Hades was one of the most prominent and beloved games from 2020, named Game of the Year by many publications and award ceremonies, and was nominated for the title at The Game Awards, a rarity for indie games. It masterfully blends story with a roguelike structure and difficult gameplay, where it's able to tie in not only the story of Zagreus and his parents, but other Greek myths such as Eurydice and Orpheus.
In both subtle and prolific ways, Hades encompasses the entire story of Hades and Persephone, from beginning to end. However, it does differ slightly from the Greek myth, which is quite common in modern retellings of ancient mythologies.
The Full Story of Hades and Persephone
Hades, of course, follows a retelling of Hades and Persephone and their son Zagreus, who's never left the Underworld. But after learning of his true birth mother Persephone, he makes escape attempts in classic roguelike fashion to seek her out. Greek mythology enthusiasts will be able to fill in the blanks with the rest of it that isn't largely explored throughout Hades, though some of it wavers between retellings, for example, whether Hades kidnapped Persephone or if she went willingly. However, that particular note doesn't make much of a difference in the context of Hades, but it's said that she was given to Hades as a gift from Zeus, a decision that Hades resents.
Demeter's design in Hades is iconically inspired by her lore, where she stopped the harvest and, in some versions of the tale, forced the land to freeze over in despair of her missing daughter, creating winter. In the game, Hades and Persephone voice many concerns over what would happen if it was discovered that Hades held Persephone in the Underworld.
In mythology, Zeus forces Hades to return Persephone after an outcry from people due to the lack of harvest. However, Persephone ends up eating the seeds of a pomegranate, binding her to the Underworld to some capacity. Afterward, it's agreed that she will return to the Underworld yearly, but in Hades it's thought that this conflict could start a disastrous war. Additionally, some versions of the story have Zagreus born to Zeus and Persephone, as the King of the Gods is known to be frequently unfaithful to Hera, his wife.
Supergiant's Hades, however, brings an added factor of Persephone having left the Underworld after watching her son die, which occurs because the Fates decreed that Hades would not have an heir. Despite their loving marriage, Persephone leaves but does not wish to return to Olympus due to personal resentment, so she employs the help of Nyx, who keeps her hidden in a cottage in Greece. Here, Zagreus finds her but realizes he is also bound to the Underworld and cannot exist on the surface for very long, and must continue escape attempts. After ten escape attempts in Hades, Persephone decides to finally return to the Underworld and reconcile with Hades. However, because they still worry of the Olympian gods, they initially ask Zagreus to continue his escape attempts so all looks normal from the outside.
The epilogue of Hades ties in the final missing piece of the myth—the pomegranate seed. After raising affinity levels with the Olympian gods, Persephone will invite them to a feast where they tell a white lie, saying that she and Hades eloped but she was forced to stay due to eating the Underworld's pomegranate seeds. Though they are seemingly aware of the lie, they accept it and move on.
Overall, while Supergiant may have put its own spin on the tale, the Greek myth more or less stays the same, though the timeline is muddled a bit, making their son Zagreus part of the story where he originally wasn't.
Hades is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
