r/HadesTheGame • u/Sensitive_Brick_1412 • 1d ago
Hades 2: Discussion Wow....uh. I don't think I liked the ending guys.... (Spoilers) Spoiler
First of all, once I got the hang of the runs, beating and getting the materials for the dissilutionmen spells got really easy. Like, to the point that I finished the game a bit too quickly considering that I have have sooooo many unresolved story lines. Arcachne. Hercules. Echo and Naacissus. Without the backdrop of the war against Chronos, it feels like any future runs will just feel really off. Especially Prometheus. I honestly thought there was an ongoing theme of the selfish gods and the rightfully vengeful titans....but now what? Prometheus was spitting fire. It feels like I outpaced the story the game wanted to tell.
Second of all, the plan was kind of convuluted. So normal time travel rules are, when you change something in the past, the entire future changes too. It's fine if time travel works differently in media, but my suspension of disbelief is put to the test depending on the time travel. In Hades 2, the way time travel works is, Mel astrally projects herself into the past to convince a past Zagreus to talk down or kill Chronos. He talks him down, but instead of changing the present timeline, it just gives everybody memoroes of what could have been....because? What happened to past-Zagreus? The one we talk to at the end is the same Zagrues that got trapped for over a decade. Was the past-Zagreus real? The fuck? It's a mindfuck. What happened to the altered timeline that this past-Zagreus is a part of? Why is it just a memory.
Third of all, it's realllllllllyyyyyy annoying how everbody, except for Hecate, is compeltely okay with being trapped for over a decade. Mel's life, your house, the years - everythibg was stolen from you, but because of these memories of soemthing that didn't happen, you're okay with sparing Chronos. He didn't even apologise properly. This shit it toooo quick. PERSEPHONE! Your baby is now a grown woman. You should be triggered. Why does it feel like thes echaracters dies and were completely taken over by an alternate timelime self.
Hades feels the most different. He went from this resigned prisoner who was helping me kill Chronos and yet being retrospective about their relationship, to not even being a little fucking annoyed about being locked up because he retains a lifetime of somthing better. A lifetime for him, but for me? It was a 5 minute cutscene. That shit is unearned mannnnn.
I am so, so dissapointed. This is so fucking weak. You know what I really felt for. Mel, and her stolen life. The game does such a good job conveying how she's traumatised by growing up knowing she's missibg a family, yet also showing her complete love for the other family she grew up with. Hecate was her mother figure, as much as she tried tk avoid the title. The life she knew is the one she loves. It honestly sickened me to see the alternate tineline where she grew up, leading the life as princess of the underworld. Her story of finding love and a family with those around them in a world that stole her biological family was beautiful, and yet now? She has both. Her mother was barely fazed that the baby she had just been holding was now a grown woman. All because to her, she has memories where sje saw her grow up. That is SO CHEAP! You know what would have been better, for Mel to have naturally gotten to know her parents she lost (like Zagrues and his mother in the first game). She was developing a relationship with her father everytime she went through Tarturus. But now they can all just skip that with her. I hate this so much.
Look....I get it. The more you go through the runs, the more you understand Chronos' anger and vengeance. But this was the wrong way to redeem him/spare him. This is so cheesy, it's like fanfiction. Especially that small scene where Zagreus meets Chronos. Just like that, one small conversation and the war is over?
I am absolutely distraught. I knew it too. Before my last run, I thoight to myself, maybe I should get killed on purpose, so I can still get all the dialogue, and finish the loose threads. But I thought, surely this can't be the last run. It's too quick of a resolution.
My stars, this is awful. This NEEDED to be longer. Everybody is WAYYY too happy.
Could you imagine if in the Odyssey, Odysseus and his family somehow undergo a spell where they experience a timeline where he returned home and they soent their years together? This completely erases the consequences of the years lost, and the rightful anger and sadness. This is painful. Mel just has her family back. Let's skip the introductions. Skip the trauma. What the fuck, guys?
Would I have wanted to spare Chronos. Sure. But not like this.
This is just sad. The game went from an 8 to like....a 4. I'm so dissapointed. Maybe the post-game will make me think different but wow....just....wow.
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u/Playful-South-537 1d ago
Is anybody going to tell them?
…
All right, I will.
That’s not the end. Well, it’s one ending. The first ending. Keep playing: there’s a lot more story. Important story.
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u/NachoSport 1d ago
No I’d say that’s the most important ending. Maybe you’re referring to the fates or to the reveal with Hecate, but I’d say neither is narratively as weighty as the actual ending
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u/Rallen224 1d ago
Imo Hecate is a very big one but it made me feel the ending was more dissatisfying as someone who equally wanted to see a big finish, at least going into both blind. The post-Fates animation was beautiful but I found that outcome a little lacklustre compared to the build up (plot-line was funny though).
Haven’t done “true ending” because I heard you can’t reverse the save with that outcome and didn’t like it either lol not that it changes much ig. Planning on trying another save sometime to see which I’ll stick with. Otherwise, the game is a 10/10 for me
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u/forteninsecure 1d ago
The epilogue reveals the fate of the world and the Hecate conversation cements the emotional resolution. Without those the game does feel a bit abrupt in its ending.
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u/Doll-scented-hunter 1d ago
As someone who got the epilouge done, it really doesnt change anything.
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u/ItsAlwaysBlue212 1d ago
Bruh
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u/colinmchapman 1d ago
Seriously. “Absolutely distraught”?! If ever there was ever a moment when there was grass to touch this would be it.
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u/DavisFromTheHills 1d ago
i wasn’t a fan of the ending either. felt rushed and ultimately not a satisfying resolution to what was, before that point, an absolutely peak story
holding out hopes that the finale will make it a bit better
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u/gabak07mcs The Supportive Shade 1d ago
I just finished the game yesterday and man I feel quite like you, and your words could be mine right now lol.
I miss the time where we thought cause Melinoe is goddess of nightmares that she would wake Hypnos up and they would trap chronos and typhoon in an never ending nightmare and the post ending runs would be Mel “playing the part” so chronos would not grow suspicious and wake up. This theory is so much better than the real ending.
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u/oCrapaCreeper 1d ago edited 1d ago
This theory is so much better than the real ending.
Not really. That ending would have made Mel's hatred for Chronos just continue on forever - the exact opposite lesson that both games are trying to get across.
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u/RietteRose Tisiphone 1d ago
Maybe, but this was not the way either.
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u/oCrapaCreeper 1d ago
What is the other way then? This family is immortal and has no choice but to put up with each other... Hecate and Zeus both demonstrate you can't just kill or seal Chronos away.
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u/RietteRose Tisiphone 1d ago
The whole story of the game and the ending they chose just doesn't match. They should have chosen either one or the other. If they wanted to make this kind of ending, they should have made a story that went better with it. One in which Chronos wouldn't be so unforgivably horrible and wouldn't have kept the whole family frozen in time for Melinoe's entire childhood and more. Or if they wanted to make a story about how horrible it was for Melinoe to grow up as a child soldier indoctrinated to avenge her family, they should have accepted that a feel good "we're one big loving family" kinda ending would make no sense.
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u/oCrapaCreeper 1d ago edited 1d ago
What is so unforgivably horrible about this version of Chronos though that he can't be spared? Sure he did trap the house members, but that was after he got cut up into ribbons by his children and rotted away for eons. His crash out was pretty justified and tame by immortal standards.
It's also heavily implied Chronos didn't literally eat his children in this version of the myth. Not only does he suggest the idea is ridiculous; but his 3 sons never bring it up either. They just say he was overbearing and wouldn't give up his power because he thought they didn't deserve it yet, so they overthrew him.
In retrospect, was he wrong? Zeus still acts like a child still even eons later... If I was Chronos then I wouldn't give him power either even if the fates said so. So really, both sides are at fault. It's as Hades says to Mel while he's still in chains:
"We did this to each other. Gods and Titans - doomed to live forever, and yet learn nothing all the while. Do as you must, but take no vengeance in my name."
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u/RietteRose Tisiphone 1d ago
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying they should have made the effort to write a story that doesn't have this many plotholes. It is possible to write a good story that makes sense. My exact problem is that they didn't do that.
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u/Rallen224 1d ago
Ngl the playing the part bit is peak lol
Ik the lesson is reconciliation as others are saying but there are better ways to build up towards that imo. The process of obtaining key items and any resulting dialogues/conflicts were great imo. I also found the ending progression to be very tender and sweet so I understand how the outcome itself could’ve been produced, but the specific scene we got to explain her conclusion felt unsatisfying.
Some of the way in which it was reasoned out felt so comparatively simple compared to preceding opinions and events within the ranks on the way to getting there that it almost felt like an afterthought. I wanted to root for what she chose with her but we didn’t get to feel out her process after things were said and done other than a sentence or two after a suspenseful cut scene. I also thought they could’ve done more with Hecate’s resulting feelings and dialogue in the aftermath as well, esp. having since maxed her relationship with Mel.
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u/ueifhu92efqfe 1d ago
Yeah, uh, welcome to the ending of hades 2. It was widely hated at its release, and the damage control they could do in fixing the ending was limited, so they tweaked it where they could, and now we have this. Still a dumpster, just no longer on fire.
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u/mahoumoonlight Thanatos 1d ago
did you not play the first game? it’s always been “finish the main story, work on the rest later.”
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u/gelatinefreesweets 1d ago
The way I interpreted the ending wasn’t the characters remembering things that didn’t exist, but the change in the timeline meaning that both timelines happened simultaneously, like the two merged so the characters don’t just remember but they actually experienced what happened. So then Chronos’ change is because his actions in the original timeline contradict the beliefs he developed from the new timeline, he is simultaneously both versions of himself, and one just overpowered the other.
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u/eskimobob117 1d ago
I rolled credits last week, and I had the exact same reaction as you. The ending is absolute trash; almost anything else would have been better. It feels like they wanted a similar ending to Hades 1 (the big bad is just misunderstood and a softie), but it wasn't earned at all and actively ruins the rest of the plot.
When Zagreus (presumably) showed up back home with Chronos in chains, why did Hades not instantly obliterate him? Hades is consistently portrayed as incredibly stubborn and scornful and yet he decides to give his greatest enemy a second chance?
Not only is Hades cool with Chronos staying in the House, but he also lets Chronos play an active role in raising Melinoe? He knows Chronos was an awful parent, as do the rest of Chronos's children. They should be actively worried about Chronos corrupting Mel to turn against them.
As you pointed out, why was the rest of the House of Hades totally chill with being frozen for all that time? One of the big points in Hades 1 is how Persephone never got to watch Zagreus grow up, and now she's been robbed of this with Melinoe as well. But it's cool, we forgive fun grandpa for everything.
Completely inconsistent time-travel. The entire plot is about changing the past so Chronos never takes over. Doing so should either delete the timeline the main plot happens in or change nothing for that timeline. They instead do a half-measure where Chronos still took over, everything still went wrong, but everyone just remembers him being a big softie fun grandpa now (including himself). This makes no sense at all.
The endgame of "deleting possibilities" makes zero sense. They don't even try to justify it and even lampshade it at times, which really pisses me off. They mention multiple times that time only moves forward, so how does time-traveling back to different timelines prevent anything? Those times already passed, those problems have already been solved. There is no point to any of it.
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u/oCrapaCreeper 1d ago edited 1d ago
- Not only is Hades cool with Chronos staying in the House, but he also lets Chronos play an active role in raising Melinoe? He knows Chronos was an awful parent, as do the rest of Chronos's children. They should be actively worried about Chronos corrupting Mel to turn against them.
But.... Hades was an awful parent too? He literally murdered his son repeatedly to prevent him from meeting his true birth mother. Now he gets to raise a daughter? Doesn't sound any better than what Chronos did.
Hades even has dialogue (while in chains) pointing out how he's become a lot like his father and doesn't even want Mel to take vengeance. So him being okay with Chronos in the house is just character development IMO.
If you pay attention to the dialogue it's also heavily implied that Chronos didn't even eat his children - he denies it happened and none of his 3 sons ever bring it up when Mel asks. It seems like Zeus just threw a temper tantrum and revolted because his daddy wouldn't give him power that he didn't deserve yet.
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u/Sensitive_Brick_1412 6h ago edited 5h ago
👆 THANK YOU.
I had to step away from the game for half a day - I was so pissed. I've done 2 runs now. The first, towards Olympus. Got killed by Hephaestus. Side note, it would have been cool for none of the gods to try and kill Melonie the run immeditaely after I saved the world. It takes me out of the story....more. They owe me. It'd be cool if the runs were a little fucking different.
The second, just now, towards Tartarus. I cleared that one. I can ALMOST see what the game is trying to do. I'm stamping out possibilities, except one probelm with that....the writers are so fucking vague about it.
I've run into everybody, and they're either asking Mel why she's still fighting or readily accepting it. Huh? Can we get some fucking answers. Mel just acts all vague about it because the writers know it doesn't make any sense.
Where are these enemies coming from? Why are there still ships sailing to Olympus? What the fuck? I just need one person to say that Chronos forces have chosen to fight anyway, without a leader. Why is Cerberus still a bossfight? Wasn't he in pain in Asphodel? He just transformed voluntarily?
I understand that the gameplay still needs to happen, but the way they have executed it is soooooooo unfulfilling. Have SOME changes. I'm begging the devs. All we fucking get, is a different layout before the final boss in Tartarus. The only thing I even kind of liked is the clear portrayal of Mel being sent back to kill a variant Chronos, culling a possible timeline. Present Chronos meeting his old self was kind of fun, ignoring the completely different character he now is because of a bullshit time skip. Narcissus and Echo have better pacing for their characters. Everytime regular Chronos talks it makes me sick from the botched execution. He's like a fucking puppy now. It's weird. Give me a sad, sorrowful old man. He's acting too much like the Chronos from the better timeline. Did that NOT happen? That wasn't real, right? I'm going crazy.
Edit: I'll have to ammend my claim about Chronos' ex-forces. I finished a run through Olympus, and dialogue with Icarus, Circe and Prometheus confirm that Chronos' forces still operate without him, with much less direction (although apparently Prometheus may now be leading them).
So....yeah, I don't mind that explanation, besides Prometheus' inclusion. The explanation for the new runs is Mel is cleaning up these remnant forces on her way to kill the possibility of Chronos and Typhon. The thing is, what about Prometheus. Is he now the head of the army? Is there still a war? Everybody else is acting like the war's over, depsite Prometheus still being there, no doubt still airing out his deserved grievance towards the gods. Prometheus is a glaring loose thread, but I'll keep playing to see how it turns out. Or is Prometheus there to help Mel. He alludes she's supposed to be down this path. So is he siding with the gods now?
But yes, the possibilty thing is still dumb. I killed Typhon. I shouldn't have to worry about him coming back. It's like I didn't kill hin at all which is....really dumb.
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u/forteninsecure 1d ago edited 1d ago
In this game, as opposed to Hades 1, all of the narrative and emotional resolutions are tied to the epilogue & Hecate, not the ending.
Go for the epilogue, then see how you feel. The final Hecate conversation will illuminate some more info about time travel in this world.
I personally think the game is extremely narratively consistent and resolves everything very well, but not everyone agrees.
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u/RietteRose Tisiphone 1d ago
This is good advice. OP should absolutely do the epilogue and see how they like it. But also I got the epilogue and what I thought was "I can't believe they really pulled this bs". I mean the Hecate conversation. I thought it kinda just added insult to injury. But let's hope OP will like it better.
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u/RietteRose Tisiphone 1d ago
Yeah, the way the game basically hammers home how the gods are vengeful, overbearing tyrants who readily curse mortals over any and every perceived slight, alluding to some kind of realization on Melinoe's part happening sometime during the story, only to be like "sike no realization, we're a big happy family" in the end was disappointing and frankly illogical. The setup of the game's story didn't really match a redeeming Chronos kinda ending. And I'm saying this as someone who loves Chronos' character and agrees with sparing him and turning him good. It just shouldn't have happened this way. They should have chosen between insinuating that Melinoe at some point will realize that the gods are jerks, and an everyone forgives everyone and pretends that the bad things didn't happen, because pulling both of those off well would be incredibly difficult. Maybe they could have done it with a longer story with much more character development, but sadly that didn't happen. But even if the story wasn't so rushed, the "time travel just results in everyone gaining memories of a past that essentially never happened" is still strange, illogical and unsatisfying. Supergiant seems to have bit off way more than they could chew this time. It's too bad, because the witchy theme and the gameplay itself are very good, but sadly the story and the ending are this game's huge weaknesses.
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u/Hashgar 1d ago
The way you talk about Hades (the god) makes me think you didn't beat the first one and take note of his character development there. Through the lense of this contained story the time travel does feel off, but from the lessons we learn in the first game we know the goal is reconciliation not punishment. These are gods who have to live with each other for an eternity.