“I wish Supergiant would get the roguelite bug out of their system and make sequels to Bastion and then Transistor finally.”
Was what I typed in our group chat. The three of us are mid to late 30s with me being the oldest by 3 months.
To say it went over like a brick balloon would be an understatement. So, I wanted to see if fellow game players had thoughts on it. Am I crazy? Do you agree?
I trust them to do what they want. I hope they don’t do a hades 3, at least anytime soon, but 2 flowed from 1 the same as 1 flowed from pyre. Bastion and Transistor are amazing, but I’m not even convinced either warrants a sequel. I would love more games like them though. In general I wish more indie devs started with something like those games
What I want Supergiant to do is… whatever the fuck they want.
Yeah I say let them cook. Their “worst” game is Pyre (iirc it really didn’t sell well) and it’s still a very good game.
I really wanted to like it more because they made some really cool choices in the design of it. I can see why it didn’t sell well, but it should have at least been more influential
Why would anyone have that strong a view about what you said…? I’m not clamouring for sequels particularly for those games, though I’d love more games like them. Then again, whatever gets me more beautiful soundtracks from Darren Korb.
Because that first sentence sounds like a diss on Hades.
I agree, but mostly because I dislike roguelikes. They get too repetitive and turn into a slog, and the success of your runs is often entirely dependent on which items you find.
I’d much rather have a tight, concise game with handmade maps. IME, roguelikes just pull the old NES/SNES trick of “well we can’t fit more data on the game cart, so just make the game harder to force players to replay it over and over again. That will artificially inflate the game length.”
Bastion and Transistor don’t need sequels, but I do wish they’d stop with the roguelikes.
Thats really not what roguelikes are. They wouldnt be one of the most popular genres ever if the base was laziness. Its more like being able to focus fully on the mechaincs/gameplay instead of spending countless hours designing worlds that either end up feeling repetitive anyway or you need to spend another few chunks of countless hours to make it feel good.
Besides, Hades is by faaaaaar their most successful game, it would be objectively stupid not to keep going with that at least for a while.
I dislike roguelikes and soulslikes. It feels like that cuts out the vast majority of indie games being made nowadays.
I’m with you on wishing they’ll move on after Hades 2, but I don’t want sequels to Transistor and Bastion. I’d prefer they make something new again.
But really I can’t blame Supergiant for playing it safe because the last time they tried to make something truly unique it bombed hard (Pyre).
Agreed on this. They’re just so good at making new interesting things that it feels like a bit of a shame to waste time on sequels. I even really enjoyed Pyre, despite it being generally considered the weakest of their games; it was such an interesting setting and premise.
Bastion and Transistor both had very satisfying conclusions to their stories and revisiting either doesn’t feel necessary.
They’re obviously a developer that I would be interested in anything new that they put out. But both bastion and transistor were two of my all-time favorites from the indie scene. And I would really and truly love to revisit both of those worlds in a sequel.
I strongly disagree on their roguelite “bug” being something they need to drop.
Bastion didn’t land for me, so I didn’t play it, but Transistor would have shined as a roguelite. Its combat system is far too complex, and has potential for so much more, than what can be explored in one or two playthroughs.
The same goes for Cloudbank as a narrative setting.
Transistor, but with Hades’ gameplay loop and storytelling style would be insane. It already felt like a roguelite, but without a gameplay or narrative reason to go in for multiple runs.
Supergiant hasn’t cought a roguelite bug… They’ve found the perfect narrative and game format to match the gameplay systems and worlds they like to create.
Bastion is an absolute stinker of a game.
It’s completely pedestrian, and there are so many bad design decisions it’s hard to even take it seriously.
It’s a game where marketing really did its job because the game could never carry itself based on its presentation or mechanics.
It was really groundbreaking to have the narrator react to what you were doing, in a “Half-Life feels like a real world that you inhabit” way. The way the music was woven into the game was also amazing, and the art! There’s a reason it put them on the map.
I didn’t like the gameplay all that much though and the world building didn’t make too much sense to me. These parts have aged the most poorly. But it was way better than just marketing.
It wasn’t groundbreaking, it was a bad design decision. Evidenced by the fact the biggest patch was a toggle to take the fking narrator out.
And they weren’t even the first.
Different strokes for different folks I guess. The narrator was my favorite part. That or the music.
I never finished bastion but I really liked it. I should replay it
You really should.
IIRC they (or at least their design lead) explicitly stated that since the founders were Diablo fans, something like Hades was basically their dream.(And imo you can already see some of that in Bastion and Transistor so I don’t think it was PR talk) So it’s not surprising they’d go for a sequel given how well it was received. But I’m sure they’ll stop soon enough, they don’t seem to be the kind of studio that is in it for the money and I’m sure Hades and Hades 2 are giving them more than enough money to take creative risks in the future.
As a long time SGG fan i agree. Personally im sad we’re getting a hades 2.
Bastion and Transistor absolutely don’t need sequels though
None of those games need sequels, and neither did Hades. I get why they did, because it was the first time they weren’t veering on bankruptcy and could use a bigger safety net, but doubling down on this lack of creativity is hardly what I expect from Supergiant.
I can understand what you’re saying with none of them needing sequels. Invaded that definition yeah sure none of them need them. But I would very much want a sequel to bastion and transistor. And if that puts me in the minority as far as that’s concerned I’m okay with that. I’m not going to boycott their team because they don’t make a sequel by any means.
I loved Bastion and Transistor and wished for sequels for both. But SG clearly seemed to prefer to not make sequels for its games all these years; to my knowledge, it has never made one. I’m not sure what or who changed at the company, but Hades 2 is an anomaly.
Has anyone interviewed someone at SG to ask sequel questions? If not, maybe someone will once H2 gets closer to officially shipping.
I honestly preferred no sequls, everytime something new. I haven’t played pyre and hades 2. While I liked hades, I was a bit sad when I heard hades 2, instead of something new.
I’m not an expert, but money (sales) is probably the reason. How many of their previous games sold vs Hades.
Also, maybe it’s a bit cynnical to think of it this way, but hades 2 would require much less effort compared to making something new and it will churn sales as the first one has been a success. Additionally, they probably already had good idea and materials for additions to hades. So why not make hades 2 out of them. Maybe after that they will work on something new.
There can be a tricky balance between building sequels or something new. Sometimes there is more you can do in a world, and people enjoy returning to worlds when there is good reason to.
I think the recent Doom reboot trilogy is a masterclass example. Not everyone enjoys each game, people often have different favorites. But the point is they’re all Doom and yet id Software did something unique with each one. New mechanics, new ways to play, pushing boundaries of what came before.
Of course, with Greek mythology, there is plenty more source material to explore and build on in a setting like Hades. They certainly hit a great formula to do it, and The People® were clamoring for it. But with SG’s established preferences for going after new ideas instead of sequels, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do something else after Hades 2. Or who knows, maybe they’ll be able to grow enough to work on multiple games at once. That could come with its own challenges, but plenty of studios have done it.
Hades 2 is still in early access, leading me to believe they want to fine tune it and move on
Hades did straight numbers, not a shocker they’d go for another. Couldn’t see Transistor or Bastion getting sequels, (Or Pyre but… lol Pyre.) and more importantly, I’d rather they tell new stories.
Be careful what you wish for, they could start making Vampire Survivor likes!
Maybe they should, the genre has potential, just look at Deep Rock Survivor
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I have the exact same take, and the exact same experience with my friend group. I love supergiant games. Anything they touch is solid gold imo. I’ve always said that Hades is an amazing game, it’s just supergiant’s worst game.
Personally, I think for me, it comes down to the setting. Bastion, Transistor and Pyre all had amazing, unique settings that made me as a player want to learn and explore everything I could. And again, Hades does an amazing job of painting the setting and fleshing out the characters, but it’s kinda just Greek mythology, which has been done before and I personally find it less interesting.
To restate, Hades is an amazing game, just imo it’s supergiants worst game.
Wouldn’t pyre be the worst by sales numbers? I think your bias against roguelike’s is showing here.
Hades is massively popular and well liked by a lot of people.
I love roguelikes, probably one of my favorite genres, so much so that I started playing rogue for a while to see what the OG was like.
And by sales numbers, 100% Pyre would be their worst game, but I’m far past judging a games content by its sales at this point.
And it’s easy to see why Hades is loved by so many, it’s a great game! Just definitely my least favorite of all of Supergiant’s stuff.
Agreed.
I think I’m just getting sick of rogue likes. It seems there is another one being pushed every time I open steam. I find them all way too similar and frankly the loop of roguelikes is annoying to me. So, I would like to see them develop something else, I don’t see it happening.
Hades was good. Rogue legacy was good. Dead cells was good. Brotato was good. Vampire survivors was good. Wizard of legend was good. Star of Providence was good. After those, though, I hit a wall. So, overall I agree. I wish the industry would move away from the genre, but it’s not happening anytime soon.
Have you played Binding of Isaac though? The king of roguelikes
I did. I wasn’t a fan. I played it when it first released, and it was my first rogue-like but I didn’t really like the games presentation. It’s pretty gross. Plus, I was pretty bad at it since I only played fps and rpg games at the time, so that didn’t help. I’m sure people won’t like that answer.
Risk of Rain is what dipped my toes more in the genre, and I only played it since my friends wouldn’t stop talking about it. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have given the genre another chance.
I play a lot of roguelikes because I rarely have the time for a multiple hour gaming session anymore, and I can get a complete start to finish game in with a roguelike in 30-60 minutes. I think that may be part of the popularity.
I’ve played all the ones you mentioned, my recent vices are Magicraft & Star Vader’s, both on steam. Slay the Spire & The Binding of Isaac are two I always come back to during my “what should I play?” moments.
Yeah. The shorter game sessions are what drew me in initially. Tie that with handheld gaming and it’s just a perfect combo of quick play convenience. I’m probably just hitting burn out and need a break.
Slay the spire is another good one I forgot about. I played it heavy on the switch back when it was released.
