Hades 1 & 2 on sale together — only the Switch games worth buying this week (from ₩3,290)

This post is the record of our fifth-week September Nintendo Switch eShop sale episode. The prices on the cards above are eShop prices from that week, while the price graph at the bottom of each game page tracks Steam (PC) — a different store. If you’re reading this later, the deals may be over, so read what follows as a guide to what to pick first.

The headline: Hades and Hades II dropped together

It’s rare for both games in a series to hit a sale at the same time. The first is down 70% to ₩8,580 and the sequel is down 30% to ₩24,360, so both together still cost less than Hades II’s full price of ₩34,800. Both sit at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam, so quality isn’t the question — order is.

Start with Hades or Hades II?

Story-wise, the first game comes first. Hades II’s protagonist Melinoë is the younger sister of Zagreus, the first game’s hero, and knowing that family story changes how the sequel’s dialogue lands. The structure differs too. The first game has you dig into one route, climbing up out of the Underworld, run after run; the sequel offers two routes — one down into the depths and one up to the surface — and layers witchcraft and material gathering on top. There’s more to learn at once in Hades II. If roguelikes are new to you, the cheaper first game is the safer way to find out whether the genre clicks. Some Hades II reviews also note the combat feels slower than the original, so if the first game’s speed was what you loved, go in knowing that.

Not the same kind of hit feel — Tails of Iron, Hades, ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4

All three are about swinging a weapon, but they ask opposite things of you. Tails of Iron is soulslike trading of blows — read the enemy’s attack, block or dodge — and one slip costs you a lot; plenty of players say it’s spicier than its ₩3,290 price suggests. Hades is action too, but you pour it on fast, and since dying is how you progress, failure stings less. ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 is the lightest of the three: a musou where you sweep away thousands at once, so thrill beats tension — though players note the post-story content gets repetitive. Want tension? Tails of Iron. Enjoy repetition? Hades. Want to switch your brain off? One Piece.

Games for one, games for friends

Coffee Talk is the quietest game in the lineup. It’s a visual novel where you listen to customers at a café that opens only at night, so reading matters more than controls, and it’s the best fit for playing in handheld mode lying down. UNO sits at the opposite end. Everyone knows the rules, but reviews point out first that it only works if you have people to play with — one Korean reviewer bought it because they had nobody to go to a board game café with, only to find they had nobody to play this with either. Also note the Nintendo version has no Korean. The new release Viractal is a friends game too: up to three players form a party, move across a board with dice and fight with cards, so if you have two friends, it’s the game you’ll hold onto longest this week.

Good ratings, split opinions — Hello Neighbor and Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Both games are rated on the positive side overall, but reading the reviews, the reasons people love them and hate them split sharply. Hello Neighbor’s hook is sneaking through a house while a neighbor learns your routes, but complaints about stiff controls, physics bugs and an over-sensitive chase leaving no room to solve puzzles keep coming. Assassin’s Creed Shadows gets little argument over its graphics and seasons, but opinions split over the repetitive Ubisoft-style open-world grind. One Korean review sums it up: if you enjoyed Odyssey for its Ubisoft-style open world you’ll have fun, and if not, nothing is worse. For both, check your own taste for the series or genre first.

Two new releases — Viractal and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

Viractal is a board-game-style RPG that launched on PC this January and comes to Switch on September 30, so it’s less a brand-new game than a port that’s already been tested. It sits at Very Positive on Steam with around 500 reviews, but a recurring complaint is that you can’t refuse card rewards, so your deck bloats against your will. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a new entry made by the teams behind Dead Cells together with Konami, starring Trevor Belmont’s daughter Rose in Paris in 1499. Neither has reviews yet for Switch, so it’s fine to wait for first impressions after launch rather than decide on price.

Check before you buy

The deals end on different dates. Hello Neighbor ends first, on September 30, and Viractal’s 20% pre-order discount also runs until launch that same day. The rest are spread between October 7 and 11. Check your hardware too: the ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows listings in this sale are Switch 2 only and won’t run on the original Switch. Everything except UNO supports Korean.