Disclaimer: I only finished the north route, then returned the game. ~2.5 hours played

The art blew me the away. The intro had me pumped up, the gameplay was exciting but the story... wasn't there. I bought this thinking it was going to be like Zelda as a lot of reviewers told me, but there were no puzzles. The combat mechanics were better but the enemies were the same most of the time. Sometimes the rooms had decent variation to make the fights exciting, but they rarely asked for any kind of unique solution. You just had to dash around a little more than usual, maybe fire your gun in this spot instead of another.

While the combat was good, the routes/dungeons were like Skyrim dungeons, very much kill this hall of enemies and then grab the "loot" at the end. Because all of these dungeons are hallways, the scenes blend together.

It might be open world, but there may as well be four levels. When you go north, it doesn't seem like you can go west or east from north. It's very on rails for an adventure game.

I like games without dialogue, and I thought the ways that the game conveyed dialogue and story were useful and valid. The vagueness of the pictures telling you a story is cool. The evidence left around could have been cool as well, maybe if they had been surrounded with better story. The problem is, there's barely any story to tell. There's clear evidence that something happened before, but what that something is you can't know. Or at least, it doesn't feel well eluded to. You see dead giants, worn robots and broken buildings, but that doesn't tell you anything besides that the game you're playing is some post-ruin setting. There was nothing to piece together, only lots of clues that left you going "Huh. Cool."

Nothing in the game changes when you progress. The bird person didn't care that I defeated the bad bird man. Everything was the same. The village didn't change. If this is an adventure game or RPG, I'd like the game to progress as I do. Be it through world building, which would have suited this silent game well, or through changing character dialogue, I want SOMETHING to happen. Anything. This didn't seem to occur in HLD, except that other routes open up.

The soundtrack was great. Art was amazing. Premise was solid, the fighting mechanics were good. The lack of invinciblity in the dash didn't matter to me, you can learn to play around it. But the story? Non-existant and that's why the game didn't hold my interest. I'm still going to follow Heart Machine and I'd definitely follow the release of a Hyper Light Drifter 2. This premise was REALLY COOL, but it really just felt like "Look at this amazing premise also here's a game." It just felt flat to play.

Disclaimer: I only finished the north route, then returned the game. ~2.5 hours played The art blew me the away. The intro had me pumped up, the gameplay was exciting but the story... wasn't there. I bought this thinking it was going to be like Zelda as a lot of reviewers told me, but there were no puzzles. The combat mechanics were better but the enemies were the same most of the time. Sometimes the rooms had decent variation to make the fights exciting, but they rarely asked for any kind of unique solution. You just had to dash around a little more than usual, maybe fire your gun in this spot instead of another. While the combat was good, the routes/dungeons were like Skyrim dungeons, very much kill this hall of enemies and then grab the "loot" at the end. Because all of these dungeons are hallways, the scenes blend together. It might be open world, but there may as well be four levels. When you go north, it doesn't seem like you can go west or east from north. It's very on rails for an adventure game. I like games without dialogue, and I thought the ways that the game conveyed dialogue and story were useful and valid. The vagueness of the pictures telling you a story is cool. The evidence left around could have been cool as well, maybe if they had been surrounded with better story. The problem is, there's barely any story to tell. There's clear evidence that something happened before, but what that something is you can't know. Or at least, it doesn't feel well eluded to. You see dead giants, worn robots and broken buildings, but that doesn't tell you anything besides that the game you're playing is some post-ruin setting. There was nothing to piece together, only lots of clues that left you going "Huh. Cool." Nothing in the game changes when you progress. The bird person didn't care that I defeated the bad bird man. Everything was the same. The village didn't change. If this is an adventure game or RPG, I'd like the game to progress as I do. Be it through world building, which would have suited this silent game well, or through changing character dialogue, I want SOMETHING to happen. Anything. This didn't seem to occur in HLD, except that other routes open up. The soundtrack was great. Art was amazing. Premise was solid, the fighting mechanics were good. The lack of invinciblity in the dash didn't matter to me, you can learn to play around it. But the story? Non-existant and that's why the game didn't hold my interest. I'm still going to follow Heart Machine and I'd definitely follow the release of a Hyper Light Drifter 2. This premise was REALLY COOL, but it really just felt like "Look at this amazing premise also here's a game." It just felt flat to play.