Games can often change drastically during development, moving away from the creators' original vision and toward something potentially even better. The developers ofHadesrecently gave an interview where they revealed the game had a different main character than it does now.
The current main character ofHadesis Zagreus, son of Hades, God of the Dead. The game follows his attempts to escape from Hades, the Realm of the Dead, and the game’s intense action, likable characters, and gripping narrative have all lead to it beingthe best-reviewed Steam game of last year.
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Originally though, the game wasn’t meant to be about Zagreus at all. According to the Amir Rao, one of the founders of Supergiant Games, the game was originally going to be calledMinos, and star the Greek hero Theseus as he attempted to escape the Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete.Hadescreative director Greg Kasavin clarified, “The idea was going to be like each time you play, it’s kind of like a different retelling of the Theseus myth.”
According to Kasavin, they had a difficult time trying to define Theseus as a character. He said, “When we were trying to bring him to life as a protagonist, he has this risk of being kind of very generic. But as soon as we start adding specific detail to him, he just doesn’t really feel like Theseus anymore.” After doing some research on vacation, he came across the myths of Zagreus, the son of Hades, and everything clicked. He was quickly retooled into the protagonist, and eventuallyTheseus would be retooled into a boss, where he would fight the player alongside Asterius the Minotaur.
It’s often fascinating how much games can change over the course of development. Heroes can become villains and villains, heroes, new game mechanics can be added or abandoned, and even the whole setting can be shifted. As it is now,Hadeshas transformed the roguelike genre, and it probably helped that the developers shifting the protagonist and his focus during development.
On the other hand, it’s interesting to think about what could have been, and about how the game might have been different if the developers could have figured out how to make Theseus work as a protagonist. If the game were set in the Labyrinth, it’s unlikely it would have hadsuch an interesting cast of gods, who would all have very little reason to be milling about in a human dungeon.
Hadesis available now on PC and Switch.
