Not a direct recommendation, but @moschidae recommended a lot of RPG maker games a while ago. I looked at some of them but this one caught my eye the most (I know it's not made in RPG maker, the first one was, but this looked way more up my alley. Plus moschidae gave this a good review, sooooo I'll credit her still.)

Winner of the award for "Best Face Melting Animation"

And winner of the "Best Cookie Deployment Animation", and "Best Hands", among many others. The most appealing thing of Hylics 2 is most apparent just by looking at it. The use of claymation for characters, environments, and the enemies would be one thing; but to then go off-the-rails into the surreal and make everything so otherworldly. No other game looks quite like this, not even other games that utilize claymation. Just watch these enemies yourself from the Steam store page, words can't do this game justice. (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286710/Hylics_2/)
I'd often find myself just staring at the enemies during combat, just trying to process what in the sweet Hell am I looking at. And I love how to help with the uncanniness, most enemies don't move at the same framerate. Some are far more choppier then others, snapping from one pose to the next with seemingly little rhyme or reason. But it doesn't end there, every single spell (called gestures) and item used has their own unique animations. No game needs this much effort in using a burrito with how it rotates, opens, crumbles and warps into nothingness. Gestures meanwhile are somehow vague in what they do, yet you stare at them and think "Yeah it makes sense why that'd cause you to bleed (called "Leaking" here)" Even the less extravagant animations still have flair and a great sense if impact. Pongorma's Lightning gesture has a great "One, Two... THREE!" motion with flick of the hand casting the spell, causing the final impact to feel much more powerful.
The cherry on top is the solid turn based combat, though not without a few snags here or there. It's a moderately challenging game with how on top you have to be with buffs and status effects. Every enemy can cause at least one status effect that range from minor damage overtime to "Deal zero damage now!". Does share that issue with a lot of other RPGs where the beginning can sometimes feel harder then the late game. You learn more spells and find better equipment by the mid game, so it helps accommodate for the statistically stronger enemies; whereas early on your strap for consumables and you have so little Will (your MP equivalent for spells) that every gesture is a commitment. The encounter design also doesn't mess around. Fighting four or more enemies is the norm, and solid "Hit-All" attacks are rare for your party. Yet, for me at least, I never got messed up too badly. Some encounter were tense yes, but I never felt I couldn't make a come-back from a bad situation. Grinding isn't even a potential solution for two reasons: 1). Enemies never respond, and 2). There's no experience but instead meat. Meat is used to increase your party's flesh, which is your health in case there's any confusion. Yes having more health helps, but it almost always comes down to better strategy, item usage, and equipment to make the ride smoother. Items especially. You're a bit limited at the beginning, but you exponentially get a ton of them later on. Use them whenever, it'll make life so much easier. Lastly I wanted to comment on the party and how simple they are. Every party member has just one unique gesture and different starting stats, and apart from that they're the same. If you told me that before I played this game, I would've been under the impression that "That seems pretty boring". Yet every spell has important roles and usage, especially the exclusive gestures. It instead makes the party surprisingly moldable for any composition you want... just like clay oH FU-
I hate using this word, but exploring Hylics 2 really is a "vibe". The soft, melancholic surfer rock soundtrack paired with surprisingly expansive movement for a turn based RPG makes exploring very soothing yet fun. The iso perspective could've made platforming a pain, but there's a handy marker for where you player character is going to land at all times. Also helps that this game isn't terribly long, so you never get fully use to the weirdness and you're continuously surprised by interesting design after interesting design. You become very accepting of the strange and just go with the flow. Even the main battle theme isn't overly energetic, but does invoke a bit more tension. That said, the final boss theme goes pretty hard and is fantastic, even if the fight itself was pretty easy.

Makes me excited to see the artist behind this game, Mason Lindroth, is making another Hylics game and it's looking just as creative as this game. Big recommendation.
The main villain being named Gibby fucks me up more then it should.

Reviewed on Aug 25, 2023


2 Comments


8 months ago

Great review for a great game, im really glad you liked it. Its been a month or so since ive played but i think about hylem xylem and those weird scary clay dogs every day. I also did not know Mason was working on a hylics 3 so thank you for bringing that up

Also its like gibby = gibbous moon and wayne = waning moon. Thats why waynes heads a crescent and why gibby looks like gibby... probably.

8 months ago

@moschidae Thank you kindly, however my terminally-online brain has ruined the name Gibby for me. Wayne shouting "GIBBY!" did not help my diseased brain either, and it made that scene funnier then it should be.