Hades II Is A Sequel From A Studio That Would not Make Sequels

Once I performed Bastion in highschool, it was the primary time I felt that American video video games might be artwork. Most video games I knew have been overtly involved with how effectively I might kill a residing being, or their coloration palettes have been a dreadful mixture of brown and grey. Bastion stood out as a lovely dungeon crawler with an earworm of a soundtrack. I used to be equally rewarded after I purchased creator Supergiant Video games’ subsequent launch, Transistor. Its poignant imaginative and prescient of dystopia prompted me to cry in my faculty dorm until 5AM. I used to be heartbroken after I realized that neither of those video games would ever have sequels.

The builders have beforehand acknowledged in interviews that they didn’t need to make sequels for cash. “I don’t know if we’ll ever return to the world of [Bastion], although if we do it will likely be at a time when the group needs to do this greater than the rest,” Supergiant author Greg Kasavin instructed Eurogamer. “It may’t simply be a financially motivated choice as a result of that’s not how Bastion was created within the first place.”

“Supergiant doesn’t make sequels,” turned a salve for followers who had been hoping that their favourite video games would obtain extra love and a focus. Supergiant was higher than these crass studios who have been making “pointless” video games for cash. Making business artwork has at all times been about compromise. These builders gave the impression to be that uncommon group of creatives who have been above these petty mortal considerations. Followers admired them for it and hoped that this rebellious streak would proceed for so long as the studio made video games.

Then Supergiant launched Hades in 2020, a roguelike that shattered all the firm’s earlier gross sales data, hitting a million copies sold nearly instantly after it went from being in Early Entry to its full launch. It garnered common essential acclaim (its Metacritic rating presently sits at a 93) and had the glitziest awards tour that any indie recreation might hope for. It was undeniably probably the most profitable recreation that the studio had ever launched, having redefined the roguelike style. Not solely was it a enjoyable and classy recreation—it additionally confirmed that American builders might discover mainstream success in two stigmatized genres: Visible novels and roguelikes. Past gaming, it’s the first online game to win a Hugo Award. Hades is the sterling star not simply of indie video games, however arguably of the inventive potential of all video video games.

Even so, the mythology of the no-sequel Supergiant remained pervasive. Most of the most devoted followers merely didn’t assume that such huge mainstream success would change the ethos of a studio that prized artistry over recognition or cash. So it got here as an utter shock to many (together with the Kotaku staffers who have been watching trailers on the workplace) when Hades II was introduced at The Recreation Awards.

Most Hades followers were happy, whereas some Supergiant stans who additionally cherished the sport have been dismayed at what they noticed was a departure from the studio’s independent spirit. Each the gameplay and the story appeared much like Hades, which isn’t how the studio normally approaches recreation design. Even the title gave the impression to be an overt capitulation to the realities of selling, as this tweet suggests. If the builders of the boldly unique Pyre might capitulate to the lure of cash and success, then what hope was there for the remainder of the video games business? Final evening was not only a celebration of Hades II. It was a mourning interval for followers who held Supergiant to not possible requirements.

Even the official FAQ for Hades II nods at this concern:

With every of our initiatives through the years, we’ve aimed to tackle a brand new problem that stretched our group’s creativity and taught us extra about how one can make video games effectively collectively. One such problem we’ve lengthy thought of was to attempt to make a sequel that might in some way re-capture the sense of surprise and delight of its predecessor. A few of our all-time favourite video games achieved this! The query is, can we?

The quote sheds some readability on Supergiant’s official stance on sequels. They’ll make sequels in the event that they discover the problem creatively satisfying sufficient. The sport positively seems to be and feels like the primary Hades, nevertheless it additionally doesn’t also have a launch date but. Regardless of the impressions given off by the reveal trailer,, it’s completely doable that the sport’s really feel shall be very completely different from that of the primary recreation, or that it will likely be filled with surprises and improvements we don’t see coming.

What if it’s not? What if the builders have merely settled on an IP that can reliably print cash? I believe that’s tremendous. It doesn’t imply that the builders won’t ever work on their very own unique initiatives once more. Supergiant prides itself on being self-funded, and perhaps the monetary stability from Hades II will enable them to create one other new world. Each indie recreation you’ve ever performed was formed by its monetary circumstances. Simply because builders didn’t promote what options bought lower for budgetary causes doesn’t imply that these cuts and compromises didn’t occur. Even the traditional Supergiant titles you liked have been at all times tainted by filthy lucre. That’s why they performed so effectively and appeared so rattling good.

Kotaku reached out to Supergiant to ask if the success of Hades contributed to the choice to make a sequel, and didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication.

Supergiant Video games is held to a excessive commonplace due to the way it presents itself to the general public. The advertising and marketing copy is conversational, the neighborhood technique is closely reliant on word-of-mouth, and the studio is conscientious about limiting its public appearances. However the studio isn’t a band that fashioned out of somebody’s storage. Its co-founders have been veteran builders at EA, and Bastion was published by the entertainment giant Warner Bros. Connections and cash have been at all times a core a part of what made Supergiant’ video games so profitable. Does it diminish the creative accomplishments of these video games? Completely not.

Nevertheless it’s necessary to be clear-eyed about what it truly means to be an “unbiased studio.” It means current in a unstable area the place builders don’t know if their employer will exist in a number of years. It means making concessions and pretending that each one of them have been intentional. It means carrying the burden of gaming’s creative soul even when you by no means requested for it within the first place. And I simply don’t assume it’s affordable to carry a studio to inflexible expectations based mostly on how one developer felt about their video games in 2012. Ten years have handed, and the gaming business is considerably completely different from the way it was then. Supergiant doesn’t have to hold the inventive torch. There are such a lot of fascinating and distinctive video games made by scrappy studios that you just’ve by no means heard of. It’s time that we tried to find a few of them as an alternative of holding Supergiant to fanciful expectations.

An indie studio unbeholden to the fabric circumstances of the business doesn’t exist. So I’m not mourning what Supergiant Video games might have been. I’m completely satisfied that I had a possibility to play a recreation like Transistor in any respect. It was at all times a miracle that Supergiant bought to be what it was for so long as it did. Some studios appear to provide extra miracles than others. I’m simply hoping that Hades II continues to be considered one of them.