A nice little experience. Obviously inspired in design by Zelda and the like, however it wears its simplicity close to its heart.

Combat and enemy design is very straightforward, most enemies have one attack and maybe two for advanced enemies. Your abilities and upgrades are also without frills, Yet they're intuitive despite the game not using text at all except for the non-diegetic tutorial popups.

HLD's world has an interesting depiction. For the most part it seems foreign as a setting, with you only understanding the ques of who's an enemy or what you're remotely planning to do. I liked the idea that the game never uses text to convey anything about itself. The few NPCs that you can talk to use little moody illustrations as dialogue.

Boss designs are nice as well, their moves and attacks are simple to understand and normally fights are done in a few minutes max.

This solidifies my interpretation of it. HLD is a short game that plays like a fleeting dream. It's visuals, premise, audio, and continuation all go along with this. Completed in single digit hours, Hyper Light Drifter settles well as a familiar little pit stop along the road.