Do I need to play Hades 1 to play this?

[NeffyLikesWomen]

I haven't played Hades 1 too much.

[Specific Beef]

No, but if you like story in games then it will be a richer experience if you do play H1 first.

[UNBREAKABLE]

It's not required but In my opinion no one should rob themselves of Hades 1 before playing this.

Moments with certain characters would also land harder in this game having played H1

[Omicron-0B]

You don't need to play Hades 1 to play Hades 2, but you'll get more out of the experience. You'll also be in a better position to provide early access feedback if you've played the final build of the game this is a sequel to.

[Bigshrimp]

Hades 1 is a great game in its own right, but no, you do not need to play that to play this game.

[catharsis (LFT)]

It's highly recommended. There's a LOT A LOT of story and lore in the game and a lot of it wouldn't make sense if you haven't played Hades 1

[Ame-kun]

if you just wanna breeze through the game to get the gist of it, God Mode is there to make that easier for you, too.

[Mixed Herbs]

You probably should but you don't have to. You will be missing out on a lot of the story, lore and world though and they are very narrative heavy games.

[Ame-kun]

there are sort of three different 'end' points, assuming you aren't an insane person going for all achievements or something like that:

1. Just beat the game once. Not the most satisfying but you'll at least learn something important and probably will know who most of the major characters are by that point.
2. Beat the game about ... 10 times? (i forget the exact number) This is the proper ending where you get to see the credits. Strongly recommend at least going this far.
3. This one is time consuming, you have to do some gift-grinding and get everyone from olympus to like you, along with some other events. It took me extra long because I had tried to make friends with basically everyone else first, lmao. But it will give you more or less the whole picture of what's going on in the game and the state everything is in before Hades 2 picks up the plot. Not necessary but Hades is a good game so if you're having fun why not?

[The Unstable Anarchy of ヤギ]

You should and I'd argue you have to, this game is early access meanwhile hades 1 is finished. Treat it like a tutorial or something, you will be able to keep your muscle memory for the most part. The game makes constant callbacks to hades 1 both thematically and literally, you will be missing a large part of both the gameplay and story by skipping it.