Hades weapon Aspects weren't originally going to be in the game
"Zeus Aspect on the shield is meant to mimic throwing a swarm of angry bees"
In Supergiant's new brilliant roguelike Hades, you're able to choose between six weapons (or Infernal Arms) to use to battle your way out of the underworld. Each of these then has four different Aspects, which changes the weapons' movesets and bonuses, allowing for really varied runs.
It turns out, though, that Aspects weren't originally going to be in the game. One of the game's developers took to Twitter over the weekend to talk through their development, and even give a little peek at an early iteration of one of the Aspects that didn't make it to the final game.
"In the middle of early access, we were looking for a way to extend the endgame as well as mix up the combat flow a little bit for players who felt like they had already mastered the base weapons," says Alice L (or "@alonkulous") at the start of a Twitter thread. "Aspects were a really cool way to expand the mythical world of Hades, and it provided a way for us to introduce micro-goals during combat."
As you might imagine, creating 32 unique Aspects across the weapons was not a particularly easy task.
"The Shield aspects took a lot of refining because we felt we already nailed it with the original shield," she says. "We had the opposite issue with the bow’s hidden aspect. We spent nearly a full week iterating on how to make a ‘slow-charge bow’ feel good before it was punted to another update."
Before the final hidden Aspect of the bow was decided on, there was an early that fired waves and great big spinning blade discs.
"In theory, this sounded awesome," she adds. "In practice it was extremely difficult to make the transition between phases feel good and to make the special feel responsive and effect. We shelved it and @amirsrao [Supergiant studio director] came back to it with fresh eyes to make it what it is now!"
And what it is now is excellent. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who's yet to unlock the bow's hidden Aspect, but trust me when I say unlock it ASAP.
At the very end of her thread, Alice adds a completely random fact that isn't about the Aspects, but is brilliant nonetheless: at the beginning of the game's early access, Zagreus could surf.
If you need any help in deciding what the best weapons aspects might be for your style of play, check out our Hades weapons guide. And if you want to know just how good this game is, we've got a Hades review for you to read as well.
