A Story With No Words | Hyper Light Drifter Analysis | State of the Arc Podcast

[@xvct2661]

You know when people say a rapper is for other rappers not the general audience that’s what this channel is for video game discourse it’s really something special

[@dudemcguy1227]

Great analogy! haha

[@NorthernPixels1]

Can i just say I super appreciate you guys? I really feel like y'all are the only ones really out here discussing video games like art. A friend of mine said it was like "listening to two" of me, and honestly, y'all feel like kindred spirits. Thanks for the work you do.

[@andrewhegstrom2187]

Listening to them talk about Hyperlight Drifter makes me really want to hear their take on Tunic.

[@monto4944]

I just realised that Tunic is inspired by Hyper Light Drifter, among other things of course

[@kevinstreetgaming]

"The real life Albedo!" Mike and Casen will never escape the Xenoverse, whether they like it or not.

[@dudemcguy1227]

Mike's point about the art of telling a story with fewer words is so spot on. You really don't appreciate how important that is to a story's pacing until you encounter it done poorly. I'm currently playing through Octopath Traveler II, which is a very fun game, but some of the story scenes use way too much dialogue for how simple the actual ideas that are being conveyed. A story sequence of "My best friend and I grew up training together. We became great warriors to protect our kingdom, but then he betrayed me and I am now an outcast." should not take more than 15 minutes to get through. (Triangle Strategy also has this issue at times, though I still love that game too.) Sometimes less is more.

[@blossom357]

So much of this is because of the poisonous "Bang for your buck" philosophy that dictates longer is better, more value for your money. Longer script, longer spell animations, more walking -- whatever it takes to fool the customer into thinking they got a longer game.

[@EdreesesPieces]

Or persona 5 which has 100 hours of text but only needs 25 to tell its story

[@rdrouynriv]

Absolutely true about Triangle Strategy. I think the story is brilliant but the way it is presented really detracts from the enjoyment of it. A lot of unnecessary repetition of points and overexplaining every plot point.

[@vicenarian340]

This is a true price of art, thank you for covering this game!

[@Thirteen13551355]

Never expected to hear about this beautiful game on this channel. If any game needs an analysis, it's this one. Thanks a ton!

[@ghost-in-the-ciel]

HLD took a Kickstarter game from 2012 called "Radio the Universe" as a big inspiration, which itself is heavily inspired by the incomparable cyberpunk manga "BLAME" by Tsutomu Nihei. If you go back and look at those two things it's interesting how clear the lineage is!

[@blossom357]

I didn't know Hyper Light Drifter was inspired by Radio the Universe -- if that's true, it's fucking hilarious because RtU is still not released in 2024.

[@RokkouA1]

1:49:01 For me it's the beauty of being able to communicate a message beyond the confines of traditional language, culture and text, through what I suppose is the collective unconscious. The idea of communicating in a universal lanauge that all of humanity can understand is beautiful to me. In reference to the last podcast on localisation being a lossy process, utilising communication tools outside of spoken and written language makes it so what's being communicated doesn't suffer from the invetiable loss of meaning through different languages. It's also why I resonante with the sentiment of using less words in story-telling especially in mediums outside of 'books' such as games, films etc. Not only the universal nature of these tools, I also find it to be more efficient and effective. If you're relying on text/dialogue and not using tools such as visuals and music, then why even bother telling your story in this medium rather than a book.

[@Gregoroth_Durai]

Geez y'all are consistently covering content I adore. Matsuno, Korra, and now my favorite game ever.

[@lionelplayerone]

The scene with the driter staring down titans and anubis looking off in the distance is what drew me in. This game is a masterpiece

[@Swiss816]

God this was super fascinating. Love this channel. I hope you guys continue doing what you're doing for a very long time

[@lionelplayerone]

Henrietta lax could be referred to as real-life mitochondria Eve because of her cells

[@HardReset_YT]

I've been meaning to play this game for ages. I'll have to bump it up my timeline so I can watch this video. Love the work, gents.

[@nickyrod22]

This is a top 10 game of all time for me too. The gameplay, music, visuals are all just bursting with passion. Plus, I've never seen 2 interpretations of the story that are quite the same. I think it has the perfect amount of open-endedness.

[@NestorCustodio]

So happy to have discovered this channel today. 🤯

[@phillosmaster393]

Is the Anime/Manga Hi No Tori (Phoenix sometimes when localized to english) by Osamu Tezuka on your radar? Considering you guys have been hovering around alot of these same themes I think it might make alot of sense for you to check it out if you haven't seen it yet. Actually I think alot of Tezuka's stuff is right up your alley.

[@pauld4628]

One of my favorite games, I play through it every autumn and it still hits.

[@BrockWalshCTD]

This is the kind of analysis and content that made me become a patreon member. Amazing conversation so far. I played this for the first time after seeing a video posted about it on your guys instagram page and it instantly became one of my favorite games of all time for all the reasons you guys relate.

[@ChocolatierRob]

I’ll look forwards to your opinion on Blood Omen contrasting with this one . A game from 1996 where everything is voiced, almost no text in the game at all.

[@EdreesesPieces]

Shoot I gotta play and finish the game so I can give this a proper listen!

[@Mezmero]

I really liked this game back when I played it but wow, you guys derived way more meaning from it than I ever could. I just thought it was a really fun game with a beautiful art direction. I had heard about the director's ailment before playing it and could see the correlation with the main character but I didn't read super far into it. This conversation in particular has made me ponder about what exactly are the best wordless game stories. Like probably this, Journey, and Echoes of the Eye are probably near or at the top and coincidentally you've covered all three. I never played Inside but people seem to like it. Some may say Brothers: Tale of Two Sons might qualify, although there is speech in it there are no subtitles for the language. I feel like I'm missing some really obvious examples that escape me at the moment. Hearing Mike bring up how his novel has had decades of revisions leads me to think that we need to get you guys to play Alan Wake 2 like asap, so it's good that the first game is next on the docket. Keep up the great work.

[@metastase895]

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is more interesting in my opinion because it has a mystery you are solving with a proper storyline as opposed to leaving everything open to interpretation.

[@Scimarad]

Disasterpeace's soundtrack for Fez is one of my favourite videogame soundtracks ever. They also did the music for the movie It Follows as well, which you guys might enjoy.

[@j.l.9689]

My god my favorite channel covering one of my favorite games ever, love it. Hyper Light Drifter is an experience unlike any other.

[@CreativeDestruction0]

Biologist here! Firstly, everyone should definitely read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. There are a lot of interviews with the family of Henrietta and discusses many of the unethical practices of the time. Just to clarify, all cancer cells by definition are immortal. HeLa cells were the first to be cultured indefinitely in a lab. There are many of these cell lines from humans and other animals currently used in biomedical research.

[@velvetimpulse]

You guys are on fire since the recent changes on the channel. Thank you so much for sharing these messages with us.

[@KikoSmore]

I'm going to replay this and then watch this.

[@derheadbanger9039]

This should end any debate about whether video games are art.

[@ghah5701]

Roger Ebert rises from his grave to disagree.

[@stanm4410]

​@@ghah5701Ebert's argument was flawed, but interesting. Maybe that could make a good video of its own for them to cover.

[@mayanpil0t]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a great book for the whole history of Henrietta, the discovery of HeLa cells, and the history of medical research in the 20th century that came about from her cells (and immortal cells from other patients -- because there are several!).

[@JaZter90]

Not gonna lie I didn't think hyper light drifter was that deep thank you guys for the insight

[@andrewhegstrom2187]

Immortal Cell - as opposed to an ever-living or ever-powering thing - could also be seen as a prison. Which I suppose you could argue also applies to immortality, being ever stuck in a body.

[@CasenSperry]

Very good. Thanks!

[@andrewhegstrom2187]

@@CasenSperry I don't want to speak for the devs, but as someone with a brain tumor, I can see an immortal "body" becoming a sort of prison for my own essence. The fear of losing control of my body is terrifying, more so than death by far.

[@estebana4039]

I love HLD so much, very pleasantly surprised to see this on the channel.

[@phillosmaster393]

Great job as always and excellent pick for a topic. Hyperlight Drifter is such a fantastic experience.

[@TheBeird]

You’re recommendation is what made me pick up this game. It was a good time, but what I love most about Hyper Light Drifter is the score by Disasterpeace. It’s divine! Also if Casen is interested in Tarot, he should check out The Incal, cause the Fool’s journey is one of its central themes. In fact, a lot of stuff the chaps have discussed are in The Incal. 🤔 I’m not one to suggest what should be covered on this channel but uh, why not do a Resonant Arc on The Incal?

[@Chris-xr6jg]

Awesome. Love this game, but I hardly remember it after so many years. I'm so excited to continue listening to you guys talk about it.

[@frommarswithmalice9174]

Dynamite job guys you never fail to impress with your insight and ability to delve into topics and meaning.

[@TriangleKick]

I played this game a few years back thanks to Mike’s suggestion. Dope game sheeeeeesh

[@OmbraArt]

I can't wait to play this

[@sdlstr91]

FINALLY! YES! YES! YES!

[@disturbedrebirth]

Even Freud used gods to describe things like Eros and Thanatos.

[@andreiulyanov9241]

Now I need to play it!

[@TheCreepypro]

I wish more stories were told like this

[@keithwaggoner2375]

I guess I'll be playing this game after listening to this.

[@Yanncki64]

I wonder if Mike has played through Persona 3, the theme of confronting & accepting death is all over that game and overall extremely well executed

[@m4r_art]

It's good to see educated people talk about game and not ranting internet people judging everything based on literally no criteria.

[@DoctorCarth]

Never heard of this before I watched this. Def getting to this now.

[@IWFDI]

It's funny it could go both ways with the non existing amount of dialogue and writing in this game. He could just have said all that stuff about his intention to wow people but in reality he couldn't find a satisfying answer for all of his amazing visual ideas. But that's also fine imo. It wouldn't take away anything from the gaming experience at all. About the adding and adding to games and things is a problem with unlimited time when you have no deadline of unlimited disc-space (in modern gaming). I remember a interview I saw, I think about Chrono Trigger, where they had to develop a greater cartridge to get everything on it they wanted to do...

[@MrJumboHumbo]

Did you remove the podcast from Spotify?

[@michaelcoraybrown]

We're not sure what happened, but it appears to be restored now.

[@rickardhallin750]

Why has all episodes after 2020 disappeared on Spotify? Or is it just for me?

[@michaelcoraybrown]

Don't know what happened, but it seems to have been fixed now.

[@leif54]

I love you guys.

[@SirWiggy12]

Awesome! Now do Tunic!

[@oblivion9999]

One day you guys should talking about Hotline Miami 1 and 2. Amazing story, soundtrack and pretty short too.

[@MiBrCo4177]

Seriously need to play this. Have you guys considered doing Axiom Verge?

[@yyoksetioxd]

I'll be ultra busy with Metaphor so I can't play along with you guys, but I hope you have a blast :)

[@heyimSkyee]

Heck ya!!!❤

[@Xenowolf8]

Hyper Light Drifter being hard for thematic purposes makes sense, but I completely missed that because I didn’t think the game was that hard, maybe that means I’m just too good at video games.

[@charless1145]

You guys sound super cool of yourselves

[@daigo12865]

You both should play Gris. Only takes a couple of hours to get through a playthrough. Its like playing through a work of art.

[@lukesmith8967]

Nice vid

[@kendric_BUF]

This reminds me maybe one day you guys review midnight mass. That show wrecks me 😭

[@softpizzaman9503]

WOOOOOO

[@K_Dog253]

Crap, another game im gonna have to get, after i beat silent hill. I know you already covered it, but i wonder if you'll do anything with the remake.

[@disturbedrebirth]

I want to buy this game, but i dont know if i should buy it for the playstation or the switch.

[@plop0r]

You've gotta do rainworld

[@tomc3824]

Played that for the first time earlier this year, that game is insane and so unique. Absolutely loved it.

[@droppedpackage1344]

Please do Metaphor: ReFantazio

[@pelgervampireduck]

I'll be honest, I skipped this game because of some kind of prejudice, like "another overrated indie that tries to imitate some retro aesthetics? naaaah". And I love indies, I love retro, my GOTY is "Pampas and Selene", a 8 bits metroidvania (awesome game, check it out). Anyway, this one was one of those "nah, not for me, not interested" but you guys made me very interested in the game. I guess I spoiled it for me, but it doesn't mean I won't have a good experience. About battling with a shadow, monster, or whatever...I can relate. Not phisically like the creator of the game, but when you said it can be in your mind, I was "exactly". There's a shadow monster always in my mind, and every day I have to "win a battle" against that "monster" to get out of bed and do what for others would be no big deal, just the daily normal routine. And the "monster" in my mind is always whispering things to tempt me to give up and just "go with him", I mean "permanently ban myself from this server". I've tried already...I guess the monster didn't want to take me that day... It takes a concious effort to say "no. I'll get out of bed and I'll do my daily routine, you dark shadow thing leave me alone". I've already talked about some of this stuff once, and you guys replied some wonderful words that really reached me and I'm thankful, I really appreciated it and I felt understood. Specially by Mike, I knew by his words and the expression in his eyes "he knows. he understands". So, thank you guys for your hard work and for being there. It means a lot that you can talk about certain subjects and the conversations that come out of the themes you find in the games you cover. So... here I am...another day of not letting the monster win, I liked the video, now I'm really interested in the game, I'll search for it on Steam or GOG, and just to end my wall of text (sorry), have a nice day, I hope the two of you and everybody reading this has a good new year, best wishes for all.

[@therayldeal6683]

Oh sick, another video for me to like and rack the watch time up on.

[@nanoglitch6693]

I love your videos. I still hate the out of context "cold-opens." 😑

[@Ppanos423]

You guys are reviewing EVERY game I love and at the same time you are just refusing to do Final Fantasy IX.

[@TheMilhouseExperience]

Patrons vote for the next game after this and Alan Wake. Otherwise I think 9 and 12 are the only major FF’s they haven’t covered. They’ve done 6, -7- ,8,10 and 16 so… Edit: Not 7. They’ve talked about it through several other games, but it’s not been featured.

[@Ppanos423]

@@TheMilhouseExperience Yeah I know. I am afraid I cannot afford to become a patreon to vote. Well sooner or later it will happen.

[@holymolythejabroni9040]

Man, HLD is such a hidden gem. Great choice!! And some of the best music in recent memory.

[@nicolasjonasson4820]

Didn't realize the obvious; it's Anubis! I remember the story well about the creators heart. Would also argue it's on my top 10.

[@blumiu2426]

The only problem with something being immortal is that it's not eternal.