On his way there, he fights through a small gauntlet of enemies, where he picks up a pistol and immediately puts it to use. The Drifter is a Blu who arrives in the Land of Light, a complete stranger to the new continent, having traveled from the Northern Realms continent to the northwest in a boat and crashed it on the northwestern shore not far from the central town, presumably to find a cure to his debilitation, following the Anubis-like Jackal in hopes that they will lead him to an answer. It is possible that the Drifter originally herald from the Northern Realms continent of the World of Light, as it is where his species, the Blu, are originally from, according to Hyper Light Breaker. The opening cinematic seems to show him waking amidst a pile of corpses, possibly a result of the invasion the evidence of which is found throughout various points in the game. It can be inferred that he was suffering from his infection prior to the start of the game, and can be further inferred that he came to the land in search for a cure for it. Not much is certain about the Drifter's history. According to the game's original description, "Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories." Alx Preston also confirmed in 2022 that the Blu species featured in Heart Machine's upcoming 2023 game, Hyper Light Breaker, is the same one that the Drifter is a part of. Source the Drifter is one of many different individuals referred to as "drifters," meaning that it is not his proper name but a descriptive title or nomadic type of occupation. When asked, developer Alex Preston said that "he" is the appropriate pronoun for Drifter. The Drifter came to the Land of Light from the Northern Realms and travels the new continent in search of a cure. He is a member of the feline Blu species who has been infected with a strange terminal disease. The Drifter, referred to on his tarot card as "The Magician", is the main playable character in Hyper Light Drifter. “ A lonely soul, in a desperate search.-Steam emoticon description ”
I guess my hope is that others will feel similarly passionate about this gem of a game and follow suit with further praise and discussion.“ A searcher, aspiring to find a cure.- Steam trading card description ” There isn't much to this thread other than be wanting to vomit my appreciation for HLD all over the screen as fast as my fingers can stroke the keys.
That's increasingly important to me as I enter my mid-30's with more limited gaming time. And as a bonus, it feels like the perfect length for the kind of game that it is. The game's overarching themes of decay and creeping mortality aligning with the lifelong health struggles of its creator only adds to the emotional heft of this beautifully minimalist game. Hearing this through earphones transported me to another world. And all of this is married together with such polish and attention to detail, at least all these years later in its current state (I remember some glitches at launch back in 2016). The story/lore is conveyed wordlessly and through cryptic hidden messages that need to be decoded with a cipher, which could maybe be compared to the world-building approach of a FromSoftware game. The gameplay is a perfect fusion of Zelda-esque open exploration and responsive, satisfying combat. Its soundtrack by Disasterpeace is just incredible and perfectly suited to HLD's decaying, futuristic world. To this day I don't think any game released since HLD has matched it on a pure pixel-art artistry level. The high-density pixel art of HLD is of a caliber we rarely see and arguably hasn't been surpassed since 2016.
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