Threads Reconnecting: A Discussion of Supergiant’s “Hades”

Note: This post contains thematic and story spoilers for Supergiant Games’ Hades. If you’re thinking about checking the game out, I highly suggest you do so! Then feel free to come back and let me know what you think.

It’s difficult to resist the urge to refer to 2020 as a lost year, because for so many of us it feels like the culmination of a lot of bad decisions and missed opportunities. For me personally, it was a time period defined by stress without a healthy outlet. I couldn’t attend conventions and see friends, I could really go on vacation, I suffered an undercurrent of fear that something might go awry with my or my husband’s employment situation… and that’s even aside from the relentless thumping of day after day of exhausting election news. It was bad enough for long enough that I couldn’t even get myself to watch anime. For some, their hobbies are an escape; something that lets them settle into a pleasant state of mind and forget about the outside world. For me, it’s kind of the opposite in that I have to be in a certain state of mind to be able to focus and enjoy something.

It was around Autumn of 2020 that I began to hear chatter about Hades, a new video game from beloved indie-game studio Supergiant. I no longer really have my finger on the pulse of the gaming world, but I enjoyed the company’s earlier games and really enjoy rogue-like/rogue-lite gameplay, so took a chance and purchased it on Steam ($25, which, considering the amount of time I’ve spent playing it, is an incredible bargain). In it, you play the role of Zagreus, son of Hades, god of the Underworld. Zagreus has an adversarial relationship with his father, though it takes a little time to discover the reasons why. He makes motions to escape to the overworld, and thus run away from his troubled life. The thing is, the Underworld is known to be inescapable, because it needs to be – who’d want to have to deal with the problem of the dead returning to the land of the living? Thus, Lord Hades has a vested interest in making sure his son doesn’t upset that balance. and his journey through hell is arduous and deadly.

One hallmark of rogue-like/rogue-lite games is that each attempt to complete the game is its own journey, and each death sets you back at the beginning without many or sometimes any of the abilities you gained along the way. Hades folds this mechanic into the story; after each unsuccessful attempt to escape, Zagreus finds himself at his father’s doorstep once again, delivered to the Underworld via the unforgiving, one-way flow of the River Styx. While you get to keep certain items that allow you to slowly build on your base abilities, all of the cool boons you’ve received from your relatives on Mt. Olympus are taken away. For your first several attempts at the game, it can feel as though you’re making very little progress; you don’t have a good handle on how to use the weapons properly, you haven’t developed a solid play style, and the enemies and environments just feel impenetrable. It seems like a truly Sisyphean task – which is funny because you actually get to meet Sisyphus and surprisingly he seems fairly cool with his circumstances, truth be told.

One of the early reviews I read for Hades was on NPR which isn’t exactly known for game reviews, but I can respect them wanting to provide some insight on what’s now a very popular media form with many if not most demographics. The article frames the reviewer’s interaction with the game as being heavily influenced by the state of the world in which they were playing it, which I can understand; when you’ve spent months disconnected from other people and struggling with the disappointing ways in which the world seems to be failing at meeting its challenges, playing a game that requires hours of failure before providing any major payoff and which frames its main character as angry and rebellious probably doesn’t seem that appealing. It’s times like these where I curse the quick turnaround that’s required of game reviewers, because this game in particular requires a lot of time and patience (especially if you’re like me and no longer much of an expert gamer); a week’s worth of puttering around with it really doesn’t bring you to the point of uncovering its major themes.

Rather than a meditation on futility or the unavoidable nature of suffering, as its story slowly unfolds and the player gets the opportunity to open up some of the side quests, Hades reveals itself as a poignant examination of the resiliency and diversity of love and the power of forgiveness. It’s a revelation that takes escaping the Underworld a few times and learning just how broken and dysfunctional Zagreus’ family life really is, as well as how that situation is echoed within the lives of the people working within his father’s house. As Zagreus, through the hands of the player, plugs away at trying to solve his own problems, he learns more about his teacher Achilles’ self-destructive behavior and the lover he lost because of it, his adoptive mother Nyx’s distant relationship from her own parent, and god of death Thanatos’s feelings of having been betrayed by Zagreus, among others. Zagreus even gains a more nuanced understanding of his father’s feelings, having split from both Zagreus’ birth mother and his relatives on Mount Olympus, for reasons that are frustrating and complicated.

There’s a period of time while playing this game where all of these sad situations feel insurmountable, and just like reaching a skill cap in a game like this I can see why it might inspire some feelings of futility in the player. But just as the game offers options for those of us who aren’t hard-core gamers (I know several friends who appreciate “god mode,” which allows easier gameplay), it also offers the opportunity for Zagreus to use his stubbornness and naivete to start mending the broken threads of these various relationships back into a full tapestry.

Using the tried-and-true method of getting people to open up over drinks, by giving characters the nectar you’ve collected over several escape attempts Zagreus begins to learn the details of what the other characters have been through during their mortal and immortal lives, and you’re provided the opportunity to help. In some cases there are tangible awards for doing this – access to new bonus items being the main benefit. But in other cases, the only real “prize” is that you gain the opportunity to learn more about the characters that surround Zagreus and bring color to his otherwise gray-hued underworld life. You get the sense that even bad circumstances aren’t nearly so terrible if there are friends or family there to help you endure them. It’s an examination of the power of communication; though talking to someone might be difficult, especially if one or both of you might already be hurting, it’s truly the only way to learn and perhaps even start to heal.

While this game was obviously in the works for a couple of years (I can’t even imagine how long it took to write the reportedly 300k words of dialog, wow!) the fact that its 1.0 version was released this past September almost made it seem like a boon from the gods. Its story really echoes a lot of the things I’d been feeling – the general malaise brought on by pandemic fatigue and the disconnect I’d been experiencing being unable to visit in person with the people I loved. The feeling of wanting to escape from a situation that was unfortunately mostly inescapable. But also the hope that, with some work – reaching out to friends when possible and searching for ways to make each day more interesting – things might eventually get a little better.

I know that the gamer/anime fan crossover isn’t always 100%, but I’d encourage those of you out there who might not identify with gaming, but might still have some interest, to give Hades a try. The world’s been pretty cold lately, but this game weaves together a story that’s surprisingly filled with the warmth of connecting with others, forgiving, and being forgiven.