HADES SKELLY LOCKED HEART UPDATE

In a few cases, doing the above will allow you to start a sidequest.

It's a fuzzy feeling, watching Zagreus get closer to everyone around him even as he tries his damnedest to leave their side.

You can rank up bonds with more than a dozen NPCs.

An early flashback establishes that, to help Zagreus find information on his mother, Hypnos put the entire House except Nyx to sleep with none the wiser as a favor to him.

Between him and Nyx, Zagreus' close environment is so overwhelmingly positive it easily makes up for Lord Hades' dickery. He genuinely believes that Zagreus is right to pursue his quest and that if he fights hard enough, he'll complete it.

Achilles serves as the absolute best confidant, having trained Zagreus personally, clearly looked out for him, and showed nothing but faith and confidence in him.

Even after it comes out that Zagreus isn't her biological son, she admits that she will always care for him as one, as exemplified by the line that accompanies her keepsake when you complete her story.

Nyx, in contrast to her usual characterizations in Greek Lore (that is to say, a terrifying primordial being that even the likes of Zeus wouldn't dare to cross), is portrayed here as an unceasingly personable, friendly, and caring mother who does nothing but think of her sons' and daughters' welfare and goes out of her way to look after them.

If you buy the lyre, Zagreus eventually gets good at it with enough practice and encouragement to the point that Orpheus himself says they have a second court musician.

This does come back to hilariously bite Zagreus later, but Orpheus is so ecstatic to spread the stories of Zagreus' battles to the world nonetheless. He even regales the musician with highly-exaggerated stories of his battles, because it lifts the other's mood which Orpheus immediately believes. When Orpheus returns as the court musician, Zagreus does whatever he can to cheer the other person up.Whilst most of the lines for 'defeating' Cerberus fall under the field of Funny, there's at least one that definitely counts as Heartwarming.Players love that dog as much as Zagreus does.

HADES SKELLY LOCKED HEART UPDATE

As of the 'Blood Price' update in June 2020, petting Cerberus is now assigned a different button, by popular request.

The only downside to petting Cerberus was that it was linked to the same button used to gift Nectar to allies, which means that if you were low on Nectar, you had to choose between losing one or foregoing petting Cerberus.Likewise, Cerberus will not fight Zagreus either, dutifully waiting for a bargaining chip even though Hades himself ordered him to stop Zagreus, making him the only character in the game who defies Hades' direct orders. That is a testament considering that he's let absolutely nothing stop him up 'til then, including other bosses who also weren't truly out to get him, like Megaera. You can talk to him, and the interactions are no different than a pet owner lovingly chatting with their domestic dog, and you can even pet him! At the end of the Temple of Styx, Cerberus is the one boss Zagreus will absolutely refuse to fight, instead opting for another way out.

Hades skelly locked heart