History YMMV / Hades

** A Friendly Wager: Given to you by Hermes is a bet in which you have to defeat [[BonusBoss Charon]] two times in a row. Charon is both a difficult boss and one that you are not guaranteed to trigger during a run. The fact that the "prompt" to initiating the fight [[note]]Shop lifting a randomly spawned bag of gold[[/note]] can appear in any of the first three realms can lead to you challenging him before you have finalized your core build. Also like Sea God's Spite, the quest giving dialogue is rather low on the priority list in his dialogue pool, meaning that it is possible to have indeed beaten Charon multiple times in a row before getting the quest.

** ''Literature/TheSongOfAchilles'' fans like to see the game and book as being mutually canon, with Achilles and Patroclus having gone through the plot of the book, and Zagreus is leading the two to the end of the book, where they are TogetherInDeath, through the course of the game.

** Obtaining the Daedalus Hammer buffs for every weapon can be frustrating due to the hammer's relative rarity (you might find a dozen or more Boons, but maybe two or three hammers if you're very lucky), and the fact that some buffs aren't compatible with certain Aspects ([[GuideDangIt which is mentioned precisely nowhere]]).

* AccidentalInnuendo: A line of Poseidon has been interpreted as an innuendo.

** Artemis is implied to be more than just friends with her nymph friend Callisto; she even refers to her as "my Callisto" at one point, when Achilles said "my Patroclus". (It helps that, in the myths, Zeus seduced Callisto... [[BedTrick by taking Artemis's form]]).

* EvilIsSexy: More antagonistic than evil, but Megaera is an attractive whip-wielding Fury who speaks with an impossibly smoky ContraltoOfDanger and acts like a {{Dominatrix}} in her interactions with Zagreus. Once romanced, she'll whip him in bed and offer to "punish" him outside of the Pact of Punishment.

** Although Achilles noted that [[spoiler:Hades]] is one of the few deities who participates in a strictly monogamous relationship, it wasn't lost on many players that [[spoiler: Persephone]] has quite a bit of subtext with Nyx. [[spoiler:She'll mention that Nyx was the person (along with Cerberus) that she missed the most after leaving the underworld. Nyx herself clearly cares a lot about Persephone's well-being, since she collaborated with Charon and Hermes to smuggle Persephone out of the Underworld after Zagreus' stillbirth was too much for her to handle, and she still uses her abilities to keep Persephone hidden from both the Underworld's denizens and the Olympian gods. After Persephone returns, Zagreus will affectionately refer to them both as [[HasTwoMommies his two mothers]].]]

* CatharsisFactor: Pulling off your first successful escape. On top of finally getting through the NintendoHard underworld without dying, interactions in the House of Hades make it even better; Hades' constant belittling of Zagreus and insistence that he'll never escape makes it all the more satisfying to prove him wrong, and the other residents' heartfelt support and encouragement of Zagreus makes it all the more satisfying to prove them ''right''.

*** Approval Process (cuts out one choice when obtaining Boons and upgrades per rank at random) is generally considered the most hated due to it's infamous tendency to prevent you from obtaining the choice you are after. To rub it in, the censor doesn't completely cover the choice, effectively rubbing it in (especially if you are denied a Duo or Legendary Boon). Not only that, if you attempt to use Fated Persuasion to reroll, ''it is possible for the same choice to get blocked again''.

*** Underworld Customs forces you to purge one Boon every time you leave a region. This already means you'll be reaching the FinalBoss with three less Boons than normal, but as the options the Pool of Purging offers are random, it's possible for [[SadisticChoice all three to be vital Boons to your build, or Epic, Legendary or Duo.]]

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Of the 6 weapons, depending upon your playstyle and skill, your close-range weapons may be hard to clear early runs with, unless one is skilled with using their movesets and/or get lucky with Boons. After enough upgrades are spent, they become much more useable for clearing runs.
** The Aspect of Guan Yu is one of the least popular hidden aspects, and is unfortunately the first one you unlock. For slower but stronger normal attacks and a LifeDrain ChargedAttack (but with a smaller [=AoE=] than the normal spin), it comes with a ''severe'' cut to your max health, 75% at base level, ''including Centaur Hearts''. Unlike other aspects, upgrading it reduces this penalty instead of making part of its kit stronger, meaning you have to spend a lot of Titan Blood to make a terrible weapon viable instead of a strong weapon even better. The consensus is that Guan Yu ''can'' be strong, but it's heavily reliant on specific Boons and Hammer upgrades, and players generally consider its drawback too huge for its strengths to outweigh.
** Hermes' Quick Reload, which makes Bloodstones dislodge from enemies faster, may actually be a bad thing for builds relying on Boiling Blood (enemies with Bloodstones take 50% more damage from attacks and specials) or Abyssal Blood (enemies with Bloodstones deal 30% less damage and are 30% slower).
** Ares' Slicing Shot and Demeter's Crystal Beam are relatively slow-moving and having relatively weak enemy tracking, relying upon timing to aim their damage effectively. Due to the mobility of enemies and bosses alike, players may need to rely on getting their Duo Boons with Artemis -- Hunting Blades & Crystal Clarity, respectively -- to be usable. Ironically enough, both Duo Boons are considered [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]].
** Cold Embrace, the duo boon between Demeter and Aphrodite, adds tracking to Demeter's Crystal Beams... but unlike with Crystal Clarity, which tracks the closest enemy, Cold Embrace instead focuses beams on Zagreus. This requires the player to position Zagreus in harm's way to get off Crystal Beam damage. Unless you are using a very close-range weapon like the Fists, and/or are very quick to respond with dashing, you'd be better off not using it.
** Mort and Rib, the companion keepsakes that allow you to summon Thanatos and Skelly respectively, are considered the weakest of the Companion summons. Thanatos is able to provide one of the single strongest attacks in the game, guaranteeing a 3500 damage hit, but the delay of his attack is long enough that mobile enemies are often capable of avoiding it. Skelly's keepsake, on the other hand, will summon him to draw all attacks from enemies, but he has 250 HP, which often gets him destroyed rather fast... and not helping matters that he is actually vulnerable to friendly fire from Zagreus (most likely to prevent the player from abusing InvincibleMinorMinion).
** Among the eight gods, Artemis' status effect is considered the hardest to trigger Privileged Status. This is because like Zeus, Poseidon and Athena, you need a specific boon to trigger her status effect. Unlike those three, Hunter's Mark works not by adding the status effect to the attacks themselves, but upon triggering critical damage. It also marks a different enemy instead of the one you just landed a critical hit on, which is great for snowball damage against mobs, but won't fly when facing singular enemies like minibosses and the final boss. This is most likely intentional by design to avoid breaking the game by spamming critical hits.

** Hug your dad. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The FinalBoss has a massive laser attack that has an ArbitraryMinimumRange. Rushing to his close proximity is considered the best course of action if there is no cover nearby while allowing you to use your weapon for some free much-needed damage. This phrase is used by the players when referring to this move. It is noted that this tactic won't work when he is under Extreme Measures, where he will push you right back to his lasers if you try.[[/labelnote]]

** There are plenty of fans who appreciate how the game frames the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus as explicitly romantic, as opposed to other modern interpretations that try to paint them as just being friends. There's also the fact that Achilles is a role-model and gentle mentor for Zagreus, who also later comes to admire Patroclus as well as his romantic relationship with Achilles. Having older LGBTQ people be represented in a game, ''and'' for them to be in a healthy relationship, meant a lot to many younger LGBTQ players who could look up to the characters and feel validated.

** The Statue of an Old Man is the Bust of Homer, though nobody in the Underworld seems to have any idea who it's supposed to represent (except for The Narrator, whose [[ButHeSoundsHandsome flattering description of it]] may be a hint towards his true identity). The joke here is that the Bust of Homer itself is a 2nd century CE Roman ''replica'' of a 2nd century BCE Greek original (which has long since been lost), which itself was made about ''500-600 years'' after the original Homeric poems were recorded. In other words, it's no wonder nobody recognizes who the statue is supposed to be, because nobody knows what Homer might have looked like if he even existed at all.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: During Early Access, the Hydra at the end of Asphodelos was generally considered to be the most tedious boss. It was very durable and would frequently become invulnerable and summon smaller hydras to fight for it. Over the course of a few adjustment patches, it eventually was made a LOT less durable and the mini-hydras phases were brought down to just two, making the fight much faster paced than it was previously. Though consequently, the healing items in the room were also eventually removed.

* RecurringFanonCharacter: Of the Olympian gods, Apollo, Hera, Hephaestus, and Hestia are the only to not appear in the game. Thus, many fans have envisioned how they would be depicted in this universe, how they would interact with Zagreus, and what boons they would give him. Other gods such as Eros, Eris, and Hecate also have been given fan interpretations.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The official patch notes highlight the changes that were implemented because of community feedback or popular request. For example, the button used to pet Cerberus was initially linked to the same button used to gift Nectar. Players didn't like such restrictions, prompting Supergiant to assign a different button to pet Cerberus as a part of the ''Blood Price'' update.

* OneTruePairing: [[OppositesAttract Thanatos/Zagreus]] has easily become this with tons of fanart for them. This is possibly in part for being Supergiant's first unambiguous gay couple [[note]]There have been ambiguous gay couples before, particularly ''VideoGame/{{Transistor}}'''s Grant and Asher and ''VideoGame/{{Pyre}}'''s Oralech and Volfred.[[/note]]. It helps that they have quite a bit of chemistry and can actually get together if the player takes the right steps. It's likely the most popular ship among all of Supergiant's games.

** The Aspect of Guan Yu is one of the least popular hidden aspects, and is unfortunately the first one you unlock. For slower but stronger normal attacks and a LifeDrain ChargedAttack (but with a smaller AoE than the normal spin), it comes with a ''severe'' cut to your max health, 75% at base level, ''including Centaur Hearts''. Unlike other aspects, upgrading it reduces this penalty instead of making part of its kit stronger, meaning you have to spend a lot of Titan Blood to make a terrible weapon viable instead of a strong weapon even better. The consensus is that Guan Yu ''can'' be strong, but it's heavily reliant on specific Boons and Hammer upgrades, and players generally consider its drawback too huge for its strengths to outweigh.

* OneTruePairing: [[OppositesAttract Thanatos/Zagreus]] has easily become this with tons of fanart for them. This is possibly in part for being Supergiant's first unambiguous gay couple. It helps that they have quite a bit of chemistry and can actually get together if the player takes the right steps. It's likely the most popular ship among all of Supergiant's games.

** The contests with Thanatos are free help, regardless of whomever wins, and if Zagreus gets more kills or manages a tie, Thanatos also gives a free Centaur heart. However, depending upon the enemies' numbers and Zagreus' build, among other things, this can range from easy to borderline-impossible because his appearance is completely random. The latter normally applies to large groups enemies in armor, particularly those from Elysium, as Zagreus needs time to tear through armor while Thanatos' attacks are a (delayed) OneHitKill.

** Of the 6 weapons, depending upon your playstyle and skill, your close-range weapons may be hard to clear early runs with, unless one is skilled with using their movesets/get lucky with Boons. After enough upgrades are spent, they become much more useable for clearing runs.
** Hermes' Quick Reload, which makes Bloodstones dislodge from enemies faster, may actually be a bad thing for builds relying on Boiling Blood (enemies with Bloodstones take 50% more damage from attacks and specials).

** Asterius enjoys a ''very'' over-cranked bull-rush wherein he runs you down for massive damage. It doesn't stop on its own (only when it hits you or a wall), he's ''much'' faster than you, and he has insane tracking. He can easily curve around the pillars in the arena, so they're out of the question unless you can dash through them when he's right on your heels. It's much simpler to just approach the edge of the arena and get him to smack into a wall that way — except that the outer edge of the arena is where Theseus throws his ''own'' highly damaging attacks (spears, which you need the pillars to hide from, and on Extreme Measures, he circles the arena laying potent bombs). It is not unheard of for him to still hit you despite having ''multiple'' dashes, particularly if he buffed by Forced Overtime. If you plan to have him run right into your shield, he would instead ''circle around you indefinitely'' until you have to let go, where he would nail you during the animation recovery.

*** After shaving off a third or two-thirds of his health in his first phase, he will [[FlunkyBoss summon random enemies to assist him]]. While they can sometimes be completely ineffectual and simply ignored (like Numbskulls), he will sometimes summon mini-bosses like the Giant Soulcatcher and Megagorgon. Neither are fun to deal with on their own, but to divide your time between them and the final boss is full-on hell.
*** In his second phase, Hades thankfully stops calling in back-up, but instead gets a rotating laser attack that will shred through your health in seconds. When he gets really low on health, he will fill almost the entire screen with these rotating lasers, and your only defense are the few remaining rocks as cover, or certain boons and trinkets (like Athena's Call). The wind-up for the attack is very short, so if you're caught too far from cover, it can be a run-ender. Thankfully, a patch significantly increased the size of the cover points and their associated hitboxes, making hiding a lot less of a guessing game than it had been.

*** Soulcatchers. They are a nightmare on the battlefield as you likely won't notice that they're there until you're getting stun-locked by a swarm of butterflies while trying to deal with other, more aggressive enemies. They're slow, so it's not like you can't hit them, but they have a ''ton'' of health even before armor enters the picture. Prepare to rely on patience if more than one spawns on the field at once. The Dire Soulcatcher, one of Elysium's mini-bosses, cranks this UpToEleven; not only is it supremely tough to crack, but it also keeps spawning souls that will turn into normal enemies unless you divide your attention and deal with them, ''and'' it can teleport if the enhanced mini-bosses Pact condition is active.

** With fans of the book ''Literature/TheSongOfAchilles'', because of how both the game and the book portray Achilles and Patroclus' relationship as explicitly romantic. You'll see plenty of Patrochilles fan-content for the game containing captions or comments relating to the book, with people recommending the book to anyone wanting more Patrochilles content. It's also noted that the book came out in 2011, so fans of the book have welcomed this sudden influx of Patrochilles fan-content thanks to the game, and are appreciative of the inclusion of their romance. On top of all that, one thing the player can do in the game is reuniting Achilles and Patroclus in Elysium, and the finale of the book involves them doing exactly that. Because the characters in the game have long passed away, it can even be said that the book is treated as "additional backstory" for Achilles and Patroclus, especially since neither stories contradict each other by very much. It's also worth mentioning that [[https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/ixri6b/we_are_supergiant_games_creators_of_hades_pyre/g68cw0k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 Greg Kasavin, the game's director and writer]], listed ''The Song of Achilles'' as one of his recommendations on modern Greek myth literature.