Hyper Light Drifter

HLD is an action adventure with the closest comparison to The Legend of Zelda and Souls games. That is really the closest I can think of, the game is distinct enough where you will have fans who will disagree. It has the Zelda like world map with 4 main dungeons and upgrades/weapons to make you stronger. It has the collectibles in spades too. But it doesn't really have puzzles in the traditional sense. The puzzles are mostly figuring out how to get to a certain spot and finding the hidden secrets. The Souls comparison comes purely from the challenging difficulty that requires patience. But it's not the same kind of challenge, you will be outnumbered and you will have to react quickly on the spot sometimes. Also, movements like 'Dash' require an investment to get the hang of. But once you do and you learn how the game works, it's a very satisfying feeling. The game demands respect when you play it. It has the kind of cohesiveness, vision and polish that only the best games that are talked about a lot have. Graphical style is very on point but the sounds, sound effects and (ambient) music steal the show. It makes me want to hang around longer just to live in that world. The gameplay as mentioned is quirky, it's not mainstream but it's very satisfying to know how a monster behaves, how best to deal with it or noticing the small details to see that you are given plenty of hints for the hidden collectibles. It becomes addictive to find them. I also really appreciate the generous checkpoint system, it's what made me willing to do everything 100%. The game does have 2 points which should have been better. So one of the other reasons why the game is considered challenging is the map lay-out. They're not very detailed. It's intentional to make you explore a certain way which I'm fine with thanks to the way this game does it. What I'm NOT fine with is not getting enough information about how many collectibles there are. You can guess some of them as a total but it's not spelled out enough and you don't get those stats for each dungeon. It's a nightmare to miss just a couple of things and not being able to narrow down the search. Now luckily for us, the community behind this game is amazing. There are many fantastic guides and there is even a website that checks your save to tell you which dungeon you're missing a collectible in. The second point are 2 achievements, one of them is a personal dislike, complete the game without dying. No matter how good the game is, there are awkward situations and moments that are outside of your control. I really don't think a game like it should have had such an achievement, but at least it's possible to save scum it and alt+F4 works fine too. The other achievement is most likely universally disliked, you have to die 1000 times. It's not hard but it's very grindy, you're going to achieve 400 at most if you're fairly bad at the game and you completed it 3 times for the rest of the achievements. Again though, the game's community saves the day. A steam member made a guide and attached their save to give you 1000 deaths after getting hit once. It works perfectly and it saves a lot of unnecessary time. One final note about the story, it's another one that does the show and not tell and I don't think it was very successful at it. Don't get me wrong, the cutscenes were AWESOME but they just looked cool in a flashy way. I eventually pieced what I was shown to understand the basics but there is still some guessing involved, and I would have liked knowing more about specific details. Like why is the main character bleeding, what does it mean etc. The game is not for everyone. It can feel punishing at times, there is no handholding, there is little direction and there aren't enough stats tracked for the collectibles. But, if you like exploring the world, finding secrets hidden on your own, take some time to learn the mechanics of the game etc, then you're going to have a fantastic time. It should not be missed if you're the patient type, the reward is going to be worth it. At least it was for me. I was worried the game would be too challenging but it really wasn't that bad, I enjoyed it a lot the moment I started playing for the first time. I totally understand why the game is hyped now, it's such a shame the sequel went for something completely different and it's never going to get finished either (forever stuck in early access). The price of 15 euros is absolutely worth it. I got the game on sale when it was around 3,75 euros and I'm glad I did. Because of HLD, I made sure to buy a recent bundle with Solar Ash in it (the game is made by the same developers) and I'm going to play that one very soon. It took me more than 34 hours to complete the game and get all the achievements. You need to complete the game 3 times, once is first time to get familiar with the game and collect everything, second time is new game plus (health is drastically reduced that it feels like ironman with checkpoints) and the third time not dying at all. You also have to complete horde mode (wave based fights) and Boss Rush mode (there are checkpoints between each boss at least).