I was slightly nervous about Supergiant making a sequel. I've loved every game they made, from Bastion to Pyre, but the overwhelming success of Hades almost demanded a sequel. For a company so dedicated to bringing out new and fresh ideas, a sequel might lose the "special spark" that made its games so powerfully unique. Thankfully, nothing could be further from the truth. Hades II might be Supergiant's first sequel, but it's clear proof that it hasn't lost any of its spark.

Hades II follows Melinoe, the second child of the titular Hades and his wife. Born after the events of the first game, she never had a chance to know what life was like in the House of Hades. The ancient Titan Chronos, the father of the Greek gods and Time itself, returned from exile and took over the house, trapping all of its members and using it as his base to launch a war on Olympus. Melinoe was saved by Hecate, a powerful witch, and she has spent the years since training exclusively for one thing: bringing death to Chronos. Now she must venture down from a hidden lair, find the titan of time, and end his evil reign so she can free her family.

A huge part of the appeal of the first game and the sequel, is the slow-burn plot. The plot and characters are gradually revealed as you fail and succeed at runs, with an absolutely absurd amount of context-sensitive dialogue hidden through various combinations of runs, abilities, failures and successes. Like its predecessor, Hades II is meant to be played a ton, with increasing emphasis on different builds and different challenges to keep things engaging. I still find this to be the gold standard for roguelike story progression, and Hades II does it just as well as the first game.

Hades II's plot is more of a slow starter than Hades 1. It starts off bit more obfuscated and more dour, with fewer characters and less humor. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, as the tone of the original Hades was a big part of its appeal, but as new characters are introduced and the plot builds up, it starts feeling more like the first game. It has enough of a different tone that I could potentially see someone who liked the first game bouncing off it, but by the time I'd gotten far into it, I adored the new characters and events. I don't think the eventual outcome of the plot is as satisfying as it was in the original game, though. It's not bad, but it doesn't hit the mark as well as the first did.

I found the characters to be more engaging, though. There are multiple plot threads running through the game, but with an emphasis on the mortals and gods who were (fairly or not) maligned by the Greek pantheon and its many jerks. There's too much charm and fun in the goofy gods to say that "all gods are bad," but it means the characters' plots feel more involved and engaging. Sometimes I worry that it errs too much on the side of neat and safe endings. At its core, Hades is a game about making a whole bunch of weird friends, and it sticks with that.

At first blush, Hades II looks a lot like Hades 1. You control one of the children of the titular god as they go through several appropriately thematic zones. You move from room to room and collect various upgrades and prizes that range from health upgrades to Godly boons that give your character enhanced powers. Each zone ends with a boss fight against one of the big baddies of Greek mythology, and win or lose, you return to base to power up and try again the next night. This is a straightforward sequel, but the devil is in the details.

Melinoe plays quite differently from her older brother. As a witch, her combat style revolves heavily around her ability to cast spells. By default, every weapon she equips has a standard attack and a special attack, not unlike Zagreus. However, Melinoe can charge these into "Omega" versions of their attacks to drastically change how they function. The starting witch's staff has a spear-like stabbing move and can shoot a blast of energy. Charging the spear move creates a massive two-pronged AoE attack, and her long-range blast becomes a giant explosive ball of energy. In addition to this, Melinoe has a "cast," which creates a circle of energy around herself. Enemies who enter this circle are slowed down and can take damage, with an Omega version of the cast amplifying these effects.

The trick is that all of this runs on Mana. You gain a lot of ways to replenish mana in the game. There are passive bonuses to start with, Boons from the various gods, and so on. Using Mana isn't just important for moves but also because it charges up your Hex, a semi-customizable and usually random boon you get from the Goddess Selene. The Hex can do anything from shoot a giant laser to slow time to temporarily transform you into a cool "Dark Side" mode with a special move set. It charges for every Mana point you spend, so your moves are constantly building up to Hex.

At the same time, there's a constant balance between swapping between different attacks, spamming various spells and abilities, and using all of your tools, so the gameplay feels significantly differently from Hades 1. Zagreus had a cool set of moves, but it tended to be about spamming one or two buttons. You'd rarely use his magic button, while Melinoe's toolkit feels a lot more well put together.

The weapon variety in Hades II also feels quite good, but it took me longer to get into some of the weapons than with Hades 1. Like the first game, each weapon has a different standard and special action, which can be further modified because there are multiple different "aspects" for each weapon that changes its basic attributes or gives it an entirely new move set. The dagger-like Sister Blades begin with a fast-moving slash and the ability to throw your blade, and their Omega attacks are a teleport-backslash and the ability to throw multiple blades at once. The second version of the weapon had reduced backstab damage, but it would make all thrown blades lock on to enemies who were identified by Mel's cast attack. A third variant replaced the main slashes with a powerful spinning circular slash, replaced the throws with heavy blades, and added a new marking mechanic that does a huge burst of damage by hitting the enemy with every attack.

Mel also has significantly more options when it comes to customization. The Keepsake mechanic from Hades 1 returns, allowing you to bring items into runs that offer special benefits and bonuses. You also have a new Arcana system, where you can equip multiple tarot cards, each with different benefits that can be upgraded. These range from giving you the ability to revive on death to naturally replenishing Mana to improving the rarity of boons. These Arcana also have special triggers that activate in certain combinations, allowing you to further optimize Mel's abilities. You can even get a selection of adorable upgradable pets that give Mel even further skills.

While the basic structure of the levels is the same as in Hades 1, Hades II goes out of its way to try to make things more interesting. Instead of every single area being a bunch of rooms, each area tends to be more distinct. One zone allows you to take on optional battles to open extra zones, another is a wide-open field where you search out the various objectives, and another is a city where every path is open from the start but you can only select a limited number. Also important is that there are actually two separate paths you can take: down towards Hade and up toward Olympus. Both have their own sets of stages, bosses, events and encounters. Basically, you're getting two Hades-sized games in one.

This does wonders for keeping the game feeling fresh. Being able to swap between paths keeps the mechanics feeling fresh, especially since there's a lot of optional stuff in both directions. If you're feeling stonewalled with progression, you can go in the opposite direction and unlock some new stuff. If you're struggling with a specific boss, having the option to go in a different direction can make things feel less frustrating.

As far as difficulty goes, Hades II feels like it hits a nice middle ground from Hades 1. The game feels easier and with a more natural sense of progression. The downward path feels easier than the upward path, and there are notable difficulty spikes. As you progress, you'll gain enough raw power that Mel ends up feeling significantly stronger than her brother. There are enough optional challenges, including Vows that limit your abilities or make enemies harder, as well as challenge runs, that'll give you plenty of chances to push your skills.

It's almost pointless to say that Hades II is gorgeous. The beautiful environments and character models absolutely pop off the screen, and each area is a raw delight in motion. The game runs buttery smooth, hitting a reliable 60 fps even in handheld mode and reaching 120 fps while docked. The real star of the show is the audio. The voice acting is phenomenally good, and it contains a bunch of voices both familiar and new. The audio does wonders to make the entire game shine. The music is where Hades II goes above and beyond. A top-of-the-line soundtrack contains a ton of original music and excellent remixes, including an entire bevy of new vocal tracks. There's even a boss in the game who has multiple songs that she sings during fights, and the songs can change and shift depending on how the fight is going.

I enjoyed Hades II more than I did the original game. The first game had the benefit of being new and novel, but the sequel shows that Supergiant has figured out how to improve upon the incredibly strong mechanics from the first game. The charming story, gorgeous graphics, and incredibly good music all come together to prove that Hades wasn't just a one-hit wonder. It more than justifies Supergiant returning to the well.

Score: 9.5/10