The first iteration of the game is naturally a Shoot ’em Up. Fighting hordes of enemies in a cityscape.
The game is supposed to be about recurring challenge, with some bosses as checkpoints that grant you permanent upgrades.
This is also when the “Fully Diegetic” idea started to kick off. I want players to have a companion commenting on their every defeat (which I didn’t know Hades do this back then), and by defeat, being actually dead.
And since after death players have to restart the whole run, naturally they need to recollect their gear from their corpse.
There’s also an idea about strategically placing your corpse as a back up for more shield/health to recover during fight.