Well this game was tough. I bought it I dunno how many years ago on Switch and over the years the developer has just kept putting out games or trailers for games that I also wanna play so I finally decided to commit and beat this.
After I beat this I looked up some info about it and the dev was inspired by Diablo and A Link to the Past and the world is inspired by Nausicaa. Put that together with how I saw someone musing that the gameplay feels snappy in combat like Hotline Miami and yeah that's basically this game.
You drift around a land that's worn and you can tell just by the imagery and atmosphere that it was once a prosperous place and then it was ravaged by something. More can be gleamed from the environment as you go through each of the four distinct connected lands and beat their dungeon-like areas.
Combat was punishing for me. You start with a sword, a gun with four shots, a dash move and five units of health. You build up shots for the gun by hitting things with the sword. It doesn't have to be enemies though which I used to my advantage at one point and just smacked breakable objects in the world to get more shots. This actually pretty cleverly ties into the collectibles aspect of the game as there's bits to collect and as you get four of them they make one currency unit. You then build up enough of those and THEN you can buy upgrades for your items/movement/health in the hub town.
I did some searching around but ultimately got probably a fourth of the upgrades total so my playthrough was subsequently that much more difficult. It's a game where you advance in a screen and enemies notice you. If you aren't methodical with it you get ganged up on and die and go back to where the room started. There was a trick to this that I learned while playing is that if you enter a room and die, you go back to the start with the same amount of health and health packs. However, if you clear an area and go back through the door then go back in, it'll save the progress of how many enemies you killed so far. It was this way that made my playthrough more tolerable without getting every upgrade.
That's about as helpful as a fourth bear in Goldilocks for boss fights though. It's here that I felt the difficulty was a bit disjointed though it could be due to the game letting you tackle the initial areas in whatever order you want. Each boss was a definitely test of skill up to the point you got to them and even with upgrades the game still wants you to be able to use your skillset to the fullest. It took me quite a few tries (and docking the console and using a controller because fuck playing this in handheld mode) but I was able to best all of them and while they initially felt disproportionate to the area leading up to them (usually) I found myself enjoying the battles overall. I'd go as far as to say the final boss is its own reward too as it had a moveset and fighting style that just felt so satisfying to contend with (after I went out and got one more upgrade).
Hyper Light Drifter is a satisfying game that wears its influence on its sleeve. You get as much out of it as you put into it where upgrades can make or break your enjoyment and the environment does the heavy lifting for the story. You can engage with it to the fullest or go through it quick for more of a challenge but I think either way you end up with a good experience. Recommended to fans of maybe SNES era Nintendo games, neat environments, and a bit of challenge. Definitely looking forward to playing their next game soon.
After I beat this I looked up some info about it and the dev was inspired by Diablo and A Link to the Past and the world is inspired by Nausicaa. Put that together with how I saw someone musing that the gameplay feels snappy in combat like Hotline Miami and yeah that's basically this game.
You drift around a land that's worn and you can tell just by the imagery and atmosphere that it was once a prosperous place and then it was ravaged by something. More can be gleamed from the environment as you go through each of the four distinct connected lands and beat their dungeon-like areas.
Combat was punishing for me. You start with a sword, a gun with four shots, a dash move and five units of health. You build up shots for the gun by hitting things with the sword. It doesn't have to be enemies though which I used to my advantage at one point and just smacked breakable objects in the world to get more shots. This actually pretty cleverly ties into the collectibles aspect of the game as there's bits to collect and as you get four of them they make one currency unit. You then build up enough of those and THEN you can buy upgrades for your items/movement/health in the hub town.
I did some searching around but ultimately got probably a fourth of the upgrades total so my playthrough was subsequently that much more difficult. It's a game where you advance in a screen and enemies notice you. If you aren't methodical with it you get ganged up on and die and go back to where the room started. There was a trick to this that I learned while playing is that if you enter a room and die, you go back to the start with the same amount of health and health packs. However, if you clear an area and go back through the door then go back in, it'll save the progress of how many enemies you killed so far. It was this way that made my playthrough more tolerable without getting every upgrade.
That's about as helpful as a fourth bear in Goldilocks for boss fights though. It's here that I felt the difficulty was a bit disjointed though it could be due to the game letting you tackle the initial areas in whatever order you want. Each boss was a definitely test of skill up to the point you got to them and even with upgrades the game still wants you to be able to use your skillset to the fullest. It took me quite a few tries (and docking the console and using a controller because fuck playing this in handheld mode) but I was able to best all of them and while they initially felt disproportionate to the area leading up to them (usually) I found myself enjoying the battles overall. I'd go as far as to say the final boss is its own reward too as it had a moveset and fighting style that just felt so satisfying to contend with (after I went out and got one more upgrade).
Hyper Light Drifter is a satisfying game that wears its influence on its sleeve. You get as much out of it as you put into it where upgrades can make or break your enjoyment and the environment does the heavy lifting for the story. You can engage with it to the fullest or go through it quick for more of a challenge but I think either way you end up with a good experience. Recommended to fans of maybe SNES era Nintendo games, neat environments, and a bit of challenge. Definitely looking forward to playing their next game soon.