Quick Review: Hylics

I keep saying I want to review more RPG Maker games… well, this may be the weirdest of them all. One word: Claymation.

This already looks different from all the RPG
Maker games I've ever played.

Hylics, made by Mason Lindroth and released on October 2nd, 2015, is a surreal acid trip of a game that describes itself as a “recreational program” first and a JRPG second. It’s notable for featuring very peculiar graphics for a game, let alone for one made on RPG Maker, as you will rather quickly notice that most items, sprites and landmasses were made through stop-motion, clay-built animation. Just in case this description wasn’t a weird enough idea on its own, just wait till you play through the game’s absurd story.

The gist of it is that you’re Wayne, some sort of horned creature (his head resembles a moon crescent laying on its round side) in leather gear. He is exploring his world after the awakening of Gibby, King of the Moon (sensing a theme yet?), and… that’s all I guess I can say. And don’t worry; death is a slap on the wrist, actually the “Afterlife” is where you can use items to boost your stats.

This is what the overworld looks like.

That's how you defeat enemies in this world?
Oh, snap!

….I…. I found a warm burrito in the frickin’ toilet! And it’s all downhill from there. Many times, there are strange sentences that come right out of a random text generator. You learn new skills from finding television sets around this world. The real challenge here is to try to make a minimal amount of sense of this world. 

The game is fairly short (the store page claims it can be finished in two hours), but it’s got more to do with the atmosphere and ambiance that its universe instills. It’s a bit of a struggle to figure out what to do at first; there are useful sentences scattered among the randomly-generated lines, but you often need to look for them. To compensate, traveling is actually rather simple. You can even use the Afterlife to travel around the checkpoints you’ve discovered.

Remember this, kids: You can learn things
from watching TV!

The art style also helps with the bizarre a lot, in part due to the unique Claymation style. That goes for the overworld, the character sprites (protagonist, wandering enemies and so on) and, during battles, the sprites of the enemies and the attack animations. I can barely imagine the amount of work that went into building every single item with clay, every stop-motion frame, and animating it all into a game.

There are details that I don’t recall seeing in an RPG before. As mentioned, the concept of the Afterlife, which ironically helps you get stronger after you’ve died, since you can use the processing machine there to transform the Meat (???) you obtain from killing enemies into extra HP for your character(s). Also, you never earn EXP from fights; only money (Bucks) and items, including the aforementioned Meat.

That thing is actually not a threat.
You'd think, though, with how creepy it is...

You do get party members after a bit.
No one should face this weirdness alone!

Unfortunately, while I do love that the game tries something fresh with its artstyle and its concept of randomly-generated text, one thing sort of bugs me. Putting aside the weirdness, the RPG elements themselves are fairly conventional. Get money from beating enemies, use the money to buy items and equipment, explore the world and see how the story goes. The fights against enemies, in particular, follow the patterns of a regular RPG with status effects and special moves. The names of stats and special effects may differ (Meat for HP, Mightiness for attack, gestures for special moves, etc.), but it’s pretty standard RPG fare otherwise… if only with a very weird coat of paint all over. But, as far as I can tell, I haven’t run into glitches or non-functional mechanics; everything works perfectly, which is what I want to see from an RPG Maker game.

You should try this one out, it’s… a peculiar experience to have. Hylics is available on Steam for 3.00$ US. Note that there is also a much larger sequel, released last year, which expands on that world; I don’t own it yet, but by the looks of it, it’s promising! Maybe even better than this one? Who knows… Well, those who played it know; I’ll probably get it eventually and see if it’s also good.