Hilda (video game)

Hilda is an episodic graphic adventure video game developed by Giant Sparrow and co-published by Annapurna Interactive and 505 Games for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Valve Steam Deck, Microsoft Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. Based on the graphic novel, the game will be released in five episodes periodically from January to September. Physical copies have been released on October 8, distributed by 505 Games.

Hilda was formed with an episodic format in mind, for reasons both financial and creative. Player feedback influenced the adjustments made to the episodes. Story and character arc serve as the central point in the game. Unlike the graphic novel and the TV series, the game has recieved a "Teen" rating from the ESRB due to blood, mild fantasy violence, mild language, and suggestive themes. The decision of having a T rated Hilda game was made so that developers can get out of their comfort zones and think about deeper topics but at the same time keeping it kid friendly for ages 13 and older.

A prequel, Hilda: Before Trolberg, will be released three years later, in that prequel we'll play as young Hilda, and the game will tell the stories when she used to live in the wilderness. and a sequel, Hilda 2 will be released two years after that, and it will be a continuation of the third season. An additional installment to the series, Hilda and The Watercolors, will be released three years after that. Other Hilda games will be released in the future.

Gameplay
Hilda is a graphic adventure, played as protagonist Hilda from a first-person perspective. The player can examine and interact with objects, which enables puzzle solving in the form of fetch quests and making changes to the environment. Items that are collected will be kept in the inventory.

The player can explore various locations of Trolberg and communicate with non-playable characters. Dialoge exchanges can be rewound while branching options are used for conversation. Once an event is reset, the details provided earlier are permitted to avail themselves in the future. In some instances, choices in dialogue will alter and affect the story through short or long-term consequences. For each one of the choices, something good in the short term could turn out worse later. The player is able to collect many items and weird objects for many uses, heal, defense, and some magic powers.

On some of the worlds are many enemies to fight, like salvaged vitras, and other enemies that never appeared in the original books, and the series. like evil thunderbirds, pig monsters, etc. the player can use some items to confront some mini bosses, like the bloodthirsty trolls, who are not like the normal trolls since they have red eyes and they are more bigger. among the weapons hilda can use are swords, harpoons, and also some acient weapons.

Some sequences will have quick-time-events where if the player fails to press the buttion at certain time, the player will start from the previous checkpoint prior to the QTE. Most of the quick-time-events are in some boss fights.

The player can also play as david, frida, johanna, and other characters. and you can buy cool stuff at the trolberg's shop. in every episode, there are collectables to earn extras like bonus cutscenes where we see how hilda is having fun with her friends by many forms. unlock extra modes like an time attack mode where the player can play the levels he played before and try to complete them as soon as possible, and the best part is that once the player completes an episode at 100%, the game will reward you with giving you one of the books of hilda.

Once you get the 100% in episode 1, you'll get the graphic novel of hilda and the troll. once you get the 100% in episode 2, you'll get the graphic novel of hilda and the midnight giant, once you get the 100% in episode 3, you'll get the graphic novel of hilda and the bird parade, once you get the 100% in episode 4, you'll get the graphic novel of hilda and the black hound, once you get the graphic novel of hilda and the stone forest, plus the three first tie-in books. but sadly the mountain king book and the other three tie-in books are not available in this game, which was somewhat disappointing for some people, but is forgivable since this game will have a sequel after the prequel game.

The player can explore various hubworlds which are basically the known locations from the original books, such as trolberg, the forest, and among others. in every hubworld there are some entrances that will send you to fun levels where you can explore and find many awesome things like creatures, locations, and acient objects to have them in your collection. in some of these levels there will be an mini boss to beat and earn many coins and items for your inventory. and when you meet the creatures, the friends, and the enemies mini bosses and the big bosses, you'll note them in your diary to know more about them and see a description of these characters given by hilda.

And for last, every character has his own skills and weaknesses.

Synopsis
The synopsis is a curious case. This game was supposed to contain the stories of the original books and the series, but for some reason they decided to make it a separate canon from the original product. Where events occur that never happened in the graphic novels, the novel series, and not even the tie-in series. The story tells us how a blue-haired girl named Hilda, together with her mother, her pet Twig, and an elf known as Alfur, move to a city called Trolberg, a city where people were sheltered by the protection of the trolls, beasts made of rock that were very dangerous, so in the city were created huge walls to prevent the passage of those creatures. Now Hilda must adapt to her new life, where many adventures await her along with her new friends Frida and David. She must also go through many adventures and also go through several situations like dealing with a giant dog that was in the city, save her friend David from the trolls, and also meet Victoria Van Gale and her laboratory. But it won't be easy, because lately many strange creatures have been appearing and also other creatures like the vitras have been becoming wild for some reason.

Another thing that was criticized was that the video game used several elements from the tie-in series. Like the big raven being amnesiac for several days and he has to recover his memory back by eating blue nettles, and the order of how the chapters of the original series go being changed. At least several events from the tie-in series do not happen. Like Frida and David getting mad at Hilda for having to get them in trouble in the part where Hilda and Frida go to Cauldron Island to save David from Bartell's clan, or that the rat king does appear. But also, there are many events that never happened in the series, like the explanation of what happened to Hilda's father and where is he now, the revelation of how the marras got their powers, and also it's revealed why Hilda has blue hair instead of a normal hair color.

The story also adds characters never seen before, such as a girl named Gravis, who is David's cousin, and the wood man's family.

Story
After their home in the wilderness has been destroyed, Hilda, along with her mother, her pet and an elf named Alfur, now move to Trolberg to have a new life there. However, what they didn't know is that many things would happen once they arrived in the city. This episode doesn't actually have the story of any of the episodes of the first season. This is more like an episode 0, because this episode tells an new and original story that was never told when Hilda and her family came to Trolberg.

Levels
In Every Hubworld there are entrances that takes you to the levels of every zone (hubworld) you are, Trolberg, or The Wilderness. To unlock the levels you must do some tasks and sometimes do a secondary mission to unlock a item that will let you unlock a level or some levels need to be unlocked by collecting the enough stellar rocks. The blue entrances are for regular levels. and the red entrances are for the boss levels. the entrances are golden doors, when you get close to them they'll open and show an miniature of the level you're going to play.


 * Level 1 A New Home (In Trolberg): After packing everything for the new house, Johanna wants Hilda to go and explore the city to see if she can meet new friends outside with her. She didn't want to since she wasn't sure if it would be fun like the wilderness, but she decided to give it a try. This is like the tutorial of the game, because there are many NPCs that tells you how to do many actions like grab objects and items to keep them in your inventory, and it also has a moment where you'll have to fight with a bunch of salvage vitras in an battle of 2 waves, and in the end of the level you'll have to fight against the "Giant Arachno" as the first mini boss you face in the game. It's an easy but fun level.
 * Level 2 Downtown (In Trolberg): Exploring the city, Hilda gets lost in the downtown, and that's when she meet a boy called David. The boy told her that a robot from the Trolberg Security Patrol was out of control and was attacking a part of downtown, Hilda decides to go there to try to confront him. At the end of the level the mini boss will be "The Mega Maniac", you'll just get the location that david told you to go.
 * Boss Level Troll's Slayer Prototype (In Trolberg): Hilda found the robot that David told her to not find, and she saw how she was attacking a poor girl called Frida, and also he was confusing her as an troll and he was using his weapon, a buzzsaw launcher to kill her. That robot was seem to not be over yet and Hilda knew it. She quickly go to rescue her, she knew that she was still a little girl, but she somehow had the enough courage to confront that maniatic robot.
 * Level 3 The Forest (In The Wilderness): After saving frida, she taked her with david's home so the three can meet properly, hilda was surprised that she already meet two friends just in one day, so she felt a bit proud of herself for that achievement. after talking with them and tell how she moved to trolberg, she decided to leave the city to go to the wilderness and try to have fun like when she used to do. there's no mini boss in this level, it's just fun level with lots of alternative routes to take.
 * Level 4 Waterfalls (In The Wilderness): Hilda found a place with waterfalls and decided to explore it for a while. this is one of the few levels that doesn't have any enemy to fight. it's just an platformer level some underwater sections.
 * Level 5 Rooftop Rush (In Trolberg): Hilda decides to return to trolberg and have lunch with her mom, but instead of going through the main entrance of the city, she decided to do something more, Intense and dangerous. This level is pretty hard by the fact that there are some pits where you can fall and die, and besides there's a mini boss in this level, It's the "Maggum Soid"
 * Boss Level Shade The Giant Morpho Butterfly (In The Wilderness): In the next day she decided to return to the wilderness but this time with david and frida, she wanted to show to them the wilderness and know why she loved to live here. but in some point of their adventure they we're having, they meet the shade, a giant morpho butterfly that used to be pacifist, but now it turned salvage by some reason. Hilda discovers that she was salvaged because of an weird helmet that was controlling her, she must quickly save shade from the trance that helmet was causing to her.
 * Level 6 Aquatic Cave (In The Wilderness): after saving shade from that trance, she was so happy of finally be free at last, she thank hilda, david, and frida by giving to them a butterfly as an little pet for them. shade told to them that her other butterflies friends we're trapped by an bloodthirsty troll in his lair located in a aquatic cave. hilda decided to go herself there to save them, but frida and david told her that they will go with her to help her. this level is an normal subaquatic level with some sections where you'll be more underwater than in the surface, and the mini boss in an bloodthirsty troll.
 * Level 7 Woff Flight (In The Wilderness): After saving the butterflies, she was happy that she now had two friends that would be part of her next adventures in the future. she decided to show them how it feels ride an woff so they can relax a little after fighting the bloodthirsty troll. in this level you ride an woff during the entire level, and you have to about obstacles and traps until the level ends.
 * Boss Level Rarmadillo Spikes (In Trolberg): After returning to trolberg with her new friends, she decided to go back home and rest after those adventures she had. but when she was about to go to her home, she saw an giant armadillo attacking the street where her apartment was, so she had to do one last thing before going home.
 * Ending Of Episode 1: After that fierce fight, she could defeat the armadillo and make him run away from the city. she was very exhausted after that fight, that she couldn't resist to collapse in the ground and fall in sleep, her mum was worried about her daughter that when she found her sleeping in the ground she picked her up and take her home. inside, she taked her to bed so she can sleep in peace. tomorrow was gonna be a day with new adventures, and hilda knew it while she was sleeping.
 * Secret Level 1 Catacombs Of Trolberg (In Trolberg): It's an secret opional level where hilda finds the catacombs of trolberg and decides to explore them. the level is pretty hard, and the mini boss is "The Acient Mech"

Story
Hilda goes to school for the first time, but once she finishes her studying she finds out Trevor with his friends attacking a bunch of birds, and a black raven gets hit. She quickly saves him and takes him to her home. After giving him a temporal home for now, she decided to help him to recover his memory, to do that, she'll have to feed him with blue nettles until he finally remembers everything. But it won't be easy...

This episode has a fusion Between the stories of The Bird Parade, The Lost Clan, The Troll Circule, And a new story about, The Party Of Eos.

Levels

 * Level 1 A Public School (in Trolberg): This is hilda's first day of school, and she has to be there in time, cause if she doesn't be there before the time ends she'll be late. this level is one of those levels in video games where you must go to the finish line before the time ends. there is no mini boss.
 * Level 2 Playground (in Trolberg): After the class hilda goes to the playground with frida and david. but somethings are going to get hard for her once she get there. this level is about making tasks from some characters like david, frida, one of the friends of trevor, and other kids. there is no mini boss.
 * Level 3 Bird's Temporary Home (in Trolberg): During her visit to the playground, she saw how trevor and his friends we're throwing rocks at many birds, and one of the rocks hit a black raven. when she go to aid him, she discovered that he could talk. trevor and his friends heard the raven talk, and they we're very surprised by that, hilda knowing that they wanted to keep him, she decided to take her to her home to keep him safe, but they we're not going to let her go with the raven easily. during the level you'll be stalked by trevor and his friends in many parts, if they find you they'll try to knock you with his baseball bats and then steal the raven. at the end of the level, you'll have the first fight with trevor as the mini boss of the level.
 * Level 4 Taking care of a Raven (in Trolberg): After beat up trevor, hilda could reach her home and enter safely. once inside alfur tried to interview the rave, but it turns out that he was amnesic by the hit of that rock. hilda decided to help him on his mission of recover his memory so he don't live the rest of his life amnesic. for that, she must find something that could help him... This level is not so interesting, because it's just an regular level with platform sections. and there's no mini boss.
 * Level 5 The Blue Nettles (in The Wilderness): Hilda discovered that the blue nettles are good for head, as they can recover the amnesic people and make them remember who they are, she decided to go to the wilderness with frida to find some blue nettles and help him. This level system's is like the one seen in sonic adventure 1 and 2, as there's three icons of blue nettles that when you're close to them, the icons will start to beep more faster. once you collect three blue nettles, the level will end. the third blue nettle is guarded by a mini boss known as "The Chorus".
 * Boss Level Robot Clucker (in The Wilderness): After collecting the three blue nettles, hilda and frida we're about to leave the forest where they we're, but sundendly an robot cluck ambush the two girls. This is one of the hardest battles on the game because of how quick his attacks are.

Story
After Hilda's deer-fox companion, Twig, leaves home, Hilda and her mother set off on a search that stirs up bittersweet memories. The trip won't be easy because of the many dangers that the wilderness have in it. And besides, she still needs to help the raven to recover his mind, so she had a very big trouble in that moment. And also Frida and David we're mad at Hilda because she dragged them in an adventure where David almost got captured by the clan of bartell. Well, David didn't yell at Hilda, but Frida did. So she only had her mum to help her.

Story
Hilda explores the Trolberg Watchtower. During the exploration she finds David's cousin Gravis, she told her that she was coming to see David, because her old house got burned 2 weeks ago and she needed a home to live. Later on, after taking her to David's home and talk with David, she could apologize to David for making him get captured by bartell's clan, and he actually forgived her, telling Hilda that no matter what she did, he wants to be his friend, which made Hilda so happy. Hilda then figures out what happened to her father and where is he now. and the revelation of how the marras got their powers, and also it's revealed why Hilda has blue hair instead of a normal hair color.

Story
Hilda is having a tough time trying to adapt to her new life. She could restore her friendship with David and also know about more of his life and past. But she still had a big problem, and that problem was, the raven. Trevor somehow was able to lie to Johanna and tell her that Hilda was his friend and she sent him to pick up the raven for the school exhibition. And worst is that she realized that David had a baby troll rock for his exhibition, and now she'll have to not also save the raven from and return the baby troll to his dad. But also she'll have to deal with something else. "The Lightingbird". Before she could go to the school exhibition, she realized that The Lightingbird was coming to Trolberg to ruin the bird parade, and try to take over the city after years of his defeat. Only the great raven was the only one who could stop him, she discovered that thanks to a VHS that tells the story of the great raven and how he beated the lightingbird for the first time, and the great parade was born. She had to do this right now, she had to help the great raven, save the school of that baby troll and try to take him with her mom. And also save the city from the return of the lightingbird before it's too late.

Trivia

 * 1) Retail versions will be available on October 8.
 * 2) The video game universe of Hilda will be targeted to an older audience due to certain content only suitable for 13 and older.
 * 3) The PC, iOS and Android versions will have controller support.
 * 4) The game will have some simularities to the Life is Strange franchise.
 * 5) The video game universe will be a separate canon from the graphic novel and the Netflix series.
 * 6) Physical copies will contain bonus items.