Okay, first off, hello to our massive influx of new followers! We look forward to writing for you all, and want to give a huge thanks to the folks over at @weirdmarioenemies for being so gosh-darned cool :) Now I have something to actually motivate me to write more reviews, so without further ado, here’s part 2 of our Hylics creature review!
Creature
For our first new creature, we have, well… Creature! Creature here is an optional boss that you can encounter in one of the overworlds. It seems to be made almost entirely of the most basal of all clay shapes: balls and snakes (there is no way you could possibly take that out of context so don’t even try it)! I do love the layout of this thing, even if it’s very simple. I feel like the appeal of a giant mass of writhing tentacles is relatively universal, but I also like that the only feature Lindroth elected to give it other than tentacles is a little cluster of pale eyeballs on top and to the front(?) of its body. You’d kind of expect it to have some kind of big, gaping maw full of teeth, and maybe it does! Like a lot of the other denizens of Hylics, there’s not much to them other than whatever we can discern from their sprites, and I think that’s fun! When killed, Creature drops a Chitin Jerkin, which is described as “Sensible everyday-wear for the modern machine” as well as a Parasite Crystal which just does some stat buffing stuff we don’t need to talk about, I just really like the names.
Ghost
Ooh, they’re peekin atcha! Peekin out through their wacky flesh spirals! The way the clay winds around the action figure part really gives off the impression that it’s some kind of creature wrapped around a human, like a flech meshflesh mesh flesh mech! Especially since there are tendrils coming off the extremities that look like they would function as essentially extensions of the body within. Speaking of those extensions, I love that instead of just one projection coming off of each foot, there’s two! So instead of walking like a regular person, it walks using its four sub-legs. Also it’s got a cool funny hat that I kind of wish came down over the eyes so that it looked like the clay part was the head, but at the same time the eyes peering through the clay bits is really eerie.
Dread Meat
Oh no, somebody left this boy out in the sun! They’ve gone all melty! Dread Meat is very similar to Ghost in its structure, however, its limbs do not have projections, and there is no trace of humanity to it beyond the hands and feet just barely emerging from what I can only imagine to be rolls of oozing meat. It feels like a zombie of some kind, although there is nothing else in the game that looks like it could be the un-undead version of this corpulent corpse. The thing I like most about its design is probably the fact that the head is a big loop with a grisled knot off to the right, presumably to hide the action figure head. It gives it some nice asymmetry.
Sub Shrub & Tomb Shrub
Oh my god. Adorable. These little green guys with huge lumpy wedges for heads and no discernible facial features should not be anywhere near as cute as they are. Also, I guess the name implies that these guys are plants? Anyway, Sub Shrubs can be encountered separate from Tomb Shrub, but they’re relatively weak on their own. But during the Tomb Shrub fight, it summons Sub Shrubs to help it out. Teamwork makes the dream work! I just love these little fellas! They look so squishy and silly! Also when he first encountered one, Vinny said the Sub Shrub looks like an “aborted pizza” and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Fathead
I was just thinking when I was writing Dread Meat’s review how fatty tissue isn’t something you see a lot in monster design, and here we’ve got this funky fella, whose head appears to be nothing but a massive glob of fatty tissue! I know there’s not much more to it than that, but it’s a nice concept for a creature and I like it a lot.
Monoops
Monoops’s gimmick seems to be its single eye… wait.
…Huh. I guess contrary to what the name would imply, Mono-ops has two eyes. That’s pretty neat actually! You don’t see many monsters with eyeballs as their design gimmick that have only two eyes. Usually, it’s either one or a whole bunch. It even has a move called Steady Stare that does damage as well as paralyzes its target, solidifying it as having an eyeball-centered design. I also really like the battle sprite’s color scheme.
Deadly Statue
Occupying a very similar role to the Ambulant Skulls, which you can read about in our last review of Hylics, Deadly Statues are only found in one area of the game. Similar to Ambulant Skulls, they kill you when you touch them, making them a purely overworld enemy. They are also much faster than Ambulant Skulls, matching the speed of the player exactly. Who'da thunk a big ‘ol statue’d be faster’n a skull made half’a legs?? Not me, that’s for darn tootin’! Anyway, I quite like its design. If I were an eccentric millionaire, this is exactly the kind of shit I would want sitting in the main foyer, flanked on either side by two huge, sweeping staircases of course.
Clawman
Clawman is the second-to-last boss in the game, they are equipped with two big yellow pincers and a ridiculously enormous head. I feel like the name and inclusion of pincers really makes you want to read it as a crab when really, the claws are the only vaguely crab-like feature they possess. You could argue that those spines on top are reminiscent to those of a king crab, but they’re flexible and curl inward towards each other like claws! That’s such a cute little touch!
Moon Soldier
Moon Soldiers barely qualify as enemies, since they literally can’t harm you, crumpling into a heap of bloody bones the moment you touch them. However, I think they’re really cool looking so we’re gonna take a look at ‘em anyway, god dammit. They guard the palace on the moon in which the final boss resides. It’s interesting how their heads are shaped much like that of our protagonist Wayne, (maybe they’re even the same species?) and the pale blueish color of the head against the cream of the clothes is really nice to look at. I kind of wonder if those are helmets they’re wearing, since the skull-like face markings almost look artificial, but there seems to be a very thin line between organic and synthetic in Hylics.
Gibby & Statues
Gibby is the main antagonist, and therefore the antithesis to our protagonist Wayne, who is a waning crescent instead of a waxing gibbous like Gibby, and instead of having a rad mohawk has no hair at all, which is basically the antithesis of having a rad mohawk. Gibby is, like, the king of the moon or something? I dunno, the plot in this game is kind of impossible to follow. If you’ve made it to the final boss, you’ve probably given up on trying to understand anything and are just here to see whatever batshit nonsense thing happens next. If you thought Clawman’s head was ridiculously huge, get a load of this guy! It looks like he can barely support its weight! How is it simultaneously swollen and gaunt? I dunno, but it’s kind of legitimately unsettling to be honest. It looks like his skin is pulled super taut over his face, almost like a desiccated corpse.
He also has two statues that aid him in battle. The Vital Statue to his right heals him, and the Eerie Statue to his left can afflict the protagonists with the nausea status effect. Can I just say how cool it is that there are four separate enemies in this game that have “statue” in their name, and they all look completely different? It’s really neat to see a single idea represented in so many different ways, ranging from somewhat recognizable to completely abstract. Most importantly, I think they’d all look lovely in the foyer of my imaginary mansion.
Conclusion
Hylics is a hell of an experience. It definitely has its flaws, such as clunky controls and practically nonexistent plot, but it’s at least worth watching someone play. The visuals are truly stunning, and you can really tell how much love went into making it. A huge portion of what you see in-game was painstakingly crafted from clay, rendered as a sprite, and worked into the game to become characters, enemies, and even the settings you walk around in. Please follow Mason Lindroth on Twitter,TumblrorInstagram, where he is currently posting updates on the progress of Hylics 2, which looks absolutely gorgeous judging by what he’s shown us so far, and I’m so excited to play it when it’s done. Please also consider donating to his gofundme page to support him in his development of Hylics 2.
One of several games created by Mason Lindroth, Hylics is a game made out of clay, action figures, and computer magic. The visuals of this game are absolutely bonkers, and the creature design is just about as surreal as the rest of the game. If you’re interested in playing it for yourself after watching the trailer above, it’s available for PC here. So if you’re like me and don’t have easy access to a PC, you can watch this stream of it by Vinesauce’s Vinny which is sort of gonna determine what order I review these in since there’s really no comprehensive information about this game that I could find at the time of writing this. Now let’s take a look at some of these crazy clay creations!
Spiral Polycerate
Yeah, right off the bat we’re getting something pretty emblematic of this game’s surreality. Nothing makes sense and that’s great! So the Spiral Polycerate is basically just a weird yellow spiral cone on top of a little action figure. Most of these creatures will have a similar body plan, just some clay slapped on an action figure, but said clay is usually placed or shaped in a way that it’s still interesting. Like in the case of this guy!
Also I guess it’s implied that Spiral Polycerates are sapient on account of their being one that’s a shopkeep in Tormaph, pictured above. This also gives us a view of what look like arms that are holding that lowest bit of clay. Weird! Is that a weapon or something then? When I first saw this thing, I was certain it was just a cone with legs sticking out of the bottom, but like most of the inhabitants of Hylics, it’s just the head that’s covered in clay. I guess it’s like, visual shorthand that the creature in question is intelligent. That’s cool and all, but I definitely liked its design better when I thought it was just a funky clay cone with legs.
Cone Cultists
Yippee! Wahoo! It’s cult time babey, yeah!!! These guys look so excited! Either that or they’re in immense pain from those horrible growths on their heads. I’m assuming it’s supposed to be some kind of silly hat, but my brain really wants to read them as cordyceps fungus, which are also yellowish-orange and very tall and slim and also grow out of living things, vaguely controlling them. I think overall they look fine as is, maybe a little bland. But if they WERE in fact cordyceps fungus, well that’d be pretty neat!
Cone Statue
Oooh, now we’re talking. This one’s made entirely of clay (save for the ribbons, made of computer magic) and is just shaped so good! I love the tiny squat body and legs coupled with the asymmetrical arms, of which the longer looks to be gesturing to that pot looking thing being pierced by its big ol’ cone head as if to say “Hey! Hey check out my sweet hat! I’m like a POTHEAD or something haha! Get it?? Hey look at my hat!!!” It can’t do anything but passively “shine” which blinds your party members, but is also capable of falling asleep apparently? Okay!
Fleshtache
Wow, this thing is profoundly unpleasant! The idea of a humanoid being whose head is nothing but a couple of large fleshy growths which could loosely be interpreted as a mustache kind of sucks a lot. Do you think there’s hair on the flesh? I know those little particulate things exist around some of the other sprites, but they’re more present around Fleshtache than any other sprite, which makes me think of them as like, a cloud of little floating hairs or something like what you get when you get your hair cut short and you ruffle it and all the little tiny fine hairs go everywhere except it’s like that all the time constantly. If you can’t relate to that experience you should get your hair cut short so you can appreciate how gross that would be. Anyway, I also misinterpreted this one’s head at first to look like an elephant skull. Y’know, with those two little divets and the big tusk lookin’ things? That would be cool too.
Guard
I’m not sure there’s really much I can say about this one. I think it’s interesting that they’re sort of holding that bit of clay in their hand and it’s also attached to their head unlike the Spiral Polycerates.
As we can see in these overworld sprites, the head is weird. It’s just a big seemingly organic coily thing with what might be the true head which we can see in the top left. I like Guard a lot more knowing that their heads are just big springy coils apparently.
Mustelid
Yeah, this one’s pretty much just a cat. I do appreciate how dopey it looks though.
Edit: It has come to my attention that Mustelid actually refers to the family which ferrets belong to. I like this guy significantly more now that I know that fact, as giant ferrets are something that I’ve actually never seen before in media!
Foothead
Okay I really like Foothead. I especially appreciate the fact that the usage of “foot” here seems to refer more to a gastropod-like foot than a human foot. Although you could make a case for the head being loosely human foot shaped, the way it locomotes (by sort of sliding around and using its arms to push itself along) supports the gastropod-like theory. It’s described as “kicking” when it attacks you, but I think that’s referring to the legs flailing around uselessly in the air. It really makes you think that these creatures might be mutations of some kind.
Despair Puff
Is that what that is? Okay, if you say so! Despair Puff certainly looks to be despairing alright. Again, the most remarkable part of its design is the head, which as was previously mentioned seems to be in despair. It looks like we can maybe see the bottom half of the action figure’s head, which would be really creepy, like the top of its skull burst open and this big sad lump came out. The sprites are just low-res enough that you can’t really tell, but that’s one of the things I like about the creature designs overall.
Slughead
Okay so this is interesting, we’ve got another mollusc-head! Could they be related? Slughead seems to get around by laying “face” down and writhing around, although it’s standing straight up in battle. Its forearms also appear to be engulfed by the head. Again, this seems like maybe some kind of mutation.
Ambulant Skull
These guys aren’t actually encounterable in battle because they kill you the moment you make contact with them. That’s certainly freaky! I love how disturbing this thing is overall, with a lower half that looks like a mess of ground beef. I like that with a name like “Ambulant Skull”, you’d expect it to be just like, a skull with legs or something. But this design goes way farther than that and I appreciate it.
Malign Hologram
I love the weirdness of this thing’s “head” being something like a weird vase with an agonized face emerging out of it, and whatever filter was put on it makes it look like the whole thing is made of raw flesh and muscle. Yeah, I don’t know what else to say, I just really like this freaky hologram(???).
Horrid Projection
Alright, this’ll be the last one for part 1, and what a lovely mess it is. Literally the only recognizable thing I can pick out of its figure is maybe two little legs/feet hanging out of the bottom, and the rest is a huge, dripping, misshapen blob. I think that’s a really effective design choice, because this thing would not be nearly as unsettling if it was all clay with no humanoid features. That one little addition of the legs just raises so many questions.
So that’s it for part 1! Stay tuned for when I post the other half I guess!
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