I suspect you'll beat him soon. The fact you can get to Hades with all 3 death defiance intact is an achievement in itself. You'll get used to Hades' attack patterns and soon will be dancing around him like nothing. The pillars pretty much make his lasers redundant and everything else is easy to react to, key is to not get flustered and panic. Just get used to dodging his spear attacks and feed him when they miss, but don't get too greedy. Destroy those fireskulls when they are setup, but if you can't, prepare to dodge through the wave.
Thank you so much for the motivational post!! ... I was gonna head to bed, but decided I'd give it just one.more.go.
43 minutes later, and I defeated the end boss!! YES! It didn't start as too great a run - I screwed up with a Chaos selection and didn't love my boons in all of the first area, but it quickly came together with the rail gun. I was sure my first escape would be with the shield, since there's a lot more room to chesee - but railgun has mad punishing power. Once again, went in with three death defiances and lost all of them to the final boss - but now the burden of just doing it once is off my shoulders, and I'm more apt to experiment.
It was attempt #30, though about five of those were purposefully cut short when I lost interest in my build and suicide'd early/mid game.
***
Folks - I don't hand out superlative language and super high praise for many games. I find myself to be supremely hard on most titles - AAA or indie. After 30+ years of life and most of those with a controller or keyboard & mouse in my hands, there's been so many exceptional games to compare to, and so many phenomenal releases that I had to backburner for other amazing releases. I can't believe I'm saying this - but
Hades is an absolute work of art. A crowning achievement and surprisingly one of my Games of the Generation.
It's not quite on Bloodborne and Breath of the Wild levels - my two favorite games of this gen - but only because both those games have so much scope and had a more personal attachment. But it doesn't matter - to be spoken in the same breath as those games is as big a compliment as I can give Hades.
This game has it all.
Gorgeous, eye-catching art - that's consistent until the very, very end. Not a dull moment, visually. I love the environments, the items, the menus, the characters, the key art, the enemies.
The voice acting is some of the best I've ever heard. This is perfectly cast. One of maybe a half dozen games in my entire life I don't skip to the next text box once I've read it, because I want to hear the words spoken. This is MGS-levels of perfect casting.
The music - chef's kiss.
The main charcter is so great. I was sure this was gonna be some angst-filled emo or hard ass bullshit. It's none of that. The main hero is so likable. Filled with heart.
The gameplay - this is, leaps and bounds, SuperGiant's greatest playing game. It's a blast to control. It's razor precise. The momentum is just right. The combat loop is spectacular. The cycle of cast + attack + special + dash is so simple to understand but has layers and layers and layers to the execution. Add on Boons, and I'm sure we're gonna see some CRAZY builds and strategies uncovered over time.
Performance - I played 100% in handheld mode on Switch Lite - and while I do think I had quite a few difficult encounters more due to the lack of screen real estate and resolution, it ran great. 720p native res. 60fps or close to it the vast majority of the time. Some slowdown here and there in big battles - but as someone who normally rips games to shreds for wonky frame rates - this was very playable my entire 15-20 hours with it.
The story! It has a great story - that makes sense for this type of game. It's slowly peeled back - but its' really enjoyable - the cast of characters help.
And someone else posted it before - but this game, by allowing death to not be feared and instead progress the story - means that death = progress. And as someone with a full time job, a wife, kid, house, bills, etc. My game time is limited... and these games normally don't grab me, because after a 30 minute run and then dying, even if I may be improving a bit... I still feel I've wasted my finite gaming time. Not here, I always felt I was both improving, but also making progress. Story progress. Item and unlock progress. General progress in the zones.
... which takes me to the difficulty. What a fantastic difficulty ramp. Between general self-improvement, weapon unlocks, better boons over time, and mirror unlocks.... but with increasingly more difficult bosses.... this difficulty curve is just... sublime. I always struggled. I was always worried about dying. But I was making more and more progress. I persevered. I could get a bit better. I could do great but still fear death. This perfect balance.
I could keep going. I maybe will after I play some more. But for right now, I think I may pause for a bit, get back into Mario Galaxy (another amazing game) just for a break. But I'm there when cross save hits for PC with a double dip - can't wait to continue my story and experience it in 1440p/165hz.
I'm going to go 9/10. A few frustrations with the extra layer of randomness in the last dungeon, a bit too much reliance on "bullet hell" for difficulty, and the traps being slightly hard to read at times... and a desire for a couple more standard enemies. Some of the icons require memorization, and the menu system/descriptions were a bit confusing at times. But an amazing, must-play title nonetheless.
I'm really, really hopeful for further updates, though I've been told that's not the developer's style. But I'd kill for more, even if there is more story to uncover. A new zone. A new weapon here or there. And man what I'd do for co-op. But either way - no matter what - this is something special I'm going to remember for a very long time.
Love games like this.
For anyone who cares, my favorite games of this gen are Bloodborne, BoTW, God of War, Overwatch, Sonic Mania, and Persona 5. ... Hades joins that list, easily.