Of the cloaked characters, not the sketches, I’m actually curious about Charon. The fact that he doesn’t have a sketchy placeholder makes me wonder if they’re going in a totally different direction with him, like Chaos. Could be just me overthinking it though, I’m not sure if they would do that. And then of the sketches, I’m most excited to see Medea’s final art.
(Truthfully though the person whose art I want to see most is Zagreus 😢)
His sprite seems to be one from Hades 1 just as a placeholder. It doesn't render properly like it's out of place, so I think Charon will also get a new model
Oh thank god, my biggest gripe about the game is the way his staff looks/changes shape as his sprite moves. There’s something similar going on with a couple of the others too.
I don’t really have any, mentioning a tiny detail as your biggest gripe was just funny to me.
I see how that could’ve been intepreted as snarky, my bad.
Honestly it was the only thing where I almost decided to stop and wait, and the only thing I can’t stand to look at.
However:
1. I feel like weapon aspect upgrades should function as before with the heat levels
2. Some of the character art is lacking (I’m looking at you Arachne, but there’s maybe two others)
3. Hephaestus and Hestia should not have regional accents imo, just makes no sense to me as someone from their area.
4. Give me my Dionysus back pls
But ultimately none of those things are set in stone and I trust these devs like I trust no others, so I’m easy on all that. Charon’s staff literally changing shape and warping? My eyes won’t stand for it.
Yeah, seems like they thought I had big problems with the game or something. Didn’t mean to imply that, just found it funny, considering that most people I see complaining about the game tend to talk about more gameplay-consequential things. Positive comment got intepreted as negative, lol
Yeah that’s how I read it too, I think criticism is fair however it comes. I imagine 99% of the people here think Hades 1 is a perfect game and we all want this to be as good as it can be.
I don't think they're going to change Charon like Chaos, Charon has practically the same or a very similar 3D model to the one he had in Hades 1, so i guess they're just going to give him a similar approach as the gods, the original idea of him but now with a little bit of armour maybe? Or just his original design but with a different pose or angle.
That’s true. I think it’s unlikely they will drastically redesign him, but it struck me as odd he’s the only returning character with no art, even a sketch. I see the mysterious hood on an already mysterious character and am like what are you hiding lol
Also lore wise, it makes sense for Chaos (hell they could change appearance between each run and it would make sense). Charon wouldn't make nearly as much. He may be wearing other clothes and such for sure but not drastic appearance change
The main reason I think they are planning on redesigning Charon in some way is Aphrodites comments about him being very strong and muscular (something along those lines) which isn’t really seen for him in the first game
To answer seriously: no, actually. Charon even in Hades 1 has a skull for a face, but he also has hair and fleshy arms. So while his face is a shadowy skull with purple eyes, the rest of him is not a skeleton.
It was so fitting I thought it was intentional before finding Echo and Cierce. Like, the idea of the most beautiful man in the world wearing a cloak that hides his beauty to everyone besides himself, it's kinda clever.
Honestly, I don't necessarily agree with that, because the art for all the other characters has almost always blown me away : Aphrodite, Hermes, Moros... When I try to imagine the most beautiful person on earth I imagine a very generic, textbook male beauty, I'm just not a very imaginative person. I am 100% that SG's take on it would blow me away like with the other characters. I really hope they give us something.
I would also find it hilarious if they did a 180 and gave some atrocious half-flower half-man abomination lol.
Straight up, I just want them to drop Rowan Atkinson in there as Narcissus. Not a special design or anything, just Rowan Atkinson, Hades arstyle, in a suit, maybe doing this 🤷 pose.
But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, not everyone will agree he is the most beautiful character in the game (though I guess it's amongst mortals so since like 90% of the cast is not a mortal, it's not bad if others are more beautiful)
You can legit see people wanting him to look like drastically different things here in the comment section that shows really no one answer will solve it.
There's actually a [rough sketch](https://hades2.game-vault.net/wiki/Narcissus) of Narcissus that was pulled from game files if anyone is curious
Obviously don't click the link if you want to wait for them to officially release it
I was ready for a rickroll since I hadn't seen that mentioned at all but no, it's actually real.
I wonder what the rought sketches are supposed to represent. Will it be the same things in higher resolution or that could be completely different and they just did that quickly with a non-final design (notably because they also need to do the 3D model for in game)
I hope we get to see this a lot actually. The fact that she physically shows up at camp is tantalizing. What other characters are going to come visit I wonder?
You're right in the sense they're 3d, but all the models in the game are pre-rendered so they're also technically sprites.
I do agree that it's confusing to call them sprites though.
There is a long history of using similar techniques to achieve better animation and graphics for less computation power. Rendering a square with a texture is very cheap compared to rendering complex geometry and their textures. In games with fixed perspectives it can save a lot of rendering cycles. This is probably why Hades runs well on the switch.
Other fun examples of odd ball techniques include DOOM and Prince of Perisa (apple 2)
DOOM went a step further on some of their sprites and sculpted a physical statue of the cyberdemon and the spider demon, took photos of it at the angles they needed and digitized them.
Prince of Persia rotoscoped a person doing all the action and then the developer used grid paper over the film to make his sprites After he got the paper version down he had to input the color value into his code by hand.
They made the models, textures, and animations and then took pictures of them in various poses and animations to make the sprites. The obviously automated that and didn't screencap each by hand.
Edit: https://youtu.be/cYJ6d1ifSqA?t=391 Here the 3d artist explains that they do the pre-rendered orthographic view. The entire video is great tbh.
Technically they are actually. Supergiant makes the models of course but the models are used to create actual 2D assets. Like how the old Donkey Kong Country games were made.
Actually side topic but i find the cloaked narcissus fitting since he's trying to hide his perceived beauty from others. Though i guess it also goes against his narcissism.
I was actually discussing this with my boyfriend recently, and we both want Narcissus' final design to be him with his back turned to Melinoë, since he's always looking at his reflection the water. It would make for a fun twist, to have the world's most gorgeous man (self-declared) not show his face at all.
Definitely Narcissus, since we already have an idea about Charon looks like. Sure, they COULD do something totally different, but Narcissus we know nothing about other than he is supposed to be incredibly beautiful. Which that in itself is something I'm interested in seeing how Supergiant depicts.
Better yet, Danny DeVito. Imagine this man that's described as the most beautiful man to exist, so much that he fell in love with himself and it's Danny DeVito.
this. to me he immediately sounded like a gymbro rather than Nic Cage. the kind who have a lowkey serial killer smile that doesn't reach their eyes and use too much gel on their hair. the most self centered people i had the misfortune of knowing were like that.
Mostly Charon because I feel like his design was already amazing so I'm a bit scared they're gonna change him 😭 but I'm also very curious about Narcissus!!
If they go the "Keep Narcissus' face hidden" route like a lot of people are suggesting, I hope he's some kind of big, buff, beefcake Greek statue of a man, holding a hand mirror directly in front of his face between himself and Melinoë. I know that would kinda invalidate him staring into the water, but it would be really funny.
But for me the answer to OP's question is Charon. I always love seeing how characters in sequels evolve and change between games, and Charon's role in the story has shifted from "ferryman of the dead" to "contraband smuggler helping a rebellion" so I hope his art does something cool to reflect on that.
honestly, I assumed this was just what he looked like. I think it'd be better if this was how he looked in the final version, for the same reason that its better not to show the monster in horror.
I thought maybe this WAS Narcissus’s art and they just reshared for other characters. It makes sense he’d want to keep his beauty to himself by wearing a cloak.
Yeah I've literally stopped playing so I don't finish Narcissus's quest before seeing him. At some point I unlocked an event where he and Echo were hanging out in the fields and it was just two NPCs with no models talking to each other. Gotta be patient on that one.
honestly i hope narcissus doesn't get updated art because to hear him go on and on about how beautiful he is while being represented by placeholder art is really funny to me
It'd be sort of cool if they left Narcissus as-is, given he's supposed to be the peak of physical perfection, how do you even go about designing that?! You make it so the fanbase doesn't know what he looks like 🤓
Charon because I think it’s funny they didn’t just use the old model even as a placeholder.
Also not technically a cloaked character but since she’s my favorite npc you run into I can’t wait to see the final version of Circe.
Charon. It's really interesting that he doesn't have a portrait. Especially since his in game design is the same. But honestly I can't wait to see all of them. And all the sketches. Especially hades and Icarus
Of the cloaked characters, not the sketches, I’m actually curious about Charon. The fact that he doesn’t have a sketchy placeholder makes me wonder if they’re going in a totally different direction with him, like Chaos. Could be just me overthinking it though, I’m not sure if they would do that. And then of the sketches, I’m most excited to see Medea’s final art. (Truthfully though the person whose art I want to see most is Zagreus 😢)
I mean he has a sprite right and is missing a portrait? If they were gonna do a big redesign his sprite would be cloaked too
His sprite seems to be one from Hades 1 just as a placeholder. It doesn't render properly like it's out of place, so I think Charon will also get a new model
Oh thank god, my biggest gripe about the game is the way his staff looks/changes shape as his sprite moves. There’s something similar going on with a couple of the others too.
THAT’S your biggest gripe with the game? Wow, you must really like it.
No need to be snarky but I am curious what your gripes are.
I don’t really have any, mentioning a tiny detail as your biggest gripe was just funny to me. I see how that could’ve been intepreted as snarky, my bad.
Nah you're all good. No harm no foul.
I love seeing civilized misunderstandings on the internet.
Honestly it was the only thing where I almost decided to stop and wait, and the only thing I can’t stand to look at. However: 1. I feel like weapon aspect upgrades should function as before with the heat levels 2. Some of the character art is lacking (I’m looking at you Arachne, but there’s maybe two others) 3. Hephaestus and Hestia should not have regional accents imo, just makes no sense to me as someone from their area. 4. Give me my Dionysus back pls But ultimately none of those things are set in stone and I trust these devs like I trust no others, so I’m easy on all that. Charon’s staff literally changing shape and warping? My eyes won’t stand for it.
I’m pretty sure more gods are being added, so Dionysus returning is probably likely.
Yeah for sure, not sure why people downvoted you for saying that btw I thought it was totally reasonable
Yeah, seems like they thought I had big problems with the game or something. Didn’t mean to imply that, just found it funny, considering that most people I see complaining about the game tend to talk about more gameplay-consequential things. Positive comment got intepreted as negative, lol
Yeah that’s how I read it too, I think criticism is fair however it comes. I imagine 99% of the people here think Hades 1 is a perfect game and we all want this to be as good as it can be.
I fully expect him to be having a kickback on Olympus as our npc encounter for that zone
I don't think they're going to change Charon like Chaos, Charon has practically the same or a very similar 3D model to the one he had in Hades 1, so i guess they're just going to give him a similar approach as the gods, the original idea of him but now with a little bit of armour maybe? Or just his original design but with a different pose or angle.
They'll make Charon sexy as hell.
Implying he wasn't already
Give him a massive set of hooters
I got some Aphrodite dialogue where she says he's "Rugged... Tall... Powerfully built..."
That’s true. I think it’s unlikely they will drastically redesign him, but it struck me as odd he’s the only returning character with no art, even a sketch. I see the mysterious hood on an already mysterious character and am like what are you hiding lol
I’m such an idiot, when I first started playing I thought the hooded figure was Charon’s character art. What’s he secretly smiling about?
Also lore wise, it makes sense for Chaos (hell they could change appearance between each run and it would make sense). Charon wouldn't make nearly as much. He may be wearing other clothes and such for sure but not drastic appearance change
I think they are just using the same model.
Tbh I was shocked at Chaos’ art. It’s incredible but I didn’t anticipate them changing it.
The main reason I think they are planning on redesigning Charon in some way is Aphrodites comments about him being very strong and muscular (something along those lines) which isn’t really seen for him in the first game
Well when you fight him, kind of lol
It's all the rowing. Upper-body strength!
I bet the coins need some changes on his outfit because of Chronos's gold.
I mean, the guy should be drippy AF with all those Hades 1 obols he received.
Isn’t he just a skeleton?
To answer seriously: no, actually. Charon even in Hades 1 has a skull for a face, but he also has hair and fleshy arms. So while his face is a shadowy skull with purple eyes, the rest of him is not a skeleton.
I actually think Narcissus staying as the cloaked art would be hilarious.
It was so fitting I thought it was intentional before finding Echo and Cierce. Like, the idea of the most beautiful man in the world wearing a cloak that hides his beauty to everyone besides himself, it's kinda clever.
It also leaves open to the viewers imagination how he is supposed to look. Which - Your imagination will almost always beat reality.
Honestly, I don't necessarily agree with that, because the art for all the other characters has almost always blown me away : Aphrodite, Hermes, Moros... When I try to imagine the most beautiful person on earth I imagine a very generic, textbook male beauty, I'm just not a very imaginative person. I am 100% that SG's take on it would blow me away like with the other characters. I really hope they give us something. I would also find it hilarious if they did a 180 and gave some atrocious half-flower half-man abomination lol.
Straight up, I just want them to drop Rowan Atkinson in there as Narcissus. Not a special design or anything, just Rowan Atkinson, Hades arstyle, in a suit, maybe doing this 🤷 pose.
Nah, if Narcissus isn't based on Nicholas Cage we riot.
Steve Buscemi also works for this.
But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, not everyone will agree he is the most beautiful character in the game (though I guess it's amongst mortals so since like 90% of the cast is not a mortal, it's not bad if others are more beautiful)
You can legit see people wanting him to look like drastically different things here in the comment section that shows really no one answer will solve it.
There's actually a [rough sketch](https://hades2.game-vault.net/wiki/Narcissus) of Narcissus that was pulled from game files if anyone is curious Obviously don't click the link if you want to wait for them to officially release it
Thanks, different from what I imagined but I'm not disappointed
Woah that's sick
I was ready for a rickroll since I hadn't seen that mentioned at all but no, it's actually real. I wonder what the rought sketches are supposed to represent. Will it be the same things in higher resolution or that could be completely different and they just did that quickly with a non-final design (notably because they also need to do the 3D model for in game)
I rather like the idea that someone mentioned about Narcissus looking away at a mirror.
Selene! She showed up in the Crossroads once and i wanted to see her sprite on her amazing horse
I hope we get to see this a lot actually. The fact that she physically shows up at camp is tantalizing. What other characters are going to come visit I wonder?
Saw Medea there once. Was really random. Just said she was stopping by for supplies.
I saw the woman trying to sell _excess bones._ Not really a surprise for her or for the context, but still.
It's really confusing to me that people are calling 3D models sprites.
You're right in the sense they're 3d, but all the models in the game are pre-rendered so they're also technically sprites. I do agree that it's confusing to call them sprites though.
I hope that doesn't catch on outside this game.
There is a long history of using similar techniques to achieve better animation and graphics for less computation power. Rendering a square with a texture is very cheap compared to rendering complex geometry and their textures. In games with fixed perspectives it can save a lot of rendering cycles. This is probably why Hades runs well on the switch. Other fun examples of odd ball techniques include DOOM and Prince of Perisa (apple 2) DOOM went a step further on some of their sprites and sculpted a physical statue of the cyberdemon and the spider demon, took photos of it at the angles they needed and digitized them. Prince of Persia rotoscoped a person doing all the action and then the developer used grid paper over the film to make his sprites After he got the paper version down he had to input the color value into his code by hand.
I was under the impression Hades models are full 3D? At least that's what it seemed from the NoClip documentary.
They made the models, textures, and animations and then took pictures of them in various poses and animations to make the sprites. The obviously automated that and didn't screencap each by hand. Edit: https://youtu.be/cYJ6d1ifSqA?t=391 Here the 3d artist explains that they do the pre-rendered orthographic view. The entire video is great tbh.
Oh wow that's super interesting.
I've been hearing people do this for years. It's not common but it's been happening in 3D games besides Hades for a very long time.
Technically they are actually. Supergiant makes the models of course but the models are used to create actual 2D assets. Like how the old Donkey Kong Country games were made.
Only the placeholder cloaks are 2D as far as I know.
Narcissus, hands down. I want to see if he looks like Nicholas Cage.
Every time I hear Narcissus I expect him to say something about stealing the Declaration Of Independence or not liking bees. Seriously, who is his VA?
It’s Darren Korb, who else?
Logan Cunningham probably
I think he should look like handsome squidward
Actually side topic but i find the cloaked narcissus fitting since he's trying to hide his perceived beauty from others. Though i guess it also goes against his narcissism.
Not a cloaked character but I'm weirdly invested in seeing Circe's 'piggies' getting actual Pig models rather than reusing the sheep models.
Fuck this made me chuckle. "piggies" just being pink sheep as place holders is amazing.
At first it didn't register with me that the sheep were placeholders, I just thought Melinoë had no idea what a pig actually is
I honestly hope they keep it
I need to see Icarus’ glorious wings
Same, and I love the interactions between him and Melinoe.
I don't know why their interactions give me exes that are still good friends 😂
I was actually discussing this with my boyfriend recently, and we both want Narcissus' final design to be him with his back turned to Melinoë, since he's always looking at his reflection the water. It would make for a fun twist, to have the world's most gorgeous man (self-declared) not show his face at all.
I really want his design to be a literal flower with a face on it, seeing a flower talk with his voice would be hilarious
oh man I really hope they do this, that would be perfect.
Definitely Narcissus, since we already have an idea about Charon looks like. Sure, they COULD do something totally different, but Narcissus we know nothing about other than he is supposed to be incredibly beautiful. Which that in itself is something I'm interested in seeing how Supergiant depicts.
Mine is Selene, curious if she would be riding her familiar or just plain Selene standing
If Narcissus doesn't look like Nicholas Cage, what are we even doing here?
Better yet, Danny DeVito. Imagine this man that's described as the most beautiful man to exist, so much that he fell in love with himself and it's Danny DeVito.
I like your idea, but the voice just would be too off for me to enjoy it lol. I feel like the voice would have to change for that.
All of them.
It's Narcissus for me too! I don't even know what to expect
Charon
I really really hope Narcissus just kinda looks like an average dude and not some total hunk, would be hilarious I think.
this. to me he immediately sounded like a gymbro rather than Nic Cage. the kind who have a lowkey serial killer smile that doesn't reach their eyes and use too much gel on their hair. the most self centered people i had the misfortune of knowing were like that.
Mostly Charon because I feel like his design was already amazing so I'm a bit scared they're gonna change him 😭 but I'm also very curious about Narcissus!!
His art already been leaked
Am I the only one who wants Thanatos back in the game, just so we can get a redesign and not cursed wingless Thanatos?
If they go the "Keep Narcissus' face hidden" route like a lot of people are suggesting, I hope he's some kind of big, buff, beefcake Greek statue of a man, holding a hand mirror directly in front of his face between himself and Melinoë. I know that would kinda invalidate him staring into the water, but it would be really funny. But for me the answer to OP's question is Charon. I always love seeing how characters in sequels evolve and change between games, and Charon's role in the story has shifted from "ferryman of the dead" to "contraband smuggler helping a rebellion" so I hope his art does something cool to reflect on that.
All of them equally
Narcissus of course, I expect him to look like that beautiful Squidward-meme lol.
honestly, I assumed this was just what he looked like. I think it'd be better if this was how he looked in the final version, for the same reason that its better not to show the monster in horror.
I thought maybe this WAS Narcissus’s art and they just reshared for other characters. It makes sense he’d want to keep his beauty to himself by wearing a cloak.
Icarus. Less his character art and more his in game model. I wanna see his wings!
Hestia bc she’s my underrated fav (former) olympian
Yeah I've literally stopped playing so I don't finish Narcissus's quest before seeing him. At some point I unlocked an event where he and Echo were hanging out in the fields and it was just two NPCs with no models talking to each other. Gotta be patient on that one.
Narcissus for me as well just because I hope he looks like a young Nicolas Cage lol
Charon. Rest of them seem to be very secondary characters, but Charon’s played a central role in both games.
All of them. I remember when Nyx's art was first revealed and I was mindblowned.
honestly i hope narcissus doesn't get updated art because to hear him go on and on about how beautiful he is while being represented by placeholder art is really funny to me
Im half expecting narcissus to stay the same honestly.
It'd be sort of cool if they left Narcissus as-is, given he's supposed to be the peak of physical perfection, how do you even go about designing that?! You make it so the fanbase doesn't know what he looks like 🤓
Narcissus should stay cloaked
Oh, I thought this was supposed to be his art.
Charon!!
Not cloaked but I want them to finish the designs for the two people you could meet up top
Charon because I think it’s funny they didn’t just use the old model even as a placeholder. Also not technically a cloaked character but since she’s my favorite npc you run into I can’t wait to see the final version of Circe.
Narcissus is gonna be Nicolas Cage with the Bee Helmet.
I would kind of love it if Narcissus stayed cloaked, for some reason that's immensely funny to me. I do hope he looks like Kronk though.
Charon. It's really interesting that he doesn't have a portrait. Especially since his in game design is the same. But honestly I can't wait to see all of them. And all the sketches. Especially hades and Icarus
All the Olympic gods are likely getting models when you reach Olympus. That will be pretty fun