first impressions:
i bought the mobile version of this game on an ipad.
and it was not fun at all.
this thing is not designed to be played on a mobile screen.
this is clearly for a bigger displays and i gotta play it on one before reviewing it.

This game has one of the strongest aesthetics I've ever seen in a game. It just grips this absolute overpowering mood, set by the gorgeous visuals, music (crafted by Disasterpiece), and lack of any words whatsoever. Almost everything you learn about the world is told through the environment and vague picture snippets from NPC's. It has a fascinating air of mystery that I have yet to be able to solve.
The gameplay is also fantastic. The way they implement the boost system, one of the game's main combat and traversal mechanics, is super satisfying to chain and master, and opens up a ton of mechanical depth into the game. If you like fast paced action combat with a strong atmosphere and world to melt yourself into, I can't recommend this game enough.

The entire audio-visual presentation is something I don't think I have ever seen before, something truly unique in that regard, or at the very least, very refreshing. It's oppressive, threatening, but also at the same time, calm and reflective. I can see the influences from Naussica, but the colour palette, which is what catches the attention at first, is quite unlike anything on the market.

Gameplay-wise, it's a very competent Zelda-like, and while your melee attack is pretty simple to get a grasp on, the variety lies in your ranged attacks, each weapon accounting for specific situations and play style. Level design, outside of the aesthetic excellence, is filled with hidden paths and routes that are mostly not too ridiculously hidden.

Two gripes I have is how useless the map is (I still don't understand how to read the map in this game, honestly), and how needlessly strict and inconsistent the chain dash timing is. Especially the latter makes it frustrating for some patterns and traps, where chain dashing is borderline required. Its interval gets shorter until a certain number of dashes, and this acceleration really throws me off, making it difficult to pull off in the heat of battle.

But other than that, a great, beautiful experience.

+gorgeous architecture, excellent pixel art, distinctive character designs
+once the combat options open up it feels pretty rewarding, especially once you get meatier guns that can server the majority of your damage output
+overall I think the text-less nature of the game suits it, partially because each area follows a pattern in terms of progression so there's never any confusion over what to do
+I actually quite liked the final boss in this game, it's easy to fumble a final boss by trying to make it too wild or insane but this boss felt challenging and momentous without throwing the combat design out the window. the bosses in general succeeded when they took inspiration from bullet hell games to create interesting obstacles for the player, and/or had dynamic patterns as the fight went on; the bosses that did this really struck a chord with me
+other than the west quadrant each other quadrant felt like they had a natural progression when figuring out where to go next and what to do. it's more linear than the zelda games it was based on no question, but it felt comfortable to be always moving forward
+exploration is virtually always rewarded, whether with upgrade currency, extra health packs, or even keys or hidden modules

-the west quadrant... wow what a terrible start to the game for me. the modules in this area were significantly more hidden than in the others, and the backtracking to comb over areas where I had already been was not fun at all
-certain aspects definitely reflect the indie game maker development of this game. what stuck out to me most were objects with incorrect priority that would hover over the drifter when they were supposed to be behind him
-boss design is a little all over the place, some seem very undercooked and trivial to take down
-didn't really care for the enemy and encounter design that much. the enemy patterns didn't feel distinctive in how they were meant to be taken down, and "difficult" encounters just consisted of throwing a bunch of enemies at you at once
-aiming the gun sucks lol. aiming in place is never worth it and even when I would move and shoot in a direction sometimes it felt like the bullets would skew

I really did not like this game initially because of the issues I mentioend with the west quadrant, but for the rest of the game I found it to be quite relaxing because of the ease of progression and pretty locales. afterwards I really felt no push to continue exploring, but for the 7 or 8 hours I spent playing it otherwise I was quite content. it's not a long game and pretty cheap, so I would absolutely recommend as a quick game to go through if you're proficient with 2d combat and looking for a solid entry in that space

There's an unspoken trend I've found myself following that I'll call the Pick Up Phone quotient. It's simple - the frequency with which I pick up my phone during a game tends to correlate inversely with how engaging it is.

From its opening scene, Hyper Light Drifter kept me glued to its lightning-fast gameplay and mysterious atmosphere. I can confidently say my phone did not leave my pocket until the credits rolled, only then coming out for more research on the game and to listen to its incredible soundtrack.

See, HLD's developers understand that less context often makes a more interesting game. Nothing here is spelled out for you, but you're given just enough information to speculate on what happened to the world and its residents. Hyper Light Drifter triumphantly exemplifies the value of restraint. Nothing here overstays its welcome, something I find rare among the modern games designed to keep you circling their whirlpools for months on end. And unlike those games - games which, as you might guess, tend to have a high Pick Up Phone quotient - I finished Hyper Light Drifter eagerly wanting more. Absolutely worth your time from start to finish, and I can hardly wait to see what the developers create next.

This game taught me a lesson on Hype: Don't follow it, you'll only get dissapointed.

While I still find the combat and world enjoyable, I felt that the player lacked any sort of motivational drive to continue. A wordless narrative is a very tough thing to achieve and it felt like HLD couldn't figure it out. Which resulted in me getting to the credits and just feeling conflicted and bitter. The final encounter lacked any real immediacy and context for the player to chew on. I just defeated it and moved on....

I overhyped the game internally and as such subconsciously imagined and expected a completely, more grandiose experience than the developers were going for. Hype killed HLD for me.

Probably the greatest example of environmental and gameplay based storytelling in the modern day. Could be described as too vague to be compelling, but I think the gaps really allow the player to fill in their own blanks. Gameplay wise, skill is hard to learn and harder to master, but is incredibly enjoyable once the form is down, much like martial arts in a way. Even the slog, start-and-repeat nature of each dungeon informs the general feeling that culminates in such a clear moment of catharsis that I have hardly felt in any other game.