Huge thanks to CanadianFlash for reading a draft of this post!
DISCLAIMER: Any Hytale-related statements in
this post are either based on pre-release information or how I imagine the game
to work. They may not reflect the final game, so this post is just for fun.
Actually, I’ve mostly been posting “just for fun” things
these past weeks ‘cause I’m having trouble getting ideas. I get more ideas when
I regularly go to the gym. Screw this Wuhan coronavirus for ruining our fun.
And yes, that’s my new disclaimer for my Hytale posts.
I noticed that my posts are increasingly based on how I imagine Hytale
to be rather than hard evidence. Freedom is a fun thing. Besides, there’s a
chance (no matter how slim) that Hypixel Studios may get a “eureka” moment from
my posts…
Anyway, speaking of imagining the game, I’m gonna give my
thoughts on a similar video that was done by CanadianFlash, a friend of Kweebec
Corner’s who’s affiliated with ThirtyVirus’s BlockShot Network.
I suck at introductions, so let’s do this. (Does that count
as a catchphrase
by TV Tropes’s definition? lololol)
10. [The Hytale universe’s] Natural Beauty
Aesthetics are not a huge selling point for me since I’m so
focused on establishing my dominion over the Hytale universe.
Then again, I wonder just how insanely detailed the world
generation and the mob AI will be in the final game. I mean, even the caves
feel like truly natural wonders rather than simple “holes in the ground”.
9. Exploring New Planets
They’re not really “planets” to me, though the concept art of
the Hytale alterverses makes them resemble planets. I’m sticking with the term
“alterverse”, though.
Now that I think about it, “alterverse” is a surprisingly
original choice of term. Sci-fi has space travel while medieval fantasy uses
portals to other dimensions. It leaves a lot of room for speculation on
traveling to other alterverses since one cannot simply use “spaceship” or
“magic portal” as a conclusion.
I wonder, though: Will these alterverses be about as lively,
if not livelier, than Orbis? Will they be barren like most real-life planets?
Would they be more akin to the Minecraft Nether and End which are
livable but are not as friendly or comfortable as the Earth equivalent
(Overworld in Minecraft, Orbis in Hytale)?
Regardless, as I said in part 3 of my Hytale play style, I
like to take things one alterverse at a time. I’ll focus on conquering most of
Orbis first before moving to another alterverse since Varyn is not from Orbis
and my team needs to establish a strong home-turf advantage.
8. First Boss Fight
CanadianFlash uses the Trork chieftain as an example in this
part, though I think of it as more of a King Mook than
a true boss. It has roughly the same body build as the other Trork archetypes
(besides the bigger teeth) and can wield the same weapons. If it has unique
moves, I doubt they’d be trolly enough to be boss-level; I imagine a “rally”
move that boosts its allies’ stats or a ground-pound attack that hits multiple
targets in a straight line.
Also, I doubt the Trork chieftain will be “beginner-level”. The December 12, 2019 progress update which introduced tiered mobs said that certain enemy types only show up in higher
tiers, so it’s unlikely that newly-spawned players will fight Trork chieftains
unless the players skip to the harder parts of the world. Plus, I know
CanadianFlash’s video was posted before the April 30, 2020 progress update, but the low-tier
Trork in that update did loads of damage to the player while they weren’t
shielding. Imagine how much more damage a Trork chieftain would do—I bet
its regular attack would be a One-Hit Kill
on an unarmored player.
Then again, my first boss fights would be an exciting thought
for me in my first few Hytale playthroughs, whether they involve a true
boss or a King Mook. Beating these fools helps build my confidence and muscle
memory for future difficult battles and raises my team’s morale.
Also, I would very much like to behead a Trork chieftain and
hang its head in my bedroom. But I’ll leave that to HeadsHoKer the super-strong
sword
cavalier since he can wield a BFS.
I recently updated my “Fire Emblem Stats of Hytale Mobs” with
CanadianFlash’s stats where I based him off the Mercenary class since he
said in voice chat that he wields a sword and wants to play as a bounty hunter.
Turns out, he mentioned the bounty hunter part in this video. I regret
bothering him with my question about how he wants to play Hytale. (He
did get weirded out when I mentioned I will
primarily use my fists…)
(Also, I like how CanadianFlash pronounces "chieftain" as "cheef-tayn", not the correct "cheef-tuhn". Makes it sound more awesome and distinctive.)
7. Owning a Pack of Raptors/Wolves
I did not see this coming since I always assumed the
zone 4 underground dinosaurs were untamable hostile mobs. Nice idea,
CanadianFlash.
I always imagine battlefields with monsters, humanoid
creatures, and animals as mounts, so I underestimate the power of beastmasters.
They don’t need intelligent human armies to mess up their enemies; their beast
mooks can do it for them.
I don’t like most animals in real life—heck, I get annoyed at
our family’s pet dog—so I wouldn’t own a pack of combat animals. I’d rather
stick to farming chickens, cows, and such. For a Redshirt Army, I’d use
sentient races like Kweebecs.
6. Playing with Friends
I agree with CanadianFlash—playing with friends feels extra
special compared to playing alone. Having shared goals and experiences helps
build trust, camaraderie, and that general “heck yeah!” feeling. It gives each
player another reason why they play: to help each other have fun.
I have no problem with others having a casual play style, but since Hytale is, for me, probably the greatest game of all time and a huge step-up from Minecraft, I treat single player and co-op as Serious Business. While "just for fun" players would do whatever they feel like doing at the moment, I've built up loads of detailed plans for over a year ever since I started writing about Hytale shortly after the announcement trailer launched. My main purposes for playing with friends are for me to cover up their weaknesses and make their playthrough easier for them while allowing me to execute more powerful tactics that cannot be done alone or with AI-controlled Red Shirts.
5. Discovering New Mobs, Bosses, and Prefabs
CanadianFlash must really like these exploration and
discovery-based goals, huh? Actually, yeah, that’s my mage BoltOLightnin’s main
goal in Hytale.
According to the Edge magazine article, there are around 7000 prefabs in Hytale. Discovering them all seems like a very interesting
challenge. Reminds me of completing the Pokédex (minus the event-exclusive Pokémon
like Mew and Arceus).
Problem is, since I want to be Crazy-Prepared,
I want to look up every single mob in advance before I do a serious co-op
playthrough. I know it ruins the experience of playing Hytale blind, but
there’s more to fighting than just knowing in advance—actually
experiencing the fight helps me adapt better to counter the enemy’s fighting
style.
4. Mastering an Element
Yeah, CanadianFlash was quick to hijack the lightning
element. come on, man, my mage and i like lightning (intentional bad grammar)
Then again, lightning is a popular magical element already.
Sasuke from Naruto uses the Chidori, a ninjutsu technique that uses
lightning chakra. Most people know who Pikachu is, and in most episodes of the
Pokémon anime, Ash’s Pikachu finishes off Team Rocket with a Thunderbolt that
sends Team Rocket blasting off again.
Fire is also popular because of dragons, especially
Charizard. People with Hair-Trigger
Tempers are associated with fire thanks to terms like “hot-headed” and
“hot-tempered”. The Anger emotion in Pixar’s Inside-Out literally shoots
fire out of his head when angry.
If I had to take one magical element that is not one of the
above, I’d choose void magic. Whoa, whoa, calm down and let me explain. Since I
imagine myself as an edgelord with some remnants of evil remaining, I think I’m
suited towards void magic (which I equate to dark magic).
If I can’t choose lightning, fire, or void, I’d choose wind.
For the Ferans, wind means freedom, and, being someone with a chaotic neutral
alignment, I value my freedom. Wind is also associated with speed and I am
fast—I can outspeed average Joes at running and cycling and I can break someone’s defenses with a blindingly fast punch to an unguarded area.
CanadianFlash wants to play in a group with one member each
representing one of the five elements (void not included). Don’t mind me
inserting myself again, but in my team, I represent wind, BoltOLightnin
represents lightning, YoSquid represents water, and HeadsHoKer represents fire.
Earth is a vacant slot—what are the chances that I recruit a Chick who
specializes in earth magic?
As for “unlocking” an elemental dragon upon mastering an
element, it seems OP to me. The challenge for mastery better be worth it and
the dragon should be on par with some mid- or late-game enemies.
However, I doubt that mastering one element would prevent
mastery of another since Hytale tries to avoid the limitations of RPG
classes—all players, stat-wise, are just as good with a sword as with a bow or
tome (or, at least, I imagine they start out as such but can achieve mastery of one or all of them). The only difference between players with the exact same equipment would
be the real-life players’ skills. That said, I want to keep my focus on the
fist and the spear.
Then again, I’m used to RPGs with class limitations (like a
fighter being unable to use magic) and Noxy did a poll on including a tabletop
RPG toolkit, so I’m hoping there will be support for different classes and raw
stat builds (i.e. stats without equipment or buffs/debuffs) without complicated
modding.
“Turning into Gaia” by mastering all of the five elements is
an even bigger stretch. It’s OP, but I simply like being a Badass Normal.
Sure, the thought of defeating Varyn with an Infinity
+1 Sword or a Magic Missile Storm is
nice, but I think it’s even more awesome for a Muggle
to defeat Varyn with only his fists and pure skill.
3. Defeat
I expected this the least, though I think this is one of the
most important experiences, even if it doesn’t seem “cool”. We’ve heard
statements like “everyone makes mistakes”, “everyone is a sinner”, and “learn
from your mistakes” over and over. In Minecraft, I was a Leeroy Jenkins
and that costed the lives of me and my team, so I learned to take combat at a
steady pace and avoid taking damage as much as possible.
Then again, I’m a stubborn little bugger who hates being
defeated. It’s why I’m Crazy-Prepared.
2. Accomplishment
Not much explanation to put here. It simply feels good to be
the champ. That’s part of the fun of video games.
CanadianFlash talked about the final battle in Star Wars
Jedi: Fallen Order where he played at the hardest difficulty and died “probably
20 times” before finally defeating the boss. I want a sense of accomplishment
like that (minus the dying part—maybe just take lots of unblockable damage or
have lots of tactical disadvantages) when fighting the bosses or exploring the
dungeons of Hytale, especially whatever the final boss battle is (could
be Varyn, but Hypixel Studios could subvert everyone’s expectations by making Varyn,
for example, a fake final
boss).
Considering Hytale plans to support many different play styles, from the mundane like farming to the flashy like boss hunting, we all derive our sense of accomplishment from different things, even within the same game.
I derive my sense of accomplishment from conquest in general,
including befriending good factions, destroying evil factions, building
ambitious and comfortable bases, being super rich and heavily armed, and
defeating bosses.
BoltOLightnin is a typical dungeon crawler. He's mainly out for the treasure, and as such, I expect him to be in the field the most.
YoSquid is more focused on Hunger Games than on Adventure Mode and I have yet to ask him what is his Adventure Mode goal. Then again, he survives reasonably well in Minecraft Hardcore Mode; I think he survived 3 weeks in his previous playthrough. I also thoroughly enjoy Hunger Games, though not as much as Minecraft Survival.
HeadsHoKer is just in my team…when he has nothing else to do. He’d rather read about history and philosophy than play video games. All I got from him is a vague "depends on my mood", so I think he's the least serious of the bunch. He does enjoy The Sims a LOT, so, Hypixel Studios, better take notes. (And yes, I got permission from HeadsHoKer to say that.)1. Beating the Game and Discovering the Lore
Of course, beating the game is a big achievement in itself.
(I can’t really explain why. Generally, the harder a task is, the better it
feels when it is accomplished.)
Discovering the lore is also interesting since I’m a sucker
for a good story. In addition to curiosity being fed, doing it in a video game usually
involves challenges that give the task a sense of accomplishment that goes
beyond simply reading words on a novel.
However, I don’t think beating the game involves discovering all
the lore—ideally, I think it will reveal a large chunk of lore. (Unless Hytale
wants to pull the same stunt as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
and allow the player to fight the
final boss almost immediately.)
Of course, some knowledge of the lore is necessary to fully
enjoy the game (though may not necessarily be a requirement)—“Get to know
Hytale’s NPCs” explained that a story about the Kweebecs is “an important part
of how Kweebecs operate in the game”. Lore can be used to gain tactical
advantages like exploiting a boss’s weakness—there are memes of the Pokémon
move Sand Attack being used on Anakin, a Star Wars character who is
famous for not liking sand.
On the other hand, some lore can be hidden in various ways,
whether it’s found in secret items, accessible through strong relationships
with certain factions, or only in future updates, Tweets, or blog posts.
Then again, I assumed that when CanadianFlash talked about
beating the game, he didn’t talk about 100% completion. I define “beating the game”
as simply defeating the final boss or completing the final mission, as opposed
to 100%
completion which usually involves finding all the secret items and
completing all the main quests and sidequests, sometimes perfectly. In the case
of discovering the lore, “beating the game” will most likely not do this
but 100%-completing the game likely will (unless, again, some lore is
accessible outside of the game such as through Twitter or the Hytale blog).
CanadianFlash briefly mentioned cutscenes during this part. I
have no problem with an epic cutscene after beating the game (I think the End
Poem which is shown after defeating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft is an
example), though I have mixed reactions with other cutscenes in general. I enjoy
watching the epic and unique animations of cutscenes, but they can interfere
with the experiences of other gamers since I think they don’t want to have to go
through the trouble of pressing the “skip cutscene” button and just get
straight into the epic battle.
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