Thoughts on Hades 2 (sorta spoilers)
Better people than me have pointed out all the ways the story falls flat in the last 1/3 of the game; virtually every plot thread & theme the writers built up just kind of... peters out or lands unsatisfyingly. (Hecate is not included in this. Her backstory is good; my only gripe is that the details of it are only revealed in the epilogue.)
I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure this is because some aspects of production were rushed; or they had a lot more planned but just couldn't get to it. When 70% of a game is 10/10 perfection, followed by an unsatisfying ending, it makes me think that they ran out of time. I don't think that Melinoe's lack of agency in her own story was planned, or even planned from the start; I think it was a byproduct of SGG just... needing an ending. If anything, I wish they had pulled a team cherry.
THAT BEING SAID.
I still think Hades 2 was worth playing; SGG knocked it out of the park again with game design; the gameplay loop is fantastic, just as addictive as H1, and melinoe's different playstyle makes it feel different but not alien. overall, the game is STILL 7/10 for me, and i wanted to wring Chronos's neck from the very start.
I think a lot of people have the perspective that a bad ending ruins something forever, and maybe this is true for something like GOT, where in retrospect there was a clear and consistent decline up to the final season; but Hades as a medium is /meant/ to be replayed. The night repeats, over and over and over. So much more of it is the experience, rather than the ending.
I will still be writing my canon divergence fix-it, though. I want to beat that old man to death.
