Thirty six days! That lasted well over three months, I think. But thanks to everyone who participated.
Hades was a great game in a genre that I was never very fond of (though I never gave it a fair try either). But everything about it, from the slick and fun gameplay, the charming characters, the iconic visuals, to the astoundingly polished music and sound design, really stuck with me.
I found it at a time of my life when I had a lot of free time since I was basically let go from my previous job. It was really fun playing it while juggling job applications and side jobs.
I haven't played it in...well, months, but when I think back about it, even decades from now, I'm sure I'll have nothing but the fondest memories about it. And I'm glad B8 (and the internet at large) seems to share the same feelings.
So here are the results from our past 36 days:
B8 Hadespinions is a series of poll run by user Raka_Putra starting in February of 2021. It gauges the Board 8ers' opinions about the various aspects of Hades, a roguelike video game developed by Supergiant Games and released in 2020.
Day 1 - Favorite Weapon
Coronacht (Bow) - 40%
Aegis (Shield) - 20%
Stygius (Sword) - 5.71%
Malphon (Fists) - 17.14%
Varatha (Spear) - 8.57%
Exagryph (Gun) - 8.57%
Day 2 - Favorite main Attack boon
Aphrodite (Heartbreak Strike) - 28%
Demeter (Frost Strike) - 24%
Zeus (20%), Artemis (12%), Ares, Poseidon (8%)
Day 3 - Favorite main Special boon
Aphrodite (Heartbreak Flourish) - 27.27%
Artemis (Deadly Flourish) - 22.73%
Dionysus, Poseidon (13.64%), Ares, Demeter (9.09%), Zeus (4.55%)
Champions of Elysium (Theseus and Asterius) - 17.2%
The Furies (13.8%), Lerny (10.3%), Charon (6.9%), Tiny Vermin (3.4%)
Day 9 - Favorite romance option
Thanatos - 28.57%
Dusa - 26.19%, Megaera - 23.81%
None (11.9%), Thanatos and Megaera (9.52%)
Day 10 - Favorite Stygian Blade aspect
Aspect of Arthur - 68.75%
Aspect of Poseidon - 18.75%
Aspect of Zagreus, Aspect of Nemesis (6.25%)
Day 11 - Favorite Duo Boon: Aphrodite
With Artemis - Heart Rend - 27.27%, With Poseidon- Sweet Nectar - 27.27%
With Zeus - Smoldering Air - 22.73%
With Ares - Curse of Longing (13.64%), With Dionysus - Low Tolerance (9.09%)
Day 12 - Favorite Varatha aspect
Aspect of Achilles - 53.85%
Aspect of Guan Yu - 19.23%
Aspect of Hades (15.38%), Aspect of Zagreus - (11.54%)
Day 13 - Favorite Duo Boon: Ares
With Artemis - Hunting Blades - 70%
With Athena - Merciful End, With Poseidon - Curse of Drowning, With Zeus - Vengeful Mood (10%)
Day 14 - Favorite Aegis aspect
Aspect of Zeus - 54.55%
Aspect of Chaos, Aspect of Beowulf - 18.18%
Aspect of Zagreus (9.09%)
Day 15 - Favorite Duo Boon: Artemis
With Demeter - Crystal Clarity - 40.74%
With Poseidon - Mirage Shot - 18.52%
With Aphrodite - Heart Rend, With Zeus - Lightning Rod (11.11%), With Ares - Hunting Blades, With Athena - Deadly Reversal (7.41%), With Dionysus (3.7%)
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Into the woods, but mind the past... Into the woods, but mind the future!
Everything. Really. The story and gameplay are both top-notch and play into each other near flawlessly. The cast of characters is great and I always want to go around and talk to all of them after a run, whether or not they have nothing new to say. While the soundtrack might not have any songs I want to listen to in my off time it all fits the game so well that I enjoy it just for that.
Artemis. Best god, I'll fight you.
How fun the twin fists are to use. It's like they dropped a high tier fighting game character in as one of the weapon choices and hardly anything in the game knows how to deal with that.
MartinFF7:
Everything, just to add on what Shonen_Bat said. I'm just so impressed they took such a simple concept (doing the same thing over and over again) and really made it an engrossing, entertaining experience. The characters, the dialogue, graphics, music, gameplay... I'm just really impressed all over the place. Everybody was hyping it up to me and I didn't believe it but now, really understand where everyone was coming from.
This is such a minor thing but it's one that's sticking with me right now. One of the possible quotes when you beat Hades is "Charon...take me home". The tone or the way it's delivered, the sense of resignation... something I hope I hear every time I beat him, even if it only ends up a fraction of the time. It's such a little thing in the grand scheme of things but I love it.
My completely broken strategy of Aspect of Zeus with Ares Special, Dire Misfortune (doom boost), and Charged Shot (Bull Rush fires projectile). I got so good with manipulating the shield's movement around the field, Blitz Disc dooming everything in sight, pretty well invincible in final battle, beat 20 Heat without breaking a sweat. By far my favourite weapon & aspect to use (Aspect of Chiron 2nd best and working up to 20 Heat on that one)
Epyo:
The fancy visual effects on the weapons.
I have a crush on Megaera.
The jokes that appear at the top of the screen each time you present the food to Cerberus.
Emeraldegg:
Everything about the writing stands out the most to me. The voice acting is tremendous, the quality of the writing is great and relatable (Zagreus slipping up sometimes and saying inappropriate things is something people do sometimes) and the amount of dialogue in the game is just tremendous. I don't know how many escape attempts I'm at but I've beaten all weapons on at least 7 heat, one at a time upwards and I'm still getting new dialogue.
The way they slow feed you new things throughout the game, even after what seems like a long time, really keeps a good taste in your mouth of "oh man I wonder if there's something else I still haven't done here?" It really helps to offset the nature of the game which done not-well has the potential to just feel really repetitive. This is not that at all.
Raka_Putra:
That feeling when a combination of boons work together really well
Zagreus
How smooth and responsive the game is
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Into the woods, but mind the past... Into the woods, but mind the future!
I haven't played it for a couple of months, since I've been really busy and picked it up in the middle of a bunch of assignments. It's one of the most mechanically satisfying games I've played, with an amazing gameplay loop. I want to at least get all of the achievements and Skelly statues.
I played Hades for the first time in awhile yesterday.
That's all.
Did it take some time getting used to the gameplay again? Did you make it outside?
Sheep007 posted...
I haven't played it for a couple of months, since I've been really busy and picked it up in the middle of a bunch of assignments. It's one of the most mechanically satisfying games I've played, with an amazing gameplay loop. I want to at least get all of the achievements and Skelly statues.
Same, except for me it was a new job. I'm also trying for the statues but I wasn't that good yet.
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Into the woods, but mind the past... Into the woods, but mind the future!
I want to at least get all of the achievements and Skelly statues.
.....I never knew about that, which makes me wonder what else I didn't know about.
But this is convenient as I had set a personal challenge for myself to beat the game at 40 heat because I could do 20 heat with my broken shield strat pretty easily. After many attempts, I was only able to get to Hades one time and died (because I didn't have Charged Shot). So gave up on that but I was able to do 30 heat pretty comfortably... guess I gotta do one final playthrough at 32.
Sure if he breathed on me I would've died but hey - still counts!!
Love this game and resisting the urge to start a new save file, run through it from scratch and experience it all again... gotta put that off to next year.
