[Lyric] 2020 Vidya Gaem Awards (New Challenger Award Speech)

[The winner of this award was Hades]
[Voiced by John C]

The magic of Supergiant seemed to have faded a few years back, after Transistor, things sort of went quiet for the folks over there. But behind the scenes, they were scheming up the ultimate… whatever the hell genre their games are.

While Bastion was good, and Transistor was competent, Hades manages to excel in everything those two titles tried, and then some. The gameplay and story mesh well, providing consistently smooth and customizable combat styles, and combining that with the replayability a Roguelite game brings to the table gives us a title with, perhaps not as much replayability as other Roguelikes, but a much larger impact that seems to resonate with far more players than a traditional, more narratively shallow entry in the genre would otherwise.

In a market oversaturated with sequels and remakes, it’s refreshing to see an indie dev so set on reinventing the wheel with every game. None of the games are truly too different in the end, but focusing on interaction instead of advancement proves they know how to keep their games interesting.