I'll start off this review by saying that I'm the kind of person that hates rogue-like games. This is not because they are bad games by any means, rather it's because the RNG involved in them has never been on my side. Games like Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac have never been enjoyable to me because I've never been able to progress past the first couple of floors since RNG was almost always never in my favor. I came across Hades when one of my friends got me the game to try out. For the longest time I held off playing this game thinking that maybe the game was over-hyped from The Game Awards and it would be the same formula as Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac. After playing and completing this game in full I can honestly say that I have never been happier to have been proven wrong.

Hades is without a doubt one of if not the best game(s) I have ever played. From extremely smooth controls to a fast-paced combat system with gradual difficulty combined with an engaging story featuring loveable characters, the game absolutely lived up to the hype it generated. In my opinion this is the game that should have won game of the year in 2020 instead of Last of Us 2.

Overview and Gameplay

As a rogue-like game, Hades follows the same format as most other dungeon crawlers where you fight rooms of enemies and a boss at the end of each floor. The game features four main bosses and one extra boss that can be fought on higher difficulties. In terms of difficulty, it can be pretty challenging since you will die a lot as expected from rogue-like games. However, unlike other rogue-like games, not once has any death ever felt unfair from terrible RNG. Even though I died a lot in the game at the beginning, it wasn't because I was cheated from the game, rather it was my own fault that I died and I learned from each attempt.

Even though you will die a lot in Hades, you never feel like you lose progress. Every time you lose a run, you end up back in the House of Hades where you can engage with the characters who will always have something new to say every time which will advance either the main plot or one of its several sub-plots. All of these are incredibly engaging and are so well-written to the point where I actually didn't mind dying at all because I was more interested in seeing the next part of the quest. The more you play this game, the better you get at it and since you can unlock permanent upgrades from the mirror of night, you'll always feel like you're levelling up and getting stronger every run thus motivating you to continue. To beat the main campaign, you must successfully beat Hades 10 times and then you will eventually unlock the epilogue offering even more story post-game. The game will come to a point where you'll be able to consistently beat Hades with no problem due to the permanent upgrades you get, but after you beat your first run you'll unlock the pact of punishment which will let you challenge yourself even further and let you collect rewards that can be used to power up your weapons, unlock items from the house contractor, gift ambrosia to other characters to unlock story sub-plots, etc. If the game is too difficult for you, there is a "god mode" option for those that want to experience the story and make the game even easier even though it's not necessary at all even if you are bad at the game.

For achievement hunters, the best part of this game is that none of the achievements are missable and you can unlock everything in time. The only thing that may be a bit frustrating is that a lot of the achievements are tied to sub-plots which are randomly generated each time you complete a run and may or may not unlock the parts necessary for you to progress sidequests, but as long as you continue playing you'll be able to unlock pretty much everything.

The only critique I can give about the gameplay is that while the experience was phenomenal to play through the main campaign, once you complete the main campaign, epilogue and sidequests, the grinding to complete all of the customization can become tedious to do especially if you've already completed all of the minor prophecies. For me personally, even though it is repetitive, it definitely feels worth it to unlock everything the game has to offer.

Conclusion & Recommendation

Everything about Hades from the gameplay, the story, the music and the sidequests make this game an absolute masterpiece with the only con being that it can feel a bit repetitive after you beat everything in the main campaign. However, because there's always a different experience each time I complete a run it really doesn't feel as repetitive as other rogue-like games. This game is a phenomenal masterpiece and absolutely deserves all of the praise it gets. New players will find that the game is slightly difficult at first, but the game's difficulty is not unfair and the RNG in it is nowhere near as bad as other rogue-likes making the experience feel more in control of the player rather than the game. For completionists out there, it can take you almost 100 - 120 hours to unlock everything the game has to offer, but the game has been so well-designed that you don't feel like you are grinding even when you are unlocking everything else.

As Zagreus might say: In the name of Hades! Olympus, I give this game a 9.5/10.

Overview

Kingdom Hearts is an ARPG combining both Disney and Final Fantasy to create an original story. KH 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix covers the best story arc from Birth by Sleep to KH 2 and features 4 playable games and 2 3-hour movies for 358/2 Days & Coded. Before going into a breakdown on each playable game, the only technical issue I had was an audio glitch consistent across all titles. When there is a lot of action, whether in cutscenes or during gameplay, the audio cuts-out for a brief second and then resumes normally. This doesn’t break the experience as it is fairly infrequent, but it is a little distracting. Otherwise I’ve had no other technical issues. Kingdom Hearts has always meant a lot to me having grown up with the series and reliving these games has been a wonderful experience.

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts follows the story of Sora as he embarks on a grand adventure with Donald and Goofy throughout various Disney worlds. While KH 1 is the most nostalgic, it aged the poorest due to stiff gameplay and an abysmal camera that has a spasm every time Sora faces a different target because of how close it is to him (change the camera from auto to manual). That being said, this game is a lot of fun with a great story, amazing world-building and exciting boss fights. It also has better partner AI customization (setting the frequency of regular & special attacks, support abilities and when to use items) and makes your partners much more useful than the succeeding titles (Donald especially as the magic system in KH 1 complements him more). In terms of exploration, this game can be a bit confusing to navigate and I recommend a guide for new players. However, this isn’t too bad and you do get used to the gameplay over time.

The Gummi Ship system also didn’t age well as it isn’t very intuitive and is poorly explained in-game. While customizing the ship isn’t necessary, having a stronger ship at later stages helps as playing through the shooting segments in-between worlds is mandatory until late in the game when fast travel becomes available.

While KH 1 didn’t age well, it still is a memorable experience with plenty of fun moments that both new and returning players will love. I give this game a 7/10.

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

Chain of Memories is the bridge game between 1 & 2 following both Sora’s and Riku’s adventures in Castle Oblivion. While the story is decent, the gameplay suffers from repetition due to little variation between worlds as these are created from cards with fixed rooms. Before starting Re: CoM, I recommend watching 358/2 Days first and reading all the extras (click in and out of each) as end game cards are locked behind this.

Re: CoM uses a card combat system that gets mixed reception. I find the system to be decent since there are enemy cards which are useful: Genie Jafar gives you 20 unbreakable attacks, Vexen auto-revives you with some HP (combined with Oogie Boogie which heals you 10 times refilling your HP to max) and Roxas doubles your attack power for 20 attack cards. However, the grinding in Re: CoM is very tedious especially for card collection. While enemy cards drop more frequently in rooms like Almighty Darkness, it’s painful to get every single enemy card. YouTube user DERIKUF created an amazing video showing how to manipulate the game’s RNG to drop enemy cards more frequently through the use of Warp, dodge rolls and whether to attack an enemy before engaging in combat which I fully recommend.

Re: CoM isn’t a difficult game and I found proud mode easier than the GBA version given how big of a battlefield you have to maneuver. While this game has a decent story and some surprisingly good mini-games, I consider this to be the weakest entry for its repetitive nature and I give the game a 6/10.

Kingdom Hearts 2

Everything about Kingdom Hearts 2 from the story featuring loveable characters, world-building, music, smooth gameplay (including a fully revamped Gummi Ship system), exciting boss fights and all the content it provides are the pinnacle of the entire franchise. The only critiques that I had were minor nitpicks:

Nerfed Partner AI Customization – Partner AI customization is limited to the frequency of special attacks making partners less useful than they were in KH 1 (especially Donald as the magic system doesn’t complement him at all).

Tedious Grinding – Material grinding in KH 2 is worse than KH 1 as synthesis requires more time and investment. Level-grinding also takes longer as EXP dropped from end-game enemies was nerfed from the original KH 2.

Average Mini-games/Challenges – While they aren’t terrible, the mini-games in 2 aren’t that great and can be annoying if you’re trying to do all the journal objectives (especially Mushroom XIII).

KH 2 can be difficult, but it isn’t unfair. If you want the secret ending, it’s better to bite the bullet and play on proud mode since the unlock requirements (100% journal + game completion) are easier than normal (same as proud + all Gummi Ship missions). Despite the critiques, KH 2 is a masterpiece and I easily give it a 9/10.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Taking place 10 years before KH 1, Birth by Sleep follows the stories of Terra, Aqua and Ventus as they go through their own journeys. BBS often gets mixed reception, but I find the game to be a fun experience featuring an amazing story with likeable characters, fun gameplay that while floaty, isn’t too bad and the best mini-games in the entire series (Command Boards especially). The critiques I have of BBS are:

Repetitive Nature – Because there are 3 stories, this means visiting the same worlds 3 times with minor changes made to them which in combination with tedious grinding, wears out the game’s welcome.

Command Melding & Grinding – Command melding, while not bad, is tedious without a guide to look up how to craft commands and abilities. I found that grinding commands and abilities as early as the second world helped as a lot of the commands necessary for melding are available by that point. This served as a fast way to max out abilities early on (unlocked when a crystal is melded with 2 maxed out commands and becomes permanent when the melded command is maxed out). There are also fast ways to grind levels:

Terra – Equip EXP Chance (remove EXP Walker), 2 Mega Flares and 1 Victory Pose, lower your health to 25% (flashing red), go into Skull Rock on Neverland and cast both Mega Flares while standing in place followed by Victory Pose. Leave the area, go back in and repeat. You’ll get ~3-3.5K EXP every ~10 seconds.

Ventus & Aqua – Equip EXP Chance (remove EXP Walker & Treasure Magnet), 2 Thundagas & Victory Poses (Thundaga followed by Victory Pose) and a keyblade with good magic. Lower your health to 25% (flashing red) and go to the Jungle Clearing in Neverland. Defeat both groups of Unversed (quickly dodge to avoid picking up any health orbs and use Victory Pose for each group). Leave the area, go back in and repeat. You’ll get ~2-2.5K EXP every ~15 seconds.

Unfair Difficulty – BBS is the hardest game in the franchise by far. It doesn’t help that the secret ending encourages you to play on at least proud mode (requires full sticker collection + last episode + all Xehanort reports for each character), but this game has the worst secret boss fights in the entire series and I’m convinced the only way to beat them is to cheat.

While not the strongest entry in the series, BBS is still a fun experience and I give it a 7.5/10.

Conclusion & Recommendation

Everything about Kingdom Hearts from the story, loveable characters, world-building, beautiful music and fun gameplay make this a truly magical adventure worth owning. After everything, I give this collection a 7.5/10.

May your heart be your guiding key.