Summary
A lot of time has passed in-universe between the events of the originalHadesgame andHades 2. For one,Melinoe was born from Persephone and Hadesand has now basically fully grown up. Two, Chronos has overtaken the House of Hades and (assumably) taken Melinoe’s family hostage. And three, the rest of the Greek Pantheon has been fighting against Chronos or working directly with Hecate and the rest of the rebels at the Crossroads to aid Melinoe inher impossibly difficult task.
To show that a lot of time has passed inHades 2, Supergiant Games has put the work in to change up the designs of basically all of the returning characters, primarily the Gods of Olympus. So let’s go over all the returning characters (thoughthe new characters are also fantastic) seen in the Technical Playtest so far and talk about how exactly their designs have changed.
7Aphrodite
Goddess of Love
Let’s start with the least clothed Goddess first, Aphrodite. It might seem basically impossible to really switch up the design of a character who is quite literally wearing zero clothes, but Supergiant managed to not only prove this wrong, but they also nailed it. To go over the differences between Aphrodite’s designin the originalHadesand her design inHades 2:
Overall, Aphrodite looks ready for battle, seems to be on better terms with her husband based on the fact she’s copying his war paint over the eyes, and seems to be more confident than ever based on her pose.
6Artemis
Goddess of the Hunt
Artemis is another character that already seems to be getting a lot more focus on her inHades 2than in the original game. She quite literally is one of the only Greek Gods to actually appear in the flesh, in-game, rather than through portrait artafter activating their Boons.
Artemis and Hermes seem to be two Gods who are working quite closely with the rebels of Crossroad, and it seems like this has only been beneficial to Artemis' design and general demeanor:
While the changes to Artemis' design are small individually, they add up to a pretty big change in design overall.This new depiction of Artemisseems a lot more confident not only in herself but in her abilities.
5Zeus
God of Lightning & King of the Olympians
Now, for anyone who knows a lot of Greek Mythology, Zeus isn’t exactly the most relatable guy (granted, not many of the Greek Gods are), but inHades,he’s generally pretty okay. Compared to his design in the original game, Zeus doesn’t really have a lot of intricate parts of his design that can be changed. However, these are the changes they still managed to make:
Overall Zeus has probably had the least amount of change done to his design, but the changes that were made are enough to show that he hasn’t just been sitting on his hands between the firstHadesgame and now.
4Poseidon
God of the Sea
Honestly, compared to all of the other Greek Gods who have had adjustments and changes made to their designs, Poseidon’s design has mostly just been improved by the changes. Every single aspect of his design seems to be more developed than it was in the original game, such as:
Overall Poseidon just looks like a happier, more intricate, and more cohesive design inHades 2(and his design inHades 1was already incredibly good).
3Demeter
Goddess of the Seasons
Of all the Greek Gods, Demeter has absolutely gone through the most changes in her design between the firstHadesgame and now. In the originalHades, Demeter had the appearance of a regal queen or noble in every sense of the word, it gave off this air of her being elegant yet completely unapproachable.
But, Demeter inHades 2has now gone full into the unapproachable side of things and dropped the elegant air about her entirely. In this game, she is suited up and ready to throw down with whoever as long as it helps get her daughter back. With a basket in one hand and her sickle in the other. To go over these changes a bit more in-depth:
there’s not much more to say about Demeter, she’s always come off as a bit cold and as someone who ‘means business’. Now, inHades 2it seems Demeter is determined to back up that ‘means business’ attitude.
2Hypnos
God of Sleep AKA Sleep Incarnate
Poor Hypnos. As the last God on this list, Hypnos has gone through some design changes as well, but these changes are likely not of his own choosing. It’s not entirely clear in the available content ofHades 2, but it seems like Hypnos has been in an eternal slumber for quite some time:
Overall, since Melinoe is the God of Nightmares (among other things), it’s very likely she’ll be the one to wake Hypnos up, but when that will be, only time will tell, as we didn’t get an answer to thisin the Technical Playtest.
1Bonus: Skelly And/Or Commander Schelemeus
From Training Dummy to Training Master
And finally, as the last inclusion (though not a God), Skelly is back! Now going by Schelemeus, Skelly has gone through quite a few drastic changes between the first game and now. Most of these are very easy to see, but let’s break them all down for anyone who might’ve missed the smaller details:
Going from Training Dummy to Training Master seems to have convinced Skelly that he needs to reinvent his image, and so he did. So much so, in fact, that a lot of people thought that this was an entirely new character instead of good ol' Skelly.
