A surreal RPG made with claymation, let's explore the absurdity that is HYLICS. HYLICS on Steam - store.steampowe... Facebook: / nitroradofficial Twitter: / nitrorad
"Part of it comes off as total nonsense to me" That's because it is, the creator said he used a random sentence generator for any non-essential lines of dialogue. Anything the player needs to know to advance in the game is legible, everything else is gibberish
Despite this...I like to think that the line 'Meanwhile, Gibby, King of the Moon, kind of exhumes a gland amidst the augmented dirt prism!' means that Gibby literally took a chunk of of the earth. The dirt prism is the planet, exhumes means to expose something or dig out something, and a gland would just be a part of the planet. It may be randomised but...I think it means something to me at least.
The plot of the game is quite in depth, but most of it can't be deciphered from the nonsensical text, but from context clues. 1) it takes place in the far distant future, long after humans, as shown by the characters' amazement at the ancient device (water cooler) 2) The main characters of the game are lower class, oppressed, underdogs, shown when at one point you can play rebellious music in a club. This is also shown in the game's title, Hylics. Hylics, in gnosticism, are the lowest order of human, lower than psychics and pneumatics. 3) these underdog heroes overthrow the tyrannical dictator, gibby, the moon king. Wayne's overthrowing of Gibby is very symbolic. Gibby is a gibbous moon, shown by his name, and the shape of his head. Wayne is a waning crescent, shown by his name, and the shape of his head. Wayne's overthrowing of Moon King Gibby, is symbolic of the moon's phases, changing from one to the next. Perhaps in Hylics 2, Wayne will have become the dictator, needing to be replaced by another phase of the moon.
@@anarchistpoops161 I didn't cite anything 🗿 You may not have noticed but ummmmmmm I'm not the guy who posted the original comment. But since I have your attention, do you have any other thoughts to OP's other points?
I think by trying to explain it like this you just show that the real point of the game goes over your head. It's meant to absurd, pointless, and up to interpretation. Trying to explain it defeats the purpose but it's actually just simple and meaningless.
aze chase if something is ‘up to interpretation’ doesn’t that mean it’s full of meaning? You can’t say it’s going over someone’s head for making their own interpretation lol that’s contradictory
A lot of the dialogue in the game thats not main quest stuff is "Word Salad" Its not meant to make sense but meant for something the player to determine on their own.
A lot of it is also randomized, so there is literally no intended meaning and everything you make up about it is your delusion that it makes sense to you, because it is a game made with no sort of any sense.
@@Scuuurbs I just came back to this thread a year later to see someone reply to me about suggesting someone watch a reviewer burn food while naked, while naked, while naked, while naked.
I litterally discovered this channel 2 days ago, and i've been watching nothing but Nitro Rad episodes up to now, and i'm proud to say that i've seen them all. Seriously, this channel is an absolute masterpiece.
I like the concept of dying not destroying your progress and supporting you with some benefits. It is unfortunate to learn that progression is limited to when you die. Perhaps if the benefits from death were something different.... I just like the idea that dying doesn't destroy your progress and in a way encourages you to keep playing.
This game is wonderful. I've beaten it about seven times, once, in under two hours. Not a fan of how its actually easier/better to skip battles, but it never really overstays its welcome either. Also, Wayne is a moon man, his name implies "waning" as in the prefix for a moon phase; as is "Gibby", coming from the word "gibbous", he as well is a moon. I'm fairly sure Somsnosa is a moon folk as well, and yes, she is a girl...though some people think 'Soms is a he
I had no idea this was made in RPG Maker. Hell, I didn't even know you were able to do this much with RPG Maker, I thought all it could do was basic sprite-work.
RPG Maker is much more versatile than you think. Yes, most games use the basic template, like a top-down view and FF-ish or dungeon crawler-like battles, but then there is stuff like Alter AILA Genesis, which plays like a sidescroller when on the field and has a battle system written specifically for it from a scratch.
It depends on the version but it can do some powerful stuff, although it does have some specific limits, games run at 640x480 for most of them (not sure about the most modern versions though) and sprites are limited to 32x32 before XP and 32x48 for XP, although I don’t know for MV and MZ. XP and inwards can also use loads of colours, before that it was 256 colours max. Games like this really show of what you can do with a low res sprite, most of the characters fit into that 32x48 frame from what I can tell, but it doesn’t look like sprite work, and since the sprites are higher resolution than SNES or MD and colours are unlimited, the digitised photos look way more cinching than they did back in the 90s. I think also any visual flaws introduced by RPGMaker are really well hidden by the unique and crazy art style the creator used.
@@justanotheryoutubechannel For MV & MZ there's no limit on screen size. For MV you'll need a script to change it, MZ it's built in. There's a version of MZ coming out in the summer, that's gonna give you choices for the default sizes (48x48, 32x32, 16x16, etc.)
As far I am aware a lot of the dialogue in this game was written by a random word generator. So yeah, it's not supposed to make sense. I guess in a way you can see it as a comment on how exchangeable a lot of the plot and setting in games are. You know what you are supposed to do and how to accomplish it, you don't even need to be able to understand NPCs to continue your quest. Personally I liked the afterlife mechanic a lot. It was an interesting way of integrating your death into the gameplay, it's not just simply a Game Over. If you manage to beat the game at the lowest health then you didn't need to upgrade your health anyway. Also the Dynamite animation is the best thing ever. Btw I love your observation on the way the world is constructed and the comparison to bricks.
As RPG Maker dev myself, it's kind of soul crushing in a way that it feels like the only RPG maker games that get any kind of exposure are these type of surreal games and generic anime horror games. I'm happy for their successes, and I'm glad RPG Maker is being seen as a legitimate engine now, but it feels like making traditional RPGs with it is a waste of time since no on would notice.
I remember back in a World of Warcraft forum people always joked about how they would still play the game even if everyone was just an amorphous blob. Hylics took that literally.
This is such a cool game and one of the most interesting art styles I've ever seen, can't believe such a cheap game is so hidden away. Amazing review as always Nitro!
You really are one of the best indie youtubers on RU-vid. You have a very clear way of explaining what is good and what is bad without being overtly critical or resorting to poopy humour. Your timing is spot on and, while another youtuber would've made the "cooking naked" segment longer to the point of it being uncomfortable, you knew just when to stop it. After a few seconds, when the joke had been processed and then you go right back to the review. I appreciate that. I've been watching you on and off since the LISA review, which is also one of my favourite games, but for some reason I never subscribed. The reason you don't have many subscribers is probably due to people like me.
Well, I hope that it will not be too forced. Everyone knows how great OFF is, and the only real reason for him to review it - neverending stream of requests from his subscribers.
I hope someone reviews Terringma. Most of the reviews I've seen don't really review it, they just say it's an amazing game and that's it. Nothing really too in depth has been done, sadly.
Soarxisscared Well, it's not exactly well known, so there's little that can be done there. Getting a copy at a reasonable price can be rid-fucking-icoulously hard if you aren't willing to get it on an emulator.
I forget which crew member it is but after you get a certain one you can interact with the white crawly guys (the bugs that man grows) and increase their mightiness
Me : Watching the new Hylics 2 trailer, thinking it looks awesome and like something nitro should review RU-vid reccomendations : Now this looks like a job for me
will you make a harvester video? :o by the way thanks you do a great job of making us discover those games, and i love how you analyse those games :) Great job Nitro :D
jesse Master. exe saw and watched :) was very happy that he not only covered it so soon but he also gave it positive reception, so i look forward to playing it myself when given the time!