Sno

Hyper Light Drifter

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This looks neat.

A top-down action RPG with kind of a superbrothers-by-way-of-supergiant sort of vibe.

The pitch video looks amazing, i think.

Also, they're already funded and well through their stretch goals. (They just hit the goal for an OST by Disasterpeace, previously responsible for Fez's OST.)

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Looks awesome. Definitely getting vibes of the Supergiant aesthetic. Speaking of superbrothers (by way of Capy games) would love to see some actual gameplay footage of Below at some point. Wondering how the gameplay loop compares to this.

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So I played this last night, and I think it is pretty incredible.

 

The obvious thing to say about it is the pixel art and low key synth soundtrack are incredible. The high tech post-apocalyptic/fantasy vibe is really doing it for me. This is definitely a place you want to explore.

 

I've seen a lot of comparisons to Zelda and Dark Souls. Those are understandable comparisons, but also kinda way off base with the caveat that I'm only about 3 hours into the game, and haven't done one of the big boss fights.

 

The game most closely resembles Zelda because of the map. It is basically a sci-fi Zelda map. However the dungeon structure strikes me as distinctly un-Zelda like. This is where the Dark Souls comparison comes in. The level design feels very Souls-y to me. The dungeons are heavily layered where you keep exploring and revealing further depths. There is lock and key stuff, but it works differently from a Zelda game. The rooms are a lot less puzzle-y, and (so far) there isn't some item you acquire that unlocks the rest of the dungeon for you. It feels a lot more sophisticated than that.

 

The other similarity the game has to Dark Souls is the approach to story telling. This game is very much showing, not telling, in some cases quite literally. When you encounter characters that you can talk to, no words appear, instead you see a slide of pictures telling a story. The way the game leaves the story to the player's imagination and curiosity is really refreshing.

 

There don't seem to be new items you pick up in the game. Instead you go back to the central town hub, and there are merchants that allow you to upgrade your various starting abilities using whatever the game's financial instrument is that you collect.

 

In the RPS impressions John Walker complained that the game was too hard, specifically the boss fights. The difficulty is where a lot of people seem to be making Dark Souls comparisons, and while the game is difficult, it is difficult in a different way from a Souls game. The Souls games are difficult because of a. unfamiliarity with a hostile environment, b. the consequence of death is that it wrecks your economic progressions, and c. the relative sparseness of respawn points. HLD doesn't have any of those features. Its difficult because it demands precision in combat. You have three moves starting out: a sword swipe, a dash/blink move, and a gun you can fire. The gun has limited ammo that you replenish by hitting enemies with your sword (video games!) When you enter a room full of enemies what will often happen is more enemies start spawning in, so your job is to figure out the most efficient way to string together these moves together before you get overwhelmed. Taking too long to kill enemies generally gets you killed. The payoff though is that when you do clear a room it feels really good. I can't comment on the boss battles since I haven't gotten to a boss yet, but if the same thoughtfulness has been used for the general combat design I don't think I'm going to share John Walker's complaints.

 

So far my only gripe with this game is I can't really make any sense out of the dungeon level maps. The overworld map is crystal clear, but the dungeon maps? No idea how I would get from point A to point B relying on it...

 

Wish I was playing this now!

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I haven't followed the development of this game at all, so only things I knew until today was that it looks and sounds really cool. Then I saw the comparisons to the Souls games and was immediately put off, because I don't like punishingly difficult games at all, especially if part of the difficulty comes from scarcity of checkpoints and the fact that failing makes you worse off in terms of your chances in the next attempt. Good to hear that the comparison isn't all that accurate.

 

How does the checkpoint/save system work, by the way?

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It autosaves, but it is pretty generous with that. Basically every time you enter a new room/area it autosaves, and it also autosaves after you clear a room out of enemies.

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I played 2-3 hours of this so far and I'm loving it so far. Just the visual design, animation, and music alone make it a sumptuous game to play.

 

The feel of the world feels very much like Miyazaki films like Nausicaa and Laputa with the ancient machines overgrown with vegetation. There's also a bit of a Evangelion and Final Fantasy VI feel to it too. I'm really digging how much the environments allude to the background story of the game.

 

The gameplay can be quite difficult, but like a Souls game, when I take a moment to think, and stop mashing buttons, things generally go much better. The small enemies each have their own predictable animation patterns that they lock into, so a liberal use of the "dash" ability is key to surviving most encounters. Also I keep forgetting that I have a gun.

 

I've only beat one boss so far because mostly I've been exploring an area as much as I can, and then going to another area instead of trying to beat the boss. I did get a new item after beating the one boss though, so I'm assuming there will be more gear. I did encounter one boss that flat out wrecked me in the first few seconds, but I'm hoping the other bosses will be less difficult, or maybe I'll just have to get more ability upgrades to improve my weapons and/or mobility. 

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Yeah I often forget about the gun too, but I actually find that is for the best most of the time because it is so inaccurate. Useful opening vs trash mobs though.

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I requested a steam refund, the first time I have ever done that or even considered it. The game is buggy, unresponsive, the checkpointing is horrible, the map is unreadable, and the hitboxes are bullshit. The dash move only works about one out of six times, and guess what that's not good enough.

 

If they can fix their game, I would certainly consider rebuying it. There were parts where I was enjoying myself, but those were moments cutting through the frustration rather than the other way around.

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Same here. Been super smooth. Pretty much the only thing I've encountered so far is some slow down.

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I might have come across a bit reserved about this game in slack but the thing is I really want to like it. I've been chasing this game's development since I first heard about it around 2013/2012. As soon as I saw the art style, foudn that the gameplay was taking from Zelda (which I haven't played but always wanted to), heard that Baths the artist who practically wrote my Minecraft playlist I've been wanting this game. I actually pre ordered this soundtrack a year ago and just bought the game today. 

 

Reading the review from John Walker and hearing Badfinger's experience of the game made my heart sink a little. So I've been reserved as I play this. What I've found has mostly been atmospheric and wonderful. But there are moments that feel bullet hellish, frenetic, and lucky, rather than skilled or controlled. Thankfully each of the live, die, repeat loops that I have been caught in are more like learning experiences rather than acts of insanity. It's taken a bit to get used to twin stick shooting on a controller since I do all of my gaming on pc (I use a controller for rpgs/xcom but it's not the same style). The only exception to the learning experience rule has been the fire puzzles which apparently are almost undo-able unless you have a certain skill unlocked. I think that's a shame. I like the idea that all puzzles in a game are completable But are immensely harder without the requisite skills. Not simply impossible as seems to be the case. Some of the things I would like to know are a little too obtuse. Thankfully I've been able to deal with most of those and I do appreciate how inexplicit the game is in many areas.

 

I do rather like twitch games like Nuclear Throne and I love Teleglitch too. But I think where this game differs is that you'll go back to a checkpoint where Drifter struggles back to his feet in a slow paced animation rather than a full reset like those games or Hotline Miami. Sometimes Drifter will be stuck in a loop where an undodgable projectile hits him right as you restart. It's that kind of thing that starts to annoy you as you realise you have to port back to the area's main Nexus and slowly traverse to the current bullet hell puzzle that's stumping you.

 

I know it's not quite a bullet hell game but when you have 10 ranged enemies all jumping around with more spawning in it's the closest comparison to make.

 

So I'm liking the game but yeah, some things are annoying. Guess I am still reserved. Hah.

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I think this game is rad, I've only put in 90 minutes on a laptop, low volume, and and my wife's crappy mouse(rubber pads don't slide)

Being said can't wait to put on big screen with a proper controller with the sound humming the walls

Sclpls pretty much nails the Zelda/DS comparisons.

Ive had mild problems with the dash, I think I am expecting more of a Bastion roll and it's much slower animation though and the cursor for direction is less obvious and blends more. Another gold bitcoin quadrant and I'll get the sword dash, thatll fix it all up

I've yet to encounter any bugs but did see in kick-starter newsletter they were already pushing out a patch or two for new bugs that their small test team didn't drum up.

Re map reading - it seems the overworld map is semi location exact. Your character moves some every few screens - then flipping to the wire map has thin lines indicating entry points/elevators and connected rooms. The visual is a little jarring at first but think works great for so much info in such cramped space

I also creeped ahead, I like the indistinguishable achievos, obviously progress related, few collect them all's, and a no-death one! There are some physical puzzles that seem like major hurdles against that...sliding blocks, falling tiles, etc

Anyways, I like it - not a lot yet; but pending my proper tools after vacation it may be better

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I requested a steam refund, the first time I have ever done that or even considered it. The game is buggy, unresponsive, the checkpointing is horrible, the map is unreadable, and the hitboxes are bullshit. The dash move only works about one out of six times, and guess what that's not good enough.

 

If they can fix their game, I would certainly consider rebuying it. There were parts where I was enjoying myself, but those were moments cutting through the frustration rather than the other way around.

I think it's worth noting that the dash move has no invulnerability frames, so basically you either get out of the way of an attack or you get busted.

 

Finished the game yersterday, now I'm going through collecting all the secrets, of which there are a ton that I missed. And it's not like oh you missed this one door behind which is an upgrade point and a health pack; there are entire encounters structured completely uniquely that are hidden away all over the game world.

 

I think its one of the most satisfying action games in the past few years. Beau Blyth aka teknopants (Made samurai gunn and a bunch of other cool local multiplayer games) who did all the combat design brings such a delicous sticky slidey-ness to the game. All of the skills you unlock feel strong and meaningful in their own right and open up new and intensely satisfying options in combat and the old school predictable pattern boss design is executed extremely well (if you can get over the initial hump that some people are experiencing. For what it's worth, the first boss was one of the hardest and most frustrating fights. Things go a lot smoother once you get a feel for the mechanics)

 

Some advice for people finding themselves against a wall in the early game: The chain dash and bullet slash upgrades help a ton, as does the grenade for a more economic panic button. If you get stuck, remember there are three whole quadrants of the map you can go to, and also that there are multiple paths through each of them. Also, they recently patched in a speedier revival animation after dying, which should soften that particular blow significantly.

The chain dash is kinda tricky to get the hang of at first but it pays off loads in boss fights. Also it is worth noting the timing is most demanding on the first chain, after which there's actually a fairly long buffer in which to input the next dash.

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I'm going off the signs in town to try and decipher the glyphs. Here is my progress so far on the alphabet. Remember, there is probably several mistakes made: http://puu.sh/o3o0B/e78befd1ed.png

Things that may or may not be true about the glyphs that I'm just kinda assuming at this point
-A glyph can stand for multiple letters
-They read from left to right, top to bottom
-A line break does not necessarily indicate the end of a word

Edit : I've used these rules and that alphabet so far to decipher the various signs in town as
SWORD MASTER (sword symbol)
DASH ARENA (dash symbol)
WEAPONS (gun symbol)
TECH SHOP (grenade symbol)
APOTHECARY (medkit symbol)

 

Double edit: And of course someone beat me to the rest of it. Oh well! was fun doing the ones in town, but i think all the monoliths were a bit beyond me.

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I've played a bunch today and enjoyed the heck out of it. Expected to be less interested in the mechanics than I am. The combat is so movement based that it's clicking with me in spite of the difficulty. And the lack of consequences over dieing sweetens the deal.

I am concerned it will become frustrating to try find where to go after I've done my first exploring everywhere. It's easy to wander aimlessly and ignore the map the first time, but when I go back to areas trying to find that diamond I missed it'll be a real pain if I can't tell where I have and haven't been before.

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Phew, just beat it and overall I loved it! The first bosses are definitely easier to beat in a certain order depending on what upgrades you have. I agree that the chain dash and bullet slash are the best ones to get early on. 

 

I'm still missing so many of the collectibles, even though I did a ton of backtracking looking for secrets. I have no idea how long it'll take to find them without a guide because some of them are super well hidden, but satisfying to discover. 

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So I just fought the first boss my first boss and everything clicked.

Frog King

The death-restart loop was enjoyable; the challenge was punishing but exciting. I think this is the game for me. Stoked that this turned out to be something I can love.

I think I'll pick up that bullet dash for my first upgrade.

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What are people saying the first boss is? Is it

the bird guy with the disappearing floor attack to the north?

Like people have mentioned, I had a bit of trouble interpreting the map and I'm pretty sure I've gone where I was supposed to go but it's hard to be sure.

 

Separately: Did I make a huge mistake buying the projectile reflect as my first upgrade? IDK what a bullet dash is but it sounds cool.

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What are people saying the first boss is? Is it

the bird guy with the disappearing floor attack to the north?

Like people have mentioned, I had a bit of trouble interpreting the map and I'm pretty sure I've gone where I was supposed to go but it's hard to be sure.

 

Separately: Did I make a huge mistake buying the projectile reflect as my first upgrade? IDK what a bullet dash is but it sounds cool.

If you dash while a bullet is right near you you consume stamina to bring up a little shield that absorbs bullets around you as you dash, and charges your weapon.

i kinda prefer the bullet reflect as it's a lot more offensive and can cover your mistakes when you go to slash just as an enemy attacks with a projectile.

As for boss order, there's not really any distinct sequence for which to go for first, but most people end up north as that's where the game points you in the beginning. The game as a whole is quite non linear, only really gating you twice in terms of critical objectives.

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