RPG Maker, huh? Maybe you've heard of it, or games made with some version of it. It's become in/famous for its ease of use to make 2D games, be them actual RPGs like the Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests of old or something more abstract, based around exploration or storytelling.
OFF, Yume Nikki, the LISA series, OneShot and Omori are just a few of the titles on RPG Maker's "Hall of Fame", some of the best games that showcase what these engines can do and have enthralled indie game fans for years now. A big appeal of RPG Maker and what leads to it, in particular, being a fountain of strange ideas is its minimal barrier to entry as far as programming goes.
There's never a "Make Game" button with any engine, but RPG Maker coming with so much pre-built allows for people with other talents to have an easy time making their game, be them artists, composers or both.
Mason Lindroth's Hylics is only marginally more niche than RPG Maker indies in general. Known for his claymation work, Lindroth was no stranger to game development, making multiple game jam entries prior to Hylics, some using Flash (R.I.P.), some also using RPG Maker and some being lost to time by his own choice. But between strange platformers like Fishbowl and Asmosnos, or surreal experiences like Beachcomber and Lullaby, his formula was pretty sound: Relatively simple games, mechanically speaking, with his visual flair of twisting clay structures and crude pixel art.
In those terms, Hylics doesn't fall far from the tree, being a pretty basic RPG with some wacky colorful visuals all around you. Its overall presentation can certainly be a turn-off or an acquired taste, but you're on my turf now so you get to read me blabbering about how much I like it
It'd be a lie to say this game has a particularly in-depth plot, and if the "intro exposition" in that screencap looks off it's because the game does something interesting: Whenever you start a new game, it essentially rolls the dice on some chart of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. to place into the dialogue. Aside from a few key pieces that are actual hints and what-not, Hylics' text is total gibberish, which is another "love it or hate it" for people that stumble into this game.
The story is pretty simple: You play as Wayne (Pictured above at the start of the game) and you venture out to defeat the evil moon king Gibby. Along the way, you have to team up with some friends:
There are some roadblocks along your path, mazes, catacombs, office buildings, pocket dimensions that contain the controls for a sea gate so you can actually use a boat to get around... The usual. But it's a lot less about hyping yourself up to save the world, more so just going around and seeing what this bizarre clay world has to offer before you head off to save it.
While a game that's more so just a collection of neat visuals and experiences with loose connective tissue isn't an inherently bad thing, I can't help but feel it was a bit lacking. That monochrome character in the screenshot of the gibberish text occasionally appears in what I can only compare to Paper Mario chapter intermissions, but I never really felt like there was much meaning to separating each "Act" beyond giving you a not-that-needed breather for this guy to feed you more word salad
Thankfully, Hylics actually isn't just some weird sights and sounds, it has gameplay elements to go with it, and some rather interesting ones at that.
As far as traversing the overworld goes, Hylics doesn't stray too far from most of its RPG Maker brethren, you have 4-directional movement, you can interact with stuff and you can open your menu to do stuff within it, most often using items, changing equiment or just saving.
Interesting Mechanic No.1: Televisions (or monitors in general).
Scattered around the world are various forms of monitors that you can interact with, and these are how your party will learn new skills. From status moves, to healing moves, to big damage attacks, your arsenal will certainly expand as you gather the power of these monitors, and careful use of all your skills and items at the right times can be crucial, as Hylics' battles don't particularly mess around
While the game overall doesn't have a ton of different enemies, many of the ones you encounter do a good job at being tricky and putting you in difficult situations to survive their attacks and debuffs. You never gain EXP in this game, meaning your attack stats only go up with equipment, so more often than not you'll have to strategize around whatever an enemy or group is doing. That said, they don't get that extravangant, RPG Maker still has its limitations, but they still make for interesting encounters.
The first enemies you run into are quite likely easy enough to take out with just Wayne, and you'll be rewarded with "Meat", that should come into play the first time you die and find yourself at...
Interesting Mechanic No.2: The Afterlife
Rather than getting a Game Over, you're sent to this ethereal seaside temple that is the Afterlife. Here you can rest on a couch to be fully restored, walk around and talk to the fish that inexplicably rule here I guess, and use the grinder opposite to the couch to convert Meat into extra Flesh (AKA Health) for the whole party. You actually unlock extra little spots here after dying a few times, but thankfully not many. Once your business in the Afterlife is done, you can interact with the crystals to set where you'll warp to from the portal at the top. It kinda relies on just remembering which crystal goes where, as well as remembering to have it activated in the living world, so it's not a flawless system but it gets the job done.
As alluded and displayed, Hylics is a weird looking game. Buildings are made of coiling and twisting worms of clay, some interior areas haven't the faintest sign of consistent perspective, characters with discernible faces are few and far between, it truly is bizarre, and it's only accented by the pastel colors and the dithering of the digitized clay models. The music also goes hand-in-hand with the bizarre visuals, consisting of (and I say this in the kindest way possible) amateurish guitar strumming, erratic drums, strange synths and even theremins. I'd argue that the music of Hylics 1, more than anything, is an acquired taste. You either love it for its "Outsider Art" charm, it grows on you, or you get sick of it within minutes or seconds and mute it.
Overall, the game's presentation is strange, off-putting, ethereal and uniquely charming, and it is not for everyone. But if whatever you've seen about it even vaguely interests you, you certainly have my strongest recommendation for a weird indie RPG that won't cost you a whole lot (Upwards of US$3 on Steam and Itch.io) and won't take up a ton of your time (My first full playthrough clocking just under 2 and a half hours)
Hylics on Itch.io for those interested