It is dawn gamers, and I have chosen this moment of delirium to talk about the best game I played all year and what is likely going to be the best game I will play all year: Hylics 2.
WARNING: UNASHAMED GUSHING TO FOLLOW
Hylics is a game that caught my interest on looks alone back when it came out in 2015. If you are unfamiliar, the art style is wholly digitized claymation. Moreover, it was made in RPG Maker which massaged the nostalgic bit of my brain that remembers the program fondly. It was a game about a moon headed person trying to topple the despotic ruler with a more different moon head from atop his throne on… uhh… the moon. Most of the dialogue was random text generation and aside from what I’d consider a pretty clever way to self regulate difficulty by way of only allowing character advancement after you were wiped out in battle there was little to this rpg outside of its aesthetics. (this is not a dig by the way if the aesthetics are good enough I will replay mario for the 99th time)
So I play the cool vidcon and I say to myself “wow this is a pretty cool vidcon I shall recall it fondly from time to time”
Then in 2018 Hylics 2 is announced. The trailer looked incredible. However, updates from then on were pretty few and far between. I was certain I was about to get Barkley 2’d. I was going to get vaporwared.
Nope! It came out this month! And it is an absolute joyous trip to experience. I recommend it. After the following gif I will probably talk at length about it, so if you want to go in totally blind probably don’t read more?
OKAY so!
I love this game. I cannot stress enough how important the visual style and music make this game what it is. HOWEVER the gameplay feels even more well thought out. Unlike a lot of rpgs where it feels like the glut of enemies you face only exist to slow you down and wear you out, each fight you encounter in this game WILL require you to think and cannot be defeated simply by mashing the attack command for all your party members. You will find that encounters tend to always come with 3+ enemies and identifying the primary targets and what Gestures (i.e spells) will be most useful to you is pivotal. Additionally, each of your characters has a signature spell that only they can cast. These spells can be powered up and changed by Charging. Charge is an interesting mechanic because similarly to most JRPGs it enhances the raw damage output of your moves but for the signature abilities you possess it also modifies what they do (for example Pongorma’s signature ability Lightning, when charged up does not stun himself, deals mroe damage, and inflicts the burning status effect on the enemy). Status effects by the way, are pivotal to being successful in this battle system btw. Opening up with a round of status inflicting moves is a very viable strategy that I definitely figured out by myself and nobody had to tell me to do it.
Okay so, battles are great but… long? And arduous? That sounds exhausting. Good news, coward! Enemies are on the overworld and are reasonably straightforward to avoid because this rpg has teh best movement of any rpg ever. period. It is literally the only rpg I’ve ever played where moving around the world is fun as hell.
The game puts a pretty heavy emphasis on exploring. This is clearly in line with what the game is trying to be. The creator wants you to gorge yourself on the visual feast he has laid out for you, and so has armed you with cutlery so ergonomic that your hands will ache to hold them even after the meal is done. There is a single caveat:
you need to play this game with a controller
I started playing this with a keyboard and it felt like absolute hogshit. A thumbstick and proper button layout is a must or else movement will be excruciating.
So what else? The game still has the mechanic intact where you cannot reasonably advance your character without dying, again having the difficulty self regulate. However, if you are a True Gamer you may further challenge yourself by playing on the hard mode. I am not a fan personally because it is the style of hard mode where Their numbers Very Big and thats just not to my taste. The story for this game is a little more coherent and involved than the last one albeit still quite simple. For what its worth, Hylics is greek for matter (I think) and is also linked to some gnostic mysticism which if you are horny for deeper meanings you could maybe read into.
Probably though the last thing that really delighted me was that the game never got old. Its only a 10 hour game (or maybe closer to 14 if you, like myself really try to wring dry every last droplet of content from it). One way that it stays fresh is breaking up the standard JRPG business with some pretty delightful genre shifts. There is one optional segment towards the end that was very well hidden but it was such a treat because it emulated one of my favorite styles of old rpg. If nothing else, it was a game that appealed to my sensibilities in the best way possible.
Get it on itch it’s only fifteen bucks. You can get it on steam too for convenience but c’monnnn.
If you have played it or do play it please talk to me about it I WANNA TALK ABOUT IT DAMMIT
