What Are You Playing, Part 3: The Assassination of my Wallet by the Cowardly Sale

[Man_Over_Game]

The thing I am having trouble with is the Casting. I get that it's helpful with perks to Cast on an enemy for more damage and I'm absolutely certain that it's a mechanic I ought to be using more but even through the second area of the Escape Attempt I didn't feel like it was helpful without some Boons on it. Which man, when you do Casting is great fun.

This is actually a major point that I absolutely hate about Hades.


You get all of these cool mechanics, what between

• Dash attacks
• Normal Attacks
• Heavy Attacks
• Charge Attacks (on some weapons)
• Casting

And they had an excellent foundation of getting boons that enhance these aspects and change how they play.


And then they did the worst thing possible: Made them mutually exclusive.

So now the best way to play is by making yourself boring, and stacking everything into the most overpowered mechanic you can load everything on to and condemn yourself into being bland.

• Using a Sword? Stack Dash boons, and never do anything but.
• Using a Bow? Stack On-Hit boons, trying not to pick stuff specific to Normal/Dash attacks if you can help it (because damn is managing those with a bow useless)
• Using a Shield? Stack Heavy On-Hit Boons or Casting boons.
• Spear? Normal Attack Boons, or Casting boons.

Sure, you can do the Heavy Attack with a Dash Sword build, but you're not really getting anything out of it. Same thing that happens when you use your Cast on a Non-Cast build: Eventually, you realize it's a wasted button slot and you don't even know what it's there for.


They could easily fix that by nerfing boons and having their benefits apply to several mechanics at once (so a chain lightning boon from Zeus now applies to Dash Attacks, Charge Attacks, and Casting), so that you're not just gambling effectively a 1/5 chance to play a specific way each time you pick a boon, and instead are mutating and evolving into an entirely new entity every time you play.

Because, as of right now, the priorities on which of the 3 boons you should pick, with each boon pickup, boils down to the one that (In order of priority):

1. Adds to the thing you're already doing (that interacts with the above attack methods)
2. Adds to the special riders you've already applying to your attacks (like improving the damage of all of your Chain Lightning effects)
3. Adds a general passive buff that is always useful to anyone
4. Adds a new power to something you're not already focusing on.

This means two things:

1. That adapting is the last thing you do
2. RNG can devalue your past decisions and investments, as there is a chance that none of the boons you could pick at that moment are actually relevant (when another run may not have that issue, in a game where you get a limited number of boons and rewards each run)

And neither of these are the kind of philosophies you'd want from a Roguelike Action Game. There have been moments where I just restarted immediately after looking at my boon choices right at the start, since there are just some builds that don't synergize enough to work (like Heavy Attacks with a Sword).

And don't get me started on the whole Normal/Dash Attack issue with Bows.

I give Supergiant props for making a fun, colorful, interactive combat Roguelike, as those take a lot of gumption. But, man, does it make me sad to think about what coulda been. Mostly because I know that they are very capable of it (See: Transistor, Pyre).

I was always hoping they realized their mistake before the final release. Still hopeful that someone at the top pushes for it to change.


Don't get me wrong, the game is still fun, and I'm still going to play 50 hours into it, but I've sunk hundreds into Dead Cells because I am rewarded for mastering every aspect of the game.
They're both very similar in concept, but the big difference is that Dead Cells makes sure nothing goes to waste, whether that's your random gains, blind build choices, or using low-level items. The better you get, and the further you go, the more "game" there is to play, and you feel like it was your fault when things get hard.

Hades...took a different route.