Jello Reviews - Hades + Hades II
Added 2025-10-28 04:05:18 +0000 UTCIt's a review of Supergiant's two mega-hit roguelikes, Hades and Hades II!
I spent way too much time on this in every aspect. 250 hours on the first game, 120 hours on the second, and probably 25 hours tinkering with this audio and well as the giant in-depth mechanics chart I made (see below).
TIMESTAMPS:
1:53 - Transgender Law Center Donation Shout Outs
2:39 - Hades (Spoilers)
30:45 - Stuff Hades Does Bad
58:02 - Start of Economy Problem
1:10:08 - Hades II (Spoiler-Free)
1:35:20 - Special anti-shout-out to the worst thing in all of the first game real quick
1:38:33 - Hades II (Spoilers, a.k.a. "The Ending Was Always Good Actually")
2:32:16 - They Updated the Ending and Everybody Clapped (It's the Same Ending)
2:48:44 - Extras and the True Post-Game Ending (Mega Spoilers)
3:02:42 - Stuff Hades II Does Bad
I spend a lot of this review talking about the themes of the games and what I think they do well and what they don't. I do not spend a lot of time talking about the nitty-gritty mechanics.
If you want to hear about that, don't worry, because I decided to spend WAY TO MUCH TIME setting up a giant document covering both games' God Boons, Keepsakes, Moon Powers, Heat, Fear, and more. This one is so big you actually can't see the whole thing even if you zoom out all the way. Yippie!
Remember that you can mouse over any cell with a black triangle in the upper-right corner for my notes. And if you like reading boring notes on video game design, you can check out the other charts like this one that I've made for games like Octopath Traveler and Wargroove by searching for "Tier Lists" in tags on this post.
I'm going to try and get another audio review out in the next week or so covering a dozen or so animated films I've watched in the last few months. No promises that it'll be out by the end of the month, though! Amy and I are trying to replace our old car which we sold back in August and it's also our 4th anniversary on Halloween.
I'm about 28 minutes of editing through the Fire Emblem video. Either that or the Lemonade edit-down will be next. I for sure want the Lemonade video out by the end of this year, so I'll probably pivot to that a little ways into November unless I absolutely start GUNNING IT on the Fire Emblem vid.
Comments
Ok the idea of mind-fucking a guy with timeline shenanigans into becoming a grandpa is amazing. BAM! loving family beam. Pranked bro!! 20 years of cherishing your family
Bonnford
2026-01-26 21:03:06 +0000 UTCI'm really glad you reviewed Hades I and II because I've been SO hooked on these games, but I can't talk about Hades II with anyone I know because they either haven't played it or haven't finished the game, never mind the post-game! Sigh, I guess I'll just have to leave my thoughts here for now. I didn’t observe too many pacing issues with Hades I because I guess I was an average Hades I player. I did manage to have Orpheus and Eurydice make up before I beat the game and brought Persephone back to the Underworld. It absolutely made “In the Blood” and “Farewell (duet version)” much more satisfying than if the pacing were completely thrown off. I felt the pacing problem with Hades II though, because I somehow cleared Olympus for the first time after two Prometheus deaths and zero Typhon deaths, and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. It definitely made me raise an eyebrow when one of the gods would say “hey, heard you destroyed Typhon!” and I’d think “yeah, where were you, that was at LEAST 5 runs ago”. The economy part was actually fun to listen to because I absolutely DID have gripes with it throughout the games. I found it really annoying in Hades I that I was at a Darkness deficit in the early game (normal), a mega Darkness surplus mid-game (normal?), and then another major Darkness deficit post-game (????). That’s essentially how I felt with all of the materials in Hades I. Meanwhile, in Hades II, I’ve been hoarding Psyche like mad even though I’ve maxed out my grasp, because the game is like “no, don’t recycle this, it’s useful for something”, but for WHAT? I was a twin fists main in Hades I, so I understand why you didn't like the axe. I also didn't like it at first, but it somehow became my favourite and strongest weapon??? It's a lot of fun with the Aspect of Thanatos (and BEAM!!!), because it essentially boosts the attack speed back up to a reasonable amount. That, combined with the speed-boosting boons from the gods and the Daedalus hammer, makes it pretty broken. Even with the base Aspect, I was able to beat Typhon first try because the 30% faster Omega special allowed me to deal bonkers damage from a safe distance. I LOVED seeing you use the axe at its full power in the VODs. I feel your pain as a fellow fishing completionist. Why is it so flipping hard. I definitely felt emotionally conflicted when I first experienced the ending of Hades II. It felt like the ending was way lighter than expected, what with the looming crisis and Melinoë’s heightened anger toward Chronos for kidnapping Hecate, but it seemed intentional (i.e., several of the characters also experience the tonal whiplash of the climax of almost killing Chronos and the sweetness between Melinoë and Chronos). Also, I got the new ending before I watched the original ending in your stream, and I didn’t even notice the changes! For all intents and purposes, it WAS the same ending! I do agree with you though that it did seem much cooler for Melinoë to - against her own impulses - choose to trust Zagreus and give Chronos a chance even when she DIDN’T get her memories back. I absolutely felt that some of the vitriol towards the original ending was because people had strong feelings towards the idea of forgiving and accepting a very problematic and even abusive family member (and to be fair, I empathise a bit). Ultimately, though, I thought that forgiveness made more sense in the Hades world because power dynamics aren’t as clear-cut when everyone in your family is immortal, and the granddaughter character has the power to perma-kill her problematic family members. To be fair to Supergiant, I feel like they intentionally left the Olympians’ toxic relationships and penchant for warring unresolved. In Hades I, Zagreus is very aware of how problematic his Olympian relatives are, but he explicitly lies to them through a lot of the game to make use of their boons, and the family has a pleasant reunion in the post-game ending. Even then, it’s clear that Hades and Zagreus don’t actually want to interact with the Olympians in close proximity much, and Persephone only volunteers to become a diplomat between Olympus and the Underworld to keep the peace (and visit her mom). In Hades II, Melinoë seems to me like she was so traumatised by her forced separation from her family that she had blinders on towards the Olympians’ problematic behaviours for most of the game. That’s why I thought it made sense that she hates Prometheus so much even though he’s clearly a victim of their disproportionate punishments, and why she doesn’t hate Athena despite the venom Arachne holds toward her. Overall, it seemed quite obvious to me that neither Zagreus nor Melinoë were actually going to do anything substantial about Olympus - Zagreus is content with the restoration of his immediate family, and Melinoë is content with ending Chronos’s war and choosing to stay with her found family.
ver.
2026-01-08 17:19:58 +0000 UTCMan I would love a collab video of you and red osp digging into how greek myth is used in Hades. That would be fun
Bulbanine
2025-12-29 22:15:21 +0000 UTCI might come back with a more meaningful comment after I've listened to the whole thing, but hearing a wildly inaccurate Aphrodite impression after you uncannily nailed the other ones so far is sending me
ver.
2025-12-10 14:27:43 +0000 UTCYeah I would even be down for her being like "I'm not Moros. I hate it when people expect me to BE something" and her rebellion had any kind of direction to it, like she's specifically raging at her family or the established power structure of the gods, but she really is just raging at nobody in particular by doing the same thing every night which is like the exact opposite of her stated goal. It's so weird. Her being Hades II's Zagreus would've been SO interesting.
JelloApocalypse
2025-11-26 21:13:31 +0000 UTCSo I will say I don’t think Eris is ruined by Moros. It’s actually a cool duality of the fact that two people can go through the exact same kind of strife yet only one of them will choose to make it an excuse to be horrible and the other will be kind despite or because of it. But like… it doesn’t sound like she does anything *beyond* that. They could’ve done some cool character evolution with that. It just makes her look like a dick in an increasingly less fun way over time. Eris needed to change or something. They could’ve done something cool where Eris reveals after some time “by the way I keep fighting you because Hecate is only treating you for the underworld, but she wanted me to test you for the surface. I hate doing what I’m told but I love fucking with you more.” Or at least gone the route Zagreus went of “you fucking with us is actually helpful, so continuing to do this is now your job” or something. She needed change.
ASquared
2025-11-25 19:02:33 +0000 UTCI agree with a lot of the spreadsheet breakdown, but I think Strength deserves more love! I can appreciate death defiances, especially early into play time (I know I used them a ton!) But once I made the switch to strength, I haven't found much reason to go back. The damage reduction is so strong you're saving almost as much health as the death defiances would restore. ALSO it makes all healing items more valuable because they heal the same amount as they would without strength. (it does make some keepsakes and toula functionally useless though) oh, and it means Athena is easy to summon, and will never offer her death defiance boons making divine dash or defensive posture easier to snag (or righteous pike if you are running an omega build). I genuinely don't even consider myself particularly "good" at the game, and I found runs with strength WAYYY more successful even on high fear. It was scary trying out, but you tank and hit so much harder it is worth it. Also, I love the fate dice. I'm practically always running either a full dice spread, or a fates whim/jeweled pom spread. With all the fates die arcana active (yes, it is rather expensive for grasp) you get 10 rerolls that ALL work on nearly everything. It's never worth rerolling minor finds at the door (since artificer can swap them out) but the option to reroll a boon selection is major when crafting specific builds. If you play your cards right in ephyra you can all but guarantee a specific god from the pool with a single roll. Also make's getting duo/legendary boons all the easier since they have such specific requirements. (OH! and if your running denial for fear, it only locks the other two boons currently on the selection screen. If you reroll, you are still only locking out of two boons)
Marnie
2025-11-18 21:59:18 +0000 UTCIrt everything you said about Hades I: I couldn't put it into words at the time, but the things you brought up about its shortcomings are a big part of why I ended up dropping it without beating even the main game--and I am WAY worse at Hades than you are, Jello (it took me EIGHTY tries to beat the game ONCE). The exchange of resources ticked me off, because there was very little way to get the things I actually needed when I needed them, which stretched out the game to an annoying degree for me. And the whole "queuing NPC interactions" hidden mechanic meant I had completely befriended Medusa (my favourite character) LONG before Nyx fired her, which was ultimately the last straw for me and made me drop the game after defeating Hades only 3 times. I still think Hades I is a generally good game, and I had a lot of fun with it, and I fully endorse your 8/10 rating.
Dwight Stamler
2025-11-06 18:29:32 +0000 UTCI will say I agree with you on most points regarding the ending. I liked the ending pre patch, but I personally feel like more of the characters should have been angry, like Hecate was, at the choice to let Chronos live given the Crossroads mantra of "Death to Chronos." It feels like that should have been a harder sell, but we probably don't see all of the convincing she's doing while they have that rebuilding montage. I know we get conversations with them post game but they all seem "oh well, I guess we'll try it." I do think that the biggest change I'm sad about not being in the game's initial release was having the final boss be Rivaled Chronos, I think that's such a cool and fun way to make the final run feel special and different, even if they give you Unlimited Deaths. It feels similar to Hecate's fight being missing for that last run.
S P
2025-11-05 01:37:47 +0000 UTCIt's so weird that a bandage fix for a problem in the Early Access is still there and still costs 5.
JelloApocalypse
2025-11-04 06:24:22 +0000 UTCI like the talk about how the game pacing is worse when you're good. I beat the game on like my 8th try, I think the first time I got the shield. I wasn't aiming for 100% clear though, but having to try to get that sounds rough.
DWC
2025-11-04 05:31:45 +0000 UTCre: The Unseen arcana, the Gain boons in early EA were utterly atrocious. I had forgotten just how terrible (almost) all of them were, but special shoutout to Zeus and Demeter: Zeus was a passive 4 mana/s for a mere 70% OF YOUR MAX MANA, which (pre-Moon Dust Persistence) disabled the staff's Omega attack until you found a pot. And Demeter took an entire second to activate and was only 25 mana/s, meaning it took 5 SECONDS of standing still to regain 100 mana. So The Unseen arcana made more sense with this level of competition (and no Hecuba). Or it would, if Hera's Born Gain wasn't a 10 mana prime at level 1 common WOOPS.
Alex Peter Rose
2025-11-03 13:12:29 +0000 UTC
