When I first wrote about Hypnos upon its announcement last month, I noted how I don’t really know what you do in it. The trailer was entirely about The Vibes, but that was enough for my mechanically minimalist loving heart. I’ve now had a go at the demo, and to tell you the truth, I’m still not entirely sure what you do, and I couldn’t give a monkeys because oh me oh my, what a pretty world it does contain.
Here are the things I do know: you play as the very handsome Choron, a “vagabond burdened by his past” who is searching for a “faceless boy who haunts his dreams.” You are in a strange dreamscape filled with impossibly large, almost pristinely white structures that sit atop a holy mountain called Kadath, where pilgrims make their journey towards.
In the demo, which covers what I think is roughly the first hour of the game, you meet some of these pilgrims, all of which are an odd sort, speaking occasionally in riddles to my mind. Though, I suspect this is because they have an understanding of the world that I don’t, and will need to play the game to find out.
For the most part, Hypnos comes across as something of a walking simulator stroke visual novel. There are occasionally dialogue options, like in one instance where a pilgrim is being harassed by some mean-looking folks, and you can try to negotiate, or blast the head of one of the baddies to high heaven with a gun that could easily have come from Blame! (a fellow world filled with megastructures). The consequences of such decisions aren’t immediately apparent, but this is a demo, I’ll forgive it for not answering my queries right away.
The lack of explicit mechanics may put off some (there is some sort of teleporting thing you can do at certain points, but not whenever you like), but for my own tastes I am quite happy to just keep wondering around this mysterious land where people can seemingly turn into pigs that quibble over sharing some crumbs. Everything within your vision is just so unfathomably large, begging the question of who built such things, and for what purpose. The visual novel-esque cutscenes contain designs that can easily sit up in the pantheon Hades’ do too, Hypnos simply drips with confidence in its design sensibilities.
And throughout it all, I still haven’t the foggiest as to what’s going on! So I will have to come back to the full thing whenever it releases. For now, you could try out its demo or wishlist it on Steam right here.
