For a moment there, Theseus, not Zagreus, was the hero of Hades

‘When we were trying to bring him to life as a protagonist, he has this risk of being kind of very generic’

We all love Zagreus, right? Right?!

He’s the broody protagonist you either enjoy or don’t mind playing, but for a second there, we almost had a more boisterous hero. Speaking to The Verge, developer Supergiant Games explains that Theseus, one of the game’s most contentious enemies, almost made the cut.

It would have dealt with Theseus delving into the Crete labyrinth, building the hero myth as you played. The team notes: “So kind of cerebrally, he was interesting. But when we were trying to bring him to life as a protagonist, he has this risk of being kind of very generic. But as soon as we start adding specific detail to him, he just doesn’t really feel like Theseus anymore.”

Here’s the crux of why the change was made. Studio co-founder Amir Rao elaborates, stating: “[Creative Director Greg Kasavin] sort of had this idea that we could probably keep everything in the game, but recast it as Zagreus. These different ideas, all these different characters, they all kind of came together. Within I think a day or two he had convinced everyone that it was a better idea.”

I mean, to be real, Hades probably would have been fine with a different main character. The interpersonal relationships could have been just as deep and the gameplay could have been 100% the same, as Zagreus was like mechanical modeling clay for whatever the developers wanted him to do.

It’s nice that it turned out the way it did, but Supergiant likely had a hit on their hands either way. And that Theseus idea is still fire. A sequel, perhaps?

Hades almost starred its worst character [The Verge]