this game has ruined almost every other game i've ever played, and i mean this in the most endearing way possible
Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most visually pleasing games i've seen, the stunning pixel visuals have held up so well over the years. i've certainly found other games with incredible visuals of a similar or better caliber (Owlboy is a big contender for that imo), but the way that HLD utilizes fully saturated colors to bring the world to life makes it much more impressive to me. it can be challenging to make vibrant palettes work without them being too distracting or eye-bleedingly harsh, but HLD avoids this issue with the usage of dramatic lighting or by placing more natural, muted tones to bring the saturated colors to greater attention. a friend of mine gave me the art book as a gift recently, and seeing the amount of work it took to ensure everything was in it's proper place only made me appreciate the world of the game even more.
i'm also incredibly impressed by the masterful worldbuilding the game offers, especially due to the entire lack of dialogue and understandable written language that persists everywhere except maybe the title screen. i've always been a sucker for media that make you analyze and piece together a story's puzzle instead of being told everything right out the gate, but HLD is definitely one of the more easily understandable examples of this trait that doesn't come from a completely abstract narrative. my biggest praise of the story would have to be the intro cutscene and the ending cutscene. it seems like a pretty obvious thing to point out, i'm sure many before me have talked about them at length, but i feel the need to enumerate just how masterful they are as well. it's hard for me to put into words how i felt when i realized how the two cutscenes mirrored each other at certain points. while it's definitely made more obvious by the two music tracks that play during them, it still caught me off guard and sent me crying.
speaking of the music, Disasterpeace did a real number on every track in this game. the environments really feel alive with the atmospheric score, and the transitions between the area theme's different layers was always so seamless that, quite often, i wouldn't even noticed it changed until much later. the battle themes are also all plenty intense, and while i personally don't often relisten to them (not exactly my usual taste in music), they serve their purpose incredibly well and set the scene for the hard-as-nails boss fights wonderfully. i could also go on and on about how Panacea is the most perfect ending theme one could hope for, but i'll spare the details and simply say that the amount of times i've played a game with a friend and said something along the lines of "this ending theme is good because it reminds me of HLD's" is far more times than one should.
overall, this game is not for everyone, and i recognize that things like the difficulty or vague story might be complete turn-offs for people. these are definitely valid points, and i can't say i blame people for being hesitant to try this game because of it. regardless, though, i feel like HLD is about as close to a perfect game for me as one can get, and i'll gladly stand by that for years to come. maybe my vision is rose-tinted, as i did find the game at a very pivotal point in my life, but i'd like to think that i'm at least a bit unbiased in my views. i encourage everyone to at least give it a shot, even just watch a playthrough or something, i don't think you'll be disappointed by doing so
Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most visually pleasing games i've seen, the stunning pixel visuals have held up so well over the years. i've certainly found other games with incredible visuals of a similar or better caliber (Owlboy is a big contender for that imo), but the way that HLD utilizes fully saturated colors to bring the world to life makes it much more impressive to me. it can be challenging to make vibrant palettes work without them being too distracting or eye-bleedingly harsh, but HLD avoids this issue with the usage of dramatic lighting or by placing more natural, muted tones to bring the saturated colors to greater attention. a friend of mine gave me the art book as a gift recently, and seeing the amount of work it took to ensure everything was in it's proper place only made me appreciate the world of the game even more.
i'm also incredibly impressed by the masterful worldbuilding the game offers, especially due to the entire lack of dialogue and understandable written language that persists everywhere except maybe the title screen. i've always been a sucker for media that make you analyze and piece together a story's puzzle instead of being told everything right out the gate, but HLD is definitely one of the more easily understandable examples of this trait that doesn't come from a completely abstract narrative. my biggest praise of the story would have to be the intro cutscene and the ending cutscene. it seems like a pretty obvious thing to point out, i'm sure many before me have talked about them at length, but i feel the need to enumerate just how masterful they are as well. it's hard for me to put into words how i felt when i realized how the two cutscenes mirrored each other at certain points. while it's definitely made more obvious by the two music tracks that play during them, it still caught me off guard and sent me crying.
speaking of the music, Disasterpeace did a real number on every track in this game. the environments really feel alive with the atmospheric score, and the transitions between the area theme's different layers was always so seamless that, quite often, i wouldn't even noticed it changed until much later. the battle themes are also all plenty intense, and while i personally don't often relisten to them (not exactly my usual taste in music), they serve their purpose incredibly well and set the scene for the hard-as-nails boss fights wonderfully. i could also go on and on about how Panacea is the most perfect ending theme one could hope for, but i'll spare the details and simply say that the amount of times i've played a game with a friend and said something along the lines of "this ending theme is good because it reminds me of HLD's" is far more times than one should.
overall, this game is not for everyone, and i recognize that things like the difficulty or vague story might be complete turn-offs for people. these are definitely valid points, and i can't say i blame people for being hesitant to try this game because of it. regardless, though, i feel like HLD is about as close to a perfect game for me as one can get, and i'll gladly stand by that for years to come. maybe my vision is rose-tinted, as i did find the game at a very pivotal point in my life, but i'd like to think that i'm at least a bit unbiased in my views. i encourage everyone to at least give it a shot, even just watch a playthrough or something, i don't think you'll be disappointed by doing so