Summary

  • If all you care about with Hades is how hot the characters are, you're really boring.
  • With unique interpretations of Gods, we get a greater insight to what makes these versions distinct.
  • Celebrating (and criticising) the designs is fine, but it needs to go beyond attractiveness.

There are lots of things to talk about in Hades 2, and I'm not qualified to talk about many of them because I haven't played it, and I won't until it's out of early access. I mostly enjoyed the first Hades for the story, although the gameplay being top notch helped, and for that reason I'd rather play it through in one go than have to stop and start, watch plot elements be tweaked out from under me, and then go back and read the redrafts.

I'm content with my choices, but the game's huge popularity means it feels like it's out already, and one of the big conversations is the body types. Maybe we're just doomed to have this conversation forever.

We just finished talking about the body types in Stellar Blade, with reactionaries riling up the crowd about how much woke journalists hate Stellar Blade and its depiction of the feminine form, only for journalists to score the game highly and the bile ducts of the industry to quickly change direction to bemoan the 'censorship' involved in a minor design change to one of Eve's outfits that left the most revealing costumes (including the option to play naked) alone.

Hades 2 Adds More Diversity To The Character Roster

With Hades, it's at least a more interesting conversation. Stellar Blade never really got out of 'you hate hot women!' 'no, I think Eve looks cool, actually' 'you're lying and woke!', and that made liking Eve embarrassing and the whole conversation dull. With Hades, things are a lot more interesting and nuanced, but as ever, the most extreme takes also seem to be the most misguided.

In the original Hades, pretty much every character in the game was hot. They were their own kind of hot, with traditional elegance, sweat glazed muscles, searing intellect, dazed twinks, moody goths, daddies, mommies who would tuck you in at night, mommies who would step on your neck... it was a rich tapestry, all carried by a rippling, stylish, confident, caring, bisexual lead. But hot they all were, and for some, that was a problem.

Despite the range of attractiveness, there were debates over just how many bases were covered, and how representative Hades really was when attractiveness was everywhere you looked. I say this as an ugly person, and therefore vastly underrepresented in modern media - it's fine if everybody is hot. Especially if, as in Hades, there's a lore reason for it. Gods having the perfect physical form makes a lot of sense. But if your base character design idea is 'they must be hot', eventually you end up pigeonholed.

We see this in Stellar Blade. My colleague Tessa Kaur argues that Tachy is the hot one in Stellar Blade, not Eve, and part of the problem with Eve is that she's only hot. She has no other personality traits and neither she nor the world acknowledges that she's running around dressed as a cheerleader. Being hot only gets you so far, and that's where Hades 2 steps things up.

There is a greater range of character art in what we have of Hades 2, even if some (including, ironically enough, Narcissus) have to make do with blank placeholder art. The characters no longer spin off from stereotypical depictions of beauty, even if the original game did manage to spin them off in different directions. There are two characters in particular that have been in the spotlight, and both highlight my faith in Hades 2 to be even better than its predecessor.

Hephaestus And Hestia Represent The Best Of Hades 2

The first is Hephaestus. As is true to mythology, he is in a wheelchair. He's also overweight, something that was lacking in the character designs of Hades 2. People praised this increased diversity in body types, but some mocked this, claiming those cheering on Hephaestus wouldn't look twice at a guy in a wheelchair. I don't think that's universally true - there is someone out there for everyone - but acknowledging the spirit of truth (that more people would find Zagreus more attractive than Hephaestus) still doesn't undermine Hephaestus as a character.

These characters do not exist primarily to be hot. Even Megaera, who is designed around sexuality and lust, has far more to her than looking hot. Having Hephaestus, with the tragedy of his broken legs and unrequited love, look like Adonis or Zag wouldn't make sense. This design is far more interesting, artistically and narratively, while also giving the game a richer texture than the first game. That's what matters, and we need to move beyond praising Hades characters for being hot and making that the battlegrounds.

The Other Hestia Is Far More Generic

The second character is Hestia, Goddess of Flame. It would be pretty simple in Hades' design language to make her a literal hot woman - sultry, passionate, with flaming hair and bright red lips. And maybe that would have been cool (and also hot - I am a wordsmith). But the decision to make her an older, plumper woman with a brazier corset and a basket of coals on her head feels far more unique, and represents the true purpose of flames - not to purge or destroy, not to rage ceaselessly, but to nurture the creation of life.

Hestia also appears in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, where she is depicted as a generic teenage girl with dark hair. Some have been comparing the two Hestias, but surely Hades comes out on top here. Sure, Is It Wrong's Hestia is more conventionally attractive (though she does look awfully young), but it's also very bland. She's just a girl. There's no connection to Hestia's mythology, nothing particularly unique or interesting about her. She's just pretty. I know the series and character are popular, and it's not their fault they've been dragged into this, but it feels pretty narrow minded to suggest a generic anime girl is the only way the Goddess of Flame can be depicted.

Hades is a game full of hot people, and from what I've seen, Hades 2 lives up to that reputation. And while I don't necessarily think it needed diversity in order to improve, the way this diversity has been applied - adding narrative weight, emphasising the new personalities - underlines how impressive and vital Hades' character art is to the game. Arguing about how hot they are misses the point.

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Hades 2

Action Roguelite Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 90/100 Critics Rec: 94% Released May 6, 2024 ESRB t Developer(s) Supergiant Games Publisher(s) Supergiant Games Engine Proprietary Engine Prequel(s) Hades
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WHERE TO PLAY

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Hades 2 is the sequel to Supergiant Games' smash-hit roguelike dungeon crawler. This time you'll play as Melinoë, Princess of the Underworld and Zagreus' sister, as she takes on the forces of the Titan of Time.

Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC Powered by Expand Collapse