A sax cover of Disasterpeace's \"Cult of the Zealous,\" the song that plays in Hyper Light Drifter's North Area (along with The Hierophant boss theme music.)
Hyper Light Drifter was created by Heart Machine. As you could tell by the name of that company (and by the chronic illness that besets the protagonist of the game), lead developer Alex Preston has the heart ever present on his mind. Preston was born with congenital heart disease, and if you watch many videos about the development of Hyper Light Drifter, you will see that that condition has factored heavily in this game.
For this video, I wanted to juxtapose our physical understanding of the heart against our symbolic understanding of the heart. In today's world, the heart is seen as separated from the mind...and we view the heart as emotional and reactive, while the mind is purposive and will-ful.
But in the past, the heart was the center not just of reactivity, but of activity. It was the basis of will. So, failures of character were a failure of the heart. A corrupted cult of the zealous was a corruption of the heart and will.
These character failures were seen as voluntary poor choices...but now, our understanding of mind and heart suggest that many negative conditions are in many ways involuntary. We may fall into incorrect paths, but sometimes it may not fully relate to pure willpower and choice.
How does this change our understanding of will? How do we struggle against conditions that are inborn and involuntary? Can we ever achieve a cure? Even if we can't, don't we have to live our lives with the faith that a cure exists?
Song: Cult of the Zealous
Game: Hyper Light Drifter
Composer: Disasterpeace
