Hylics

Perfectly fine little game with a pleasant aesthetic. Took me less than 5 hours to finish.

a response to the maxim "what does not kill you makes you stronger" from a uniquely pro-killing perspective. crash through the world without understanding and beat your enemies to a meaty pulp, and when you stumble and one pulpifies you, float away to the fish afterlife and throw their entrails in a meat grinder. do this and you shall gain strength. a rather gruesome affair on paper, but the abstract speech, sleepy noise rock and pastel claywork makes for a beautiful and strangely peaceful game.

I'd mark this as phenomenal as a visual and artistic achievement, but otherwise? meeeeeeeh. The abstract writing is really silly and has personality, but it doesn't lend itself well to making a coherent, engaging plot. The overall gameplay is easily broken and barebones despite the cool animations - Everyone has a low-cost healing spell that can easily be abused that trivializes combat altogether. This strikes me as an attempt to parody RPG conventions but does so rather poorly.