"We've learned to love and trust the process": How Hades 2 built on Supergiant's Early Access legacy to deliver the best roguelike of 2025

The Hades 2 we know and love is an expansive, layered entity – and that's how it was from the beginning. Composed of the best parts of the first smash hit roguelike with new weapons, regions, and complex mythology folded in for good measure, it sounds like Melinoë's journey was already a twinkle in developer Supergiant's eye back when it was working on her elder brother's tale more than five years ago.

"At Supergiant, we focus on one project at a time," creative director Greg Kasavin tells me. "With each project, as part of building out the world of the game, we consider other stories that could be told in that world." So much so, the first Hades game actually "contains a few hints about what might later come to pass."

But while Hades 2's main story beats were locked in place early, focused on the lore surrounding Melinoë, Hecate, and Chronos, Supergiant was "interested in exploring how their and other characters' stories fit in with the rest of the mythology." Enter the studio's not-so-secret weapon: Early Access, and all the lessons that come with it.

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Blood and darkness

"Hades 2, like its predecessor, was designed for Early Access development from the ground up," Kasavin says, "a game where listening to and responding to player feedback would be core to the development process." This perpetual evolution is something the studio holds dear to it, as evidenced by all the changes Hades 2 underwent in its 18-month Early Access period.

While that timeframe is four months shorter than the first Hades' stint, having launched into Early Access "relatively later in development compared with the original game, when we had more content," according to Kasavin, the studio still hungered for constructive critique.

"Deciding when to launch a game into Early Access is an important decision for a developer," he muses. "You want your game to be far enough along that it can be played and enjoyed without a lot of caveats, but you don't want your game to be so far along that you don't have time to respond to all the feedback you get."

Not only did the team spend a lot of time iterating the basic mechanics across each key story update, like Mel's Sprint (originally much faster), resource collecting (with her being a witch, Mel has far more in-game currencies to fuel her arcane abilities), and adding character artwork, Supergiant kept listening to player opinions on key moments in the developing story. More intriguingly, some of that feedback is what inspired Supergiant to rewrite the divisive Hades 2 ending altogether.

It was a potentially risky move – the ending was delivered as part of the game's full v1.0 launch, meaning Early Access had ended – but the community's thunderous approval of the change speaks for itself.

This is "a game that explores the effects of time – ideas around different outcomes and possibilities that might have occurred," Kasavin says. "We were thoughtful about such themes when enhancing details of the story in response to player feedback." It's that very sense of prescience that made me wonder initially whether the new ending had been Supergiant's intention all along. Many of us who played both endings now have memories of two alternative versions of events, just like Mel, Zag, and Chronos do in the game's true ending.

But I guess a reneged finale off the back of player feedback is part and parcel of what makes Supergiant's latest such a perfect Early Access game; it's a constant work in progress that doesn't necessarily have a clear-cut finale. "Hades 2, like the original, is a game that can technically be played forever," Kasavin says of the size and scope of its mammoth roguelike. It "has a script of more than 400,000 words, and more than 30,000 voice lines – around 50% more than the original," he offers. "That includes every major detail we wanted to include for our cast of characters."

Plucking the heartstrings

That expanded cast is, in many ways, one of the biggest draws of Hades 2. The core Olympians reprise their role, joined by Hera, Hestia, Apollo, Hephaestus to flesh out the pack. But Cthonic gods also get a little more love by way of Eris, Moros, and Nemesis, while the magical likes of Circe and Medea show up as boon-givers in Surface locations.

It speaks to how important Early Access is for a game like Hades 2, one which builds on solid foundations rather than tearing them down to the studs. Working this way helps Supergiant enhance what's already there, always listening to player feedback; you wanted more gods in Hades 1? Now, we've got 'em in spades.

It also helps that by broadening the lore of Hades, Supergiant landed on some golden opportunities to double down the best-loved aspects of the first game and push them even further. I'm talking specifically about Hades 2's belter soundtrack and how it introduces new characters from across Greek mythology.

"Music has been vital to each of our games," Kasavin says, describing the wild lengths to which Supergiant's Darren Korb – composer, audio director, and voice of Zagreus himself – went in creating the "biggest and most eclectic original soundtrack" of the studio's career – something Supergiant might never have endeavored upon were it not for the raucous success of the first game's sound design.

"Since the game goes to a variety of different places, from the heights of Olympus to the depths of the Underworld, the musical variety really helps define how these places are different from each other and distinctive in their own right. We want the music to be evocative as well as energetic, getting players feeling ready to take on any of the challenges the game throws their way," Kasavin says.

My favorite Hades 2 musical concept, personally, has to be sea monster Scylla reimagined as a glam rock star. "We loved the idea of having to take on this mythical band, picking their music apart section by section. Scylla and the Sirens says a lot about the overall tone of the experience, and I know Darren had a blast working on their various songs," Kasavin says, calling it "an example of the kind of collaborative effort we love to do at Supergiant, including the part where we look for ways to bring music directly into the play experience."

Again, though, that experience was constantly re-shaped through Early Access. Some of the changes are ones I found hard to accept from a personal standpoint, even if done in the name of building a robust, well-balanced roguelike.

Royal rumblings

I still mourn the loss of Hephaestus' original Smithy Sprint, a boon that saw me through the majority of my playthroughs around this time last year. It begs a question I've long asked myself, so I take the chance to ask it to Kasavin: is there really such a thing as an overpowered strategy in a single-player game? I'm not hurting anyone (except evil Shades) by stomping my way through Tartarus, right?

"We iterated on all sorts of different content all through Early Access, based on a combination of our impressions and goals for the game, feedback we're getting from players, and data we're seeing based on how players are engaging with everything that's there," Kasavin says of how and why Supergiant retooled certain mechanics and features over time. "It's important not to be too precious about these things when they exist in service of a cohesive whole.

"In the particular case of Smithy Sprint, we wanted something simpler and easier to use for one of the main Boons from the god of the forge, though as part of that, we moved the general concept of keep-sprinting-for-a-big-blast to be integral to the Black Coat weapon's Aspect of Nyx."

It's funny, but I really hadn't considered how my favorite boon had simply been transplanted elsewhere instead of ripped from me completely until he made the comparison. "Sometimes ideas for Boons and abilities find new homes in this way!"

Ultimately, all the tweaks, changes, and boon switcharoos outline the meticulous method to Hades 2's madness – a madness borne of Early Access, and all the chaos therein. "If we knew all the issues and opportunities the game had, then we wouldn't have needed to spend a year and a half developing in Early Access in the first place," Kosavin says. "At Supergiant I think we've learned to love and trust the process of getting to our end result."

Hades 2 ranks high on GamesRadar+'s list of the best games of 2025 for very good reason, and it's in great company.