Hylics (2015)

Hylics is a surrealist "recreational program" with relatively simple RPG elements. As an RPG, Hylics is relatively average, though it does have a competent battle system. However, the game's fascinating visual aesthetic, trippy soundtrack, and wonderfully confusing dialogue and antics make the package more than worth a playthrough.

Every piece of art is beautifully rendered with low color counts and a high amount of dithering, giving it a look that feels slightly retro, but with a color pallette that is nothing like the games of old. Thr character design is all over the place, with a wonderful variety of neat NPCs and enemies to gaze at. By and far, this artwork is the game's strongest feature, constantly giving you something fun and unusual to look at in each area of the game.

The soundtrack consists of a lot of interesting ambient tracks that set the mood of its strange world. The songs have a heavy psychedelic rock influence and really help drive home the feeling of walking around in a mysterious, foreign land.

To make the sort of plot and setting even harder to understand, the game includes a lot of randomly generated dialogue. There's not a ton to say about it, except that it continues the theme of leaving you feeling slightly confused, yet entertained. In short, you wander around as Wayne, exploring locations and gathering party members, before eventually traveling to the moon to defeat its king. The lack of explanation is honestly refreshing, in some regards.

In terms of gameplay, Hylics is relatively simple. Characters can attack or use special abilities. Each is accompanied by a gesture in the first person, adding a lot of spectacle to the fights. Wayne and his crew can learn new abilities by visiting television sets that impart new gestures after an odd cutscene. The combat is pretty simple, but it's not bad by any measure. Interestingly, there's no experience system (well, except for the final boss), so no need to grind fights if you don't want to. Equipment is the only thing to worry about.

You can also find paper cups and water coolers around the land that will permanently upgrade your team's stats, another fun touch. The game has many neat places to explore, such as finding the game's three sages, and it never felt like it was wasting any of my time.

As a whole, I cannot recommend Hylics enough. It may not be a ground breaking RPG, but for 2-3 hours of very memorable gameplay for only $3, it's an absolute steal. Go give it a go.

Hylics is an RPG set in this bizarre surrealist world where you control Wayne (the moon-headed guy) and his party of weirdos as they quest around a series of islands, using puzzle solving, dialogue, exploration and "gestural combat" to unlock the secrets of this land. It's a fairly short and sweet game, which I completed in about 3 hours.

Hylics was much more enjoyable and brilliant than I expected. The gameplay is much like Earthbound or LISA, exploring around with your party, talking to characters and occasionally taking part in turn-based combat. There are also elements of Space Funeral, The Neverhood and Toejam & Earl present. Most of the art in the game is claymation, apparently sculpted and photographed clay, with some pixel drawings. There's also a beautiful and sombre soundtrack, composed from wailing guitar riffs and beeping synthesizers.

I really enjoyed the dialogue in this game. It uses a peculiar surrealist system where the creatures you meet will talk to you with randomised statements; so every time you play you'll see entirely new declarations and other nonsense elements, reminiscent of Trout Mask Replica or Naked Lunch. Word salad, randomised and spewed out on your screen, and it perfectly fits the dissonant atmosphere.

One of my first experiences with this game was ascending this odd tower filled with shrieking masked cavemen creatures. And at the summit, a giant moustache made from flesh attacked me, and killed me. Thought I'd get a "game over" screen but instead I landed in limbo or something, and spoke with a fish (who was flopping around at my feet) who informed me that I could use the "machine over there" to grind up some choice cuts and then use the magical crystals to teleport back to the overworld. You can't die in this game; you just end up in limbo and get ground into hamburger meat and then spewed back out into the chaos.

After playing for an hour I fell in love with this game, the world, the characters, and the whole aesthetic. I immediately quit out and bought myself a copy of the sequel. What a brilliant adventure! There's nothing else out there like Hylics, and for a couple bucks on Steam, it might be the best cost-to-enjoyment-ratio purchase I've ever made. Highly recommended.

Hylics is an RPG I guess? but moreso it's an exhibition of art, both visual and text. Yes, it's one of those "weird RPG Maker games" like Space Funeral, OFF, megaman sprite game, etc. The visuals are fantastic. They fall into two categories, either claymation or real photos, both of which have been extremely dithered. They fall in an uncanny valley of realness, which makes you feel always disturbed while watching them. The text is nonsensical, filled with all sorts of long, fun-to-say words (see title), which while not usually having meaning as a sentence, the choices of words used seem to relate to some greater theme.

A game this odd is not for everyone, but if you're interested by the visuals, give it a try.

Hylics takes 2 hours to complete.