Hyper Light Drifter / CrossCode

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TheOrangeShark

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Greeting all,

I'm a father of two young kids so I dont have much time to play games currently. I'm looking for something in the vein of Link to the Past to play on my PS5.

Would anyone recommend either of these games?

Thanks in advance.

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Efesell

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I want everyone to play CrossCode so absolutely. Charming story, great gameplay, way too many fuckin' treasure boxes to open so maybe ignore a lot of that but ultimately a great time all the way through.

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TheOrangeShark

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@efesell:

Thanks for the advice and the recommendation!

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ripelivejam

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#4  Edited By ripelivejam

I bought HLD years ago, love the aesthetic and have listened to the soundtrack quite a bit. Very Zelda like but also sorta minimalist and a little difficult. Still havent actually played through much of it yet though. Someday (which is weird considering I was real hyped for it)

Crosscode seems cool but kinda weird and 4th wall breaking. But also havent played much so basically I'm not an authority on either!

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TheOrangeShark

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Slunks

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I can't speak to Crosscode, but Hyper Light Drifter was one of my favorite games I played the year it came out. It has fantastic art, atmosphere, and music. Disasterpiece did the OST and he's pretty well-known in the industry from Fez and other games.

Probably my favorite part of HLD is that it really just drops you in the world and let's you figure it out. Most of the game is taught through intuitive world design and not a hand-holdy tutorial. It's treats you like a person who can figure stuff out on their own and I respect that a lot.

If you can sneak away from the kids and "zone-in" on the game for a bit, that game does well at keeping your attention.

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TheOrangeShark

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@slunks:

Much appreciated. Thanks for all the details.

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Humanity

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@theorangeshark: Hyper Light Drifter is a lot more action focused. You have to actively dodge and attack in ways that is above what Zelda generally has to offer. I really enjoyed it but it can get fairly difficult at times and requires you to get good at the internal systems to progress. I haven't played Cross Code but from what I've seen it does seem to be more forgiving in that department.

Also while I do love Hyper Light Drifter for it's style and ambience, this is the quintessential indie game with a "what does it all mean really?" type of story. Details are sparse and the way it presents most of the narrative is fairly cryptic and up to interpretation. So you're basically in it for the gameplay and the cool visuals. I'm sure there are a ton of YouTube "Ending Explained" type of videos out there but be warned it is very much one-of-those.

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TheOrangeShark

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@slunks:

Much appreciated. Thanks for all the details.

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yyninja

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#10  Edited By yyninja

Both games are kind of aiming for different things. HLD is more action and twitch based while CrossCode is more puzzle heavy.

I think the best way to make your decision is if whether you like the combat or puzzle solving more in Link to the Past.

If you can, play them both, they are both great games!

UPDATE: I completely overlooked that you mentioned having two young kids. If your kids are going to watch you play I would recommend CrossCode then because HLD has some dark imagery (character coughing blood) that you might not want them to see.

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imhungry

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Both are fantastic games that you can't go wrong with. Hyper Light Drifter is more mechanically demanding on the combat side while CrossCode ramps up to be fairly demanding on the puzzle side of things, with sliders to help ease the complexity of execution if needed. Of the two, CrossCode 'feels' more like Link to the Past to me, particularly in the dungeon areas.

Worth noting if you don't have a lot of time that HLD is a much shorter experience than CrossCode. My playthrough of HLD clocked in at 10 hours while an playthrough of CrossCode would probably end up more in the realm of 30-50 hours depending on how much you do.

It's definitely possible to make progress in smaller chunks of play in CrossCode but in much the same way as many Zelda games, the dungeons can end up being pretty lengthy. You can stop playing midway through and pick back up later so it's not that big of a deal, but I could see some of the dungeons feeling draggy if stretched out over too long a period of time.

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TheOrangeShark

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@imhungry:

Thanks for the breakdown!

I probably will play both at some point. May go with Hyper right now due to the shorter length.