HYLICS 2 - Nitro Rad

[Music] I draw [Music] it's really not very often I find a game with visuals that leave has a lasting an impression as hilux who was this crazy RPG maker game by stop-motion artist mason Lindroth it was a pretty simple RPG but the visuals they were anything but a Hilux was hand crafted with clay and digitized with a crunchy pixel look the way all of these abstract shapes would unfold and morph it was unlike anything I've ever seen I've played other claymation games but nothing that looked quite like this I almost feel like the game's purpose was to create confusion NPCs would speak and randomly generated nonsense you increased your maximum health by grinding the meat of your enemies and your face would melt off and sending you to the afterlife each time you fell in battle it was weird as hell but dope as hell it's been a number of years since I covered that first game and at that time they've been steadily teasing this incredibly ambitious sequel God and I thought the animations in the first game are crazy the ones in this one were too straight a mind-blowing Lindros art style is incredibly unique dabbling in the vague the abstract at creating shapes that barely even mean anything and making them dance hypnotically across the screen it's absurdist eye candy at its very peak or so I thought Hilux 2 would push the visuals to an even further degree but it seemed like there is a lot more to expect than just the improved graphics and the game would ditch its RPG maker origins to create more interesting gameplay better menus and way more ambitious map design and let's be real there's only so much you can really do an RPG maker I do love seeing people push that thing far beyond its limits but sometimes if you want to get really ambitious you are gonna have to move on from those limitations and that's precisely what Hilux do aims to do it's still very much the complex visuals that have me excited to play it I mean that is why you play Hilux to begin with right for the weirdness of it but of course I'm also interested in seeing just how different the gameplay is gonna be - but above all else I'm ready for this thing to be as freaking weird as possible dude like I've been waiting for this game ever since I reviewed the first one years ago I've been waiting a long ass time and Hilux 2 is finally here I'm so stoked to play it so let's do it [Music] whoa look at that that is a cool last title screen whoa dude I really really love this stop-motion hands are a reoccurring motif throughout Hilux with all the fights being in first-person you'll see these hands do the attacks quite frequently but here they are forming the game's title that's so freakin cool part of why I really love this idea is because we're technically looking at the very hands that crafted this whole game the hands that modeled and animated these clay characters so why not craft the title with these hands too and these hands made the game so these hands will make the title and if there's one thing this title screen gets across and the first game didn't its movement the first Hilux had all of these crazy-looking characters but a lot of times we didn't get to see them moving Hilux - on the other hand makes it very clear right away that we're not just gonna get to see weird things we're gonna get to see them in emotion and that is very exciting already I don't even know what I'm looking at but I love it it looks like a gray brain but molded into something else like we're being asked from the very beginning to unwrap our brains to let go of our inhibitions and embrace the weirdness or about the dive into and the weirdness is pretty cranked up right out of the gate away now lives on an island full of Wayne larvae other clones of Wayne and big Wayne the elder of all Wayne's I think this might actually be the Wayne for the first game now all old and wise and watching over a society of himself that and now exists for reasons our feeble minds cannot make sense of that's kind of how I like the view that complicated dialogue because these are all real words they just exclusively speak with the biggest ones that the source could possibly provide as if these clay beings have evolved far past what we can comprehend and likewise their colloquialisms have all become absurdly complex it's just like the first game the story is actually quite simple underneath all of those big words the tyrant we took down to the first game Gibby king of the moon or whatever he's got some minions out there trying to revive him so we just got to go and stop them it's like an NES game plot like gsella - or something just a simple reason to get out there and experience the world game offers a simple trip through a very complex world I guess you could say and this world look incredible dude like it actually blew me away a little bit when I saw that the world is not actually 2d like the first game no like this is mostly 3d I bumped this chair right at the very beginning and I saw it rotate and I was like oh I guarantee they put that there deliberately just so people would have that moment that's that's so cool all of these environments are fully 3d model you can even turn off the filter to see what the models look like under the illusion which is a really cool option I always appreciate developers letting the player peek behind the curtain a little bit like that but man they really couldn't have done a better job at this and they seamlessly translated that art style into 3d so well that honestly if it weren't for this chair in the starting room I probably would have spent a good couple of minutes actually thinking this is all 2d and now that the world is 3d the way you navigate it has changed a lot gone is the grid based movement RPG maker is known for now we've got eight Direction movement boy along with that jump button and an air dash that you'll unlock very early in the game there's a lot of light platforming in this game and there's things I like about it and there's a lot of things I really don't okay so firstly the improved movement feels way better you have way more freedom to explore at being able to jump has added a lot of verticality you're climbing up mountains and buildings you're looking around it adds a lot to how much you can explore dashing is also a really fun way to get around especially with the sounds that makes you just want to do it over and over it's so much fun there's also a hover move similar to platformers like Rayman allowing you to slow your descent with this you can line up a jump more comfortably or if you want you can just blissfully glide across these beautiful landscapes however while I do love how they added platforming and way more dynamic movement it can be pretty clunky at times I would wonder if this was even the intended way up or if I was just choosing the game you ever try to awkwardly jump up a cliff in an Elder Scrolls game you know fumble your way up there definitely not intended a lot of it can feel like that the fixed isometric angle paired with the 2d sprites can also make it kind of hard to tell where exactly in the 3d space your 2d character is it wasn't uncommon for me to over or undershoot a platformer simply because I couldn't tell where I was luckily this has already been addressed in a patch though which adds an optional indicator to show where you're going to land older platformers like Rayman 2 would usually remedy this in a sim fashion with the character shadow and as simple as it is it is majorly effective once this was added I never had a problem landing anymore though I guess the platforming and collision can still be clunky I would still occasionally get stuck it's really not the smoothest in the world in fact it can be downright clumsy but it was totally worth it because it opens up so freakin much uncovering nooks and crannies that reward you with items is way more fun this time one of the biggest appeals of Hilux is the strange world so if you can add ways to discover more of that world well that's exactly what I'm looking for now while the environments are now 3d all of the characters remain hand animated in 2d with claymation and the production value here is a major jump over the first game the walk cycles for instance there way for converters and they now accommodate for all eight directions you can now face if there's even multiple costumes Wayne Kim Rock this time you still got that classic leather jacket but if you want you can go with a wiser look sporting a long cloak instead like Wayne's now a philosopher or something like that you'll end up with the same motley crue from before there's psalms NOSSA the fan-favorite technical type pend Ghormeh your tank character and deadest mon the guy who's like supposed to also be support but i find something oh so a lot more helpful I actually want to take a moment to appreciate these two characters I know Wayne and Psalms Knossos seem to get way more love but I think it's because they have more comprehensive designs I actually struggled of remember what these two even look like when I think of them and I think it's because their designs are so abstract I mean I look upon Ghormeh and I just see nonsense I don't even know where his face begins let alone ends there's a chaotic energy he admits that I feel really enhances the experience oh especially for a tank character if that makes sense that's part of why I really love seeing hilux fan art because there's a lot of room for interpretation with these characters here's one by an artist I bumped into out of the convention last year that drew the whole gang I really liked his interpretation upon Ghormeh he's Krumpet out hardcore he remembers somebody came up to me with this and I saw it and I was like where'd you get that I want one and I searched the vendor room for like half an hour looking for the artist so I could grab one too man like I just love seeing people draw these characters Hilux needs more fan art dude it really does but anyway the point being I really love these designs because there's a lot of room for interpretation but to such an extreme that I'm not even just talking about drawing them but in even just thinking about them this might not make any sense but upon Ghormeh is a very memorable character that I cannot remember and the fact that Mason Lin draw the chief that is like kind of cool the battles are where the animation gets seriously cool this is where we get to see all the surreal animations for each attack and the holy sweet wreck Jesus Christ look at this you can tell a lot of work went into these and the clay models are way more detailed and the movement is way more complex a look at this bite attack this brain with a mouth chomping down on you I don't even know what I'm looking at half the time it's like the effects from spells had to be made with clay and and because of that they took on this whole new bizarre form and it's not just the attacks that are animated either gone are those static unmoving enemy sprites now forget about those here we have characters that will dance around the screen with brain-melting movement the animation almost of these enemies is straight-up mesmerizing you know how I can tell this is really effective because there's a lot of moments and all the footage I have for my playthrough where I'm not doing anything and I actually remember it's because I would just spend like half a minute just staring at the screen every time I got into a fight but you got to start fighting because the enemy animations are only the tip of the iceberg and the player attacks all feature these iconic hand gestures frame like it's a first-person this was something that was present in the first game too but the animations here are way more grandiose and my favorite is the foam gesture it's kind of like a healing slash shield move but it's like it looks like this aliens intestines comes down from the heavens and foams y'all up oh my god pun gormers lightning gesture this is one of the most satisfying attacks in like yet any RPG I swear to God do like the movement feels so powerful and when that final lightning strike lands and the enemy explodes gonna be chunks flying everywhere oh my lord this is a game that feels amazing to land that final blow the item animations are all really cool too they're similar to the first game but again way more frames overall way crazier I love that you don't eat a cookie in this game no you deploy a cookie what does that mean I don't know but I love it this is those games are you're really not gonna want to hold back in the fights I've played a lot of RPGs as a kid that really drilled this idea of a saving special attacks and items just for the bosses into my head I gotta hang on to him I gotta save him you know but it's games like Hilux 2 that really forced me to combat that mindset each enemy encounter in this game isn't easy you really just can't rely on the standard attacks you will have to strategize at least a little bit and you will have to be using your items of gestures there's a lot of emphasis on status effects here most your gestures will inflict remove or move a status effect you can make a different character defend so you don't have to use their turn to do it so they're defending and then you can attack an enemy that's going to counter the game does a pretty good job of actually encouraging using a lot of attacks that cost you will because they have these bugs on the overworld that you can slap to recover your characters I felt way more inclined to go all-out in every battle because the game would reward my exploration between fights with what I needed to survive the next one I'd also slap them even if I didn't need to because they explode into goop and it's so much fun to watch it's like it's like popping bubble wrap you just never get tired of it I really love that slapping animation a wayne Yanks off his glove and hits them with it like he's starting a duel or something you're also able to use this on enemies in the overworld to get the initiative in battle some of the random fights can last quite a while especially towards the end of the game and I actually do kind of like that well okay I like it when it works but it doesn't I kind of want to yank my hair out of my head each fight being a bigger deal than your typical fight in most other RPGs is really cool to me there's something really cathartic about staring at these bonkers visuals while that gentle surf rock washes over you as you carefully decide your best course of action it's actually really relaxing I guess if you're the kind of person who isn't very patient though then the fights may drag on a bit for you that is a more subjective point overall but I do admit there are times where I think it is a bit too much even if you are patient like come on dude the enemies in the final area that's what I'm talking about these guys can status affect your entire team and heal themselves in full all in one turn and sometimes there's way too many priority enemies at once like these pool guys they can duplicate themselves so I always go for them first but this weird-looking dude year I like this guy a lot actually I like his little yappy mouth it's really silly but God is he a bastard if he uses that umbilical cord move you only have a short time to take him out before he deals huge damage to your entire party when you have both of these guys at once on top of other enemies too it just gets annoying as hell a some fights I use up so many resources and like four turns in the entire enemy team has full health again I'm almost dead and it's like I've made no progress no it's like I've made the opposite of progress this wouldn't really be a problem if the game had a run button but you cannot run from fights so if you're in a bad spot and you want to start the fight over your only option is to either quit the game and reload a save or to painfully wait for your entire party to die so you can get Warped to the afterlife again Wayne's face will melt off again every time this happens and oh dude I thought it looked cool before that this is even better wow that's that's cool as hell just like the first game dying will warp you and your party to the afterlife I hear you can rest you can look around and explore or you can grind the meat you've collected from your slain enemies to increase your maximum HP or a flesh as the game calls it how was a weird motif from the first game collecting meat to improve your flesh but there's a little more context as though what is really going on with it here not like outright explained but there are some things that could be interpreted in some fairly grim ways things like finding a dying Wayne on the side of a beach collecting his meat and adding it to yourself it makes me wonder if the Wayne we play as is different each time we die and maybe that's what's going on here his being becomes meats just like when we defeat an enemy perhaps the meat from our current Wayne is collected and used to create a new Wayne to play as unlike crumbling your old clay figure into mush and using the remains to build a new one and maybe that's exactly what Wayne is there are tons of Wayne's at the Wayne house after all and it's kind of hard to tell if this is just a game being fun and weird or if there's maybe more to it than that I don't know for sure but it's at least really fun to think about the afterlife is a hub world was handled so much better this time in the first game you had to die every time you wanted to go there to level up which was pretty annoying but now he can work back and forth through these fountains it definitely improves the pacing over the first game quite a bit now increasing your flesh with really the only way you can improve your stats in the first game anything else came from the gear you to quit but Hilux 2 adds one more thing you can level up and that is this entirely new mechanic charging now I know that seems like a typical RPG thing having the option to charge up an attack but what makes it so interesting in Hilux too is that it's actually an integral focus of the combat and you'll even have to level it up to get the best results enemies can also drop antennas which you can bring to this TV Island a place where TV people improve the charge signal by adding more antennas bring them here and your charge will level up I love these TV dudes like I don't know there's something about characters with TVs foreheads that's just really appealing to me for some reason the music here is really fitting - there's a lot of twang to it I kind of sound you'd expect to hear from an antenna right now is easily one of the highlights the first game that's surf rock it was pretty chill and calming like you're on a vacation in this incomprehensible nonsense land but I admit it did sound very amateur [Music] this time Lindroth has employed the help of musician Chuck Salamone and new buddy buddy his work in the soundtrack it's so freakin dope like it sounds like hilux a completely harnesses the exact same vibe and Direction perfectly while elaborating on it into some seriously good tunes like you can tell this was done by a professional this time the battle theme is this chilled out surf rock that makes every encounter a delight to sit back and browse through your options and the more creepy sounds are still in there too dipping into the since whenever there's a sense of impending dread the pus theme really cranks things up it starts with this psychedelic funky riff that echoes around like you're floating on a cloud in space and then [Music] yes it creeps up the instruments get more intense and then [Music] [Applause] [Music] the pacing of these songs are really freakin good like they know and to reel it back when you go in for the kill and no spoilers but the final boss theme is the [ __ ] incredible I'll show you guys later in a spoiler section the airship theme is so freakin relaxing - it's so chill and just it's perfect for gliding around the world and taking it all in this is where you really get to observe the world and all of its 3d glory and normally you only get a fixed angle on the overworld but here you can fly all around and see every mountain from any angle you want even soar up above the clouds it is incredibly gorgeous the choice of colors are in absolute delight the acid-washed pinks and blues they glaze over the horizon it looks like a 90s Californian summer a really good vibe that definitely pairs very well with the surf rock I've actually seen a couple of people describe Hilux as an interactive album cover and I really don't think that description could be any more accurate you can tell a lot of work went into making this game look the way it does and while that's fantastic I couldn't help but the feel there is a little bit less focus on the humor this time the game no longer has that a randomly generated word passed out like before don't get me wrong the dialogue is still strange as hell and it does feel like every character has a thesaurus programmed into their brains but it's much more deliberate now a big problem I have with the first game is that I couldn't get any comprehensive hints out of the NPC's and there were times I got super lost and I had a hard time figuring out what to do that has been addressed here I guess I do miss the randomly generated dialogue but I do think it is for the better the writing is still bizarre but you will be able to actually take hints and stuff from it this time you can also access the interior of your airship to talk to your party members if you need a reminder on what to do in the story yo let's do spoilers now because there's some stuff I want to talk about this towards the end of it so skip right here if you don't want to see that okay so that word pasta is still in the game but it's part of the plot this time after Gibby is revived he transforms off the world's inhabitants into these formless grey messes and just like the first game they start to speak in riddles this is really cool because now there's kind of like a story reason why they spoke like that in the first game because Gibby was the ruler at the time and his fluence must have done that to people remove Gibby and people become understandable again this makes me believe that Gibby wants to embrace the worlds in comprehensiveness he wants it all not to make sense to have no meaning he wants reality to be a formless brain soup this could be what motivates that rebellious nough stats in Wayne and his friends have a desire meaning they want to shape the world create things that are comprehensive and makes sense and not just let the world return to resembling the bare components that form it and these themes of course fall hand-in-hand with the game being made out of clay Wayne could represent a stark individualism the desire to stand out the desire to be different and unique abut in spreading that identity Wayne's individualism evolved into commonality hey Gibby probably finds this threatening because Gibby also desires commonality but he wants to achieve it by removing the entire world's identity he doesn't believe the two can coexist if I had to dissect some themes from the game he'd probably be something like that the clash between individualism and commonality but that's just my two cents the final fight with Gibby is pretty damn awesome it's easily one of the most abstract enemies you'll face his body isn't even linked together it's just a bunch of floating bizarre shapes aggressively marching forward it wasn't really all that hard to fight though I wish it was a little bit more challenging the fights with a regular enemies from the final area we're more challenging than this but the set piece is undeniably befitting of a final fight I can give that much at least and the music it just blasts out at full force with this chaotic and shapeless string and notes played on guitar and steel drums [Music] that distorted baseline climbs and climbs as you think about your options and the wobbly strings that chunk and baseline keeps on going and then it just [Music] this is a final boss fight you remember feeling kinda underwhelmed by the first games ending but this one goes out with a bang no it goes up with a freaking explosion the first games ending kind of left me hanging but this one I felt satisfied as hell finishing this thing Hilux 2 is a banger of a seagull dude like this is a game that understood exactly what its strengths were and decides to focus on elaborating on that it does have his fair share of hiccups like the clunky platforming in the movement and how frustrating some of the later fights can get but it's the visuals you play Hilux for so I think the focus was put in the proper category but despite its flaws I really do respect the hell out of Lindroth for getting way more ambitious with this one moving to a 3d engine to have more dynamic movement and going out of your way to create this amazing cel-shaded look just to achieve that I mean he could have just kept the game 2d and focused on the animation but it's the willingness to march into territory you're not as familiar with to try and make something better that's what makes this such an ambitious game in case you couldn't tell I really loved the [ __ ] out of this game like it definitely isn't perfect but it certainly nails everything I was hoping it would it's also a little longer than I expected to while the first game was only about three hours this one can take you up to eight so you'll definitely get a lot more out of this one too there's also a great variety of options to make the experience as smooth as possible the controller customization is very comprehensive and simple to use and there's difficulty options you're able to tweak the challenge in either direction a little bit you can change this at any time too so if you really want you could tone down those annoying fights towards the end it doesn't have that dirt cheap price tag of the original but the production value and amount of contents are certainly higher enough to warranted it's 15 bones on Steam but as always I recommend getting it on each so you get a drm-free and more money goes to the developer I think Alex 2 is gonna be game I remember for a very long time I mean the first game already left the lasting impression but god this one even more so it's like it's like experiencing raw unfiltered brain electricity it's like a fever dream no it's like it's like your brains trying to make a fever dream but it can only make it out of incomplete thoughts that haven't even shaped fully yet if you want some seriously delicious brain soup draw everything you're doing play Hilux to [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 365,516

Keywords: nitro rad, review, hylics, hylics 2, clay, claymation, stop motion, mason lindroth, surreal, weird games, rpg, surf rock, wayne, hylics 2 review, rpgmaker, hylics review, animation, rpg games, platforming

Id: vr_7E6UyZEo

Length: 24min 47sec (1487 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020