Hylics (video game)

Hylics is a role-playing video game developed and published by Mason Lindroth. It was released for Windows on October 2, 2015 on Steam.[1] The game uses claymation graphics to depict a surreal world.

Hylics
Developer(s)Mason Lindroth
Publisher(s)Mason Lindroth
EngineRPG Maker VX Ace
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseOctober 2, 2015
Genre(s)Indie game 
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

The player character is Wayne, a humanoid being with yellow skin and crescent-shaped horns. Most of the game's NPCs speak using random text generation, in a manner described as a deliberately misleading red herring, albeit consistent with the setting, with the player's goals being represented through environmental design instead.[2] The world and characters are alluded to be posthuman in nature and the goal of the game is to defeat the king of the moon, whose name is Gibby.

Gameplay

Hylics plays like a traditional JRPG despite its surreal setting. Hit points are replaced with "flesh", while magic points are replaced with "will". Battles are shown from a first-person perspective, with the character's hands being shown performing attacks.[2] Wayne loses all his flesh when defeated, but does not die, rather warping to an "afterlife" from which they can travel back to a previous area.[2] Battle items are also unusual, such as being able to attack with a frozen burrito.[3]

Development

The game was developed using the RPG Maker VX Ace engine and took a year to develop.[4]

Reception

Emily Gera of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game as "like a scene from Bosch by way of Videodrome".[3] Chris Priestman of Kill Screen called the game's animation "wonderful" and stated that "to play a Mason Lindroth game is to delight in all that is possible within the material world and to learn how wonderful creation and destruction can be."[2] Jordan Devore of Destructoid said that Hylics was "the trippiest RPG I've ever seen".[5]

Sequel

A sequel with higher resolution graphics was announced to be developed after the release of the first game. Hylics 2 was finally released on June 22, 2020, featuring a quest to stop Gibby's minions from reconstituting their master.[6]

References
  1. "Hylics". Metacritic. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  2. "The material world of Mason Lindroth - Kill Screen". Kill Screen. 2015-07-27. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  3. Gera, Emily (2015-08-08). "Hylics Is Basically Videodrome: The Game". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  4. "Hylics Might Be One Of The Strangest Yet Beautiful RPGs You'll See - Siliconera". Siliconera. 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  5. "Hylics is the trippiest RPG I've ever seen". destructoid. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  6. https://www.pcgamer.com/au/hylics-2-feels-like-a-long-lost-rpg-from-the-1970s/
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