supergiant keeps making these stylish, gorgeous, slick games with lively characters and then the plot completely fucks the landing in the final act every single time.

hades's ending is so cheap and so opposed to everything it seems to be saying up until it's over that i genuinely have no clue what they were thinking. so family is the main theme, right? and it's this whole thing about how persephone genuinely prefers the underworld to the nightmare that is olympus? and everything we learn absolutely vindicates her? but then the conclusion to everything is "but you can't just walk away, they're family". there is also a secondary, very poorly thought out metaphor of family-as-blood, an idea that would have been found outdated and aggravating by many in the 19th century, never mind 21st.

it's fine if they wanna do greek mythology as funny sexy marvel guys with all the filth and discomfort and menace and casual cruelty swept to the side and only hinted at. it's not my preference, but i can accept it. but they can't even make up their minds if demeter is meant to be a genuinely terrifying entity who's gonna end all life on earth if she can't retain ownership of her daughter, or a funny asshole grandma you have to put up with at olympian christmas and ignore otherwise. (i guess everyone involved is a god, so ultimately they can just not give a shit about existing life on earth, but i'm also supposed to treat them as my funny quirky relatable buddies. can't have it both ways!)

super fun game otherwise but it's just a real pattern with supergiant writing: their themes overpromise and underdeliver. take it as a fun action roguelite and nothing more, and you won't be too disappointed.