Hyper Light Drifter – Special Edition (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.3.1 Update

Hyper Light Drifter – Special Edition is a 2D action role-playing game developed by Heart Machine. The Microsoft Windows, Linux, and OS X versions were released in March 2016, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions in July 2016. A Special Edition port of the game, featuring additional content, was released by Abylight Studios for the Nintendo Switch in September 2018 and for iOS devices in July 2019.

The game pays homage to 8-bit and 16-bit games and is considered by its lead developer Alx Preston as a combination of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo. Preston originally launched Kickstarter funding for the title for approximately US$27,000 to develop the title for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers, but ended up with more than US$600,000, allowing him to hire more programmers and artists, and expanding the title for console and portable platforms through stretch goals.

Though originally scoped for release in 2014, various improvements in the game and issues with Preston’s health set the release back. The game received generally positive reviews upon release. A successor, Hyper Light Breaker, is set to be released in 2024.

GAMEPLAY AND STORY

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action role-playing game fashioned after The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, rendered in a pixel art style. The player controls the Drifter, a character that has access to technology that has long been forgotten by the inhabitants of the game’s world and is suffering from an unspecified illness. The story concept was inspired by lead developer Alx Preston’s heart disease and has been likened by others to Studio Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky, while Preston cites the studio’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as inspiration for the game’s world.

The Drifter is equipped with an energy sword and can gain access to other modules that expand their weapon and ability arsenal. These often require power from rare batteries scattered around the world. Weaponry includes long-range guns and area attacks. Rather than scavenging ammunition from the game world to load the player’s guns, the player’s ammunition instead charges when hitting enemies and objects with the energy sword.

The player faces increasingly difficult monsters, both in number and ability, requiring the player to hone their tactics to succeed in the game. Preston’s goal was to replicate the experience of playing on the SNES, noting that the unit had “amazing, almost perfect games designed for limited environments” which he challenged himself to simulate in Hyper Light Drifter. One feature of SNES games that Preston captured is that there is no spoken dialogue, placing more emphasis on the game’s music and visuals to tell a story.