#sgg

Oceanus

The ambient music here is the distant song of the sirens. The lyrics get louder and more distinct the closer you get to the biome’s end, but at first, it’s wordless humming. If Mel’s equipped with the Moonstone Axe—or any of its variants—she drags it along behind her with that humming in the background.

In Transistor, Red will hum along with the BGM at your prompting. Red’s not a professionally trained fighter or very strong—and hers isn’t a conventional weapon—so as she hums, she drags the heavy and unwieldy Transistor along behind her.

This was a cool little callback to notice once the early access had been out long enough, but it didn't strike me as particularly noteworthy at the time.

Until War Song.

The War

As of the latest update, the last boss is the Father of All Monsters. But he's so nightmarishly huge that even before Mel reaches him, Typhon’s tail sends repeated, intermittent attacks her way, bleeding her health and magic before she can reach the summit to do direct battle with the monster progenitor.

In Transistor, there’s the Spine boss. Before Red encounters the monster in its entirety, its tail sends repeated and intermittent attacks her way, disrupting the man in the Transistor and earning her ire. This motivates her to confront the Spine to do direct battle with and triumph against it.

In the same update, you can stumble across Dionysus’ hidden hangout: a relaxing break from the main game that’s devoid of enemies, where you can take a minute and pick up an extra boon.

In Transistor, by the time you’re fighting the Spine, you’ll have unlocked the Sandbox through the Backdoors, a relaxing break from the main game that provides challenges, new abilities and the opportunity to listen to the game’s soundtrack.

Lap of Luxury is even reminiscent of the Sandbox’s theme, despite elements of On The Coast solidifying it as its own thing.

The Song

Before the events of Transistor, Red writes a song that causes a minor uproar.

Fans suspect it’s “We All Become” from the OST, and it’d fit. The Country is Cloud Bank’s euphemism for the afterlife, and Red’s song not only warns against losing yourself in the city, but brings up the possibility of her moving to the Country to avoid said fate. (Which serves as potent foreshadowing.)

SGG’s lovely long-time collaborator, Ashely Barrett, provides Red’s singing voice for the song in question, which includes these lyrics:

Think I’ll go where it suits me Moving out to the Country With everyone, oh everyone Before we all become one

In Moonlight Guide Us, the new song in the aptly named War Song update, Artemis (who Ashley also provides the singing voice for) intones twice:

Moonlight, guide us home tonight In shadow, all are one

...

Moonlight, guide you home tonight In shadow, all are one

Among all the other Transistor references, this juxtaposition strikes me as....pretty interesting.

What’s next?

Do Supergiant’s games usually come down on the side of conflict and war?

Or preserving the status quo?

There’s no way to permanently return to how things were in Bastion due to an ongoing genocide. The Commonwealth in Pyre won’t persist no matter what choices you make. The people of Cloud Bank are lost before Transistor even begins. And Hades’ rebellious prince brings sweeping change to the Underworld while carefully avoiding a war with his Olympian relatives.

What's the status quo of Hades 2?

Mel has never known her immediate family, and is a weapon forged to win the war with Chronos. Various people she knows and cares about are suffering under not only her grandfather, but under curses laid by her allies and relatives. All while Hecate reigns as the supreme authority over the resistance effort.

Could all these nods to Transistor be the set up for how Hades 2 will break its own status quo? Could Mel be in for an ending similar to Red’s? (Albeit one that’s hopefully much less tragic?)

What is Cloud Bank? Its nature's ambiguous. The names of the techniques you use, the Backdoors, the way the Process works and the unlimited control Red gains over the city at the end all suggest it’s not strictly real. Perhaps virtual? Or digital? But maybe not the real, physical world.

And…well, isn't Melinoë a goddess of nightmares?

In Hades 2 thus far, her grandfather somehow returned and took everything from her in her infancy, Hecate's tutelage made her a single-minded warrior with little to no sense of self, and the Unseen are trying to end a war between branches of Mel’s family that's heavily hinted to not have a good ending.

To say nothing about us players: many of us got quite attached to the House of Hades and the Underworld's inhabitants. And so we worked to give them the happy reunions that their myths and the game itself denied them. We worked to renovate and improve the House itself. And we worked to peacefully bring together the Chthonic and Olympic gods.

And now all the rewards of our time and emotional investment? Unceremoniously undone.

All of that sounds like a nightmare, doesn't it?

And if it is…