History VideoGame / Hylics

* AlienGeometries: The Afterlife in the first game. You start on a balcony, and can travel down some stairs to a lower one. The upper balcony is supported by pillars... which descend down ''over the top'' of the lower balcony in a way that doesn't make any Euclidean sense. You've got to wonder what it looks like from Wayne and co.'s perspective...

* BigGood: The Sages who give Wayne and .co various powers or clues to help in their quest.

* DifficultySpike: Inverted. At the start of the game, enemies are incredibly powerful compared to squishy little Wayne, and the first level's enemies will trounce you easily, probably multiple times. Standard fare for a game that forces you to die in order to level up and warp. Once you get over that hump, however, the game becomes much easier. As you progress and increase in strength, the enemies do not keep pace with you, and combat quickly turns into a walk in the park. And that's just in regular gameplay. If you start ''intentionally'' seeking out and making use of the best items, abilities, and stat boosts, it gets ludicrous. Players at the endgame may even find themselves ''struggling to die'' in order to increase their health via the Afterlife, as there is a finite number of enemies to fight in the game and very few things that can instakill you[[note:especially once you recruit Pongorma, who grants you immunity to a large majority of them]].

* GoodBadBugs: Paper cups are a rare artifact of an ancient civilization capable of massively increasing your maximum [[Main/Mana Will]] when used on a water cooler. As such, there are only six of both in the game. Well, allegedly. In Dedusmuln's tent, where a paper cup can be found, the event to pick up the item is bugged, and you can obtain infinite paper cups by interacting with it repeatedly. Luckily for the developer, the scarcity of water coolers keeps the player from ''completely'' breaking the game - one might, if not for that, be able to increase their Will ''infinitely''. As it stands, though, this bug still allows players to entirely bypass searching across the game world for paper cups, and obtain all six necessary in one place.

* GoodBadBugs: Paper cups are a rare artifact of an ancient civilization capable of massively increasing your maximum [[Mana Will]] when used on a water cooler. As such, there are only six of both in the game. Well, allegedly. In Dedusmuln's tent, where a paper cup can be found, the event to pick up the item is bugged, and you can obtain infinite paper cups by interacting with it repeatedly. Luckily for the developer, the scarcity of water coolers keeps the player from ''completely'' breaking the game - one might, if not for that, be able to increase their Will ''infinitely''. As it stands, though, this bug still allows players to entirely bypass searching across the game world for paper cups, and obtain all six necessary in one place.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Quite the understatement. Instead of a standard game over, after dying you get sent to the Afterlife, which serves both as the fast travel hub and the way you level up (the game's equivalent of experience points must be manually redeemed here). Not only is player death fairly unpunishing, it's a ''core game mechanic.''

* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: Pangorma and Gibby are old enough to have lived in the pre-accretion world and witnessed the Empire of the Sages in its full glory.]]

* SequelDifficultySpike: Hylics 1's fights were fairly easy, but Hylics 2's fights are noticeably more difficult, with enemies like the Poolmagne that can duplicate and make a fight go out of control, the new ways status effects can debilitate you and so on.

* HumanResources: After battles, you obtain Meat, which can be exchanged for health in the Afterline. In the sequel, the first Meat you are likely to collect is from what appears to be an injured and dying Wayne that lacks a carapace.

* MeaningfulName: Gibby and Wayne as mentioned below, but the title of the game, Hylics, is a reference to Gnosticism. A hylic is a body that’s completely material - fitting for a world made of clay.

* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: Pangorma and Gibby are old enough to have lived in the pre-accretion world and witnessed the Empire of the Sages in it's full glory.]]

* WordSalad:

* ArtEvolution: Hylics 2 is a major shift in quality compared to the first. Everything from the character models to the animations to the environments are much more elaborately detailed, in part due to the switch from RPGMaker to Unity.

** Odozier, a loyal minion of Gibby, acts as the primary antagonistic force of ''Hylics 2'' in his attempts to resurrect his master. [[spoiler: He dies after his fight, and he's upstaged as the antagonist by the newly revived Gibby.]]

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: After dying you get sent to the Afterlife, a land filled with fishes and checkpoints. It’s also here you can trade Meat for health.

* ArtEvolution: Big time for the second game in comparison to the first: Everything from the character models to the animations to the environments are much more elaborately detailed from before, in part due to the switch from RPG Maker to Unity.

* CallAHitPointASmeerp: Several stats are called strange things- Health and Mana are Flesh and Will, while base stats are things like Jollity, Texture and Philology.
* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Gibby]] is one.
* DancePartyEnding: [[spoiler: After beating Gibby in Hylics 2, Wayne and co. land on a concert stage where you can play the instruments for a cheering crowd.]]

* HopelessBossFight: In the sequel, there's the first encounter with [[spoiler:Gibby Redivivus]].

* HumanResources: After battles, you get Meat which can be exchanged for health. Also [[spoiler:the money machine built on the moon]]. In the sequel, the first Meat you are likely to collect is from what appears to be an injured and dying Wayne that lacks a carapace.

** Made even more apperent with the enemies in the second game due to the higher amounts of animations, their otherwordly designs, movements and jitters all combine to form creatures that seem to belong in nightmares.

* LastDiscMagic: The Skill learned from the Three Sages, Legend of Melting.
* LegendaryInTheSequel: The sequel starts at Waynehouse, in which an entire generation of new Waynes are raised and guided by Elder Wayne.

* MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext:
** To be expected, given that most of the dialogue is randomly generated.
** The sequel gives a bit more context, but is still very strange.

* NonStandardGameOver: Touching the Ambulant Skulls causes instant death.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner : “You dare approach me? My feelings will embrace your memories until you beg me to hark! Now pardon thine little spirit. It is the last time you will.” [[spoiler:Spoken when you challenge Gibby.]]

** Gibby and Wayne, as in a Gibbous and Waning moon respectively. There's also Veiwax in the sequel, referring to a Waxing moon.
*** Gibby is a double-layered pun. Gibby can also be read as short for ''gibberish''. [[spoiler: The second game fully reveals that it's his influence that caused all the characters in the first game to speak nonsense riddles, as he does the same when he's revived. Thus, he's literally making them speak gibberish.]]
** Another example is the Meat Grinder in the Afterlife area. [[note]]You literally [[LevelGrinding grind]] to gain extra health.[[/note]]
* SurrealHorror: The game some dark imagery, such as being knocked out in battle represented as ''skin melting from your face''.

** Most of the first game's dialogue is literally random, often causing non-sequiturs.
** Beyond the random text, the actual plot-relevant dialogue uses archaic and obscure words, usually because of how [[InherentlyFunnyWord silly]] they sound.

* CallAHitPointASmeerp: Several stats are called strange things- Health and Mana are Flesh and Will, while base stats are things like Jollility and Philology.

** The Sage's Labyrinth in the sequel is pretty can be annoying to traverse due to the first-person perspective. Finding every treasure, though? It can be a nightmare, thanks to the fact that everything is behind false walls (and lots of them don't have any hint to their presence). Also, did we mention that one of such treasure is a Paper Cup?

* LetsPlay:
** Several. Most notably [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Vinny’s]] over [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dtgkR0QzWI here]].
** The Beta version of the sequel has been streamed by "thevoiceofdog", starting [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/609432895 here]].

* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Skill learned from the Three Sages, Legend of Melting.

* BigBad: Gibby, King of the Moon.