My first thought on writing this was “oh man, I need to play more Hades II” and my second “why aren’t I writing about Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.” Answer to the second one is I haven’t beaten it yet! And I will! Probably. Maybe. I need to get past Jorogumo first. Which I can totally do (update: I did it!).

So big caveat here, possibly a divisive opinion: Hades is not my favorite Supergiant game. Very honestly, it is my least favorite. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good game or I didn’t enjoy it! I played 86 and a half hours of it, beginning on the day it was released on the Epic Store in Early Access. And that doesn’t even count what I played on my Switch version. But look at what it’s being compared with: Transistor, one of my all-time favorite games; Pyre, a beautiful and soulful journey; and Bastion, maybe not the strongest competitor in the lineup but charming all the same. Hades had a lot to live up to and I feel it fell short a bit, not the least because it’s not an original story/world.

Second big caveat, I’m not a huge fan of Greek mythology. I’m a huge mythology junkie in general, but I prefer almost anything besides Greek. I think this is because Greek mythology is presented oftentimes as The Mythology™ and growing up it was hard to find much in books besides Greek mythology. A little Egyptian, a little Norse, but mainly Greek. Basically, I don’t have the enthusiasm that say, Edith Hamilton does for the Greek pantheon.

All that being said, I think Hades II is a definite improvement on its predecessor.

Another caveat, I am not that good at either Hades or Hades II. But I still enjoy them!

The greatest of the new features – naked hot spring cutscenes (haha, just kidding, haha). To be serious though, I enjoy the touches like the hot spring allowing for further characterization. Supergiant creates great characters and I love getting to know them. I do also enjoy the meager gardening gameplay because deep in my heart I believe a farming sim by Supergiant would be kick ass.

The combat is slightly more fluid than Hades, which suits Mel as a character as well. There are plenty of ways to customize a run, whether it be a different weapon or seeking out a different set of boons or even levelling up the arcana cards.

Overall I’m excited to see what Supergiant does with Hades II and I look forward to exploring all the crannies and crags of the game.