Hyper Light Drifter

Hyper Light Drifter is a mashup of Zelda and Fez. It takes place in a violent and mysterious world, walking a tightrope between good wholesome challenge and FUUck (a couple of the cheevs are straight-up trolling). It’s one of those fine wine-type games. Once you open the bottle and let it breathe a bit it opens up.

The pixel art style makes the visceral landscape much more palatable. The Drifter routinely passes through sites of massacre, bodies floating in water, and victims strung up for torture. If the graphics were in a more realistic style I probably would have found it too disturbing to play.

All in-game dialogue and text is in a cipher and the few characters who talk to the Drifter speak pictorally, leaving the player to intuit much about the world. It works, though, and really adds to the game’s sense of mystery. There is no in-game key, but players cracked the code using shop signs as a starting point.

While HLD is challenging, part of the fun is getting better. There is a learning curve to discovering secrets and hidden items as well. When I returned to several areas I was surprised by how many things I missed the first pass. A few areas are pretty damn cheap, but this is largely confined to optional challenge areas. Three of the four dungeons can be completed in any order, so if you get stuck you can wander off for a bit.

There are a million things to collect: modules, monoliths, outfits, weapons, gearbits. The modules are the only thing marked on the in-game map, so it’s up to the player to keep track of the rest. The game does not explain what the outfits do, I had to get that on the wiki.

My main problem is there is so much stuff to collect that figuring out how to find that one module you missed is a chore, even with this helpful Hyper Light Drifter Interactive Map. I’m only missing two modules, two monoliths, and a handful of keys, but trying to figure out specifically which ones I missed and how to backtrack to find them is so tedious I would almost rather start a new game with a planned route.

I’m honestly not sure how (or why) people are “beating” it in 7.5 hours, my current PT is 17.5. I haven’t beaten the last boss yet.

I recommend it if you’re interested in a creepy Zelda clone that (probably) makes some of your hair fall out.