4/5 ★ – jdong6's review of Hades.

i've never been good enough at games to be a huge fan of roguelikes, despite having worked on one in the past. that being said, hades is a new peak in the genre, with a mind-boggling amount of synergies, permutations and twists that keep each run feeling genuinely unique, layered on top of an absolutely masterful arcade (hack-and-slash?) core. that's not even mentioning the stuff outside of the main loop - it pretty much showers you with progression between runs, both from a gameplay and a narrative standpoint, and manages to avoid the trap of having the progression outside the game feeling unfair, managing to strike a perfect balance of increasing your odds of survival without feeling like victory is handed to you on a silver platter. gameplay progression is paced wonderfully, and opens up just when you think you're getting used to it, further enticing you to make run after run. in this sense, death never feels like a failure as it feels like just another part of the game. from a narrative standpoint I enjoyed meeting all the characters and seeing their relationships - however the speed of the narrative's progression is a bit too slow for my liking, seeing as it's paced with the post-game in mind. ultimately though, the characters, writing and character design are so effective and appealing that I still went out of my way to talk to every character and offer up all my nectar. i think this character element also imbues each boss encounter with extra motivation to see it through. so in summary it's just a really really good roguelike that doesn't lessen the sting of failure so much as it removes it (almost) entirely, and makes it seem effortless. it's the whole package, and is compelling in every way.