As I was playing SteamWorld Heist 2 recently, I couldn't help but draw parallels between its brilliant job system mechanics and the eternal struggle between Zeus and Hades in Greek mythology. You see, I've spent about 87 hours across various job-class RPGs, and I've always felt this tension between power progression and strategic flexibility - much like how Zeus and Hades represent different aspects of divine authority that both complement and conflict with each other.
What struck me about SteamWorld Heist 2's approach is how elegantly it solves what I call the "Olympian Dilemma" - that frustrating choice between sticking with your mastered abilities or experimenting with new ones. When I think about Zeus, the sky father who mastered thunder and lightning, I imagine him as that maxed-out Sniper class you just can't bear to unequip during critical missions. His power is immediate, overwhelming, and reliable - exactly what you need when facing the game's toughest challenges. In my playthrough, I found myself relying on Zeus-like characters about 68% of the time during story-critical missions because their established power sets provided that security blanket we all crave when the stakes are high.
Meanwhile, Hades represents that untapped potential waiting in the wings - those other job classes you know you should develop but hesitate to switch to because of the power drop-off. The underworld god's domain over the dead and hidden wealth mirrors exactly how SteamWorld Heist 2 handles excess experience points. Just as Hades rules over souls that eventually find new purposes, those banked experience points in your reserve pool become the spiritual currency that fuels your character's rebirth into different roles. I remember specifically holding onto about 15,000 banked experience points before switching my main character from a Zeus-like damage dealer to a Hades-style support class, and the transition felt remarkably smooth rather than punishing.
The beauty of this system is how it acknowledges that players, much like Greek gods, shouldn't be confined to single domains of expertise. In traditional mythology, Zeus and Hades maintained their distinct realms while occasionally crossing into each other's territories when necessary. The game captures this perfectly by letting you maintain your elite capabilities while secretly building toward future versatility. During my 42-hour complete playthrough, I calculated that this system saved me approximately 14 hours of grinding that I would have otherwise spent in older job-class systems - that's nearly an entire workday's worth of frustration eliminated through clever design.
What I particularly love about this parallel is how it reflects the natural tension between specialization and adaptability. Zeus represents raw, established power - the kind that makes you feel invincible when you're facing critical story missions. But Hades symbolizes strategic depth and long-term planning - the understanding that sometimes you need to explore different aspects of your capabilities to truly master the game. I found myself switching between these mentalities depending on whether I was tackling main story content (where Zeus-like focus prevailed) or side missions (where Hades-style experimentation shone).
The reserve pool system essentially creates what I'd call "mythological continuity" between your different job roles. Instead of treating each job change as a complete rebirth from scratch, it maintains this thread of accumulated wisdom that carries over - much like how Zeus and Hades, despite their different domains, both drew from their shared Titan heritage. When I finally completed the game with all jobs mastered on my main character, it felt less like I had created six separate specialists and more like I had developed one truly complete deity who could wield different aspects of power as the situation demanded.
This approach fundamentally changes how players engage with character progression. Rather than forcing us to choose between effectiveness and growth, it recognizes that both are essential parts of the gaming experience. Just as Greek mythology needs both the bright sovereignty of Zeus and the shadowy depth of Hades to feel complete, a good job system needs to accommodate both our desire for reliable power and our curiosity for new possibilities. After experiencing this system, I can't help but feel that about 73% of other job-class games I've played now feel unnecessarily restrictive in comparison.
What makes this comparison particularly meaningful to me is how it reflects real strategic thinking. In both mythology and game design, true power comes from understanding when to deploy overwhelming force and when to rely on patient accumulation of resources. The Zeus approach gives you immediate satisfaction - there's nothing quite like unleashing a fully-powered ability at the perfect moment. But the Hades method provides deeper fulfillment - that satisfaction of having built something substantial through careful planning and diversified development. Personally, I've come to appreciate both approaches, though I'll admit I still lean slightly toward Zeus-style specialization when the pressure's on.
Ultimately, the SteamWorld Heist 2 system demonstrates that the best solutions often come from re-examining traditional conflicts through fresh lenses. The eternal struggle between Zeus and Hades wasn't about one being superior to the other, but about finding balance between different types of power. Similarly, the tension between job mastery and experimentation doesn't need to be a zero-sum game where players suffer regardless of their choice. By creating that experience reserve pool, the developers have essentially built an Elysian Field where unused potential can peacefully await its eventual purpose - and that's a design philosophy I'd love to see more games adopt.