Stories & Myths A Hades Sequel Or DLC Could Tell
Supergiant Games generally prefers making new titles over sequels, but if it does make a Hades sequel/DLC, there are several stories it could tell.
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A few months after the official release of Hades, the “godlike” action RPG from Supergiant Games, it’s clear the two years developers spent polishing the early access paid off handsomely, giving birth to a game both narratively and mechanically complete. That being said, there are still a few possible ways Supergiant Games could continue the story of demigod Zagreus and his dysfunctional underworld family, either by following up on a few dangling plot threads from Hades or by referencing unexplored Greek myths pertaining to the Underworld.
Gameplay-wise, Hades blends together several video game genres into a cohesive whole: the isometric action gameplay of Supergiant’s games, the randomized labyrinths of Roguelike games, the harsh-but-fair resurrection mechanics of Dark Souls, and the in-depth character relationships of visual novels. The core storyline of Hades, where the undying Zagreus, son of Hades, tries to escape his overbearing father by braving the various realms of the Greek Underworld, meshes perfectly with each gameplay element, justifying the main character’s inability to permanently die, the support/opposition he receives on his journey, and the bosses/jail wardens he must repeatedly defeat during each play-through.
After multiple deaths, resurrections, defeats, and triumphs, players of Hades can finally unlock a happy ending – one where Zagreus reconciles with his father, reunites parted lovers, and reconnects estranged members of the Olympian Pantheon with their Chthonic counterparts. And even then, players can still try to complete labyrinth runs, unlock new equipment, and romance characters like Megaera and Thanatos. In short, there’s a lot to do in Hades as is; furthermore, developers at Supergiant Games have publicly stated they want to take a break from work on Hades to refresh themselves. These two facts make it likely that Hades won’t be receiving an official sequel or DLC anytime soon… But, if Supergiant did decide to resume work on Hades, it could make a pretty good sequel/DLC story based on the following premises.
Possible Hades Sequel Stories: Greek Villains Break Out Of The Underworld
Hades is literally a game about trying to escape from the ancient Greek afterlife, so, naturally enough, Zagreus encounters and befriends many famous (and deceased) figures from Greek mythology during his many ascents out of the Underworld: Some, like Achilles, Patroclus, Orpheus, Eurydice, Theseus, and Asterius, were great heroes in their mortal lives. Others, like the optimistic existentialist Sisyphus and his eternal companion “Bouldy,” were extremely villainous murderers, thieves, and violators of hospitality, condemned to poetically ironic punishments in the Underworld for their crimes.
In short, the Greek Underworld is filled with some very, very nasty customers who would probably wreak a good amount of havoc on the surface world if they ever broke free. For this reason, a “prison-break” scenario, where Zagreus has to round up and re-capture fugitive souls, would make for a great sequel to the main plot of Hades, by virtue of inverting the game’s original premise of escape. Of the many possible “escaped convicts” players could fight, the following mythical figures would make great bosses and thematic counterparts to the main characters of the original game:
Tantalus , a king and demigod son of Zeus, violated sacred hospitality by serving the Olympian Gods a meal made from the flesh of his own murdered son. In the Underworld, Tantalus was condemned to starve and thirst in a pit for eternity, taunted by apples on branches always just out of reach and soaked by water that always receded when he tried to drink it. In a Hades sequel boss fight, Tantalus could be presented as a creepy carnivore boss, hungry for Zagreus’s flesh after an eternity of starvation and angry at the Olympian gods for not appreciating his “sacrifice.” Thematically, Tantalus could also be a dark reflection of Zagreus’s troubled relationship with his neglectful father, showing what happens when a father-son relationship really goes sour.
Pirithous, King of the Lapiths, roped his friend Theseus into an extremely ill-advised plan to kidnap and marry Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and wife of Hades. When Hades discovered their plan, he tricked both Pirithous and Theseus into sitting in stone chairs, which erupted with snakes that bound them in place. Theseus was eventually set free, but Pirithous, the instigator, remained imprisoned for eternity. Thematically, Pirithous would be a dark counterpart to the bombastic Theseus – a toxic friend who tempts people into making bad choices. He could also, in an odd way, be a counterpart to Zagreus; both, in their respective stories, are trying to find the goddess Persephone, although Pirithous sought to kidnap her and Zagreus just wants to reconnect with her as his mother.
Possible Hades Sequel Stories: Titans Break Out Of The Underworld
Whenever there’s a video game based on Greek Mythology, odds are good that one of the main villains will be a Titan of some kind. The Titans, after all, got up to some cruel deeds during their times as rulers of the Cosmos, devouring their own young, giving birth to legions of monsters who threatened mankind, and so on. In-game, when Zagreus questioned his birthparents about the Titans, the cold, aloof Hades has this to say: “The Titans? You think me cruel, yet know nothing of cruelty.”
If the Titans did wind up being a more directly antagonistic force in a future Hades sequel or DLC, their biggest merit as villains would be how they are a dark parallel to Zagreus. Like Zagreus, the Titans are imprisoned in the Underworld, seemingly unable to escape and, more importantly, unable to permanently die. Various lore entries and item descriptions in Hades describe how the Olympians were unable to completely kill the Titans, instead resorting to chopping their parents up into small fragments and scattering them across Tartarus. This immortality seems to be a common characteristic of both the Olympian and Chthonic deities in the world of Hades. Zagreus, however, had to be imbued with immortality by the goddess Nyx after he was born dead, which raises an interesting question: Did Nyx’s ritual to revive Zagreus involve imbuing him with the power of the not-quite-dead Titans, and if so, could Zagreus’s existence somehow catalyze the revival of the Titans in a future Hades story?
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hades-sequel-dlc-possible-stories-characters-greek-mythology/