First look at Hades II

[schneefink]

Just this morning I was wondering if I should play Hades II in Early Access when it becomes available, and I wasn't sure if I wouldn't rather wait for when 1.0 comes out.
Aaand then Supergiant streamed Amir Rao and Greg Kasavin playing the technical test, i.e. the first phase, and I immediately forgot all arguments and watched it immediately. Given how weak I am at resisting spoilers I think I will play Early Access so I'm not yet fully spoiled for everything when I play. And it looks like so much fun!

Minor gripes out of the way first, I'm not sure if I got pickier about character design or what, but several of them I'm not completely convinced by and some even made me roll my eyes a bit, like Hecate having her stomach free (it makes no sense and it looks silly, the worst combination.) But the Olympians do look cool in their armor, especially warrior Demeter and Poseidon with the shiniest trident.
Melinoe herself looks hot cool, though there is one image of her where she contemplates which boon to choose that has her leg bracer on the wrong leg and I just didn't manage to ignore it ^^

The new characters are exciting: we knew about Hecate and Apollo and Nemesis and Moros from the trailer, but there's also Odysseus! And Selene, and Hestia, and Hephaestus! And Arachne! Arachne especially is amazing, her spider self looks adorable and I can barely wait to see how her story develops.
Of the gods, we saw Demeter and Poseidon and Zeus and Aphrodite and Charon and Hypno again - and Artemis, but this time in a Thanatos-like helper role, which is fantastic. Artemis called Melinoe sister! Melinoe mentioned that Artemis and Hermes kept her secret to the other Olympians and they seem close, and Hermes is apparently infiltrating the enemy?, I hope we will see him too.
We learned that Chronos has done something to Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus, probably locked them away, and has taken over the Underworld and is now besieging Olympus; and that Hecate saved Melinoe when she was very very young and raised her herself without telling the Olympians. Looking forward to learning more.

The new mechanics look interesting, just enough variation to keep things exciting. Same with the enemies. One of the best moments was Hecate's curse turning Melinoe into a sheep mid-combat xD
I also love the dialogue log as a tool, no more missing dialogue because I accidentally clicked away too fast. I wonder how that works after more playtime.

Comments

[nonesensed]

Yessss, I'm so hyped for Hades II!!!! Though I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers since I won't have time to apply for the beta test. But excited!!! Also, yes, the dialogue log is a wonderful addition, A+++, no notes (on that in particular) 💖

[schneefink]

I'm very curious how big the early access version will be. At one point the studio said the EA version will be almost the size of the first game and that would be very cool :)

[nonesensed]

Same! Seeing as I'm trying to avoid spoilers, it'll be interesting to see exactly how many spoilers I'll be dodging and for how long 😆 Though I do want the game studio to do whatever makes working on the game easiest for them. If they're helped by an early access version of the full game being out and about, I'll just have to be extra careful around spoilers 😊