Hylics

So Hylics is definitely a game that follows the style over substance approach, however, Hylics also raises the question about why this is generally seen as a bad thing. Sure, at its core the game is a very simple RPGmaker turn based RPG that has such little coherent story that the majority of the dialogue is randomly generated, but seriously, look at that presentation. I find this game really interesting for the way that it essentially proves that going down the route of purely focusing on gameplay is far from the only possibility when it comes to making a satisfying experience, since this clearly has a much greater focus on the aesthetic side of things.

What makes this so cool is the fact that every facet of the way this game is designed feeds into its surreal atmosphere and vibes, there's nothing this has that goes even slightly against that core vision of what the game is trying to achieve. The most prominent of these elements is definitely the art, not only having basically every element of any given scene being abstract shapes that only vaguely resemble anything in reality, but with the art itself essentially being digitally rendered claymation models. This gives everything a slightly uncanny feel to their animations, with their movements feeling far closer to reality than they should by all rights, yet also having the tendency to completely decompose into a pile of squishy plasticine. The music also adds a lot to the imagery with its profound vagueness, often feeling extremely hard to define or pin down, with it being hard to even say whether or not one could find it atmospheric or simply just strange. You get hints of something more conventional underneath it all however, whether it's the spacey guitar that's a staple of some of the more expansive overworld areas, or the unpleasant yet catchy synth melodies of the shop theme, the music of Hylics straddles the line between fun and bizarre perfectly.

The gameplay itself is pretty simple and very easy once you get the hang of things, but this wasn't really a negative at all due to the fact that it feels clear that the game is more interested in having the player explore this surreal world and experiencing all the pure creativity put into each location. I mean, one of the first lines of description for this game is "A recreational program with light JRPG elements", so if that doesn't imply that the combat and gameplay itself was used as a vessel to further express and elevate these ideas and atmosphere, then I don't know what does. Highly recommend checking this out if you're a fan of totally surreal (and incredibly creative), genuinely nonsensical content and can get behind some pretty simple JRPG gameplay. It's only a couple of hours long as well, so it's a very concise, digestible experience that you could easily finish in a sitting.

I really do believe that this game deserves a perfect score off it's artistic merit alone. Upon first playing the game I was left thinking about it for weeks afterwards. It went above what I'd normally expect out of surrealism, and triggered some deep existential dread in me. The nonsense dialogue, the freeform art and music. The JRPG part of the game isn't outstanding, but I don't believe that it makes for a worse experience. The battle system is easily broken later on in the game, however, and it is entirely possible to prevent the enemy from being able to attack whatsoever. I do enjoy the variety and creativity in the attacks though, and having the characters get stronger through means besides standard leveling is interesting.

A beautiful, beautiful game. So full of live and so daring in it's style. I think this thing made me love RPG's, a genre that I never thought I could fully enjoy.