Video Game / Hyper Light Drifter

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D isometric Action-Adventure by Heart Machine, successfully funded on Kickstarter and released 31st March, 2016.

The protagonist is simply known as The Drifter, a lone wanderer with a Laser Blade and a drone to activate old-world objects. He explores a long-since ravaged world, in search of a cure for his debilitating disease which is slowly killing him. Despite the personal nature of the quest, his journey takes him to the far reaches of the continent, seeking the mysterious Modules that could lead him to the Immortal Cell, all while a mysterious monster continues to appear.

Gameplay is inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls, and focuses on frantic yet precise combat and a whole heaping load of collectibles. The game is also Nintendo Hard, with combat and platforming challenges being unforgiving at times, but rewarding to players who master them.

Heart Machine have announced a Spiritual Successor, Solar Ash ^note  Originally titled Solar Ash Kingdom, with the last word dropped during development , which released on PS5 on console and Epic Games Store on PC sometime in 2021. While taking inspiration from Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash is also dramatically different, being in full 3D and has a much more expansive story complete with voice-acted dialogue. A proper successor game, Hyper Light Breaker, was announced in 2023.

Metal Weave Games held a successful Kickstarter campaign for the Hyper Light Drifter Tabletop Role Playing Game in 2019. An animated adaptation was later announced on 28th March, 2019 and is currently in early planning stages.

The story of the Drifter and the world he's in is laden with symbolism yet sparse on concrete details, as there is very little text in the game beyond brief comments meant to help the player, so most tropes about characters and setting are up to interpretation.

---

Hyper Light Drifter provides examples of:

• 100% Completion: 32 modules, 16 keys, 16 monoliths, 12 outfits, 6 guns, and 186 Gear Bits to earn upgrades. Most of these are in hidden areas that require a sharp eye and/or some good intuition to get to.
• After the End: One of the few concrete details about the continent the Drifter travels through is that it almost certainly was once much more advanced, and the small villages dotted across it are almost completely unaware of what most of the technology around them does. The opening cutscene appears to show the event that led to this was a massive explosion.
• Alien Blood: The Drifter's blood is a shimmering magenta fluid that evaporates quickly. This is seen early and often as fits of sickness cause him to cough it onto the ground.
  • This substance may be the titular Hyper Light.
  • This same blood seems to be shared by the Titan whose organs are on life-support. The Titans are Ambiguous Robots and this makes the substance look more like Machine Blood. If it is, then it implies something about the Drifter.
  • The Crystal Wolves have green blood.
  • The Frog Men and the Bomber-toads bleed orange.
• All There in the Manual: Since no verbal information is visible or audible, some details can only be gleaned from official but out-of-game information.
  • Some of the characters have semi-official names, but in the game they are not said. They appear on the Steam trading cards.
  • According to achievements, the green, goblin-like enemies you encounter several times throughout the game are called "dirks".
• Ambiguously Human: Most of the setting's inhabitants are Beast Men. In contrast, the Drifter looks mostly human, but with a few differences: pale blue skin and fuschia blood.
  • Artificial Human: A plausible interpretation supported by the People Jars in the southern area.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • Finding all the secrets in the preview build unlocks a room with a white cape.
  • Managing 800 dashes in a single chain-dash at the dash upgrade store nets you the Dash Challenge Outfit. Thankfully, it actually does something useful; wearing it doubles your maximum stamina.
  • Beating Horde mode (which itself requires beating ten rounds in a special arena that's only unlocked after beating ten rounds in four earlier arenas, which can only be accessed by collecting twelve of the sixteen keys...) nets you a bright red sword and black outfit. Wearing the outfit causes enemies to always use the goriest death animation, even if you finish them with a basic sword slash.
  • In general, alternate outfits (found along with different sword designs and 'sprites') can usually be unlocked by beating challenges or collecting a certain number of modules or keys to unlock the door that they're hidden behind. Most of them do something useful, whether it's reducing bomb recharge time, or reducing the time needed to interact with items. A couple are purely or almost entirely cosmetic though.
  • Beating the game unlocks a mode where you start out with a black robe. However, the only effect it gives is it LOWERS your health by one, and you cannot remove it. This basically turns you into a One-Hit-Point Wonder as many enemies do two damage. However, to compensate, you have all your dash and sword skills unlocked from the get-go.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • When quitting, the game will inform you how long it's been since your last autosave. Not that it really matters, since...
  • ...save points are placed very liberally in the game. Practically every room has a save point (areas with multiple hard challenges have several), and at any given moment you're probably a minute away from one.
  • Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits won't instantly destroy you. The Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom will, but they are placed sparingly.
• Arc Number: 4, and multiples of it such as 8, 16, 32, and so on.
• Artifact of Doom: The Immortal Cell, the diamond that's the source of both the pink ooze and Judgement.
• Badass Cape: The Drifter has an awesome-looking All-Encompassing Mantle. As noted above, different designs can be unlocked by beating challenges or collecting a sufficient number of items.
• Beast Man: A vast majority of the world characters are these, among them ravens, raccoons, otters, and frogs.
• Beautiful Void: The Drifter can encounter allies and enemies in some places but the space between them is vast and the travel through it is solitary.
• Behind the Black: Many secret passages are hidden in the black space between walls.
• Bird People: The denizens of the Northern region are anthropomorphic crows or vultures. Some of them can fly, but the rest appear to have given up the ability in exchange for ambiguously magical powers.
• Bittersweet Ending: Judgement is finally slain, the corrupted Immortal Cell is destroyed, and the villages on the surface are saved and can continue to rebuild. However, the Drifter succumbs to his sickness and dies.
• Book Ends:
  • The game begins with the Drifter waking up next to a campfire, and ends with him dying next to one. Under a pair of identical-looking statues, no less.
  • The visions that the Drifter receives in the beginning and end also parallel each other: the first vision shows the Drifter standing in an ocean of blood and corpses after the world was devastated by the Immortal Cell; the final vision shows the Drifter standing in a peaceful blue ocean as the Cell dissolves.
• Bottomless Magazines: Played with, in a way; the Drifter never needs to specifically stop and reload his firearms, but he also has a fairly limited shot capacity which is shared between his guns — if your semi-auto holds six shots and your shotgun holds three, firing two shots from the former also uses one shot from the latter. Ammo is generated by striking enemies or destroying things like boxes or bushes, though attacking enemies is far more efficient.
• Bottomless Pits: The landscape is full of precipitous cliffs, chasms, and crevasses. Sometimes the bottom is too far down to see, other times heaps of bones are faintly visible in dark pits.
  • Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Mercifully, falling only does one point of damage to you.
• Bright Is Not Good: The primary colors are bright, pinkish reds and pale, sickly blues and greens. Sounds like a jogging outfit from The '80s, but instead it dips the world straight into the Uncanny Valley and underscores the setting's violent past.
  • A shimmering magenta fluid shines brightest of all. Scenes drenched in this hue would otherwise be neon splendor, but knowing that this is Alien Blood turns them into Scenery Gorn.
• The Cameo: Two, both canceled.
  • The Drifter was originally going to cameo in Shantae: Half-Genie Hero for Kickstarter backers to that game pledging $12 or more; they would receive a code and they would meet him during Risky Mode to give her a quest. Risky would then receive the "Drifter Blade" after completing the quest. Risky Boots from Shantae would have had her own cameo in HLD in turn. While Risky still gets the Drifter Blade in HGH (when her sword is fully upgraded), the Drifter himself is absent.
  • The Drifter was set to be a guest Incarnation in Indivisible, but Lab Zero collapsed and 505 Games stopped supporting the game before he was put in.
• Central Theme: In this game with no words, the unifying themes are impressively clear.
  • The opening dream shows the Drifter reaching desperately for the Perfect Immortal Cell, though actually getting it seems an Impossible Task. Even if he has a chance, there is reason to question whether it is Really Worth It. Is seeking the Immortal Cell the right thing to do, or a tragic fool's errand?
    • It might hold the secret to The Cure that will save the Drifter's life. The dangerous quest could end his life in many ways first.
    • The thing he seeks might be the same thing the four peoples pursued in the prologue. The Apocalyptic Log suggests they were Immortality Seekers whose Pride and mistake ruined the world. Their motive was disagreeable, but the Drifter's seems more sympathetic: survival.
    • In the end, even if the Drifter succeeds, he dies anyway. A Pyrrhic Victory, but one that paves the way for a better world free of The Corruption.
  • We All Die Someday, especially in the form of life-threatening or terminal illness. The creator explains that this subject is intimately close to him: Alex Preston suffers a dangerous heart disease and struggles to accept the possibility that Your Days Are Numbered. The Drifter faces the same fatal trial, and in every Nightmare Sequence is terrorized by Judgement, who represents inevitable death incarnate.
  • War Is Hell. Violence has ravaged the land. Old scars and fresh wounds are everywhere.
• Charged Attack: An upgrade you can purchase for your sword, making it turn briefly into a BFS that does much more damage than a normal strike. The alternate rifle can also be charged to do more damage, and can kill even the strongest enemy in the game in just two fully-charged shots.
• Cool Sword: The Drifter's primary weapon is a Hard Light Laser Blade.
• Corpse Land: Mostly subverted, as many areas in the game are full of corpses, but they're ancient and forgotten, and the world has recovered. But played straight for the water surrounding the central city, which is blood red and full of skeletons, and the landscape above is littered with weapons of an ancient war.
• The Corruption: The Immortal Cell. From where it lies entombed under the land, its power is spreading outward. For the Drifter, there is no upside: he suffers its influence in the form of a deadly illness. The same influence might be infusing the bosses with fiendish power.
• Crystal Landscape: In the forests of the West Zone. Vast amounts of pale green crystals litter the ground. Large crystals can be broken to refuel weapon energy, but the small shards on the ground are very dangerous.
• Crystal Prison: In the western Crystal Landscape, some enemies are perfectly encased in clear crystal. They burst out ready to fight.
  • Human Popsicle: A raccoon person recounts how they got crystallized during the battle against the Titan and emerged recently.
  • The landscape and a particular enemy can crystallize the Drifter, immobilizing you for a few seconds.
• Dash Attack: Two upgrades allow you to perform this — the sword upgrade has you dash in a line and hit everyone in your path, while the dash upgrade lets you perform a lunge at the end that knocks enemies back.

• Death Course: A few hallways are replete with jets of flame, Temporary Platforms, and Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom.
• Deflector Shields: An upgrade for the Dash Module creates a shield around the Drifter that absorbs bullets, provided your timing is right and you have enough stamina.
• Die, Chair, Die!: The Drifter can smash various small objects: boxes, plants, crystals, candles, and piles of bones. Sometimes this is necessary to clear a path or uncover a hidden item.
  • Averted in the village that serves as a Hub Level and in the presence of friendly NPCs. The Drifter puts away his weapons and will not attack, only politely nod instead.
• Dream Intro: The Drifter's dream is surreal and gruesome, apparently depicting the cataclysm that wrecked the land. It is unclear whether the Drifter remembers being there and is in a Flashback Nightmare or if he is Dreaming of Times Gone By in visions supplied by the Jackal.
• The Dying Walk: The Drifter can walk out of the Boss Room after defeating the Immortal Cell, but he is not going to make it far as he is heavily wounded and has lost the ability to heal or dash. In what is implicitly a Dying Dream, he sits under a statue, succumbs to his wounds, and is buried under falling rubble.
• Early Game Hell: The early part of the game, when you don't have any abilities, is the hardest part. After you gain some abilities — most notably the bullet absorption/deflection abilities — the game becomes significantly easier.
• Energy Weapon: The Drifter's sword is made of Hard Light and they pack firepower in the form of various Ray Guns and Plasma Cannons.
  • Most enemies' weapons do the same, firing bright beams or blasts of power.
  • The Archer boss fires an Energy Bow.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The protagonist is called by his profession.
• Exploding Barrels: Cylinders full of magenta fluid, possibly a sort of fuel. Evidently, it is highly volatile. They are stacked around several levels, and The Hermit throws them in battle.
• Fantastic Racism: The only other living character of the same species as the Drifter relates how, after they came to town, they were beaten and robbed by a mob for no apparent reason. They are currently found drunk in an alleyway. Given the crystallized circumstances in which many dead members of their species may be found in the western zone, this may be some sort of held grudge.
• Feathered Fiend: The cultist birds in the Northern region practice a Religion of Evil that involves Human Sacrifice.
• Find the Cure!: The Drifter's goal.
• Fragile Speedster: Compared to tough enemies, the Drifter cannot take many hits. He can only win with speed and judicious use of Healing Potion.
• Frog Men: The eastern region is overrun with evil bipedal frogs.
• Gemstone Assault: The sharp spires of the Crystal Landscape do not merely gleam, they grow explosively fast, from tiny shards into Spikes of Doom.
  • They were weaponized to kill a Titan, impaling it on a colossal crystal spike.
• Genuine Human Hide: The frog chieftain wears a necklace made from the flayed skins of otter people.
• Gorn: Killing enemies with a Charged Attack, Dash Attack, explosive weaponry, or whilst wearing the Horde Mode Challenge Outfit litters the arena in gibs and blood. And then there's the poor otters who have their skinned corpses strung up on display.
• Hard Light: A lot of technology the Drifter uses and can find uses this.
• Healing Potion: These can be picked up and used to completely revitalize the Drifter in seconds. However, he can carry only three to five at a time and must use them carefully.
• The Hero Dies: The player succumbs to his sickness and dies after defeating Judgement.
• He Was Right There All Along: The Summoner boss. He ambushes you by hiding in a module case.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: The Drifter has the speed and general appearance of a ninja, but wears a brightly-colored mantle (unless you unlock one of the darker-coloured alternate outfits) and never engages in stealth.
• Homage: The game references several classic video games in its design and presentation.
  • The plot of having a nameless protagonist and aesthetic of people living in a ruined society is from Dark Souls, and the gameplay focused on quick movement and combos in between enemy attacks is one possible strategy that is widely used in Souls games.
  • A central town surrounded by four areas from each of the cardinal directions, with the fifth and final area being accessed through the town itself, is similar to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The areas follow the same theme as Majora's Mask, but differ in specifics. Also like Majora's Mask, the city is eventually spared from Death from Above.
  • While not a true Metroid Vania, because the areas do not link together and only a few things are gated by ability unlocks, there are a large number of well-hidden and largely optional collectibles.
  • The game also references Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with the arrival of Titans triggering the end of modern civilization. It's also credited as one of the main inspirations by the creators themselves.
  • Homage Shot: In the opening cinematic, the Drifter struggles through black tendrils reaching for the Perfect Immortal Cell. This visually quotes a scene from Castle in the Sky ^note  Muska tears through vines seeking the crystal at the core , another film by Studio Ghibli.
• Human Sacrifice: The bird cultists in the north practice it, judging by the disemboweled corpses found on sacrificial altars. They also ritualistically burned most of their people’s eggs.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: The Drifter, really. Maybe not at first, but he can learn to turn his sword into a BFS, start Parrying Bullets (and then play tennis with some bosses), and perform two different kinds of Dash Attack; a powerful slash, and a lunge that can send enemies flying.
• Incurable Cough of Death: How the Drifter's illness usually manifests, accompanied by copious amounts of Blood from the Mouth.
• Knockback: In addition to being tossed around by more powerful attacks, one Dash Attack employed by the Drifter will not only send the enemy flying backward, but also does additional damage should they collide with anything.
• Laser Blade: The Drifter's weapon of choice, capable of expanding into a Laser BFS when charged.
• Lost Technology: The land is littered with it. The Drifter is one of the few who seem willing or able to use it.
  • The central town is built atop an Advanced Ancient Acropolis. Clearly nobody has unlocked it in a long time.
  • The rest of the land is strewn with advanced architecture and machinery, intact but abandoned and ignored. This is especially clear in the eastern area: amid the old architecture here, the Frog Men live in crude huts and wield primitive spears.
  • It makes for a Scavenger World as far as some villagers are concerned: the shopkeepers who sell upgrades seem interested in what the Drifter collects in the ruins.
• Minimalism:
  • There's no written text outside of the tutorial, and even that's just a few lines telling you the game mechanics. The only storytelling is done through pictures, the occasional cutscene, and whatever the player can piece together from exploring the ruined landscape. Even paratext like the achievements and the Steam cards don't tell you much. If you want to know the bulk of the plot, be prepared to connect a lot of the dots yourself.
  • The collectible outfits don't tell you what they do, resulting in trial-and-error to determine the effect they have. Or you can just check the internet.
• Minimalist Run: There are entire groups of collectibles (keys, outfits, monoliths) which are not needed to complete the game, and there are dozens of Gear Bits and 8 modules in each area. All that is strictly needed to complete the game is 4 modules from each area, and to defeat the 5 bosses.
• Mooks: Aggressive monsters and servants of the bosses.
  • The Goomba: Dirks. They are common and pathetic, but can pose a challenge if they attack in large numbers.
  • Cowardly Mooks: If a single Dirk remains alive after seeing the Drifter defeat the rest of its comrades, it will run away in terror.
  • Elite Mooks: Many types. Since the Player Character is a Fragile Speedster, he must duel and outmaneuver these tough enemies.
  • Plant Mooks: Aggressive plants emerge from the soil in the eastern area.
  • Smash Mook: Large, tough enemies that jump into a Ground Pound attack.
• The Musketeer: The Drifter wields a Hard Light Laser Blade as a primary weapon and guns as a secondary.
• Mysterious Watcher: The Jackal is subtly guiding you toward your goal. The Drifter isn't the only one it's interested in.
• Nameless Narrative: No verbal information is presented, so nobody is called by name. However, some characters' names are All There in the Manual.
• Never Trust a Trailer: One of the most iconic images of the game has the Drifter standing atop a staircase, about to face three of the Titans looming in the distance, implying an impending and epic boss fight. Had the trailer played a few seconds more, we'd see these three graphically disintegrate long before they become a threat.
• New Game Plus: Beating the game grants you access to a New Game Plus mode. Unlike most New Game Plus modes, though, this is Harder Than Hard mode: sure, you skip the basic intro, start with all sword/dash upgrades, and the basic handgun... but you're stuck with an outfit that reduces your max health to 2. Certain enemies can do 2 damage with their attacks, basically making you a One-Hit-Point Wonder in some fights.
• Nightmare Sequence: Progress is periodically interrupted by coughing fits and horrific visions in which the Big Bad kills the Drifter.
• Non-Player Companion: The Drone. It is not much of a character, but it dutifully hovers near The Drifter and is his sole companion in some desolate landscapes. It allows him to interface with technology and serves as a Master of Unlocking.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: The most jarring pixelation effects signify threatening or horrifying contexts.
  • Fits of sickness unexpectedly afflict the Drifter. As he staggers and coughs, his surroundings crackle and flicker, as if pain and blurred vision are distorting his perception.
  • Judgement is especially jagged and glitchy in its appearance and animation.
  • In the Final Battle, dead pixels litter the area. Along with visual noise, the sound and music are warped and degraded in a way that differs from the rest of the game.
• One-Hit Polykill: Two of the guns you can acquire shoot beams. They pass through enemies and can easily result in this on weaker ones. There's an achievement for this, too.
• Painting the Medium: The game exults in its pixel aesthetic. It Paints beautifully and affectionately replicates some artefacts of old spite-based games.
• People Jars: A regular sight in the southern labs. Most of them contain common enemy types, although there are a few specimens that look suspiciously like the Drifter...
• Purple Is Powerful: Magenta is the blazing color of power in this world. The modules, the Drifter's blood, the patient eyes of the Jackal, and the Advanced Ancient Acropolis are all magenta.
• Religion of Evil: The bird civilization in the North has been overrun by one of these, headed by the Hierophant.
• Schizo Tech: Laser swords and deflector shields live among what appear to be ancient ruins and a relatively modest village. The obviously advanced technology is offset by the natural world and occasionally primitive inhabitants you come across.
• Scenery Porn: Oh yes. The game's pixel art style is breathtaking and very detailed, and the game will often move the camera to give the player a full view of a gorgeous vista.
• Science Fantasy: Given the lack of exposition or explanation on many things, it's hard to tell how much of anything is science and what (if anything) is magic: are the powers of the Hierophant and its minions magical in nature, or some form of high-tech reality warping? Probably leans more towards the 'sufficiently advanced technology' side of things, considering the number of robots and the high-tech firearms, though.
• Set Bonus: Inverted. Finding the corpse of a fallen warrior rewards the Drifter with the whole set of equipment at once: their cloak, sword, and drone. All give the same beneficial effect, but it does not stack, so it is better to mix items from three different sets.
• Shout-Out: The Titans, by virtue of being expies of both the God Warriors and Unit 01 at the end of the second Rebuild movie, would seem to be a nod to Hideaki Anno and his involvement with both.
• Shows Damage: When you are down to a single HP, the Drifter bleeds. No wounds are visible, but you leave an alarming Trail of Blood on the ground where you walk.
• Sigil Spam: Diamonds are used symbolically often, while squares are used as aesthetic, and small squares near edges or walls often indicate a hidden area.
• Sprint Meter: Special attacks, bullet deflection, and chain-dashing all use up part of your stamina bar. The Pink cape (found in the South zone) reduces the delay before Stamina begins to recharge, whilst the Purple cape (from passing the 800 Dash Challenge) doubles your maximum stamina/halves how much stamina is consumed by actions.
• Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology: The hidden monoliths that can be found and activated throughout the land. Collated and decoded, they spell out an Apocalyptic Log. They seem to contain a holographic recording of the writer, but the writing itself appears as an inscription on stone.
• Summoning Ritual: The prelude shows a mural that seems to depict the four races performing some sort of invocation. At the center of their Geometric Magic is the Jackal.
  • Imperfect Ritual: It seems to have Gone Horribly Wrong and instigated the mysterious disaster that left the land ruined.
  • The presence of the Jackal suggests it worked — at least partially. The same ritual may have inadvertently summoned something very bad.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The room before the final boss has five health packs just lying around. Nice of them to let you stock up right there.
• Tarot Motifs: Only revealed in the Steam trading cards, but it definitely isn't superficial. Three bosses, a location, and the Drifter himself all get a Tarot card that represents them:
  • The Hierophant represents leadership, conformity, and a group mentality, which the head of the North's local Religion of Evil embodies.
  • The Hanged Man can represent entrapment, suspension, and suffering, and there's plenty of evidence (mainly the fact that most inhabitants of the zone are trapped inside crystals) that the boss of the West spent a very long time encased in his crystal prison.
  • The Magician (the Drifter) represents action, drive, and a single purpose — like finding the cure.
  • The Tower represents upheaval, release, and revelation, which makes almost literal sense when you see the true Very Definitely Final Dungeon entering the narrative...
  • Judgement represents a call to action, and the absolution of fulfilling that purpose. In the game, Judgement is the source of the Drifter's sickness, the main character's main motivation. After defeating Judgement, the sea of blood the Drifter stood in during the opening cutscene turns to clean water — representing absolution. Alternatively, Judgement can also mean rebirth and awakening; the Drifter seems to believe that defeating Judgement will cure him of his illness and according to the ending, the world seems to be in a state of recovery thanks to the destruction of the Immortal Cell.
• Temporary Platform: Many platforms will fall, vanish, or burst into flame shortly after they are stepped on.
• Tennis Boss: Whilst not mandatory, buying the sword upgrade that allows you to deflect (most) incoming projectiles can be quite handy against certain bosses; deflected projectiles change color and will damage any enemies they strike. Just don't try to deflect the containers the East Boss throws at you...
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Activating the four towers after defeating each region's boss allows access to an elevator in the center of town. It permits access to an Advanced Ancient Acropolis... Where It All Began.
• Three-Quarters View: Complete with being often unable to go behind objects you otherwise should.
• Title Theme Drop: After defeating the Sentients, the chilled-out tune from the start screen plays in each empty Boss Room.
• Too Fast to Stop: The result of a long Chain Dash. It can send you into an embarrassing but harmless collision with a wall. It can also send you skidding over a ledge into a Bottomless Pit.
• Video Game Dashing: The Dash Module. A Multi-use gear that enables a triple speed dash; can be used to evade attacks, cut across gaps and chasms, break through certain blocks and rubble and even stun enemies.
• Vile Vulture: There is an entire cult of birds resembling vultures or corvids.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Whether it's the Hanged Man or the Hierophant, new players have a 2 in 3 chance of slamming up against one of the hardest bosses in the game just a few hours in.
• Wingdinglish: The blocky, rectilinear glyphs can be decoded into English. The single-word signs outside shops are easy. The extensive text that covers the hidden monoliths is difficult but, if deciphered, reveals an Apocalyptic Log.
• Your Days Are Numbered: The Drifter and the Guardian both want to Find the Cure! to a terminal illness they possess, knowing that they do not have much time left. We All Die Someday is a melancholy Central Theme the player may gradually recognize, especially after the Guardian's time runs out.