimately wanting what’s best for Zagreus.
The Olympians quickly make moves to support Zagreus’s rise to the surface (see Image 2), to meet the rest of his family. They grant Zagreus some of their power through boons, giving effects related to them and increasing damage for either his attack, special, dash, or cast. One by one, the Olympians make contact with Zagreus and give him access to their boons, each god talking to him and giving their support in escaping the Underworld, making sure he knows he’s not alone.
As Zagreus talks to each of the Olympians, he picks up a boon, they share more about themselves and seem to grow more attached to him, eager to have him on Olympus. Eventually, after talking to the Olympians and gifting them nectar (a sort of in-game currency), they will grant you keepsakes that increase the rarity on that respective god’s boons. Keepsakes are special items that players can equip, though one at a time. They are granted, like with the Olympians, by talking to the various characters in Hades and gifting them nectar.
The game rewards the player for talking to its characters and interacting with them using collected items. Hades actively incentivizes seeking out each character, grinding for nectar, putting in effort to get to know these characters with the added bonus of a new power-up the player might like. The game acknowledges the player’s effort with these rewards. The dialogue becomes deeper and more personal as the bond between Zagreus and each character grows.
After enough dialogue with certain characters, the player even has the option to pursue romance. However, a lot of the characters need to be gifted nectar to actually get closer to them, talking to them alone isn’t enough. Meg, for example, will be dismissive of Zagreus until he starts to gift her nectar. Afterwards, she will slowly become more open with him as he interacts with her and continues with the occasional gift.
But nectar isn’t very easy to get, and getting enough to fully pursue a close relationship with every character takes tens or even hundreds of hours. When embarking on a run, players have the option to choose the path Zagreus takes. After defeating all the enemies in a room, a reward is given and the doors reveal the rewards for their respective rooms. These rewards include boons as well as other items players can use to upgrade Zagreus or use to interact with characters like nectar.
With so many different types of items, each with different uses, the player has to make a choice. Should Zagreus take the boon for a better shot at completing the run? Should he choose to grind for nectar at the cost of potentially failing the run? If the player wants to get a lot of a certain material, they have to grind for it. Run after run, death after death, they have to maintain a balancing act of not ruining the run while getting an acceptable amount of materials. It’s time consuming and it takes effort.
The grind is an aspect of video games not everybody enjoys. Some may find grind-heavy games tedious or repetitive while others happily sit and grind away. However, in other games, the grind is an ends to a means whether it’s beating the final boss, getting a good ending, or earning a really cool item. Hades is different. It curates an experience where the grind is not only enjoyable but also actually means something. Complimenting the game’s themes surrounding relationships, Hades uses the grind as a way to symbolize effort, the effort people put into relationships and getting to know someone. Just as the player grinds for resources, Zagreus fights over and over to get closer with the Olympians and his birth mother. He goes through literal hell to get close to these family members he had been kept from his whole life.
Just as there are ways to improve relationships, certain actions or events can damage them too, straining relationships and often involving a loss of trust. When Zagreus finds out he’s been lied to, he feels betrayed. He is rightfully upset at both Nyx and Hades for covering up the fact that his real mother is Persephone and that she is being kept away from him, hidden. However, his anger towards Nyx quickly subsides while his relationship with his father worsens. Nyx is the one who puts Zagreus in contact with Olympus which is the only reason he has a shot at escaping the Underworld, and Nyx is constantly supporting Zagreus and encouraging him to continue. Meanwhile, Hades is as dismissive as ever and continues to put Zagreus down.
Zagreus sees the attempts Nyx makes to set things right. Along with her continued support and giving him a chance at escaping the Underworld, she stands up for him against Hades and acknowledges the damage this lie has done. She puts the work into making her remorse known. Hades, on the other hand, makes it perfectly clear that he won’t entertain what he perceives to be a temper tantrum from Zagreus. He finds his whole pursuit in finding his mother to be childish. Even after Zagreus has defeated him several times, he still stands in his way at the end of every escape attempt. Hades doesn’t care about making things right with Zagreus, he doesn’t care that his son feels hurt. Nyx does. So, it is unsurprising when that strain in their father-son relationship worsens while Nyx can make amends
Hades has been this way for Zagreus’s entire life. He is demeaning, stern, stubborn, and impatient. Zagreus has seen him as the hard-working father who never has time for him and this sentiment worsens as he feels hurt by Hades especially as he makes no attempt to improve things. An enigmatic figure, even to his own son, Hades’ motives remain unclear until Zagreus has escaped enough times to piece things together. Despite going about it as aggressively as he did, Hades was trying to prevent the Olympians from finding out about Persephone and Zagreus because he had technically kidnapped Persephone all those years ago.
Unhappy with the Olympians, Persephone gladly went with Hades to be the Queen of the Underworld. She loved him and he loved her. However, when they tried to have a baby, he was stillborn. After a long time of Nyx’s focused power, Zagreus was reborn bound to the Underworld. At this point, however, Persephone decided to leave as she felt she didn’t belong in the Underworld either. Hades let her go but he never got over her (see Image 11). He fought so hard to keep Zagreus away because he feared that the Olympians would have gone to war with the Underworld for taking Persephone away from them, from Demeter, her mother. Zagreus became more understanding of his father once he learned the full truth, but it can’t alleviate the years of a difficult and strained relationship.
After Zagreus orchestrates a meeting with the Olympians and Hades, mediating and solving their issues to prevent a war, Persephone’s return seems to soften Hades’ heart. By no means is Zagreus as close and comfortable with him as he with Nyx or even Persephone, but it’s improving. Hades begins to really put in the effort to making is relationship with his son better. But he still won’t let him escape the Underworld without a fight. After all, these escape attempts pretty effectively test security.
Hades appeals to its millions of players for so many reasons. Many may find themselves in awe of ts beautiful art and stunning music or addicted to how fun the gameplay loop is. However, the core of the game, the heart of Hades for many fans is its characters. The story’s mystery isn’t all that keeps the player engaged in the narrative. Every piece of dialogue, which is inescapable, is rich in character and personality. Every character is even voice lined, and these actors do a fantastic job. They all bring their character to life. Each character in Hades has a distinct personality, taking full advantage of the average person’s background knowledge: Greek mythology. Not everyone is an expert, but it’s the most well known of the ancient mythologies. Even if you don’t, the game doesn’t stray far from each of the gods’ domains and uses them as a basis for their personalities. Poseidon is the god of the sea, and likewise he’s just as wild and reckless and go-with-the-flow. Athena, goddess of knowledge and battle, is calm, tactical, and wise. Hades takes these basic premises, seasons them with how they are characterized and portrayed in Greek myths, and channels them through talented voice acters to get extremely lively characters. It adds to how real they feel and it allows the player to immerse themselves, to become Zagreus and live through the drama and disaster of the divine world.
Works Cited
Arthimalla, Jaswanth. . “Rescripting of the Genre Through Greek Mythology in Hades.” Games and Culture, 19(4), 2023, pp. 535-545. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231170140.
Hades, Supergiant Games, 2020
