[@Fabricant451]
[s]It was labeled a rant.[/s]

I likely expressed my issues with this game better a year prior. Especially when I played and compared it to the new Dead Cells' gameplay loop. 

Honestly, I've never felt like any death in Hades was something I did wrong and could've easily avoided. 

So without any consistent ability to heal in the beginning. (Something that I just don't like.) The environmental damage, spam mobs, or smaller enemies that charge you from off camera, tend to steal your HP, lil by lil. (Unless you're doing particularly well. And then this game will throw some extra hard/damage sponge mini-bosses at you.) 

Plus, due to no fault of its own, my Switch controller must really not like this game. Because it stick drifts and fucks up at critical moments, more than any other game I've ever played. So a single moment where my stick drifts off into the lava on level two, even after all the enemies are dead, [b]and oops[/b] half your health is gone. Thus, it feels like positioning somewhere (where AI pathfinding fails it) and camping, is almost always the most effective method to dispose of the mobs.

And that "never should've happened" moment tends to end every single one of my runs. Like my first time losing to Meg, was because of her 'surround you with four death circles'. Where one dodge often failed to keep me from taking damage. Opposed to my very next time, where you can upgrade for a double dash. And I never lost to her, ever again.

Or the second boss (who I beat on my first try). Seemed very hard to "figure out a pattern for", when all I saw was spam seeking missiles, random environmental hazards, and several far ranged attacks coming from off-screen in varied directions. 

So I dunno. Each boss feels like "you haven't gotten enough upgrades" road blocks. That all boil down to "kill them before they kill you." (And I know how that sounds.) But it feels like your meant to be strong/lucky enough to tank all their off screen spam attacks, until you have more health and luck than they do. Then you can succeed and pray you run into enough health upgrades/rooms before your next paddling.

And [b][i]maybe[/i][/b] if the story or characters were strong enough to grip me, then I'd learn to love bashing my head against the wall. (Git gud. So to speak.) But it takes far too long to go anywhere, even if it does.

Though I know I'm in the minority with this game. (I know it was at least once your GOTY.) But no, "the gameplay loop feels like a chore to me" is the most accurate way to sum up my feelings toward this game. I can understand feeling engaged and addicted, like a MMORPG or mobile idle game. Where you will ever-so-slowly progress to certain victory. [i]But if I do happen to ever beat Hades. I'll likely call it quits there and never touch it again...[/i] [s]Everyone's a critic.[/s]

(I guess I technically did that with Pyre too. Despite having a much better time with that/enjoying its story & characters far more. Plus, I usually play to completion once and then never again.) But it feels like the end game of Hades *is* the real game. [i]Especially since you have to beat/repeat all the content ten times over, to see the 'true ending'.[/i])

And how can you [i][b]not[/b][/i] become repetitive, when you're forced to go through a game that many times? *Shrugs* 

And maybe if there more of the weapons and etc, unlocked from the very start. I'd agree that it gives you more than enough variety to get anyone through the game. But that's my two cents again. (Frankly I feel that way about other games I enjoy playing more. Like Risk Of Rain 2, would be infinity better with more characters unlocked from the start. But [b]no[/b], the worst or least interesting weapon or character is always what roguelikes start you off with...)

[i][s]Sorry, this post is long as fuck.[/s][/i]