Minor spoilers for Hades and Hades II – read at your own discretion.
Since its inception, Supergiant Games has built a reputation for high-quality storytelling and a deep game system to match. However, while all of the San Francisco studio's games are worthy of praise, it was the first Hades game that raised the bar when it came to roguelikes and their storytelling. It only makes sense then that it also became the first Supergiant game to get a sequel.
Hades II retains many of the features that made its predecessor such a beloved game, with one exception: its protagonist. This shift presented Supergiant with the perfect opportunity to explore new themes, but it was disappointing that the end result instead played into matron stereotypes. Whereas the first game had the protagonist as a cocky and sarcastic jerk and then went through a deep and meaningful character arc, Hades II abandons this in favor of making its female protagonist overtly stoic and duty-bound, playing on society's misogynistic expectations of female-identifying people.
The story takes place in a Greek mythological version of the underworld. Hades tells the story of Zagreus, the son of the chief god of the underworld. Unsatisfied with his luxurious and comfortable life in the Underworld, Zagreus decides to leave and join the rest of the gods on Olympus. Along the way, he battles numerous enemies in the underworld and the Fields of Elysium on a journey inspired by Dante's Inferno.
Over the course of dozens of hours of Hades, players learned about Zagreus and witnessed his transformation from a melancholy spoiled brat into a suave, carefree warrior—the very definition of cool. It received a complete and fulfilling storyline that helped the game become an instant classic and proved that Supergiant could take a topic as broad as Greek mythology and tell a personal story of development. Through his attempts to escape as Zagreus, players saw his character change and his behavior soften. What could have been a modern interpretation of gods and mythology instead became a personal fable about growth, gratitude and maturity. Hades' tale resonates and has universal appeal, regardless of audience.
Meet Hades II, an unexpected sequel. How can a studio even continue working on a game that feels so complete? Of course, Greek mythology allows for countless stories and scenes, but Hades felt so personal and laser-focused that you can't help but wonder where to even go next.
Hades II follows the new protagonist Melinoe, daughter of Hades and younger sister of Zagreus. After the house of Hades was besieged by Chronos, the God of Time, Mal was raised on the field of Elysium by the witch Hecate. Since Chronos began his attack when she was a child, Mel has never met her family and instead only knows them through information she learned from others. Mal, wanting to have the family she never knew, decides to train with Hecate to kill Chronos and help her family reclaim their home, while facing war and an invasion of Olympus.
And this is the problem with the fable of Molinoë. The story of Hades II begins in the middle: Mel is already well trained, and the house of Hades has already fallen. We don't know much about her as a character, and while we are given information about her backstory in the form of flashbacks throughout the game, we never really get to know her beyond her desire to save her family.
The first Hades game gave us fully developed characters and allowed them to grow throughout the story. Zagreus was allowed to have flaws, take time to learn his own lessons, and go through a rich, fulfilling character arc. On the other hand, Mel's history and value in Hades II is related to her family. She has very few weaknesses, except that she fails time and time again to save a family she doesn't know. Even when she is involved in the War for Olympus, she always solves the problems of other characters. Throughout the game we learn so little about her. Mal even loses agency in her own narrative when Zagreus interferes in the third act, and it's a stunning disappointment.
The problem with Mal's quest being so inextricably tied to her family is that it resembles misogynistic ideologies – ideologies that proclaim that a woman's worth is inextricably tied to her family and that it should be the center of her life and ambitions. Zagreus was allowed to be a brash and smart problem child who showed his flaws by going on a self-centered quest, so why isn't Mal allowed something similar? Why isn't she allowed to exhibit flaws or be reckless in certain situations to the same degree?
I'm not asking for it to be a step-by-step retread of Zagreus, but it had so much potential for exploring certain themes with a female protagonist that Hades II failed to deliver. At the beginning of Aida II, Mal is shown to be mature and settled, as if she has gone through the character's entire storyline behind the scenes, about which we receive only drips of information. Having such a protagonist in Hades II only reinforces society's expectations that women need to grow up faster, maintain order, and focus on the task at hand at the expense of self-exploration. Hades II could have made an interesting exploration of feminist themes using this trope, but instead abandons it in favor of a stoic protagonist to compensate for the first game's brash protagonist.
In many ways, Hades II is an improvement on the first game, from the combat system and improvements to the instant gameplay. It's a shame that Hades II fails its protagonist so badly that it ruins the entire experience. While Hades showed audiences how deep roguelike storytelling can be, Hades II fails to achieve the same goal, giving us a protagonist who has little free will of his own and is often the one solving other characters' problems.
