Chapter 1: What is Hytale and how does it compare to Minecraft?
Minecraft 2 is here, and it's called Hytale. And just like Minecraft, it is chock full of sweet, juicy lore. We've just got to explore a bit to find it. Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that one day will have an RPG sequel of its own. Okay, okay, let me back up a bit. I've already made two sequel jokes and we're barely a minute into the episode. I should be clear.
Hytale, the game we're talking about today, isn't really Minecraft 2. It's made by a completely different developer. It just looks very similar to Minecraft. It's
actually an incredible story of passion and perseverance the game began its development in 2015 with a bunch of members from the minecraft server hypixel with funding from riot games sadly riot cancelled the game later that year but the original creator managed to reacquire the rights and revived the game in november 2025 with the demo being released just a few weeks ago and with such an inspirational story as that i knew we at least had to give it a look plus if you
like Minecraft, this might as well be the sequel you've always wanted. Hytale really does improve on a lot of things that Minecraft has lacked over the years. You've got way more complex RPG leveling systems, more character customization.
Oh man. Oh man. Focus. We got our guy.
Yes!
And most importantly, actual lore. We've spent the better part of a decade figuring out the lore of Minecraft. So it's not to say there isn't any, but while Mojang is going for the all stories are canon route, Hytale has a canonical story which they were building towards until the game got shut down.
But just before the demo's release, the team posted about how they wanted to handle the lore going forward. Basically saying that while yes, there was a bunch of lore being hinted at beforehand, they wanted to reassess it all and make sure it all fits with the story they want to tell.
So if it's not in the game right now, it may or may not return in the future, which felt like an invitation to dive in. With this essentially being a lore reset and it being most people's first time experiencing the game, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to jump in for myself and explore the lore firsthand.
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Chapter 2: What inspired the development of Hytale?
It being in a half-remembered state feels like a reference to the world not being fully finished yet. Some of the world contains these adorable work in progress signs, or we get messages about how other parts are yet to take their final form. The line about what the future might hold
also tells us that right now, the story is going to be more like Minecraft in the sense that we need to explore and use the environment to tell the story rather than being in our faces with an actual narrative. Something which they actually confirmed in that post I mentioned earlier. I mean, the game's in early access, so we can't be too mad about that.
But when the demo released, this message changed. It became much more simple and a little less meta. It said, Explore an echo of Orbis. Build, craft, survive, and find a way to restore what was lost. which makes it feel like the world we're entering is a shell of its former self, an echo of what is slowly fading, and maybe it will be up to us to fix.
So with that speculation out of the way, and my interest truly piqued, let's dive in and see what we can find about what the future might hold. As I explored the world, the first thing I noticed was, much like we see in Minecraft, there are a bunch of old, broken structures that fill the land. Remnants of the world that once was, much like the title screen alluded to.
There's campsites, mineshafts, even these cute villages on the water complete with Viking boats. Although this one that I found was actually in the middle of a lake with zero outlets to the ocean, so I'm not sure they're going to be getting very far. Maybe this civilization wasn't the brightest of the bunch.
However, unlike Minecraft, we don't have to completely guess what these people were like, as we've got a bunch of different races or factions alive during this time. In Minecraft, the most we really get are villagers, with most of our theories being about a race of builders who came before.
But here, at least right now, we've got five races that form their own civilized societies that you can find pretty much off the bat. First is the Trollc, which, if you didn't get from the name, are troll orcs. so immediately you can tell this is a fantasy story. There's the Outlanders, a human faction that live out in the frozen wasteland of Orbis.
The Scaraks, who are a bug-like species in the desert. Next, there's the Kweebec. These guys are tree, elf-like beings, and according to concept art, they are literally born from trees. They're actually one of the friendly factions in the game, and you're able to trade with them to get some useful tools early on if you can find them.
Finally, and the thing you'll likely encounter most in the early game, is the skeletons. This undead mob is everywhere.
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Chapter 3: How does Hytale enhance RPG elements compared to Minecraft?
Sometimes just out in the open plains, sometimes in small camps and mine shafts, but sometimes you can find large groups of them inside fort-like structures. Now, it doesn't feel like these guys are just a race of skeletons that just exist in this high fantasy world. There are bones laying all over these fortresses, and they're all wearing tattered clothes.
clothes, like the kind you'd expect to find on a decaying body that had been left to rot out in the wilderness. Their eyes are also glowing with this unnatural cyan hue, similar to the fires you can find lit in some of their fortresses. It feels like there's some magic going on here, like they've been reanimated, which would align with this old piece of concept art.
So the question becomes, what is reanimating them and why? Well, when I took a closer look at the outfits they were wearing, I noticed something. On the chestplate of the soldiers was this symbol, a triangle with five branches coming off the top of it.
There's a similar symbol on the banners that adorn the fort, and it's on the shield of the statue, so clearly it's important to these skeletons, or at least who they used to be. And the answer for that lies in one of the other structures I've not yet mentioned, and one that is kind of central to your whole adventure. If you look at your map, there are no real markings to any specific point.
You just have to kind of learn what the shapes and colours mean and recognise patterns. But there is one exception. The Forgotten Temple. They're pretty hard to miss if you just happen to be wandering about. While still ruins like most other structures, these things are made out of pale stone with pillars and domes that almost look Greek in nature.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of lore in Hytale?
Which kind of clashes with the fantasy setting, to be honest. But that's not what's important here. What's important is at the entrance, we see a statue of a woman holding an orb. And on the front of her dress is the same symbol that we saw on the skeleton's armor. Inside is another statue surrounded by plants and fresh fruit offerings. This is Gaia.
She is the goddess of this world, wearing a dress made of leaves with her hair set in five ponytails, each corresponding to one of the five elements in the game. Earth, wind, fire, water, and lightning. And suddenly, the Greek theming begins to make sense. Gaia is the Greek personification of Earth, the mother of the Titans, the Cyclops,
Cyclopses, the giants, the sky, sea, and the grandmother of the Olympian gods we all know and love from mythology. She is the primordial being of Greek mythology. She represents the Earth itself, holding everything in balance, like the five elements we see in her hair, or the planet Orbis that she holds in her hand. Naturally, this makes a lot of sense to worship.
Don't want to annoy the god who is literally the earth itself. You can actually find out who's been giving these offerings too, as once you go through the portal, you end up in a place filled with wildlife and the Quebec. Ah, of course. Their villages are full of little farms and vegetable patches, but they're not growing them just to survive, but to offer to Gaia.
Clever little bit of environmental storytelling there, I gotta say. But while this place is beautiful and tranquil, some cogs started turning in my head. We saw the skeletons wearing armor that had Gaia's symbol on it, and they would attack us on sight. But here, the Kweebec, the ones who are actively worshipping Gaia, aren't trying to harm us. So what's going on?
Well, inside part of the temple, we can see more statues of a knight with Gaia's symbol on it, just like the ones we found in the skeleton fort. These are apparently known as Orbis officers. While not much is known about them, for statues of them to be erected in her temples, it seems highly likely that they served Gaia directly, probably to help maintain the balance and order of Orbis.
Which means I was right earlier about these skeletons not being their own race, but reanimated warriors, warriors that fought for Gaia. That's why there are outposts with her symbol adorned across it, why they also have statues of Orbis officers, and why some of the skeletons are still adorned with armor containing Gaia's crest.
They are the fallen officers of Gaia, and that actually tells us a lot about the world we're in now. Clearly, there has been some kind of war going on, and it's been going on for a long time. I mentioned earlier how Gaia's Greek architecture seemed to clash with the medieval setting of the games.
Well, if you take a look at our own history, the ancient Greek period is widely considered to have ended in 146 BC, when the Roman Empire conquered Greece in the Battle of Corinth. Meanwhile, the medieval Greek period began with the east and west splits of the Roman Empire in 395 AD.
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Chapter 5: What are the different modes available in Hytale?
Though it doesn't do anything right now, it does tie into this idea that the Void is the thing invading the land of Orbis and opposing Gaia putting her to sleep. I mean, it's an invasion, clearly they weren't invited for a friendly tea party. Interestingly, on that same piece of concept art, there's another set of symbols known as the Evil, or Varin Mark.
Not much is known about the character Varin at this point, other than he is the master of Void magic. So, yeah, I think these two things might be related. Sadly, Varen isn't a name that shows up in Greek mythology, or any mythology for that matter.
So there wasn't a huge amount I could dig up about him directly, but I did look into any kind of opposing force for Gaia, and the thing that came up was literally called Chaos. Chaos in Greek mythology is less of a person and more of a concept, a void that came before Gaia and the world as we know it. In mythology, it's not strictly an opposing force to Gaia.
They tend to kind of work in balance with one another. You can't have Gaia without chaos. However, as time has gone on, more modern interpretations have altered the story to pit these two against one another. Gaia is about balance and order. mastering the five elements and keeping them and the people of the world in perfect harmony.
While chaos is the opposite, wanting to throw off balance, causing people to turn on one another, leading to wars and inevitable destruction, taking everything back to the primordial chaos where it all began. It would appear that Varian is that personification of chaos. He is invading the world, throwing off the balance, silencing Gaia, and returning everything to him and his control.
His symbol can be seen in the forts of the Outlanders. The Outlanders are the human-like race that exists in the snowy wastelands of Orbis, but despite being a human like you, they are hostile towards you, just like most factions in this game. These guys are definitely on the side of Void, and with that in mind, take a look at their eyes.
They're glowing an unnatural color, just like the skeletons that have been brought back to life and also attack us. Varin has been fighting against Gaia for centuries, and it seems like he's mostly won. But there is hope. On the loading screen of the game, we can see humans like us entering into a void portal. And on their armor and weapons is another symbol. The evil contained.
We are the next generation of humans. here to contain Varen and his evil army. We can drive them back and collect the memories of Gaia to wake her and bring balance back to this world. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.
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