Dungeon crawlers and roguelites are a particularly favorite genre of mine, behind anything RPG, and that’s because of their near-infinite replayability. With procedurally generated maps, randomized enemies, benefits that disappear upon dying, and piece after piece of epic gear to loot, some of these games can last the test of time. I find myself going back to Diablo III (less so after the uncovering of Activision-Blizzard’s legal and ethical problems) or The Binding of Isaac every now and then. Hell, Diablo II was released over 20 years ago, and it still has a base of passionate players keeping it going and exploring the corners of Sanctuary. Speaking of hell, however, there’s another game which my friend turned me onto, involving traversing the depths of the underworld and fighting champion enemies. Little did I realize, however, that Hades would become one of my favorite games of the last few years.

As Zagreus, the Prince of the Underworld, you’re tasked with two responsibilities: maintaining your family’s household, and trying to escape to the surface. After learning the truth about his birth, Zagreus makes it his mission to break out from the Underworld to find his birth mother, living somewhere in Greece. The only thing that’s stopping him are the armies of the dead, waiting to send him home. Assisting him are the Gods of Olympus, who believe Zagreus is trying to flee to their haven. You’ll hear from Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Hermes, just to name a few. Also along the way, Zagreus builds bonds with the many servants of his palace and denizens of the Underworld. It’s hard to whittle down the cast to determine my favorites, but ones that particularly stood out to me were Achilles, Megaera, Sisyphus, Dusa, Eurydice, and Skelly.

Each room of the various levels of the Underworld (Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and Styx) are built as a constantly-shifting labyrinth, preventing anyone from attempting to escape. I like how the developers created an in-game reason for the rooms to be randomly generated; that’s attention to ludonarratology. Because Zagreus is a God, death is only a minor inconvenience, sending him back to the palace. Every attempt allows for new combinations of active and passive abilities, leading to seemingly limitless options with which you can approach the souls of the dead. You might find a Daedalus Hammer that alters your weapon’s attack, boons from the Olympians, darkness and gemstones, or encounter a level-specific NPC who will provide you with a special item of your choice. Add onto that the Pact of Punishment, which lets you customize your escape attempts even further with new challenges, and it won’t be long before you’ve sunk hours into aiding Zagreus on his mission.

Speaking of weapons, you only get to choose one for your entire run, but you can switch between six unique weapons, which each have four Aspects (three normal, one secret), giving you a total of 24 different playstyles to choose from. Each weapon itself handles differently, with some attacking faster while others are more powerful per strike. Sometimes you’ll want to fight enemies up and close, or other times, you might want to pick them off from afar. Every weapon and aspect is viable, so you can figure out the ones that work best for you. My favorites for each weapon are the Aspect of Chaos for the Shield of Chaos, the Aspect of Lucifer for the Adamant Rail, the Aspect of Rama for the Heart-Seeking Bow, the Aspect of Achilles for the Eternal Spear, the Aspect of Talos for the Twin Fists, and the Aspect of Arthur for the Stygian Blade. Whether you want to pick one of the higher-tiered weapons or experiment with a new style, there’s plenty to pick from.

I just love this game, flat out. Everything has been finely crafted and detailed to create a tidy, charming, difficult, and heartwarming game. The writing is phenomenal, to say the least. Every character feels unique, with their own personalities, backgrounds, and motivations. The dialogue is entirely contextual, too. Depending on what weapon you’re using, what trinket you’re wearing, whether a certain enemy killed you on the previous run, each character will have something unique to say. I don’t even think I’ve seen any repeated lines, except for when I started a new file. You may end up liking some characters more than others, but even the hated ones are ones we love to hate. You’ll see what I mean when you get to Elysium. Along with the writing, the voice acting is fantastic as well, bringing each character even further to life. Whether hearing the sorrow in Orpheus’ ballads or the disapproving tone of your father Hades, it really does feel like every character brings something different to the table. No one feels ancillary, even ones hanging out in the background, because you’re always interacting with them, running errands or helping them out with something. Developing deeper relationships with the cast isn’t just for the benefit of storytelling, either. Each character will give you a little trinket which aids you during your run, and you may even find some pets to join you along the way. Neatly wrapping it all together is a gorgeous soundtrack. Each song brings different emotions with it, whether the excitement of battle or the calm of a respite. I often found myself just standing around the levels and listening to the music, especially in Eurydice’s chamber. Seriously, anyone who doesn’t sit through “Good Riddance” is committing impiety.

None of this is to say that your escape from the Underworld will be easy. On the contrary, this game starts off extremely challenging before you learn enemy attack patterns, how your weapons work, what boons do what, etc. It took me almost 20 attempts just to beat Megaera and advance from Tartarus to the next level. After that, however, the difficulty curve gets really wonky. I found Asphodel and the boss there, the Lernaean Bone Hydra, much easier than the previous level. I initially chalked it up to getting better at the game, but then Theseus and Asterius smacked me down from Elysium and straight back to the palace. But after completing each of these planes and making it out of the Temple of Styx, there’s one final challenge waiting for you. I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but needless to say, you will find yourself consistently surprised by it.

The message this game is trying to tell is really touching, about the importance of family and to persevere even when things seems insurmountable. I grew to care about the fates of these characters, all trying to escape what seems inescapable. And yet Zagreus persists, returning to the surface each time despite never being able to stay there permanently. It’s a lesson we can all learn something from. By the way, I can’t believe I waited this long to mention that there’s a fishing minigame, and that’s why Hades is a near-flawless masterpiece.

When I left off last time, I had mentioned the third Danganronpa game I wanted to discuss was very different than the others. The first ones had elements of visual novels, but they were still undeniably games. Again, this is not the time for a debate on what constitutes a game. This conversation is actually completely irrelevant to the entry I’m about to slash through. With Ultra Despair Girls, there’s no question at all about whether this is a game.

Moving away from the more linearly-driven path of the visual novel, UDG is a third-person shooter with a ton of arcade mechanics. Truth Bullets return, but they’re less of a metaphorical concept and more of an actual piece of ammunition. Players are given a hacking gun with tons of different ammo types, from your basic Break to more gimmicky ones like Paralyze or Dance. Of course, you don’t get to keep all of these powers and have to unlock them again throughout the game, but after getting a small taste of your abilities at the beginning of the game, you’ll find that each ammo type can be helpful depending on the situation. Otherwise, it’s your standard shooter fare, which is fun but a little basic at times. Although there are quite a few different enemy types, they’re all Monokumas (which can get a little boring) and they can usually be dealt with using the default Break ammo.

Other than your shooting segments, there are stealth segments which require you to find a kid without being caught, Monoku-Man arcade machines that act as security cameras for challenge rooms, and riddles to solve to progress in the level. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to not only experiment with your Truth Bullets and find ones which work best for you, but also to collect Monocoins, which are used to purchase upgrades in the form of adjectives for your guns. It’s a strange concept to wrap your head around, but combos like Furiously + Ornately can augment the ammo’s strength and total ammo count. It’s things like this which really make UDG unique, especially among shooters. What other game allows you to improve your guns with the power of language?

Without spoiling too much from the other DR games, players can also temporarily switch characters. This second character has extremely powerful melee attacks and special moves that allow them to slice through enemies like fabric, but is limited by a meter that determines how long they can be used for. It’s honestly a blast to play as this character, weaving and dicing through waves of Monokumas, and their special ability takes the form of pretty sadistic automated segments that can bring a twisted smile to your face.

The story is a lot more personal this time around. Instead of the large cast of high schoolers slowly being picked off by each other, the narrative follows Komaru Naegi, the sister of the DR1 protagonist, who was captured and imprisoned during The Tragedy. After escaping an attack by a vicious Monokuma, she finds herself in a world far different than the one she remembers. A ruthless group of children calling themselves the Warriors of Hope have taken over the city and are killing all of the adults to create their own paradise. Working alongside her partner and DR1 veteran Toko Fukawa, the two have to destroy multitudes of Monokumas, escape the city, and defeat the Warriors of Hope.

There’s a greater focus on Komaru finding within herself that she’s more than just a normal high school girl. She and Toko are trapped in this incredibly hopeless situation, and the story follows them working together in order to overcome it and both become stronger because of their partner. It follows the same arc as the other games, with Hope overcoming Despair to save the world, but you can see real character development between Komaru and Toko. They both rise to the occasion and, despite whatever differences they may have in the beginning, they learn to become friends and partners. It really gets to expand on Toko’s character, who was only somewhat touched upon in DR1, and we get to see why Komaru is distinct from the other protagonists, Makoto and Hajime.

When I said that UDG is very different than the other DR games, I wasn’t just talking about the gameplay. The story is more personal to the protagonist than the entire cast, and because of that, there isn’t the same overall emotional impact. We don’t get a chance to develop emotional connections to many of the characters thrown through the game, but come to really understand Komaru and Toko on fundamental levels. The side characters, while all nods and winks to the cast of the mainline games, can be very forgettable beyond a few lines of dialogue. And the villains, although driven by legitimately disturbing events in their past, come off as over-the-top or outright ridiculous. I suppose that’s the kind of flair to expect in these kinds of games, but on reflection, so much of it felt different than what I experienced in the other games. I guess that’s the point, though; as a spinoff, they could include ideas that might not otherwise fit in the mainline series.

To be honest, the voice acting is probably my favorite part of the game. That may be strange, that the acting is what I enjoy most about an interactive experience, but the performances you get from some of the actors are amazing. You’ll probably get the biggest kick out of Kurokuma, the foul-mouthed and hyper-talkative Monokuma variant, who is voiced by Erin Fitzgerald. That name might not mean much on its own, but she also played Chie in Persona 4 (another game I plan on covering), as well as a handful of other characters in UDG. There’s actually a really huge crossover between Danganronpa and Persona voice actors: Cassandra Lee Morris (Aoi and Morgana), Erica Lindbeck (Kotoko and Futaba), Cherami Leigh (Komaru and Makoto), Grant George (Shuichi and Shinjiro), Johnny Yong Bosch (Hajime and Yu AND Adachi); just to name a few. It’s actually really incredible how small the voice acting community is for these kinds of games, when you really investigate it.

Going back on track, I’m not sure what else I can really say about Ultra Despair Girls. If you’re looking for a wacky yet depressing arcade shooter, your choices are either this or CarnEvil. It’s fun overall, but unless you want to get a complete understanding of the story behind Danganronpa, it’s mostly skippable. You face the same waves of enemies over and over again in slightly different configurations. If you aren’t playing on the higher difficulties, there really isn’t any strategy involved other than “don’t miss.” That’s not even mentioning that outside the development of the main characters and one or two of the villains, there isn’t a whole lot going on plot-wise other than “adults bad, kill them.”

For the most part, however, it works, and as a fan of Danganronpa, it’s a welcome addition. But I can’t help but feel that it lacks some of the charm of the main games. Maybe it’s the more concentrated cast or maybe it’s the action-driven gameplay, but some indefinable element is missing which separates this game from the others in my mind.