In addition to its addictive gameplay, Hades’ layered storytelling makes it arguably the best title from Supergiant Games. That’s because pushing through death and reaching new goals unlocks multiple endings.
In Hades, you play as Zagreus (voiced by Darren Korb), the son of the grim and gloomy lord of the underworld. You do not know Zagreus’ intentions as you start to play, but the young godling wants to escape the Underworld. Hades (voiced by Logan Cunningham) thinks his son will never be able to evade the traps and lost souls spread across the different levels of the Greek mythology afterlife. Still, he finally reaches the Underworld’s gates through persistence. There, Zagreus must defeat his father in combat to traverse the veil that separates the living from the dead.
Each new attempt to traverse the Underworld and defeat Hades reveals more of Zagreus’ story. Zagreus is the son of Persephone (voiced by Laila Berzins) and Hades, but his mother escaped the Underworld long ago. Zagreus grew up believing he was the son of Nyx (voiced by Jamie Landrum), Goddess of the Night, and when he finally found the truth, he decided to track down Persephone and find out why she had abandoned him.
Hades’ credit rolls the first time you escape the Underworld and find Persephone in Greece. That might sound like a simple goal, but it can take dozens of hours to acquire the tools and experience needed to claim victory. Still, meeting Zagreus’ biological mother is just a tiny step in Hades’ thrilling journey, as the game’s True Ending demands much more effort.
What is Hades‘ True Ending?
After meeting Persephone, Zagreus discovers that Chthonic Gods cannot survive on the surface for long. So, a few minutes after arriving in Greece, he dies and returns to his father’s halls. That only gives Zagreus a short window to discover the truth about what happened with Persephone. So, to reveal all of the game’s secrets, you must keep escaping the Underworld multiple times just to exchange a few words with Persephone.
Persephone is an Olympian God who was given to Hades by Zeus as a reward for him taking care of the Underworld. The other Olympian Gods do not know about the deal, as they would rightfully condemn Zeus for treating a person as a commodity. So, in everyone’s eyes, Persephone simply disappeared.
After she got to the Underworld, Persephone had everything she wanted. Hades always respected her wishes, leading the two to form a romantic bond. Hades and Persephone had a child, Zagreus, stillborn due to a curse placed on Hades by the Fates. The vision of his dead child was too much for Persephone to bear, so she escaped the Underworld. Still, Persephone decides not to return to Olympus, as she resents Zeus’ despicable decision.
Even after finding out her son is alive, Persephone doesn’t want to go back to the Underworld. She fears Hades’ punishment for her transgression and thinks that her presence there might result in conflict with Olympus. Little by little, Zagreus learns the truth about Hades’ feelings and finds proof that he still loves Persephone and always has. Hades is hurt by Persephone’s departure, and it’s too prideful to do anything about it. Even so, he would welcome his wife back with open arms. That’s exactly what happens in Hades’ True Ending, in which Persephone reclaims her throne as the Queen of the Underworld.
In his journey to find out the truth of his origins, Zagreus changes the status quo of the Underworld, reuniting Hades and Persephone. He also gains the utmost respect and admiration of his father, who asks him to continue his breakout attempts to test the Underworld’s security. Not everything is well, as the Chthonic family still needs to hide Persephone from Olympus. So, Zagreus has to put up a façade when communicating with his distant relatives.
That’s not the end of Hades’ story, as Persephone begins to work on a plan to make things alright with the Olympians. As far as Olympus knows, Zagreus is on a quest to escape the grasp of his possessive father, so the Chthonic Gods can only live in peace when the whole matter is solved.
The solution comes in the shape of a banquet. By request of Persephone, Zagreus invites the Olympians to the Underworld, where they are received with all the honors. During this occasion, Persephone reveals herself and tells a story about how she fell in love with Hades and ran to the Underworld with him. She also lies and says that eating the Underworld’s pomegranate seeds binds her to the place, meaning she can only leave to Olympus a few months each year.
Zeus knows the whole story is a fabrication, but the leader of Olympus accepts the farce because it also hides his transgressions. Just like that, the Chthonic Gods reforge the alliance with Olympus, and everyone can move on with their lives. It is an Epilogue that gives Hades a happy ending. At least as happy as it can be in Greek mythology.
Hades’ True Ending requirements
When you start playing Hades, your goal is to escape the Underworld. After you do that, you need to convince Persephone to come back home. It takes ten successful escapes to tell Persephone everything she has to hear before making the decision to come back to Hades. Curiously, the tenth time you reach the gates of the Underworld, Hades won’t try to stop you. You skip his boss fight entirely, as the old god is tired of barring you from seeing Persephone.
Getting to Hades’ Epilogue demands a lot more work. First, you need to hear all the dialogues Demeter and Zeus have about Persephone. You’ll get these dialogues randomly while doing runs and choosing these Gods’ Boons. You’ll also need to max out Affinity with at least six of the nine Olympian Gods who aid you in your journey: Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Ares, Dionysius, Hermes, and Demeter.
To increase Affinity with Gods, you must gift them Nectar and Ambrosia, a rare resource you get by beating bosses at higher Heat levels. Each Affinity chain also demands you to complete a Favor, which is a side quest that unlocks the last level of a given character’s Affinity. After your Affinity with the Olympians is high enough, Persephone will also ask you to deliver invitations to all nine Gods; that means finding each of them in subsequent runs. A tenth invitation must also be delivered to Chaos if your Affinity with them is high enough and you talked to Nyx about calling them to the party.
It will take dozens of hours to complete all the prerequisites of the Epilogue. However, only after uniting the Gods of the Underworld and Olympus you’ll see the full story of Supergiant Games’s magnum opus.