this is the BEST story game to ever be released:
10/10 soundtrack
10/10 art
10/10 gameplay
this is one of the most emotional games ive ever played and i unironically believe this is better than any AAA story game
10/10 soundtrack
10/10 art
10/10 gameplay
this is one of the most emotional games ive ever played and i unironically believe this is better than any AAA story game
The ending was bittersweet but i loved it
Eu não sei o que pensar de Hyper Light Drifter, tem horas que o combate dele é incrível, tem horas que irrita. Ele definitivamente tem muita personalidade.
Wordless narrative open to interpretation, great visuals and music, satisfying gameplay. Higher on the difficulty scale than most of my library, but everything that kills me is so pretty...! Also a ton of optional challenges and bonuses for those skilled completionists among you
Gostei do combate e não muito da exploração por causa dos segredos que a maioria tinha que ficar se arrastando na parede para se encontrar.
De resto é um ótimo jogo.
De resto é um ótimo jogo.
Extremely fucking cool, I need to go back and 100% this.
Cool visuals and kinda fun but I have absolutely no idea of what the point of the game is
Got me through a tough time this game did <3
Hyper Light Drifter is special and has a lot of heart, but it's hard to ignore some of its opaque design decisions and janky combat. When you're feeling the combat, it's really good, but you can definitely tell when you're stretching the limits of how smooth the combat can be. Fortunately, I found the game to be relatively forgiving. From a completionist perspective, some of the combat challenges and secrets make you want to bang your head against the wall, but playing the game casually is an overall wonderful experience. Hyper Light Drifter has my favorite OST and the pixel art environments are breathtaking.
What da dog doin?
This review contains spoilers
The game creates an unpleasant atmosphere. A combination of loneliness, anxiety ,and the feeling of being lost (It is was due to the music, game design, and lack of dialogs, that it was possible to generate this feeling).
The pixel art, although beautiful, is sometimes confusing.
There is so much the game doesn´t tell you that it makes it very easy to get lost. For the same reason buying upgrades feels like a roulette (you have an idea of what it does but you are not sure).
The gameplay never feels fluent, you constantly get stuck between animations and the transition between attacks is slow (you can get stun locked by some enemies).
The story was never clear.
I hated that the dash on keyboard was to the mouse´s direction instead of being controlled with "WASD".
At first, I liked how it promoted the exploration by not telling you where to go, but the lack of an explanation of some mechanics (invisible blocks), in combination with how hidden some points of interest where, and the lack of depth, made it so that in some areas, instead of exploring new zone, or fighting enemies I would have to spend a lot of time circling around the area looking for what I had missed.
The pixel art, although beautiful, is sometimes confusing.
There is so much the game doesn´t tell you that it makes it very easy to get lost. For the same reason buying upgrades feels like a roulette (you have an idea of what it does but you are not sure).
The gameplay never feels fluent, you constantly get stuck between animations and the transition between attacks is slow (you can get stun locked by some enemies).
The story was never clear.
I hated that the dash on keyboard was to the mouse´s direction instead of being controlled with "WASD".
At first, I liked how it promoted the exploration by not telling you where to go, but the lack of an explanation of some mechanics (invisible blocks), in combination with how hidden some points of interest where, and the lack of depth, made it so that in some areas, instead of exploring new zone, or fighting enemies I would have to spend a lot of time circling around the area looking for what I had missed.
This is one of those masterpiece games that you get hooked on for a couple of weeks and feel deep in your bones that something about your existence has changed. Hyper Light Drifter is a culmination of so many excellent and unique ideas, on every level of its design and execution, that you can't help but feel it's some higher level of art that can only be experienced in this medium of video games.
I think something that immediately stands out right from when you start the game is that there isn't any voice acting... and there isn't any dialogue or readable language anywhere in the game beyond the start menu and the pause menu. The story is masterfully crafted and told through visuals alone, and the environmental storytelling is so rich that you can clearly connect some dots with the world building, and the ancient civilizations, and the struggles of the inhabitants of the land. It is hard to explain without playing it, but it's something I really appreciated because I felt like I was the one putting the puzzle pieces of the narrative together as I recall flashes of images and the environment and string it together into a crazy weaving plot. Very cool.
Speaking of environments, these are breathtakingly beautiful. All the sprite work is phenomenal as well. There's some spots where I just sat looking at how pristine the landscapes were. Man. They did such a good job. Very beautiful game.
The soundtrack is another thing. Incredibly atmospheric. Sets the tone exceptionally well. You'll hear a few background instruments hum mysteriously as you traverse the dreary land, you'll hear a couple more frenetic yet excellent sounding battle tracks, and a couple of tracks in between. In any case, you can be certain that your time in Hyper Light Drifter will be well accented with appropriately delectable music.
And what is it that you'll do in Hyper Light Drifter? I've yet to mention the combat, and besides exploring and some simple platforming puzzles, it is the bread and butter of the game. It's simple to learn, but hard to master. You have limited ammo and a couple gun types for long range attacks, and you have a sword for short range attacks. Landing sword hits returns ammo to your equipped gun. There's also a dodge that makes you briefly invincible. You'll traverse the world fighting enemies and getting upgrades (in a very very loose metroid-vania fashion), with your main task being to collect 4 of an item, in order to face a final boss.
Combat is fast and fluid. The enemies are unique and it's fun learning to counter each one and their individual move sets. Bosses and mini bosses abound and they are really fun to challenge. But if you find this to be too easy, you get a much harder difficulty after your first completion of the game. I found the difficulty curve on normal to be perfectly paced, and when I finished I did think I was well prepared to try the more challenging difficulty.
Ultimately, I really fell in love with Hyper Light Drifter and would recommend it to just about anybody. These days you can find it for pretty cheap, as it is quite a number of years old now, but it is such a good game that I think it's well worth your time, and your money. If you're on the fence get it! I really believe it is worth the journey and experience, and I hope that many more people continue to get the opportunity to play it. Thanks to my bud for gifting this to me over the holidays! I played literally all of it on plane rides lol (hence the offline playtime that did not count)
I think something that immediately stands out right from when you start the game is that there isn't any voice acting... and there isn't any dialogue or readable language anywhere in the game beyond the start menu and the pause menu. The story is masterfully crafted and told through visuals alone, and the environmental storytelling is so rich that you can clearly connect some dots with the world building, and the ancient civilizations, and the struggles of the inhabitants of the land. It is hard to explain without playing it, but it's something I really appreciated because I felt like I was the one putting the puzzle pieces of the narrative together as I recall flashes of images and the environment and string it together into a crazy weaving plot. Very cool.
Speaking of environments, these are breathtakingly beautiful. All the sprite work is phenomenal as well. There's some spots where I just sat looking at how pristine the landscapes were. Man. They did such a good job. Very beautiful game.
The soundtrack is another thing. Incredibly atmospheric. Sets the tone exceptionally well. You'll hear a few background instruments hum mysteriously as you traverse the dreary land, you'll hear a couple more frenetic yet excellent sounding battle tracks, and a couple of tracks in between. In any case, you can be certain that your time in Hyper Light Drifter will be well accented with appropriately delectable music.
And what is it that you'll do in Hyper Light Drifter? I've yet to mention the combat, and besides exploring and some simple platforming puzzles, it is the bread and butter of the game. It's simple to learn, but hard to master. You have limited ammo and a couple gun types for long range attacks, and you have a sword for short range attacks. Landing sword hits returns ammo to your equipped gun. There's also a dodge that makes you briefly invincible. You'll traverse the world fighting enemies and getting upgrades (in a very very loose metroid-vania fashion), with your main task being to collect 4 of an item, in order to face a final boss.
Combat is fast and fluid. The enemies are unique and it's fun learning to counter each one and their individual move sets. Bosses and mini bosses abound and they are really fun to challenge. But if you find this to be too easy, you get a much harder difficulty after your first completion of the game. I found the difficulty curve on normal to be perfectly paced, and when I finished I did think I was well prepared to try the more challenging difficulty.
Ultimately, I really fell in love with Hyper Light Drifter and would recommend it to just about anybody. These days you can find it for pretty cheap, as it is quite a number of years old now, but it is such a good game that I think it's well worth your time, and your money. If you're on the fence get it! I really believe it is worth the journey and experience, and I hope that many more people continue to get the opportunity to play it. Thanks to my bud for gifting this to me over the holidays! I played literally all of it on plane rides lol (hence the offline playtime that did not count)
My five hours of playtime felt longer than my just completed 27 hour playthrough of Hollow Knight. The game is extremely frustrating and yes this may just be a “get gud” typa thing for me, but the game design here is so brain dead and boring that I lack motivation to overcome challenges. I got to the fourth area, saw I needed 8 modules to get to the boss, and officially shut the game off. The structure is so tedious - obtain 4 modules and beat a boss in four separate areas. It’s basically like if BOTW was just the divine beasts for the whole game without 97% of the rest of the game. Shits ass
divertido de jugar pero un poco repetitivo
One of the coolest games I've ever played. Aside from options screens and the rare prompt, there is almost no text in this game. You piece together the story through visuals alone. You scan traces of the environment for what might've come before. It feels like you're a detective.
But it does get ultra-cryptic at times, and I can't say I feel motivated to explore every nook and cranny of this sometimes unforgiving map. Especially when the secrets are ridiculously well hidden―I don't want to hunt for hours just to find an additional key or shard. Some of the secrets felt unsatisfying since there's no dialogue or material reward. Oh look, an NPC in an alley. He makes a new type of grunt. Great.
Combat was slick, precise. Unlike other games of the genre, it feels like you actually need to use strategy in order not to die. Most of the time, you can't just run in and slash 'em up. You need to snipe, use cover; for bosses, you might need to bank your shots and alternate with your sword. It certainly adds layers, and even in a room that I've been in multiple times, I still enjoy busting up the enemies in new ways.
I appreciate how much this game leaves below the surface. To beat the main story, you don't need to unlock basically any secrets. But if you want to go deep, it's there.
I probably won't, personally.
But it does get ultra-cryptic at times, and I can't say I feel motivated to explore every nook and cranny of this sometimes unforgiving map. Especially when the secrets are ridiculously well hidden―I don't want to hunt for hours just to find an additional key or shard. Some of the secrets felt unsatisfying since there's no dialogue or material reward. Oh look, an NPC in an alley. He makes a new type of grunt. Great.
Combat was slick, precise. Unlike other games of the genre, it feels like you actually need to use strategy in order not to die. Most of the time, you can't just run in and slash 'em up. You need to snipe, use cover; for bosses, you might need to bank your shots and alternate with your sword. It certainly adds layers, and even in a room that I've been in multiple times, I still enjoy busting up the enemies in new ways.
I appreciate how much this game leaves below the surface. To beat the main story, you don't need to unlock basically any secrets. But if you want to go deep, it's there.
I probably won't, personally.
I really wanted to like this game. But after almost 3 hours I still have no idea what is going on or what I'm supposed to do. I like games that don't spoonfeed me everything, I like games that have weird narratives, but this one is just too much of that
Cool, cool. Where's the rest of it?
Art/environment design is beautiful, Disasterpiece's soundtrack suits the game perfectly and it hits a perfect length for the kind of game it is.
But for me, there's a lot that holds it back from being great. I found the movement to be really clunky and unresponsive, even with a lot of upgrades - the combat has a very fast pace held back by a control scheme that seemingly can't keep up with it. (This might be a switch port issue? Not sure, this was just my experience with it.) I also think the progression can be weird as it's all achieved through finding hidden modules, and often means you're just hitting every wall in search of a hidden path in order to progress.
I think ultimately it just doesn't have enough going for it at its core to make it all that unique or memorable. There's a lot of great work put into the presentation and aesthetic, but as a game it's one I find to be just kind of forgettable.
But for me, there's a lot that holds it back from being great. I found the movement to be really clunky and unresponsive, even with a lot of upgrades - the combat has a very fast pace held back by a control scheme that seemingly can't keep up with it. (This might be a switch port issue? Not sure, this was just my experience with it.) I also think the progression can be weird as it's all achieved through finding hidden modules, and often means you're just hitting every wall in search of a hidden path in order to progress.
I think ultimately it just doesn't have enough going for it at its core to make it all that unique or memorable. There's a lot of great work put into the presentation and aesthetic, but as a game it's one I find to be just kind of forgettable.
metaphorical character study of its creator that proves games are viable as an art form
This game is sooooo good and so beautiful and the atmosphere is so unique. I don't think there's anything else quite like it.
i have it on switch but there's no option for it
Hyper Light Drifter é um jogo muito especial, que te marca desde o primeiro minuto de jogo. Seu início pode causar estranheza para quem nunca experimentou um jogo em que não há diálogos e tutoriais com TEXTO, mas à medida em que o jogador vai andando e descobrindo quem ele é neste mundo e o que tem que fazer através dos elementos visuais, junto com uma trilha sonora IMPECÁVEL, vai construindo uma experiência muito única, extremamente imersiva, coisa rara de se encontrar até mesmo em jogos mais recentes.
Eu realmente não tenho medo de afirmar que esse jogo é uma obra prima. Inspirado por Zelda - a Link to the past e Diablo, seus pontos mais fortes definitivamente são as artes (um dos jogos com as melhores pixel-arts que eu já vi), seu combate desafiador e justo, com mecânicas de Dark Souls, e o incentivo constante à exploração, que é na grande maioria das vezes recompensada de maneira satisfatória. Um excelente jogo!
Eu realmente não tenho medo de afirmar que esse jogo é uma obra prima. Inspirado por Zelda - a Link to the past e Diablo, seus pontos mais fortes definitivamente são as artes (um dos jogos com as melhores pixel-arts que eu já vi), seu combate desafiador e justo, com mecânicas de Dark Souls, e o incentivo constante à exploração, que é na grande maioria das vezes recompensada de maneira satisfatória. Um excelente jogo!
Yeah I know the game is beautiful and the atmosphere is fantastic and there's no words but PLEASE pick the dash upgrade first it makes the game so much better
Um joguinho muito dahora, uma exploração bem vesta, bosses divertidos e uma arte incrível.
Perde uns pontinhos por causa de bugs que chegam a incomodar bastante, principalmente com ele parando de reconhecer controle do nada
Perde uns pontinhos por causa de bugs que chegam a incomodar bastante, principalmente com ele parando de reconhecer controle do nada
Ambiguous storytelling at its greatest.
My favourite game of all time, had me hooked from start to finish with it's incredible pixel artstyle, fluid movement and impactful combat. The game is challenging but fair, no death feels unjustified and payoff when you succeed is all the more rewarding. In the same way the puzzle aspects as well as hidden secrets feel perfectly crafted and incredibly satisfying to crack. Finally the sound design: Disasterpeace, the artist behind the OST conveys every story beat with perfection and has you on the edge of your seat at all points. All these things bring the world of hyperlight drifter to life and inspire the imaginations of players in ways that stick with you even years down the line.
My favourite game of all time, had me hooked from start to finish with it's incredible pixel artstyle, fluid movement and impactful combat. The game is challenging but fair, no death feels unjustified and payoff when you succeed is all the more rewarding. In the same way the puzzle aspects as well as hidden secrets feel perfectly crafted and incredibly satisfying to crack. Finally the sound design: Disasterpeace, the artist behind the OST conveys every story beat with perfection and has you on the edge of your seat at all points. All these things bring the world of hyperlight drifter to life and inspire the imaginations of players in ways that stick with you even years down the line.
I could probably throw around buzzwords like "soulful" or "heartfelt" all day (and i kinda want to) but honestly this is just a really beautiful game in more ways than just the visual.
A bit un-intuitive, since there's barely any instructions or text at all in the game, but the combat and artstyle makes up for it
Combat can sometimes reach a certain level of tedious but never bad enough that you wouldn't be able to get through it, just a case of trial and error; it's also not rare to get stuck trying to solve puzzles in certain areas and i did require looking up a guide at certain points but the overall experience is worth it
Combat can sometimes reach a certain level of tedious but never bad enough that you wouldn't be able to get through it, just a case of trial and error; it's also not rare to get stuck trying to solve puzzles in certain areas and i did require looking up a guide at certain points but the overall experience is worth it
It's... kinda cool? I feel like there's some missing piece of information in this story but nobody talks so I don't know.
Absolutely mesmerizing. Hyper Light Drifter somehow achieves one of my favorite narrative journeys in an indie game without a single line of text. Knowing the context of Alex Preston's health as he developed the game makes the themes present even more deep and personal.
The game strikes a great balance of fun and difficulty, and the combat makes you feel like an absolute badass, especially as you get more abilities later on. The combination of the gun and sword combat works so well and allows for a ton of creative freedom. Each environment feels mystical and mysterious in its own unique way, and if you were to look up 'atmosphere' in a dictionary, HLD's picture would be right there. Don't even get me started on the soundtrack, which is one of the most unique, heartbreaking, and powerful that I've ever heard. Hyper Light Drifter is a gift from Alex Preston and Heart Machine to the world.
The game strikes a great balance of fun and difficulty, and the combat makes you feel like an absolute badass, especially as you get more abilities later on. The combination of the gun and sword combat works so well and allows for a ton of creative freedom. Each environment feels mystical and mysterious in its own unique way, and if you were to look up 'atmosphere' in a dictionary, HLD's picture would be right there. Don't even get me started on the soundtrack, which is one of the most unique, heartbreaking, and powerful that I've ever heard. Hyper Light Drifter is a gift from Alex Preston and Heart Machine to the world.
I still remember seeing the concept art on Twitter for this game back in 2015, it grabbed my interest enough to make me pre-order it right then and there. To this day, this is still the only game I've ever pre-ordered.
The metroidvania mechanics of this game work really well in the gameplay and the pixel art is gorgeous in both the character sprite designs and the environment art.
This game definitley has really good replay value, so I find myself coming back to it every now and then to replay it again.
The metroidvania mechanics of this game work really well in the gameplay and the pixel art is gorgeous in both the character sprite designs and the environment art.
This game definitley has really good replay value, so I find myself coming back to it every now and then to replay it again.