Saturday Morning Gaming: Children of Morta

I beat Hades. I beat it and then I beat it again and again. I upgraded all of the original weapons. I unlocked all of the alternate weapons. I fully upgraded 2 out of 3 of the alternate weapons. I fulfilled every prophecy. I maxed out all of the keepsakes. I maxed out all of the companions. I was tempted to buy everything that the contractors had to offer and upgrade all of the alternate weapons fully, but I just stalled out and said “you know what? I will get the 2nd of Skelly’s statues instead!”

And I got the second statue instead.

And now that’s it. I can’t play it anymore. I might, theoretically, be able to get a handful more victories out of the game and do some of that stuff… but I’ve defeated a maxed-out Hades with half the weapons and I *STILL* need more than 50 Titan’s Bloods to upgrade *ALL* of the weapons and I’m pretty sure that I don’t have 25 more victories in me. Not with each incrementally tougher than the previous. I have reached the part of the asymptote that has stopped being fun.

But, man, when I put that controller down, I missed it. Dang, I missed it.

And then I remembered that I had purchased Children of Morta during last year’s summer sale and I never got into it. Maybe I should finally try it, I thought to myself.

HOLY COW. It’s Hades. But different.

Here’s the basic conceit: You are a member of the Bergson Clan. This is one of those families that shows up in Fantasy Novels. Approximately one jillion aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, every single one of them beautiful, every single one of them differently precocious, every single one of them suitable for dungeon diving.

When you first begin playing, you play as John. The Father in the story. You’ve got a sword and shield. There is corruption in the land and your mother Margaret, Matriarch of the Bergsons, wants you to go investigate it. She’s the herbalist and healer and mystic of the family and she gives you a shard of the Great Crystal of Something or Other in the basement so that, when death approaches, you will immediately teleport home.

As you go out and investigate the corruption, you are quickly joined by your daughter Linda. She’s got a bow. And you find out that, to address the corruption, you have to go down into the Caves of Something Or Other and fight your way through.

You’ll die quickly, of course, and the shard of the Great Crystal of Something or Other will teleport you back. And you’ll get a piece of story. And now you can go down into the caves again and get a little further. And as you explore the procedurally generated Caves of Something or Other you will find various things that will temporarily improve this run and this run only, that will permanently improve this run and this run only, and gold. Gold, gold, gold. You get back to your home base and you can spend that gold to purchase permanent upgrades for your entire family. Have more hit points! Do more damage! Run a little faster! Collect more gold! Have your temporary upgrades last longer!

And you’ll explore the caves a little longer and be able to survive a little longer and with each run, you’ll get a little more XP and a little more gold and both will allow you to go up levels and get farther into the dungeon before dying (er, almost dying and being teleported back) and then, eventually, you’ll be strong enough to make it to the story event in the dungeon! And that will nudge the story along. And nudging the story along will unlock more brothers and sisters and as each gets unlocked, you’ll get more people who you can upgrade and send into the dungeons to kill monsters and collect gold and find the next event that will nudge the story along.

In Hades, you picked which weapon you were going to fight with this run. In Children of Morta, you pick which family member you’re going to fight with. Do you want the bow? The sword and shield? The dual daggers? The kung-fu?

There are hints of who will be unlocked next, of course. But you have to progress the story to see how it progresses.

Now there are three major differences between this game and Hades: graphics, difficulty level, and relationship to upgrades. For one, the graphics are pixel graphics. True, aren’t all graphics pixel graphics? But, in this case, they’re going for something more old-schooly than appearing hand-drawn. Behold:

Here is the outside of the house they live in:

And here’s a peek inside:

See? There’s big brother meditating on his bed and little brother and big sis playing with the cat and dad is reading a book by the fireplace.

Wandering outside to the yard, we see Grandmama helping train little sis with her magic.

I mean, this is a 1980’s Fantasy Novel. Like, in the *GOOD* way.

Well, after you catch up with the fam and see what they’re doing, it’s time to go back down into the dungeon. There you will find monsters:

Loot:

Obelisks:

Trials:

And Treasure:

Before you fight the level’s boss, you might even get a store:

See? That’s all pixel graphics instead of the vaguely more realistic style of Hades. One thing that the pixels do is they allow for a little more creative tension. Like, you will encounter the occasional atrocity. A massacre of pilgrims, the corruption demanding a sacrifice of an animal, or some seriously messed up monsters. Something that might wander towards “offensive” in a more realistic style is simultaneously more cartoony and more horrible in pixel graphics. It’s a weird tension.

Another place where the game differs from Hades is in difficulty.

I’m sure you remember playing Hades and not getting to the 1st Level Boss Fight the first time you played. Then, after a handful of runs, getting there (I got killed by her on run #5). Then, after a couple more, finally beating the first level (run #7). Climb, plateau, climb, plateau. I finally killed the boss of Asphodel on run #26. Finally killed the Champions on run #51. I didn’t feel like I really got *STUCK* until I met Hades Himself. It was Run #81 where I finally beat the game. (And it wasn’t until run #100 until I beat it again.)

Well, in Morta, I don’t know how many runs I’ve done but I’ve done enough to get Dad to level 9, big sis and little bro to level 8, big bro to level 6, and I haven’t even *SEEN* the boss of the second level.

It’s tougher. (Still fun! But the climb is steeper than Hades.)

Also, the relationship to upgrades is different. You pick up gold and can upgrade stuff like your chance to critically hit or base damage or base hit points. But you know how you’d pick up a boon from Zeus or Poseidon or whatever in Hades? In this, you’ve got random chances to pick up various upgrades in various rooms. Like, see the trial picture up there? After you beat the trial, you something similar to a boon. Maybe it’ll give you a robot sidekick that you don’t have to manage. Maybe you’ll get an item that you can choose when you use it. A temporary shield, maybe. A fireball that is usable every 45 seconds. (It’s a *BIG* fireball.)

Maybe you’ll get a rune that will modify your attacks. Like, when you use your special attack, your little brother will add his knife attack to it. Or give you more damage with each consecutive hit. Or *SOMETHING*.

But then you die and then you’re back to square one. Or square whatever square it is when you’ve purchased a handful of upgrades:

When you played Hades, you knew that you would get a specific thing at the end of the level. Sometimes it let you choose which of two or three things it’d be. Not here! Not in Morta! Instead, every monster a slot machine. Sometimes the slots are loose… and sometimes you get ripped off. And then you play again.

Is it as *GOOD* as Hades? No. I don’t think it is. But Hades was an inside-the-park-Grand-Slam. Holy cow. That game was amazing. Children of Morta is a stand-up triple. If Hades didn’t exist, I’d probably think it was better. As it is, I’m stuck comparing it to Hades.

But if you *LOVED* Hades (but, jeez, you just can’t play it anymore…), then you should pick up Children of Morta. It’ll scratch the itch that you had previously rubbed raw. (And, hey, right now? It’s 50% off!)

So… what are you playing?

(Featured image is a screenshot of the title screen, taken by the author.)