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Finishing Hades 2 in a pre-v1.0 release patch felt oddly anticlimactic. I'd chalked it down to the fact that I'd spent the better part of a year and a half mired in the brilliant roguelike chaos of Early Access, so having it all come to a close was bound to feel abrupt.
But once the full version of the game launched to the wider public, I saw that the feeling was mutual. Very, very mutual. So much so that Supergiant seems to have totally reneged on its initial idea by way of a post-launch patch that changes the ending accordingly. Truthfully, I'm a little torn. On one hand, the changes do make for a more satisfying sense of closure, one that keeps Melinoë in the spotlight instead of having her big moment pulled out from under her like a giant Zagreus-shaped carpet.
But I can't help but feel like Supergiant is cheating. Changing the ending of your game once it's already signed, sealed, and delivered is a bold, strange move – but maybe there's a good reason why it works for Hades 2 above all else.
Warning: Huge story spoilers for the ending of Hades 2 (both the release and patched versions)
Witching hour
See why we gave Mel's adventure a glittering 4.5 stars in our Hades 2 review... pre-ending patch, of course.
First, allow me to help cast your mind back to Hades 2's initial ending and the contexts it arrived under. After countless nights spent beating back Chronos, Typhon, and legions of their lackeys, Melinoë finally finds a way to undo Time itself by working with her brother Zagreus.
They conspire together using a portal where their two timelines meet, visiting him in the past to help him track down their titan grandfather as he rebuilds himself. She instructs Zagreus to kill him for good, then and there, while he is weakened.
But instead, Zagreus convinces him to relinquish vengeance in the name of good old-fashioned togetherness. He experiences a version of Chronos that Mel has never known: a loving grandfather who has mended the errors of his ways, doting on his grandchildren rather than vowing to hurt them. Meanwhile in the present day, Mel has no such recollection.
Chronos essentially gives up fighting her, touched by a flood of fond memories centered around watching Melinoë grow up. Zag, Hades, and Persephone show up, confused by Melinoë's insistence that Chronos kidnapped them all and sought their destruction. She remembers a version of events that are no longer real, but more hurtful than that, she's had her big moment of herodom – the fulfilment of her great task – utterly smashed to pieces by her silver-tongued older brother.
Godly rizz
It's probably the cleverest example of metagaming I've encountered in recent years
Mel is infuriated and rightly confused, but cautiously accepts that Chronos poses no ongoing threat to her or her family. She rides off into the sky with Selene as Apollo and Artemis fill the heavens with song, and later joins forces with Chronos to banish the mere possibility of an uprising ever happening again. Because, you know, it makes total sense that Mel is trusting her once-rival so blindly all of a sudden right?
If you didn't come away from that experience thinking "uh, what?" then you're a special, far more evolved person than I. But it felt so bittersweet at the time, seeing my powerful cthonic goddess essentially being forced to put down her sister blades in the name of memories she never possessed.
The new version of events sees Melinoë herself having the big idea of trying to get Chronos to see reason, asking Zag to offer him mercy in exchange for laying down his arms and accepting them as family again. This is altogether a better ending, reinforcing Melinoë's agency in her own game and ensuring the crowning achievement doesn't fall on Zag's beautiful yet already big enough head. Sure, suggesting Chronos might have a change of heart is still a huge departure from the whole "death to Chronos" spiel she'd been plugging this whole time, but at least the new ending sees her being the one to broach such an outcome.
It also means that both Melinoë and the player, if you'd seen the original ending first time around, have a similar view of both possible outcomes: one where Zagreus is the hero, and one where Mel is given due credence as the victor of her own spoils.
At the same time, I'm feeling a little bit salty that this more satisfying ending came after I had the privilege of finishing the game myself.
It shouldn't feel like a punishment for simply being a little bit ahead of the curve thanks to Early Access, but unfortunately, it kind of does. I'm grateful for the incantation that allows you to replay the true ending of the game to see the new version of course, but I do wish it had been there from the get-go. Surely a year in Early Access was enough to think this one through? The decision felt nonsensical, especially given Supergiant's chops as brilliant storytellers.
But then… if this was always Supergiant's plan – to seemingly backtrack on its own work, only for it to have a unique ring of poetic justification about it – I have to hand it to 'em. It's probably the cleverest example of metagaming I've encountered in recent years, soldering Hades 2 players to their protagonist in a uniquely Hades 2 way that only makes sense given the game's temporal-bending nature. I fear it, I admire it, but most of all I am impressed by it. Well played, Supergiant. We are all Melinoë now, and once I get over my own bitter jealousy, I'll be even more appreciative of this blessing in disguise.
Check out the best roguelike games to play next if you've already been to Hell and back again Hades 2.
