(Originally created 7-28-17)
While the RPG Maker program is seen by some as a thing for making “Baby’s
First RPG,” there have been some legitimately good games that come from that
program. A good early example I remember playing is the freeware game OFF, a game that
originally appeared in French before being translated to English. The library
of freeware RPG Maker games includes
such gems as the dream-exploring adventure game Yume Nikki,
the Earthbound fan RPG Cognitive Dissonance,
and the downright bizarre Space Funeral.
We’ve also seen some RPG Maker games
in online stores, such as To
the Moon, Suits:
A Business RPG, and the LISA
trilogy. Today’s game is one of those that falls into the surreal RPG category,
with the RPG Maker game Hylics,
by a Claymation artist known as Mason Lindroth.
The game puts you in the role of
Wayne, a crescent moon-headed man on a vague quest to defeat the Moon King,
Gibby. There are also intermissions where you control a character whose name,
according to the game files, is Dracula. No relation to the vampire, though.
Joining Wayne on his quest are Dedusmuln, an esteemed archaeologist, Somsnosa, a
friend of Wayne who seems to have stolen Ico’s hat, and Pongorma, the last of
the Dread Knights. In reality though, the story generally acts as an excuse to
get you to explore a bizarre-looking world and meet its surreal inhabitants.
 |
| Even if it IS just clay and it revives party members, you probably shouldn't eat that... |
Two of the main sources of the
game’s surrealism come from the stylistic choices of the creator. The first is
that the entire world is made of clay, which is fitting given that Hylics refers to a Gnostic term for a
body that is completely material. In order to do this, Mason digitized
photographs of his models in order to create the sprites and environments in
the game. Unsurprisingly, this graphical style is a very unique one that really
helps the game stand out visually. It’s rare to see Claymation used in video
games. Probably one of the last great examples from memory is The Neverhood, all the way back in 1996.
 |
| See, Wayne? THIS is why we don't eat toilet burritos. |
The second thing that adds to the
game’s surrealism is the procedural generation used for a good amount of the
dialogue in the game. As an example, here’s how the intro could look
(spelling/grammar errors part of the text):
A
sentimental wheel partially indulges the skeletons. The people consider with a
spirit. It is a mandible amidst a offending mirror. It is a vacuum…amidst
spirit. Meanwhile, Gibby, King of the Moon, smears a engine despite the
prison-fate. Thus your story begins.
The usage of such language really adds to the surreal
nature of this clay world. Luckily, important dialogue, like hints on gameplay
elements and your allies’ dialogue, doesn’t get the surrealist treatment.
Imagine talking to an important character who gives crucial plot details, only
for them to start reciting something similar to the John Galt filibuster put in
a blender.
 |
| And Nern Guan's stories? UTTER HELL. |
Combat in the game doesn’t reinvent
the wheel too much, but the game’s surreal theme seeps into the combat. All the
characters have HP and MP, but here it’s called Flesh and Will. Your characters
have other stats such as “Texture,” “Philology,” and “Cooking,” which can
somewhat be figured out by messing with your equipment. Combat animations,
meanwhile include snapping your fingers to attack, magic abilities that involve
trippy animations, and throwing dynamite to create stock footage of a nuclear
bomb test.
 |
| Well, now we know where the last Mini-Nuke went… |
One of the few ways Hylics is different mechanically from
other RPGs is how character progression works. When you die, and you will die
because enemies only drop money and items, you watch a short and lovely
cutscene of Wayne’s face melting off his skull as you get taken to the
Afterlife. Despite what you may have heard, it’s a pretty cool place with a
revolving-door policy on the recently departed (protagonists only, of course)
and a machine where you can convert meat collected from enemies into max HP. The
Afterlife also has a portal that takes you back to any waycrystal you’ve
activated and a nice beach where you can build sand castles. It’s rare to see a
game that treats death as an important game mechanic instead of an
inconvenience.
 |
| Ah, nothing like a day at the beach to make you forget your recent and painfully violent death. |
In order to improve yourself in
other ways, you have do some exploring. Around the land are strange machines
that require ancient artifacts in order to partake of the MP-boosting liquid
inside. In other words, you need a paper cup to use a water cooler, which means
that in another universe where magic exists, Dilbert would end with Wally summoning the Tarrasque to destroy the
office in a hilariously over-the-top attempt to avoid some work. Also around
the world are TVs that grant the entire party a skill when watched. This one
actually can be a bit annoying, as party members that you haven’t met yet don’t
gain these skills when they join. Which means if you want everyone in the party
to have every skill, you’ll have to trek back to old TVs and watch some reruns
of whatever program is on. Presumably it’s something trippy like the Max
Headroom broadcast in Chicago back in 1987.
 |
| Learned ‘Signal Interruption!’ |
Hylics
is by no means a long game, with an average run taking only two hours, but the
brief time players will spend there will be quite surreal, in a good way. Other
than making death an important part of the game as opposed to a temporary
wallet puncture, Hylics doesn’t do
very much mechanically to stand out. However, it more than makes up in
presentation and the rare usage of Claymation in video games. Hopefully this
game will get Mason Lindroth some more exposure and get others to experiment
with other art styles in video games.
No comments:
Post a Comment