Game Theory - Is Hytale the Next Minecraft?!

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Minecraft 2 is here, and it’s called Hytale! Well…it isn’t REALLY Minecraft 2 but it really does improve on a lot of things that Minecraft has lacked over the years. And Game Theory host Tom is here for ALL the lore.

Minecraft 2 is here and it's called High Tail. 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.

High Tail, the game we're talking about today, isn't really Minecraft. too. 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 High Pixel 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.

Plytail 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, focus, focus. Oh man. Focus. We got our guy. Yes. And most importantly, actual law.

We've spent the better part of a decade figuring out the law of Minecraft. So it's not to say there isn't any, but while Mojang is going for the all stories are canon, Routes. Tyntale 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 law going forward, basically saying that while yes, there was a bunch of law 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 law 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 law first hand. See what pieces we can put together with what exists and where things might be heading in the future. So take my blocky hand, loyal theorists, as we head through the portal to discover the law of Hightail. When you boot up the game and choose to enter a world, you get the choice of what mode you'd like to jump into. Aventure mode right now isn't available, but when it does release, it's likely going to be where the main plot plays out. Instead, our main option is exploration mode. least, the text about this mode was teased and it said, Explore a version of Orbis in its half-remembered state and fragments of what the future holds.

Orbis, by the way, is the name of the world. Hightail primarily takes place. 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 all this. 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 peaked,

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 sense. civilized societies that you can find pretty much off the bat. First is the trawk, which, if you didn't get from the name, are troll-aul-aulks.

So immediately you can tell this is a fantasy story. There's the Outlanders, a human faction that live at in the frozen wasteland of Orbis. The Scaric, who are a bug-like species in the desert. Next, there's the Quebeck. 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. 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. 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 blowing with this unnatural cyan hue, similar to the fires you can find lit in some of their fortresses. It feels like they're 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 chest plate 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. still ruins, like most other structures, these things are made out of pale stone with pillars and domes that almost look Greek in nature, 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 armour. 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 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 every everything in balance, like the five elements we see in her hair, or the planet Orbis that she holds in her hands. 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 Quebeck. 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 site. But here, the Quebeck, 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 forts. 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 game.

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 split of the Roman Roman. empire in 395 AD. For this architecture to be crossing over like this but for the same symbols to be used in both styles means that the worship of Gaia and the war surrounding her have also been around for at least that long, which would explain the hundreds of skeletons and ruined buildings throughout the land. New civilizations rose, fought for Gaia but ultimately always fell, only to be brought back as these living skeletons to fight for the opposing side, the side that is against Gaia and anyone that could be seen as working for her, i.e. us. They are now, wolves wearing sheep's

clothing. But then, who is the evil force desecrated in these former heroes' legacy? Right now, if you're just playing the game, it's not entirely clear. The only real clue we really have is in the heart of the forgotten temple. If you go into the very center of the structure, you'll find the heart of Orbis, which gives you access to one of the games made objectives, acquiring memories. By witnessing any creature of Orr's, Orbus, you obtain a memory of them, which you can then bring back here. But the key detail is in the message we get explaining this mechanic. Quote, Void's curse keeps Orbis locked away, but there may yet be a way to break it.

A deity rests within the heart of Orbis. Seek out memories of Orbis's myriad creatures and record them here to restore her will. This match is up to some of the concept art from when this place was called the Temple of Gaia. In it we can see Gaia asleep on her throne inside the temple with these crimson thorny vines surrounding her and consuming the temple itself. Faced on this in-game message, it seems pretty clear that this stuff represents void. Which on its own doesn't mean a lot. It's clearly the Dark Force we're looking for, but what Void actually is, the game itself

isn't super clear about. Thankfully, this is where more concept art is here to help. Earlier I told you that there were five elements. Earth, fire, water, wind and lightning. But that wasn't entirely truthful. See, on the concept art for the elements, there's a sixth element smack dab. in the middle. And at this point, I'm sure you've figured out what it is. Void, a dark element that is used to corrupt and destroy. In the creative mode for the game, there's actually a void invasion

portal that you can place. 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 therein, Mark. Not much is known about the character Varen 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. 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, an 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. 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 colour, just like the skeletons that have been brought back to life and also attack us. Varen 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 armour 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.