The OST, though not especially melodic or memorable (to me, anyway), is perfect for the game's atmosphere. I feel that the combat is at its best when it gives you room to breath and dash in and out rather than feeling like a ship in a bullet hell shmup. The lack of i-frames after being hit only compounds things. Speaking of large groups of enemies, there are some encounters that feel like bullshit when it combines a small arena and a ton of enemies. The frequent checkpoints and quick reloads are appreciated, as I don't think I would've stuck with it if it had Souls-like drop shit on death. I think the controls are tight, but the split second delay between dashing and attacks can be frustrating when you're facing a large group of enemies and you can't sit still at all. It's difficult, and usually in a fair way. 978 INSIDE 978 TEST 977 LIGHT 976 CAUSE 974 MINISTER 973 EXPENSIVE 972 READY. The last map to drive me crazy was MMZX, which says something. INSTEAD 1928 PROBLEMS 1922 NORTH 1920 GOES 1919 CONTROL 1918 DEPARTMENT. It doesn't help that your collected modules show up on both layers, which makes things even more confusing. Unfortunately, it's difficult to pinpoint which underground room lies underneath which above ground entrance, and things are exacerbated by the underground areas not being very interconnected, so if you want to get to a certain underground room, you'll have to squint at the map, try to figure out where the elevator corresponds to on ground level, and then take said elevator down. It's exacerbated by the map being split up into two layers - above ground and underground, with numerous elevators connecting the two. What it doesn't do is tell you anything about which doors you've gone into, elevators you've gone down (neither doors nor elevators are marked), gear bits (upgrade tokens) you have or haven't collected, or anything else. The map lets you know how many major collectibles (modules) you've done for a region (8 modules each for East/North/West/South for 32 pieces), and it marks the ones you've already collected on the map. This is likely to be a matter of opinion in the current era of less is more/minimalist/figure it out yourself games, but I can't stand how worthless the map is. I just started Hyper Light Drifter after getting it cheap from a Humble Monthly a while back, and it's great! I love the look, and I'm a fan of the dash-heavy, crunchy combat with generous amounts of hitstop and screen shake for each impact.

Hyper light drifter north modules