Hades

Hades is Supergiant’s roguelite about Zagreus, the son of the Greek god of the dead, fighting his way out of the underworld one run at a time. It won a stack of game-of-the-year awards in 2020 for a reason: the combat is fast and readable, the writing lands, and the story moves forward whether you win or lose, so a failed run still pays you back in plot. For a handheld player it has one feature most multi-device games lack.

It shares a save. Own Hades on PC and on Switch and your progress syncs both ways through an in-game menu, so you can clear a few chambers at your desk and pick up the same run on the Switch later. That puts it ahead of most of the portable library, where each platform keeps its own siloed save. The thing to know is which platforms get the bridge, because it does not cover all of them.

Game overview

Each run starts in the House of Hades and pushes down through the chambers of the underworld: rooms of enemies, a reward at the end of each, and a boss at the close of every region. Death is the structure, not the failure. You return to the house, spend what you gathered on permanent upgrades, talk to a cast that remembers what happened last time, and head back down a little stronger. The story unfolds across dozens of attempts, which is why losing never feels like wasted time.

The combat carries it. Six weapons, a deep set of boons from the Olympian gods, and build variety that turns each run into a different experiment. The narrative-through-repetition design was the breakthrough that a lot of later roguelites copied, and the original still does it best.

Hades is single-player. There is no co-op or multiplayer of any kind.

Where you can play it

Most places, with one gap.

On PC it is on Steam and the Epic Games Store, and on PC Game Pass through the Microsoft Store. It is not on GOG. The Steam build is Steam Deck Verified, and Supergiant recommends the Vulkan renderer for the smoothest run on the Deck.

On console it is on Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One and Series, and it sits on Game Pass again after a September 2025 return. On a Switch 2 the original plays through backward compatibility. The 120fps Switch 2 Edition you may have seen is for Hades II, not this game.

There is no current mobile version. The only one was an iOS release through Netflix Games in 2024, and Netflix dropped it in July 2025. There was never an Android version.

Cross-saves and keeping your progress

This is the section that sets Hades apart, so it is worth the detail.

Hades has real cross-save between PC and Switch. Open the in-game Cross-Saves menu, link your PC store account (Steam or Epic), and your meta-progression and your current run carry between the two platforms in both directions. You need to own a copy on each, but once it is linked, a desk-and-sofa setup keeps a single file. For a roguelite where you pour hours into permanent upgrades, that is the feature that matters most.

The limits are worth stating. The bridge is PC to Switch only. PlayStation has no cross-save at all, and the PS4 and PS5 versions do not even share a save with each other. Xbox syncs between the PC Microsoft Store version and the Xbox console through your Microsoft account, but that link stays inside the Xbox world and does not reach the Switch. So the clean handheld story is the PC-and-Switch pairing; the other platforms each keep their own save.

The run structure suits portable play on its own terms. A death returns you to the hub with your upgrades intact, and you can save and exit mid-run and resume later, so a commute is enough for a real attempt whether or not you finish it.

Features that matter on the move

• PC-to-Switch cross-save. The standout for a multi-device player: one save across your desk PC and your Switch, set up in the Cross-Saves menu.
• Steam Deck Verified. Runs well on the Deck on the Vulkan renderer, and the run-based pace is gentle on battery.
• Lose and still progress. A failed run banks upgrades and story, so short sessions move you forward even when you die.
• Save and exit mid-run. Pause a run and come back to it, which fits a commute or a flight.
• Single-player and offline. No connection needed once installed.

Recommended setup

The pairing to aim for is PC and Switch, because that is where the cross-save lives. Play at your desk on a Steam Deck or a PC, carry the Switch for the sofa and the road, and link the two in the Cross-Saves menu before you start a file you care about. On any platform the 8BitDo Pro 2 is a strong pad for a game this reliant on dashing and attacking.

If you play on PlayStation or only on Xbox, you still get a superb roguelite without the handoff to a handheld. Pick the platform you will spend the most time on, since the save will live there.

See our cross-saves guide for how Hades’ PC-to-Switch link compares with the rest of the portable library, the controllers guide for the best pads across devices, and the Steam Deck vs Switch 2 cornerstone for building the desk-and-handheld setup that gets the most from the cross-save.

Verdict

Hades is a high-water mark for the roguelite, and years on it holds up: sharp combat, a story that rewards every loss, and the kind of run-based pace built for short sessions. For a handheld player the clincher is the cross-save, the PC-to-Switch link that lets one file follow you from the desk to the sofa, which most of the genre still cannot do. Set up that pairing, link it before your first real run, and Hades becomes the portable roguelite you never have to restart on a second screen.