Hermes would actually love the concept of speedrunning.

You've gotta wonder what this looks like in-universe. One day Zagreus wakes up, decides to break out of the underworld, and then less than half an hour later he's standing over his dad's corpse, panting a bit, "well, that was easy. Weird, how people say this is so hard!"

“Hug your dad to win the game” also accurate from a lore perspective

I got to hades for the first time a couple days ago and thought I killed him until that bastard refilled his health and killed me.

Zagreus: Goodbye father, I’m leaving Hades: You’ll come back *2 hours later* Hades: Huh guess he _did_ leave

"Honey, school starts in 30 Minutes!" "Okay Mom, lemme just play through Hades real quick!"

So... the voice of Zagreus... is in fact... the best Zagreus of the Dev Team. How appropriate!

Lord Hermes would be thoroughly impressed

This instance of Zagreus really just woke up and chose violence huh.

The supportive shade was the single best inclusion in the game.

Lesson learned: Hug Your Dad

0/10 run - did not greet shade friend in elysium

Compare how the developers in this video react in this video to other videos on this channel. Instead of "What? No, that's not...ugh!" Supergiant says, "Oh yeah, Vorime, he's a great member of our community. We planned for this speedrunning category specifically with special in game dialogue. A lot of other speedrunners focus on this category instead." Straight quality and dedication, Supergiant. Your games are the best in the business. AAA wishes their games had half the polish and care yours do.

You can hug Hades and avoid the attack?!?!?! I’ve sunk well over 100 hours into this game and I’m only just finding this out 😭

This speedrun is so fast I was surprised he didn't beat Hades to the surface.

I literally *just* figured out what Ares's curse is. It's the sword of damocles.

I actually really like to fish in this game. There were plenty of times were I was bored with the run, but everytime I saw a fishing spot I was like "I can't die on this run, gotta fish that". It just gives a different motivation to you

“You could get pretty unlucky in terms of what mobs Hades spawns on you” *Flashbacks to the he summoned Voidstones*

You're telling me on top of everything else, Darren Korb is a master of the game itself as well with a 12 minute speedrun!? The guy is a virtuoso!

Whenever I beat a boss I always think I died.

Devs seem knowledgeable in this one. It shows they care about about and understand the game. Ive watched other videos like this where the devs didnt really understand what was going on or why.

The guy they’re talking about who did a “no-hit” run on Hades is Haelian, great streamer, check him out!

WTF Greg Kasavin worked on Hades? This dude used to do the best reviews for Gamespot back in the day.

Anyone who is watching this and hasn’t played the game, do yourself a favor and get it if you can. It’s hands down the best game I’ve played this year. It’s truly a masterpiece of a game.

"Counter your dad's biggest attack by giving him a hug" sounds pretty on brand, TBH.

There's this thing that happens where my mouse cursor just automatically goes to double click on Hades on my desktop everytime I see a video of it.

Dang Vorime synced up the health bars on Theseus and Asterius so that Theseus' little pause before getting olympian aid happened the same time as Asterius falling

I love how you can tell how well connected with their community they are.

Watched almost all devs react to speedrun series. These 2 was the most connected ones with the speed running community by far.

"the part where he didnt even talk to the friendly shade" elder bug feels your pain.

darren having the fastest run on the team is so poetic

I love the fact that the Devs were only 'offended' by him skipping the unique dialog. I meant 'offended' in the mildest sense of the word. Greg and Amir are just two of the great people behind a great game.

That’s too funny, the Voice of Zag also had the fastest time on the team. He really sat there and said “IM HIM, IM THAT GUY!” 🤣

Divine Dash definitely best boon.

Amir, Greg, Jen, Darren and everyone else at Supergiant deserve all the praise this game gets. You guys are literally the only developer that has never disappointed me once and I can't wait to see where you take us next.

"You don't have to be this way" is my favorite line from this

Only playing hades a few days now, have died many times and not past second boss yet.. watching this is pretty mind blowing

you guys should bring some speed runners onto the show to react to their own speedruns along side the developers. i feel that speed runners pick up a bunch of little mechanics in the game that might not have been intentional and explaining then to the devs might bring an interesting perspective that could lead to cool design decisions in the future

I like how they're explaining all boons and combinations the speedrunner is using.

This made me buy the game, the devs seemed to have so much passion for the game. Now, 5 weeks later and 50 attempts down, I only now realize how very impressive this is lol

Darren Korb is truly a renaissance man

Now I'm looking for the "Get Laid any% any character"

Voice of skelly and zagreus are the same!! That's insane the 2 voices I immediately liked

This category is bananas difficult. I have sub-10 runs, and 32 heat runs, I have tried several first runs, and I made it to Elisium once.

Supportive shade ALWAYS gets my time of day. Every run.

The complexity of the dialogue flags is remarkable.

Installed it this morning, several runs, sore thumbs, a lot of satisfaction and exhaustion later. It's evening already. Closest I got to was kicking Hades' butt and thinking woooh I did it then promptly getting rekt in his second phase...

Its actually rare to see a speedrun this tight without major glitches. Very impressive

Hades is easily my game of the year, 10/10 masterpiece!

i got this game a few days ago and its probably my favorite game Ive ever played. What gets me is that even when you die and you lose a lot of progress, there is really no rage because the game is so enjoyable and replayable, thats what I enjoy about rogue-likes, the fact that no single run is the same.

Not only is Darren an amazing musician, he also is a secret speedrunner :o

Zagreus have GODS and anime on his side.

You mean to tell me that I've been playing for 80+ hours and all I had to do to beat Hades is hug my dad!? Bloody Hell

Can we just stop to appreciate the angle of the blade rift he launched at 19:20. Perfect.

Listening to how much these devs know about their game shows hours of dedication. I'm buying this today

This dude: clear Hades under 30 min Me who hasn't got past Elysium: "you know.. I'm something of a gamer myself" EDIT: Got past Elysium and went to fight Hades. Hades defeated me with 3% HP left.

24:37 so if you just hug dad you don't get hit by his deathbeams?

All that athena early on is GG, Divine Dash with her special for vorime is a lock.

man i remember when greg kasavin was in gamespot doing reviews

10:26 "of course the real timer stops for no one" because "Time... cannot be stopped."

Why does the thumbnail look like a partnership with Doritos?

Didn't even give the helpful shade the time of day. Dude, it was so many attempts before I even realized that shade was even THERE.

14:00 Reference to the Haelian revengeance run I think. Thanks Greg & Amir!

I like games like this for speesrunning. Speedrunners can become so mixed up in exploits and glitches that they become separated from the game altogether.

all hail Darren, master curator of vibes

11:29 Darren Korb had the fastest time on the team? What can't this man do?

This game is awesome! I haven't finished yet and I've died 100 times. The only game I have ever played where u get excited to die, just to learn something new. Thx for creating something this amazing 😊

The way that his fresh file, no upgrade Stygian Blade run was a full minute faster in game time than my best fully upgraded time

I've just finished my 40th completion yesterday and I'm only finding out now you can sit inside Hades' death beam circle... wow it's like a veil has been lifted from my eyes

Its so cool to hear Greg Kasavin again. Such an awesome reviewer/writer/director.

An interesting thought I had - even if you could get the Soul Catcher miniboss in Elysium, I'm not sure you would actually prefer it over Asterius. Not only do you not actually have to fully kill him to have the match called, and the Soul Catcher's spawning can make the minions left over once it's dead hard if you've been playing a single-focus weapon and not heading off to the sides (like the Styigan Blade functions as, mostly), but getting Asterius as the miniboss technically makes the Theseus fight easier, since Asterius starts with reduced health. Food for thought.

Extremely insightful, smooth, and funny commentary. It's rare to see commentary like this, well done

Fun video, but I'm more happy I learned about the hug the superlazer to keep dealing damage. It'll be way more efficient than hiding behind a a rock.

Must say it brings back memories listening to Greg Kasavin, loved watching his reviews on GameSpot but i stopped going there when he was no longer part of the team showing how much a single person can contribute.

This speedrun legitimately make me buy the game. The devs are cool too

The boys at Supergiant are absolute legends.

I was personally hoping he'd have to fight the tiny vermin

They didn't call the Hydra Lernie :(

The fact your composer loves the game more than you want to complete is sells this game to me so much. What a work of art. Also he's the voice of Zag??? Bro...

"If someone can go the distance..." I see you there, sneaking in Hercules references.

So this is my story: I downloaded the game after watching this video. I really thought it's that easy as it looks here.

Greg, ur narration and dialogue input makes me keep playing this game. I just love the Greek mythology that u tied in.

I didn’t realize how close I was to beating the game on my first try. I died at the minotaur and archer.

And then there's me 20 hours in with 0 escapes :(

That was amazing. Now I want to see other builds and hear the developers commentate.

I never knew there were combos to the boons based on what you had. I definitely have to try this now. It might be able to push me over the edge. I just barely can't beat Hades. Awesome run of the game, great work.

Love developers that know and appreciate the speed running community

Really cool to watch this speedrun with the developer insight! Learned a lot!

the hardest thing for me is that with a fresh file you only got one dash

You can really hear that these two really loved working on this game.

I would love to see a reaction to Hollow Knight Low% (No Major Glitches), which is not excessively long yet deeply unreasonable in the restrictions the category imposes on the run, making things quite difficult and resulting in a very unusual route through the game (including having to platform through three rooms in complete darkness.) (For those who have played Hollow Knight, here's Low% summarized by listing the items/abilities obtained and bosses/dreamers defeated in chronological order: fireball, walljump, tram pass, dream nail, Watcher Knights, Lurien, lantern, superdash, Uumuu, Monomon, Herrah, the Hollow Knight. Have fun connecting the dots to form a route ;-)

I love how you guys made this series tnx I owe you one

I really enjoyed Dead Cells but played it to death, so it was nice to have this as an alternative. Both great games in the genre.

I wonder what they meant with "special dialogue" when he beat him first time. Like I stopped every frame of the video and Hades says exactly the same things to you if you clear it after a few tries. Can someone explain?

It's so nice to see devs that know their game and apreciate the job that speedruner does

Amazing series, and an entry for my new favorite game. One suggestion, I'd really love it if the developers were able to pause or rewind or even slow down the speedrun video to really dive into what's happening at specific moments. The best moments IMO are where they're blown away by tricks/skill of the runner, and I think adding some video control would make way more of those happen.

- Are you winning son ? - Yes **hugs your dad**

This would be 10 times better if you had the speedrunner in the call with the devs to explain their mindset throughout the run. May also be very valuable for the devs as well, give them an idea of what goes through the heads of their most avid and capable players.

Hell yes, I was hoping Greg Kasavin was part of commentating this, miss his Gamespot reviews from back in the day. So proud of him though for ending up a part of such a phenomenal company now making games like Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and this!

One of the only series I actually enjoy that ign is uploading! Great stuff