Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post! April has been a more focused month for me game-wise due to my working on some other writing projects, alongside trying to get through more of Dragon’s Dogma 2. I had planned on talking a bit more about DD2, but in a last-minute surprise, I got accepted into the Hades 2 Technical Test. So now I have two things to talk about for April.
And with that transition, let’s talk about the games I played in April 2024.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Hades 2
Dragon’s Dogma 2
The last time I talked about Dragon’s Dogma 2, I was riding high with my time with the game, praising its willingness to try new things, and now with more time with it, the cracks were beginning to show.
I was still within the starting nation, looking to get into the new nation, try out some of the new vocations, and get through some side content. Two of the new vocations, Mystic Spearhand and Trickster, are very interesting to play. Spearhand allows for a mix of support and offense, with a funny skill that lets you toss enemies into the distance for the cost of any possible experience or items they would grant. Their bolt move can stun foes and have an extremely strong shield spell that can negate most, if not all damage. A fun class that I stuck with for a long time.
The Trickster vocation introduces a new style of gameplay, purely support and subterfuge where you use smoke to confuse foes. While this vocation works great with allies needing time to conjure spells or prepare strikes, it doesn’t provide the same utility when you’re alone. Some quests require you to fight by yourself, and you don’t do damage with this vocation, so I got this feeling that either I got the vocation before I was supposed to or this was a consequence of the freedom this game provides.
These were some of the moments that highlighted why the game is a 7/10. Another moment was after completing the Sphinx riddles, you have to kill it to get its key. At the time, I had two Unmaking Arrows, an item that allows you to kill anything instantly. I had planned on using one on the Sphinx and the other on the final boss. I used my arrow and the Sphinx did not die, instead being told that the Sphinx was done with my insolence. It began to fly away and I had to use my second arrow to officially kill it. This moment dampened my experience, but I was in a new nation so I was determined to continue.
The new nation is a desert land, filled with canyons and ruins and caves… just like the previous nation. Now I’m not saying I was expecting some brand new terrain, but now with the addition of this area, the length of my trips between areas without Ferrystones has doubled. I realized that I was running low on stones after the Sphinx questline and that there wasn’t a caravan that led to the central city of the new nation to the border of the old one, so a wave of burnout hit me.
Even though I stepped away from DD2A for the time being, I still think about what I can do in the game occasionally. I would still recommend the game but would advise people that the latter half of the game can feel like it’s slowing down as everything builds on top of each other.
Hades 2
As of this writing, the early access for Hades 2 has come out so there is a good chance that most of my comments and observations will be addressed and/or changed already, but regardless I would like to talk about my time with the technical test they had.
First, I want to talk about the changes they made to combat. It’s been a while since I played the first Hades, so I was slow on getting back into things. Combat is mostly the same, but it added the ability to charge moves with magic. Different weapons have different effects like an attack that forms a line across the field or makes the player teleport behind an enemy. They also replace the projectile you got with an Area-of-Effect that halts enemies and causes damage over time.
The game has a major emphasis on magic since Melinoë, the new protagonist, is a student of Hecate who is a god of magic and witchcraft. I like what time I spent with Melinoë; she is just as determined and focused as Zagreus, a bit of a neat freak, and the conversations between her and Hecate are pretty fun. Melinoë is the opposite of Zagreus in terms of personality but shares his love for his family.
The length of runs feels longer, but I assume that was due to the test only having the first floor. This feeling was brought to the forefront when they introduced singular resource-collecting items, meaning that you can only collect one type of resource per run. During the test, I had selected an item and never collected the resource it was used for, which sucks in a rouge-like.
There was some other minor stuff like placeholder assets for characters, but that was more fun to find personally. The boss fight felt tough at first, but I felt that was just because it had been a long time since I played a game like this. I have been seeing some people talk about the difficulty of the early access version so maybe they bumped it up for this new game.
The game is fun, Hades 2 is a cool game with some neat characters and bosses. I plan on getting it down the line and will probably make small updates here and there during my time with the game. If you enjoyed the first game and/or Supergiant’s other games, you’re probably already playing it or have it on your wishlist on Steam. For the rare few who are neither, I recommend the game cause it’s a good game to play in short bursts.
Ranking for April 2024
Hades 2
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Well everyone, thank you again for reading this month’s blog. For May, I’ve been playing Unicorn Overlord and I have been loving it so far. I am also keeping an eye on Paper Mario and the releases for June, including the updated version of SMT 5, and the new expansions for FFXIV and Elden Ring. So many games to play! Until then, thank you again and I’ll see you next time.
Frantz Reports 