Hollow Knight (2017)

I've had such a journey with this game and on my 3rd finish I think I have to just finally admit it and say this is in fact my favourite game of all time. It's funny cause I remember the pure disdain I had for just how punishing it was, I've never been the "git gud" sort of player, learning patterns and replaying bosses dozens of times, that has just never been my idea of fun but... here we are I guess.

I donno if I can say anything that hasnt already been said about it. For the indie side of the industry there were games before Hollow knight and games after it. Genre defining. Masterful in so many ways.

Funnily enough it reminds me of Frank Ocean and Blonde where, intentional or not, each year that they just don't release anything new, their old work becomes more beloved through replays due to their fan bases' sheer desperation for their content. I can't decide whether that's genius or cruel, but it works. This is def not my last playthrough

I feel like the constant hype surrounding this game has given me some unreachable expectations. Also, Silksong is apparently the second coming of Christ.

Hollow Knight (HK) is a very solid metroidvania, that does everything right in each department, but doesn’t particularly excel at anyone of them.

Sound and graphics complement each other nicely to create a great atmosphere, which is arguably the star of the show, bringing the setting to life.

Combat is also genuinely good, even though I’m not a fan of receiving damage just by touching an enemy. Special mention goes to the boss fights, they are fun and creative.

Movement, on the other hand, feels very lacking at the beginning, with you slowly build up your abilities repertoire to where it is for most platformers. I’d have preferred more movement options at the start, with different power-ups being used to unlock the new paths. This would have made the opening hours less of a slog. I’m actually dreading the idea of a replay because of that.

I KNOW this game has double jumps and wall jumps because I can SEE the alternate/easier paths everywhere, I just need to play 6–7 hours to unlock them.

The setting of HK is very interesting, but unfortunately the story feels unnecessarily cryptic. It’s somewhat treated like a mystery, but it never gives you a straight answer to what is happening, even after the ending. This may sound intriguing, but I don’t think it's handled properly.

In reality, the main core of the story isn’t a particularly complex one, and I assume most players can figure out what is going on pretty early on. So, the vagueness in the storytelling seems only to hide details and character’s motivations. Some of those smaller story bits are so convoluted to find, that you are better off just finding a YouTube video about the full story.

But by far my biggest criticism is about its length. HK overstays its welcome by a lot, specifically for a genre where games are usually under 15 hours. Metroidvanias are, by design, repetitive, but the longer they are, the more tiresome they get, because you are forced to traverse the same exact layouts repeatedly.

HK is LONG, almost 30 hours just for the main story, and even after seeing everything the game has to offer, it will still ask you to go from one side of the map to the other just to see a bit more. It may work for some people, but I personally need a bigger incentive than that.

I know some of this may sound like I’m being overly critical of it, but after all the hype and the insanely high critical reception, I’m left a bit disappointed. I still think it is a good game overall, and I’m excited for Silksong. Even with all my criticism, I was still compelled to finish as much as possible before quitting for good.

Despite being annoyed at some of the design choices of this game, I can't say other than it is very good. And my issues are mostly related not to the game/mechanics per se but to the story and how to fit it all together.

The game, in my opinion, shines when it demands from you: the harder platforming levels, and the boss fights that are perfectly designed as another kind of platforming/timing challenge. Some of the bosses could be beaten by basically mashing but there were ones that were really fun battles, particularly when you don't have all the power ups (mantis lords and soul master come to mind).

Where I think it lacks is in two aspects. One is the chore of traveling. When you're underleveled and underpowered, some of the enemies you face in your screen-to-screen travel might be complex but midway there, it's only a matter of hitting them once or twice and get over with. Lacking fast travel locations (or a system like in Ori 2 where you can teleport from wherever to a few specific locations) impacted negatively my experience because the map is also quite large.

My other point is in term of the narrative. It could be absolutely a me thing, but I never felt connected to what was happening. Plots and non linear open worlds are difficult to mix together and I think this game could have done it better on the start with some backstory. While thinking on this point I remembered some of the critics on BotW because of a lack of story, something that I could not understand. The thing is that Zelda, a franchise with 30 years, can do something like imply a lot of the backstory (not that it's a good thing to do at all) because it just assumes the player knows a lot of what was happening. I felt at point that in Hollow Knight, I was playing the sequel of a game I never heard, controlling a character with a development I was never a part of put in a world that I should have been familiar with from the beginning. Then, getting bits of the story here and there were mostly linking what I already knew, or should have known. The epitome of this issue for me was getting the ending and not understanding what was happening, enhanced because I happened to miss a key optional NPC that told me a few sentences on what I should have done.

Is the game good, then? Mechanically it is impeccable. No issues at all, everything felt really good and even the hardest challenges are fair. I would have liked a few other adjustments, but it was a good game nevertheless.

Will I come back to it? Most likely not.

EDIT: Added a deserved 5th start after a drug-related experience. Play it while high.

I just replayed it, going for full completion. It is just so good. It was the first game to get me hooked on metroidvanias, and I am so excited for silksong.

Side note, the only games that have come close to topping it for me are aeterna noctis and the ori games. I adore Super Metroid as well, but I enjoy the kinda more brooding, magical atmosphere the most.

I love this game, and every single element of it. Hard to articulate. Just play it

I have a very strong love/hate relationship with this game. It’s strengths are huge as are it’s flaws. It is a gorgeous game, the visuals are unforgettable and the sound design is incredibly detailed. Many of the moments I had discovering things for the first time are some of my favorite on the switch. The platforming is simple and (usually) fairly enjoyable.

But the glaring issue with this game is that the difficulty to reward ratio is WAY off, this game feels intentionally asininely hard for little to no reward. My main interest was to explore and learn about this unique world but it’s nearly impossible to learn anything coherent about what is going on so I felt like I was trudging through horrible boss fights after another for no feeling of accomplishment other than relief I don’t have to fight this fucking thing again and pure spite because I’ve grown to hate these bosses.

And the non-boss enemies are just annoying. They’re rarely fun or add anything, they’re just so annoying some of them so much so that I avoided whole areas of the game just because of them. Gameplay got quite tedious when there was little to no sense of progression throughout and I was just wandering around a gorgeous landscape full of the worst enemies.

And with that, another full play-through of Hollow Knight is complete. I realize now that I didn’t previously write a review. In the time between when I first played the game until now, Hollow Knight has become one of the dearest games to my heart. From its stunning hand drawn art to its melancholic vistas, Hollow Knight transports me to a world that is both wonderful and awe-some, enthralling and terrifying.

It’s a truly moving experience that is also a master class in world design. Hollow Knight is certainly indebted to many games from Castlevania to Dark Souls yet it manages to surpass all of its influences. It’s a joy to play from start to finish (with a minor dip in The White Palace) that delivers a rich world and cast of odd characters.

And somehow there are always new friends to discover. I’m spoken in the past about my favourite tragic character, Myla, but this time around Cloth joins Myla as one of the denizens of Hallownest that I love. I met Cloth the first time I played but I must of missed some interactions with her during that play-through. This time I encountered her in multiple locations and she even aided me in a late game fight. I had no idea that was possible and it’s a testimony to the rich tapestry that Hollow Knight weaves that one may not be able to take it all in during one run of the game.

Regardless, Cloth also embodies the perseverance of the player, a mirror of the person who can be down and out one moment yet find their second wind moments later, the player that says “I can’t do this! Ok, just one more time.” I appreciate that little nod from Team Cherry, and my new found aid from Cloth.

I also discovered other things I hadn’t before, like the fact that you can splash a couple of bathers with water in the hot spring. Little details like that add warmth to a world that is full of daunting and harrowing challenges. It’s a nice comfort and enjoyable to discover, even if it takes multiple play-throughs.

I managed to beat the game in fifteen hours fewer than I did the first time. Even though I hadn’t played the game in three years, it’s amazing how much of it stays with you and in your muscle memory.

Ask me what my top five games are and I might struggle to give you a complete list, but I can tell you that if I have such a list, Hollow Knight is on it. There is no doubt in my mind that It will also remain there for a long time to come.

As I eagerly await Silksong I have the comfort of knowing that anytime I miss the world of Hallownest, I need only pick up my Switch and return.

Is Hollow Knight a souls-like? These game genres are way too convoluted for me to keep up with, but I’ve always avoided games with that label. As a narrative and exploration focused gamer, I had never been a fan of difficult bosses.They invariably turned into a chore that killed my excitement and curiosity through sheer repetition. I thought I would never understand how there was a popular genre dedicated to this tortuous aspect of gaming.

Then I tried Hollow Knight. The little bugs were adorable and it was on sale, so I got it on a whim. When I realized it was tagged a “souls-like”, I was willing to give it a try but didn’t really expect to finish it. I certainly didn’t expect to get 112% completion, spending multiple days doing some of the super difficult challenges.

It was just so fun. The platforming controls were simple and the abilities were introduced gradually enough to be internalized. The enemies were varied but also consistent and easy to read thanks to the stylized 2D art. They weren’t easy to beat though, and even the Hornet fight took me nearly an hour. Normally this would’ve been too frustrating for me, but with every death I had an idea on how to improve and had to try again. I was consistently getting a bit further each time. Then when I finally beat her, I was hooked on that dopamine rush of victory.

From there, the fights just kept on getting better. Harder too, but I didn’t mind at all. The backtracking was a chore sometimes, but that became less of a problem later with a certain item. At some point, my motivation changed from wanting upgrades and rewards to the pure joy of honing my skill and overcoming challenges. I was finally enjoying “getting good.”

Of course, Hollow Knight was also a treat in the Metroidvania exploration aspect. Every time I assumed I was nearing the end, there was something new being introduced, even in the very late game. The world was absolutely huge, and each area had a beautifully distinct theme and a sense of history that compelled me to explore every wall and corner. The music was just as amazing and got me through some of those very difficult boss fights that took 50+ tries, and I never became tired of their theme songs. The whole experience was so much more than I had expected for only about 8 bucks.

This game was damn near perfect in all aspects and completely changed my view on the souls-like genre. I will definately be playing the other ones that I had previously ignored despite good reviews. There’s a lot of games in this genre, and I’m so excited to finally explore them with a fresh perspective.

While this game is deserving of the high praise that it receives, it is definitely not for everyone. The lack of low-risk environments in which to acquire skills such as the downward slash, and the very punitive approach to failure impose a high skill-floor. A player with the correct experience or aptitude will probably not notice, since they will be above this skill floor. However, a player who is not already skilled at platforming and actions with tight timing requirements will find it very difficult to acquire these skills in this game.

So it was for me. At the 20 hour mark, I still could not reliably perform a downward slash, nor beat the first encounter with the Hornet. I could see no enjoyable way of acquiring the skills, as all further exploration was gated by the item that I could only obtain by defeating the the Hornet.

One of the biggest weaknesses of the Metroidvania genre is that you have to rewalk the same areas you already know, thus meaning you spend time not exploring or seeing anything new. It's also one of is strengths: if you come back with a new ability to explore the new corners you've missed before and brutally slice up all those enemies that have been so annoying before, now easily with your new abilites - nice. That's fun for once, as you do it in Ori, Super Metroid, admitedly, in SOTN you do it a little more often.

Hollow Knight does not cope with this weakness well. It completly ignores this flaw and even intesifies it. I get the idea, that it's supposed to be souls-like so the death penalty is very high to give it the aspect of survival gaming. But that's only legit in a world, where you don't have to aimlessly walk around all the time. There's nothing to explore in Hollow Knight - there is only one right way to advance, there is no alternative path you can chose or easter egg hidden in the map. That would be okay, if the map wasn't gigantic. Hollow Knight is practically an open world which you cannot explore - because there is nothing to discover, only the main quest. It choses to be an open world game, implementing the bad aspects of open world and cutting out the good aspects.

You're supposed to find the right path - without any hints. This does not work. In an RPG you're rewarded for listening to dialogues and thus getting some crucial information for where to go to find a specific thing. Hollow Knight tells you nothing. That doesn't make Hollow Knight difficult or sophisticated, it just makes it tedious.

The art design is very individual and beautiful. The story of the bug kindom is fantastic and really caught my interest. Fighting is pretty straight forward, hit, dodge, hit, dodge. It feels okay-ish. Learning new abilities and progressing really is fun. But this part of the game starts only after 6-8 hours. The first rewards are mapping tools - so nothing to really get excited about. This would be the next bad aspect of RPGs Hollow Knight decides to implement: the introduction is terrible and the proper game itself only starts after many hours.

Than there's another thing. It's not absolutely necessary, but if you die and don't resurrect your body properly, it might be that you have to grind currency. Yes. Grinding currency. This is simply one of the worst MMO-like flaws I've seen outside of RPGs or MMOs ever. If a game makes you grind in 2017, something has been missed by the game design department. I don't believe there was no way to work around this. I see that this is the penalty for dying - but if you die because you lost your concentration because the game simply is boring because you have to rewalk the same areas over and over again, it's no penalty for missing skill, but you getting the penalty for the game being tedious.

The game starts being fun after 8-10 hours when the story starts and the ways are clear and then it's a really decent game. The later boss fights are pretty tough, but that on the other hand is an enjoyable difficulty because it rewards you for being cunning, not for killing your time walking around.

I'd recommend this game but you have to bring a lot of patience, as the introduction is pretty bad and the open world too big and undefined. It's definitely not as good as SOTN or Super Metroid.

Yep, I said it. Sorry Cuphead and SteamWorld Dig 2. But this is it. Go play this game if you haven’t.

First of all, the visual style. Yes, I prefer Cuphead’s, but still, this looks so ambient and spooky some times and I love how some of the things are "shadowed", in a way, it kinda reminds me of the Ori games, except the Ori games are much more colorful, that’s not something against Hollow Knight though, this game definitely needs this art style, and the character designs kind of remind me of the Laika Coraline Movie. Like, it definitely is not that, but for some reason, I always think of that nightmare fuel (I love you Coraline, but I’m not getting those nights of sleep back).

These worlds will keep you enthralled in this world, which for me, was basically hours, just looking around. Hallownest is just amazing for what is considered a "Metroidvania" game. Also, can I talk about how much I hate that title? These places can go from lush caves to deep catacombs, and it doesn’t feel like it’s forcing the art style upon it, they see less lay transition, and I feel that some other games really suffer from that.

Also, holy shit, this music adds to this experience so much. It slides between different areas and creates this sudden tone for each place you go to. I don’t think it’s really music you can listen to, but it’s great in the context of the game.

The Hollow Knight story usually seems pretty simple. Oh, he’s destined after an apocalypse! Save the world! But I like how it’s told subtlety in tidbits, and I would rather not spoil anything to the people who are looking for a review with no spoilers. All these characters are extremely characteristically quirky and work in that sense. I love how the world slowly expands on your map, as you find these tidbits that on replay, can form a legitimate lore and continuity.

Something that many other games, not only Metroidvanias do, is that once you defeat or win a battle, there’s really no evolution, all rest of the battles, yes, get harder, but the difficulty is always the same. Hollow Knight doesn’t fall into this trap though, there is an obvious shift in difficulty from when you start and when you end, when you replay it, which I did 2 months ago, you can see the improvement from when you started and from where you ended. This game requires time precision and soul management and there’s a drastic shift in gameplay style in the way through.

I like that you can shift your way of layout if you switch charms and there are specifications for different boss battles, which I very much enjoy. The thing is, you’ll probably suck at this game. I know I did, but it’s that moment when you realize there’s another path that makes this game so amazing. That is the reason why you keep on driving through with this game. You want to learn better strategies, you want to get better, you want to learn more about what happened, and it presents it in a gorgeous way that uses gameplay mechanics to ultimately shift what you play like.

At least that’s how I see it. Looking at the general reviews I see, people have very polar opinions on what this game is supposed to be, and I’m not saying theirs are wrong, but Hollow Knight is a game that is part of an experience of learning.

Also, if you stopped playing Hollow Knight, then get back into it please. There have been countless updates post-story that add new settings and bosses and really define this game as an all-time indie classic, it expands on what this game does so right, and it’s sad that people haven’t been keeping up with this.

The thing is, it’s good at the things it does, but it isn’t groundbreaking. I’m fully aware that’s not the point, and it shouldn’t be the point, but that point is the point that kinda drags Hollow Knight down a few points. God, I feel like I had a stroke. But my point is, it excels at what it does, and it’s better than the two previous games I mentioned earlier, but to me, Hollow Knight needs to have a central core that makes it special. I can’t stress enough that this is obviously my taste, and what I find in a game is innovation, which this game has, but it doesn’t do it well enough. I can’t really explain it, but will Hollow Knight be one of the most defining indie games of all time? To me, not really.

Not in the way that stuff like Minecraft, Terraria, Undertale, and more have. It’s not trying to do that, but still. It’s an amazing game. But not the truly defining game I wanted it to be.

9.3/10. Truly artistic visually and gameplay-wise, this is really the basis of all indie games. Also, keep up with the updates if you’ve abandoned it. They’re great.

Hollow Knight is one hell of an experience. Your journey through Hallownest has a slow and distressing start but once you're in your comfort zone it is a blast to play through. It blows my mind blowing that a world this rich and compelling was developed by only a handful of people. The quality of the gameplay, presentation and style far surpass your average triple A title.

Posted my video review below:

Pros

• Level (map) design: gigantic map filled with surprises
• Graphic style
• Soundtrack

Cons

• Story: hard to figure out the story from pieces of information in the game
• Too difficult for me

This is not just the best Metrovania game, but one of the best games of all time for me.

Surprises happen in every hour of the gameplay. I never got bored of playing it. It amazed me each time I discovered a new area. The joy of discovery is the reason why I love Metrovania game so much.

If I were to pick one drawback for the game, it's the storytelling. I could only understand the story from reading articles online. It is impossible for me to grasp the story from the game itself.

The game is also too difficult for me. I gave up on the game after getting stuck at the boss in the Queen's garden for a few hours. Hopefully I'll have the courage to pick it up again next year to beat it.

Looking forward to the sequel: Silksong in 2020!