Ah, bapa nada.
i really wish i enjoyed this game as much as everyone else does (or people said i would).
for a game described to me as "metroidvania with precision platforming meets Dark Souls," it really comes out feeling like less than a sum of those parts. in terms of the world design and exploration, the game is great at matching the joy of breaking into every tiny crevasse to find secrets and lore that Dark Souls does. the characters and lightly revealed lore that's steeped in mystery is great. the platforming is serviceable, but whenever the game decides to flip the switch to try and turn into Super Meat Boy (sometimes quite literally with buzzsaws) it feels very disjointed and out of place.
the combat (mainly by way of the bosses) by comparison feels like a chore. even by the end of the game when i had gotten a lot better at maneuvering in fights, most of the boss fights were not engaging or challenging beyond "hope you get the good pattern that allows you to heal". in addition to this, why not be more generous with benches in regards to boss placements?
it's small decisions like this that continued to baffle me as time went on. you get more movement options as the game unfolds, but trekking between areas connected by stags still feels arduous enough to dissuade me from wanting to explore more. i enjoy the lore of the stags, but would fast travelling between benches break the game so much to prevent it from being included?
it's things like this that makes me feel like the game is bloated. this may be a problem of playing the game now that there's 4 extra content patches (give players a way to play the launch version pleaseeeee), but there's just so much in the game that feels like Content For Content's Sake. the game like a love letter to the old metroidvanias the developers loved that has been weighed down by AAA games' addiction to More. i can see the mechanics (literally) taken 1-to-1 from Super Metroid, but i don't see the tightly crafted world, simplicity, or elegance of it. i see a checklist of things to waste time doing rather than a curated experience.
for a game described to me as "metroidvania with precision platforming meets Dark Souls," it really comes out feeling like less than a sum of those parts. in terms of the world design and exploration, the game is great at matching the joy of breaking into every tiny crevasse to find secrets and lore that Dark Souls does. the characters and lightly revealed lore that's steeped in mystery is great. the platforming is serviceable, but whenever the game decides to flip the switch to try and turn into Super Meat Boy (sometimes quite literally with buzzsaws) it feels very disjointed and out of place.
the combat (mainly by way of the bosses) by comparison feels like a chore. even by the end of the game when i had gotten a lot better at maneuvering in fights, most of the boss fights were not engaging or challenging beyond "hope you get the good pattern that allows you to heal". in addition to this, why not be more generous with benches in regards to boss placements?
it's small decisions like this that continued to baffle me as time went on. you get more movement options as the game unfolds, but trekking between areas connected by stags still feels arduous enough to dissuade me from wanting to explore more. i enjoy the lore of the stags, but would fast travelling between benches break the game so much to prevent it from being included?
it's things like this that makes me feel like the game is bloated. this may be a problem of playing the game now that there's 4 extra content patches (give players a way to play the launch version pleaseeeee), but there's just so much in the game that feels like Content For Content's Sake. the game like a love letter to the old metroidvanias the developers loved that has been weighed down by AAA games' addiction to More. i can see the mechanics (literally) taken 1-to-1 from Super Metroid, but i don't see the tightly crafted world, simplicity, or elegance of it. i see a checklist of things to waste time doing rather than a curated experience.
Why do we seek that place? That land of wonders, of promise, of dreams.
Hallownest
The wastes howl wild. Sand beats my shell, clouds my mind. The path is dark
But the wind I trust. The wind too seeks the kingdom. It shall carry me there.
Weird and Wonderful
A quick glance at my profile will reveal the obvious: I adore Hollow Knight. I will keep my outmost personal thoughts for last, but I can’t in any shape or form start this review off without stating how much of a personal impact this game left on me, in so many ways it defined my views not only in videogames, but in art as a whole, and I’m happy this game is recognized as such, as all games should be (except The Guy Game, that one… no, just no).
This is not the first time I’ve talked about this game; some months ago, before I started writing the longer ‘’analysis’’ I do now, I did a mini review in which I stated that ‘’Putting in words how I feel about this game it's borderline impossible for me…’’, and that might be true, I may not be able to write a review that will fully express the extend of what I feel or even just a good review…
I’ve got to at least try. Now it’s not time for elegies. But for odes.
Shining Orange
I believe that the highest achievement a creator of any form of art could ever accomplish is to make the world they create feel alive, something impossibly challenging, but even in hardship there’s gonna be some absolute mad lads that are going to try to go against the impossible and shoot for the stars. To excel at making incredible ambience, visual storytelling and interconnected level design is something that only a few games have managed to this day, and in the world of Metroidvanias, most will point out at the likes of Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the supreme leaders and the absolute winners in every regard mentioned, and while I’m not in any shape or form implying that exploring the conquered depths of Brinstar is nothing short of immersive, a work of art has still yet to evoke in my the same feeling of wander that the dying kingdom of Hallownest.
Traversing the King’s Path and arriving at Dirtmouth are incredible moments, accompanied by the quiet sounds of the small mindless critters walking over the rest of shells and dirt and the notes of a lonely piano, but it is at the precise moment that you descend down the well… that wind too arrives at the kingdom.
Arriving at the main kingdom lays down a ton of questions; the initial cinematic doesn’t really present us with any king of objective , nor does it after we take control of the strange little protagonist, but we advance across the tutorial and we are presented little by little the most basic mechanics of the game, and perhaps most importantly, how we may take advantage of them to their absolute limit, and once we arrived at the desolate town of Dirtmouth, only really populated by a nameless old bug and a bench, a quick conversation with said bug reveals us that we are far from the best to arrive at the remains of these lands, many adventures have arrived, going down the wretched well, only to never come out. ‘’Perhaps dreams aren't such great things after all...’’ says the bug. Even so, we do go down… This is how Hollow Knight will present its objectives going forward, and pardon me the vulgar expression, but it is absolutely fucking genius.
Once a game starts, we are immediately presented with a clear objective, this is true from the most basic of platformers to the most complex of Sandbox or RPG’S; even games that sell themselves as open-ended and with limitless possibilities start off with an objective with an objective that may or may not change as the adventure goes on, and it’s usually like that because… well, because that’s how stories function. Even in a game like Dark Souls, regarded as a work in which we ourselves need to look for the story, tells you about a prophecy and that you need to ring two bells. Yet Hollow Knight doesn’t really tell you anything… or at least that’s what it seems like; descending to the grounds bellow to a world full of areas left for us to explore, is immediately clear that these lands have a lot to tell without saying a word. There are still lots of dialogue and text with a lot of insight, coming from the picturesque and lovable weirdos (and Zote) you come across and old tablets of information, and all works together to form the purest feeling of progression: there are no wrong choices here, every path you take might the one you need. The sounds may guide you, as might do the lightning and small showings of nearby areas; you may notice the green bushes emerging across the blue crossroads, or the black fumes of the void sipping from the deepest part of the sewers of a ever-crying city. The hums of Cornifer mapping the area, the melody of a unknown bug, the incessant moans of pain of the hidden enemies crawling above you or just the wind, howling inside an cave inhabited by a lamp that calls a long forgotten carnival, all accompanied by the silence or the absolute beautiful pieces of music that just make add so much to each areas, as they do the many different variations in the different sections. It all results in producing this incessant feeling of wonder, and the fact hat a ‘’true’’ objective is not presented to us until almost half-way through the game just makes it perfect: there’s no true pressure, no feeling of you losing time, every step is a new challenge, a new sound, a new piece to which learn how this world was or used to work long ago. I understand well that this way of structure and incentivizing exploration will not be everyone’s cup of tea at first, but it only takes a while and giving it an opportunity for it just… clicking. It invites you to get lost, something that only a few videogames are brave enough to encourage.
But this invitation would be worth jackshit if the level design itself was… well, if it was jackshit. Luckily, that is far, FAR from the case. 2D games, especially platformers, are bound to feel artificial in places; this is far from being a bad thing, but when you want to be completely immersed in a world, seeing flying platforms floating around can be a bit weird. This same problem affects 2D Metroidvanias, and in a way, it too should affect Hollow Knight, and yet, despite having pieces of land levitating around in some places, it still feels natural, this still manages to give off the feeling of being a coherent ecosystem or places that bugs would inhabit at the same time it presents incredible fun and interesting challenges, and the way all of these places are connected just adds to the sheer sensation of magnitude and naturality. Entire populated areas could be hidden in the most remote of places, but it still makes sense; even in somewhere like Deepnest, where mazes are the norm, it still believable that such a harsh environment would be so incredibly challenging to navigate as it is menacing. Hallownest needed to be a believable place in its context if it wanted to hit as hard as it does, and the fact it manages to feel so logical while at the same time being well designed is something that I really believe can only be performed through some kind of soul magic.
The traditional Metroidvania structure is also present, with paths and areas locked until you get a new ability, but everything rolls extremely natural, there’s no door that requires a specific power up, and with the exceptions of gates that need certain keys, almost every time progress is cut comes off not through artificial methods, but because maybe there’s just a wall that’s too high or a pit too deep. Even those that you could consider as more ‘’fake’’, like the void walls, maintain cohesion with the overall picture of world, and is fascinating to obtain more and more new abilities as it goes on; progression is slow yet steady, and it makes each change all the more impactful, and you arrive to point that you began to interact to the environment in such ways that would feel impossible by the end of the adventure.
But not everything is about interacting with the would around you, ‘cause this place can be extremely harsh, and you sometimes you need to pick you nail up… and fight!
Stingy Foes
Is it fear, I wonder, or something else that holds me back?
I’ll admit that dividing this review into sections, while practical (and gives opportunities for wordplays, that’s always nice), is a but dumb considering how well every part of this game works with each other, and in many ways combat is in itself a bug part of exploration an platforming too.
Your Nail, the most basic of attacks, is both a tool to repel enemies as it is to assist in your platforming endeavors, like maybe helping you do a pogo-jump over spikes or help you reach and free the Grubs! Which is something that won’t end in a terrible demise at all!
On top of that, add he ability to heal, which is basically the entire backbone of the combat system: you only get soul when you hit enemies, and you can only heal yourself using souls, so managing it , especially once the souls spells are introduced, becomes key, and innavertedly encourages a more aggressive oriented play-style while also leaving room for defensive strategies, and the combination of the two makes the challenging encounters even more hectic.
Under all pretenses, this is a hard game, and this plus the lack of any accessibilities options will sadly turn off a chunk of players, and absolutely understandably so, but (Dark Souls fan moment incoming ) the challenge curve is not only perfectly defined, but also the challenge ramping up doesn’t hide the fact that as you go progress, you become more and more stronger, not only in terms of the many charms, new abilities and upgrades you get, but also from what you learn. Each enemy from each area from each zone feels like its unique puzzle for you to solve, both in terms of the story and how it connects to the world of course, but it also in how you overcome it; the game may throw you at incredibly menacing situations, but is the sensation that you conquered it, you finally learned something about that enemy or that boss, about their patterns, or even something about your move set and find your preferred play style, that is what makes each encounter the more rewarding (on top of the amazing visual, animation and OST… have I already mentioned that the soundtrack is ABSOLUTELY LEGENDARY??? )
The challenge has also another purpose tho, it also tells something along with the environments and enemies, it tells a story…
Of Bugs and Kings
Twice I’ve seen this world and though my service may have stripped the first from me, I’m thankful I could see witness it’s beauty again
Down from where these words are muttered, lies a forgotten city, once the capital of a proud kingdom, now a barren wasteland only inhabited by the husks taken by the plague and those brave enough to explore it and obtain its secrets and riches, all enveloped in a never-ending rain. A depressing sight, and yet, as if the beauty of what’s just right up above were seeping into it, a wonderful song is listened through all the streets and heights), and even with the dark truth that lies within the walls of the souls sanctum and the feeling of helplessness that the plague prophesies deplorable state… it’s beautiful.
Hollow Knight it’s the story about the hubris and sins of a king, about how his desire of creating an eternal promised land only brought suffering for everyone, especially in those that believed in him the most, and every single sacrifice and cost ended up in nothing, and how the once proud kingdom now lies in absolute ruin, the eyes of those that still limper on it colored in bright orange… but it’s also a story about bugs, a story about siblings, a story about a knight.
Hallownest is a profoundly sad sight to behold, especially when knowing all the context behind it’s decline, but it’s also this absolute beauty that I have yet to see replicated in another piece of art. The term ‘’quiet beauty’’ is thrown around these days and while it you could say that the kingdom has this kind of silent pettiness to it, I think an even better term to define it would be ‘’teary beauty’’. From Greenpath to the Resting Grounds and even the unfiltered gross of the sewers, there’s this sensation of that you are staring at something that even tho it does retain something of it, it’s true beauty is long gone, the aura of forever undone mistakes plaguing the air, but even tho is that is lost and now you can only witness the wild and epidemy… it’s still beautiful, and I think most of that beauty comes across not only in some outstanding and special moments, but also in the little times you share with the other characters. Hallownest is more fucked than it has even been but despite that, you encounter with some whacky and optimistic fellas, people that have come to this kingdom in search for answer only for the beasts and plague to spit in on their faces, and it’s still sad ‘cause most characters won’t get a happy ending at the end of this story, but they still go on, they still smile and search for a light, as small it could be, finding beauty in the impossible. Of course there’s still the ones full of ego and hubris, those maddened by the solitude and the decay, those one have lost everything and it’s sad to see that you are too late to even help them… but you still can help the others, and in those small victories alongside Cloth, making a blacksmith find a new purpose and love alongside a new nail master for both to pursue art, or even gifting a flower to a lonely old bug… there’s an indescribable beauty in that, and it makes you see this ant-sized world with a brand new perspective, a more hopeful look, even at the gates of the inevitable.
Hollow Knight is not just a game about persevering against hardship, it does tackle that but it’s far from being the only thing: it’s a game about the inevitability of defeat, of mistakes, of being left at the hands of the powerful without being able to stop it… and still finding hope in that. Is a game not only finding purpose, but someone to share it with, to learn that victories are never the end, that end is never really the end, that such small actions can result in other finding the peace they longed for so long, of going against Gods and Void, and still reaching that final goal, of smiling… even without a mask with a mouth.
...Incredible…
All of these to say that I really like the silly insect game… I should really limit myself in the narrative department.
Hollow Knight left an immeasurable impact in my I think I could never fully express, ‘cause yeah, believe it or not I could say even more stuff about this game, I’ve officially lost my marbles! It’s truly amazing how a title made by so few people could make me feel things that I didn’t think any book, movie or even videogame could make me feel, ‘cause I had played and experienced works that touched me to my very core and I still do to this day, but this one is on a whole other level, from its lands to its characters (yes, even Zote), to this day I still look at it in awe, and feel lucky to have had such a marvelous experience with it… and I know very well most won’t even come close to feeling what I felt, and… that’s more than fine, what do I say? That’s marvelous! Seeing so many opinions about it it’s one of the big reason I love the community so much, it’s always amazing to see others readings, and some will think that the game is not that good and I’m maybe too over melodramatic, but that’s what in a way sparks a lot of life into it. A work like this is going to have a lot of different points of view, and even if you don’t end up adoring it as much as I, I invite you to play with all good-will that my heart can give.
It’s an amazing work of art, a tale about sadness and hope that I really think everyone should give a chance, and one that in a way, as small as it could be, changed me, one that I hold extremely dearly to my heart, as I do the memories I gained while playing it… and the words of a friendly tall bug…
All tragedy erased. I see only wonders…
Hallownest
The wastes howl wild. Sand beats my shell, clouds my mind. The path is dark
But the wind I trust. The wind too seeks the kingdom. It shall carry me there.
Weird and Wonderful
A quick glance at my profile will reveal the obvious: I adore Hollow Knight. I will keep my outmost personal thoughts for last, but I can’t in any shape or form start this review off without stating how much of a personal impact this game left on me, in so many ways it defined my views not only in videogames, but in art as a whole, and I’m happy this game is recognized as such, as all games should be (except The Guy Game, that one… no, just no).
This is not the first time I’ve talked about this game; some months ago, before I started writing the longer ‘’analysis’’ I do now, I did a mini review in which I stated that ‘’Putting in words how I feel about this game it's borderline impossible for me…’’, and that might be true, I may not be able to write a review that will fully express the extend of what I feel or even just a good review…
I’ve got to at least try. Now it’s not time for elegies. But for odes.
Shining Orange
I believe that the highest achievement a creator of any form of art could ever accomplish is to make the world they create feel alive, something impossibly challenging, but even in hardship there’s gonna be some absolute mad lads that are going to try to go against the impossible and shoot for the stars. To excel at making incredible ambience, visual storytelling and interconnected level design is something that only a few games have managed to this day, and in the world of Metroidvanias, most will point out at the likes of Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the supreme leaders and the absolute winners in every regard mentioned, and while I’m not in any shape or form implying that exploring the conquered depths of Brinstar is nothing short of immersive, a work of art has still yet to evoke in my the same feeling of wander that the dying kingdom of Hallownest.
Traversing the King’s Path and arriving at Dirtmouth are incredible moments, accompanied by the quiet sounds of the small mindless critters walking over the rest of shells and dirt and the notes of a lonely piano, but it is at the precise moment that you descend down the well… that wind too arrives at the kingdom.
Arriving at the main kingdom lays down a ton of questions; the initial cinematic doesn’t really present us with any king of objective , nor does it after we take control of the strange little protagonist, but we advance across the tutorial and we are presented little by little the most basic mechanics of the game, and perhaps most importantly, how we may take advantage of them to their absolute limit, and once we arrived at the desolate town of Dirtmouth, only really populated by a nameless old bug and a bench, a quick conversation with said bug reveals us that we are far from the best to arrive at the remains of these lands, many adventures have arrived, going down the wretched well, only to never come out. ‘’Perhaps dreams aren't such great things after all...’’ says the bug. Even so, we do go down… This is how Hollow Knight will present its objectives going forward, and pardon me the vulgar expression, but it is absolutely fucking genius.
Once a game starts, we are immediately presented with a clear objective, this is true from the most basic of platformers to the most complex of Sandbox or RPG’S; even games that sell themselves as open-ended and with limitless possibilities start off with an objective with an objective that may or may not change as the adventure goes on, and it’s usually like that because… well, because that’s how stories function. Even in a game like Dark Souls, regarded as a work in which we ourselves need to look for the story, tells you about a prophecy and that you need to ring two bells. Yet Hollow Knight doesn’t really tell you anything… or at least that’s what it seems like; descending to the grounds bellow to a world full of areas left for us to explore, is immediately clear that these lands have a lot to tell without saying a word. There are still lots of dialogue and text with a lot of insight, coming from the picturesque and lovable weirdos (and Zote) you come across and old tablets of information, and all works together to form the purest feeling of progression: there are no wrong choices here, every path you take might the one you need. The sounds may guide you, as might do the lightning and small showings of nearby areas; you may notice the green bushes emerging across the blue crossroads, or the black fumes of the void sipping from the deepest part of the sewers of a ever-crying city. The hums of Cornifer mapping the area, the melody of a unknown bug, the incessant moans of pain of the hidden enemies crawling above you or just the wind, howling inside an cave inhabited by a lamp that calls a long forgotten carnival, all accompanied by the silence or the absolute beautiful pieces of music that just make add so much to each areas, as they do the many different variations in the different sections. It all results in producing this incessant feeling of wonder, and the fact hat a ‘’true’’ objective is not presented to us until almost half-way through the game just makes it perfect: there’s no true pressure, no feeling of you losing time, every step is a new challenge, a new sound, a new piece to which learn how this world was or used to work long ago. I understand well that this way of structure and incentivizing exploration will not be everyone’s cup of tea at first, but it only takes a while and giving it an opportunity for it just… clicking. It invites you to get lost, something that only a few videogames are brave enough to encourage.
But this invitation would be worth jackshit if the level design itself was… well, if it was jackshit. Luckily, that is far, FAR from the case. 2D games, especially platformers, are bound to feel artificial in places; this is far from being a bad thing, but when you want to be completely immersed in a world, seeing flying platforms floating around can be a bit weird. This same problem affects 2D Metroidvanias, and in a way, it too should affect Hollow Knight, and yet, despite having pieces of land levitating around in some places, it still feels natural, this still manages to give off the feeling of being a coherent ecosystem or places that bugs would inhabit at the same time it presents incredible fun and interesting challenges, and the way all of these places are connected just adds to the sheer sensation of magnitude and naturality. Entire populated areas could be hidden in the most remote of places, but it still makes sense; even in somewhere like Deepnest, where mazes are the norm, it still believable that such a harsh environment would be so incredibly challenging to navigate as it is menacing. Hallownest needed to be a believable place in its context if it wanted to hit as hard as it does, and the fact it manages to feel so logical while at the same time being well designed is something that I really believe can only be performed through some kind of soul magic.
The traditional Metroidvania structure is also present, with paths and areas locked until you get a new ability, but everything rolls extremely natural, there’s no door that requires a specific power up, and with the exceptions of gates that need certain keys, almost every time progress is cut comes off not through artificial methods, but because maybe there’s just a wall that’s too high or a pit too deep. Even those that you could consider as more ‘’fake’’, like the void walls, maintain cohesion with the overall picture of world, and is fascinating to obtain more and more new abilities as it goes on; progression is slow yet steady, and it makes each change all the more impactful, and you arrive to point that you began to interact to the environment in such ways that would feel impossible by the end of the adventure.
But not everything is about interacting with the would around you, ‘cause this place can be extremely harsh, and you sometimes you need to pick you nail up… and fight!
Stingy Foes
Is it fear, I wonder, or something else that holds me back?
I’ll admit that dividing this review into sections, while practical (and gives opportunities for wordplays, that’s always nice), is a but dumb considering how well every part of this game works with each other, and in many ways combat is in itself a bug part of exploration an platforming too.
Your Nail, the most basic of attacks, is both a tool to repel enemies as it is to assist in your platforming endeavors, like maybe helping you do a pogo-jump over spikes or help you reach and free the Grubs! Which is something that won’t end in a terrible demise at all!
On top of that, add he ability to heal, which is basically the entire backbone of the combat system: you only get soul when you hit enemies, and you can only heal yourself using souls, so managing it , especially once the souls spells are introduced, becomes key, and innavertedly encourages a more aggressive oriented play-style while also leaving room for defensive strategies, and the combination of the two makes the challenging encounters even more hectic.
Under all pretenses, this is a hard game, and this plus the lack of any accessibilities options will sadly turn off a chunk of players, and absolutely understandably so, but (Dark Souls fan moment incoming ) the challenge curve is not only perfectly defined, but also the challenge ramping up doesn’t hide the fact that as you go progress, you become more and more stronger, not only in terms of the many charms, new abilities and upgrades you get, but also from what you learn. Each enemy from each area from each zone feels like its unique puzzle for you to solve, both in terms of the story and how it connects to the world of course, but it also in how you overcome it; the game may throw you at incredibly menacing situations, but is the sensation that you conquered it, you finally learned something about that enemy or that boss, about their patterns, or even something about your move set and find your preferred play style, that is what makes each encounter the more rewarding (on top of the amazing visual, animation and OST… have I already mentioned that the soundtrack is ABSOLUTELY LEGENDARY??? )
The challenge has also another purpose tho, it also tells something along with the environments and enemies, it tells a story…
Of Bugs and Kings
Twice I’ve seen this world and though my service may have stripped the first from me, I’m thankful I could see witness it’s beauty again
Down from where these words are muttered, lies a forgotten city, once the capital of a proud kingdom, now a barren wasteland only inhabited by the husks taken by the plague and those brave enough to explore it and obtain its secrets and riches, all enveloped in a never-ending rain. A depressing sight, and yet, as if the beauty of what’s just right up above were seeping into it, a wonderful song is listened through all the streets and heights), and even with the dark truth that lies within the walls of the souls sanctum and the feeling of helplessness that the plague prophesies deplorable state… it’s beautiful.
Hollow Knight it’s the story about the hubris and sins of a king, about how his desire of creating an eternal promised land only brought suffering for everyone, especially in those that believed in him the most, and every single sacrifice and cost ended up in nothing, and how the once proud kingdom now lies in absolute ruin, the eyes of those that still limper on it colored in bright orange… but it’s also a story about bugs, a story about siblings, a story about a knight.
Hallownest is a profoundly sad sight to behold, especially when knowing all the context behind it’s decline, but it’s also this absolute beauty that I have yet to see replicated in another piece of art. The term ‘’quiet beauty’’ is thrown around these days and while it you could say that the kingdom has this kind of silent pettiness to it, I think an even better term to define it would be ‘’teary beauty’’. From Greenpath to the Resting Grounds and even the unfiltered gross of the sewers, there’s this sensation of that you are staring at something that even tho it does retain something of it, it’s true beauty is long gone, the aura of forever undone mistakes plaguing the air, but even tho is that is lost and now you can only witness the wild and epidemy… it’s still beautiful, and I think most of that beauty comes across not only in some outstanding and special moments, but also in the little times you share with the other characters. Hallownest is more fucked than it has even been but despite that, you encounter with some whacky and optimistic fellas, people that have come to this kingdom in search for answer only for the beasts and plague to spit in on their faces, and it’s still sad ‘cause most characters won’t get a happy ending at the end of this story, but they still go on, they still smile and search for a light, as small it could be, finding beauty in the impossible. Of course there’s still the ones full of ego and hubris, those maddened by the solitude and the decay, those one have lost everything and it’s sad to see that you are too late to even help them… but you still can help the others, and in those small victories alongside Cloth, making a blacksmith find a new purpose and love alongside a new nail master for both to pursue art, or even gifting a flower to a lonely old bug… there’s an indescribable beauty in that, and it makes you see this ant-sized world with a brand new perspective, a more hopeful look, even at the gates of the inevitable.
Hollow Knight is not just a game about persevering against hardship, it does tackle that but it’s far from being the only thing: it’s a game about the inevitability of defeat, of mistakes, of being left at the hands of the powerful without being able to stop it… and still finding hope in that. Is a game not only finding purpose, but someone to share it with, to learn that victories are never the end, that end is never really the end, that such small actions can result in other finding the peace they longed for so long, of going against Gods and Void, and still reaching that final goal, of smiling… even without a mask with a mouth.
...Incredible…
All of these to say that I really like the silly insect game… I should really limit myself in the narrative department.
Hollow Knight left an immeasurable impact in my I think I could never fully express, ‘cause yeah, believe it or not I could say even more stuff about this game, I’ve officially lost my marbles! It’s truly amazing how a title made by so few people could make me feel things that I didn’t think any book, movie or even videogame could make me feel, ‘cause I had played and experienced works that touched me to my very core and I still do to this day, but this one is on a whole other level, from its lands to its characters (yes, even Zote), to this day I still look at it in awe, and feel lucky to have had such a marvelous experience with it… and I know very well most won’t even come close to feeling what I felt, and… that’s more than fine, what do I say? That’s marvelous! Seeing so many opinions about it it’s one of the big reason I love the community so much, it’s always amazing to see others readings, and some will think that the game is not that good and I’m maybe too over melodramatic, but that’s what in a way sparks a lot of life into it. A work like this is going to have a lot of different points of view, and even if you don’t end up adoring it as much as I, I invite you to play with all good-will that my heart can give.
It’s an amazing work of art, a tale about sadness and hope that I really think everyone should give a chance, and one that in a way, as small as it could be, changed me, one that I hold extremely dearly to my heart, as I do the memories I gained while playing it… and the words of a friendly tall bug…
All tragedy erased. I see only wonders…
Veredito: não tem defeitos.
Na minha cabeça existe uma lista de jogos 'perfeitos': mesmo depois de anos, não consigo encontrar nenhum defeito neles, por mais que procure. Eles representam a nata da nata do que a arte tem pra oferecer, e quando alguém pede indicação de 'um jogo bom daquele gênero ali' eu sempre recomendo eles.
Talos Principle é o jogo de puzzle 'perfeito', Chrono Trigger é o jRPG 'perfeito', Metal Gear Solid 3 é o jogo de espionagem 'perfeito', e por aí vai.
Hollow Knight ocupa esse espaço para os metroidvanias. Absolutamente TUDO nesse jogo é incrível. A história, o combate, a exploração, o sistema de progressão, o ritmo... Tudo foi milimetricamente calculado, testado e polido para que o jogador tenha em mãos o melhor metroidvania já concebido.
Esse é o tipo de jogo TÃO BOM que outro do mesmo nível só surge a cada 5 anos mais ou menos.
Na minha cabeça existe uma lista de jogos 'perfeitos': mesmo depois de anos, não consigo encontrar nenhum defeito neles, por mais que procure. Eles representam a nata da nata do que a arte tem pra oferecer, e quando alguém pede indicação de 'um jogo bom daquele gênero ali' eu sempre recomendo eles.
Talos Principle é o jogo de puzzle 'perfeito', Chrono Trigger é o jRPG 'perfeito', Metal Gear Solid 3 é o jogo de espionagem 'perfeito', e por aí vai.
Hollow Knight ocupa esse espaço para os metroidvanias. Absolutamente TUDO nesse jogo é incrível. A história, o combate, a exploração, o sistema de progressão, o ritmo... Tudo foi milimetricamente calculado, testado e polido para que o jogador tenha em mãos o melhor metroidvania já concebido.
Esse é o tipo de jogo TÃO BOM que outro do mesmo nível só surge a cada 5 anos mais ou menos.
Peak. Raw. Fire. Goated with the sauce. This is the best video game ever created. Team Cherry made this game because they love me, what I do, and everything I stand for. There are no flaws with this game.
"The combat! It's too hard!" Get better. If you're too stressed, go take a break. Maybe go watch some Mickey Mouse to ease the mind, then come back and try again.
"All the areas are blue! It looks the same!" You're lying. You played the game for one hour. You didn't even get to Greenpath. No one believes you. You are a fool. A moron.
"Where do I go? The map doesn't show anything!" What the hell??? Do you want Elmo and Cookie Monster and Big Bird to drop in and hold your hand throughout the world and point you exactly where you should go? Figure it out. Go find what's out there yourself.
"The music sucks" No one's ever actually said this. I made it up to make the review look longer.
"The death system" Stop dying. If that was too much then go back, you got there you can go there again. The evil scary ghost that reminds you of your horrific failure only takes 3 hits to kill. If it scares you too much and you wet your pants then go to the wizard magician at the end of Dirtmouth and hand over the Rotten Egg.
"I hate Zote! He's not attractive or charming!" Fuck you.
"The game is too big! I hate backtracking!" Why are you playing this genre? Are you too lazy to backtrack to the kitchen everytime you get hungry for a little snack maybe some popcorn or a granola bar? Do you refuse to shower because you don't want to backtrack to the restroom?
"The map sucks!" Go buy the markers at the map shop and equip the compass charm. Is that not enough? Do you want a cookie with that? Or maybe a Capri Sun juice? Fruit punch flavor?
"I guess I'm not into Metroidvanias" Fix that.
This game is wonderful and everyone should play it. Don't comment if you have Omori or a Persona game in your top 5.
"The combat! It's too hard!" Get better. If you're too stressed, go take a break. Maybe go watch some Mickey Mouse to ease the mind, then come back and try again.
"All the areas are blue! It looks the same!" You're lying. You played the game for one hour. You didn't even get to Greenpath. No one believes you. You are a fool. A moron.
"Where do I go? The map doesn't show anything!" What the hell??? Do you want Elmo and Cookie Monster and Big Bird to drop in and hold your hand throughout the world and point you exactly where you should go? Figure it out. Go find what's out there yourself.
"The music sucks" No one's ever actually said this. I made it up to make the review look longer.
"The death system" Stop dying. If that was too much then go back, you got there you can go there again. The evil scary ghost that reminds you of your horrific failure only takes 3 hits to kill. If it scares you too much and you wet your pants then go to the wizard magician at the end of Dirtmouth and hand over the Rotten Egg.
"I hate Zote! He's not attractive or charming!" Fuck you.
"The game is too big! I hate backtracking!" Why are you playing this genre? Are you too lazy to backtrack to the kitchen everytime you get hungry for a little snack maybe some popcorn or a granola bar? Do you refuse to shower because you don't want to backtrack to the restroom?
"The map sucks!" Go buy the markers at the map shop and equip the compass charm. Is that not enough? Do you want a cookie with that? Or maybe a Capri Sun juice? Fruit punch flavor?
"I guess I'm not into Metroidvanias" Fix that.
This game is wonderful and everyone should play it. Don't comment if you have Omori or a Persona game in your top 5.
Hollow Knight thrives off of a combat system that ties pretty seamlessly into the exploration. Just by hitting a wall, you'll find yourself in a new area with several bosses/minibosses and usually they are all pretty solid. That's unfortunately about where my praise ends however, because although I respect its ambition, I feel it suffers from several choices that hinder both the combat and exploration elements that should naturally tie together.
Exploration-focused games usually go for relatively guided level design. Even if the world design itself is non-linear and lets you go anywhere, rooms will maintain a guided format because it allows the designer to add interesting trails to fall down. Going down into a new area off of a winding trail as the visuals slowly change and you have to interact with new mechanics is practically formula at this point for these types of games. Hollow Knight instead applies this philosophy to the entire map at large; where areas are effectively trails to other areas and that serves as their purpose. Ambitious in theory but troubling in execution; you will find that most areas effectively play out like big open boxes with a few mazes of blocks and samey rooms inside. Gimmicks are often relegated to extremely simple changes to the formula that don't compensate for the sheer amount of aimless wandering through repetitive, unfocused level design. If it's not an area you find in a wall, it's a generic item that isn't an actual upgrade and has very little gameplay purpose.
The progression of Hollow Knight is very weak overall to me; whereas Metroid-likes usually like to give you items for every milestone that would lead you being able to go back and open up a new area, Hollow Knight oft abandons the notion of backtracking because so much of it is open from the get-go. Abilities are spread out across hours of play and usually most of the most engaging parts of the game (the bosses) don't give you them and instead are just there to add clutter to the world. Now, in defense of the game, the boss fights are above average for sure. Snappy, fast combat that doesn't over-rely on tired tropes in action-platformers is satisfying to pull off and there's decent variety, but they don't feel meaningful. The fact is you'll probably in the end get more mileage out of random enemies rather than half of the optional bosses in this game since your most effective and active progression you'll be having is collecting Geo; the currency of Hallownest. The best way to collect Geo, is to farm respawning enemies. And there-in lies the issue with Hollow Knight. For a game with such scope and ambition, nothing feeds into another. You get currency to get trivial upgrades while sitting around to get the big cool abilities and fight optional bosses which more often than not give you absolutely nothing. I'm not opposed to a game being fundamentally unrewarding, but I'm opposed to it when all I have are blue mazes to explore. There's another game about blue mazes that released four decades ago, but at least that one has space dinosaurs.
Exploration-focused games usually go for relatively guided level design. Even if the world design itself is non-linear and lets you go anywhere, rooms will maintain a guided format because it allows the designer to add interesting trails to fall down. Going down into a new area off of a winding trail as the visuals slowly change and you have to interact with new mechanics is practically formula at this point for these types of games. Hollow Knight instead applies this philosophy to the entire map at large; where areas are effectively trails to other areas and that serves as their purpose. Ambitious in theory but troubling in execution; you will find that most areas effectively play out like big open boxes with a few mazes of blocks and samey rooms inside. Gimmicks are often relegated to extremely simple changes to the formula that don't compensate for the sheer amount of aimless wandering through repetitive, unfocused level design. If it's not an area you find in a wall, it's a generic item that isn't an actual upgrade and has very little gameplay purpose.
The progression of Hollow Knight is very weak overall to me; whereas Metroid-likes usually like to give you items for every milestone that would lead you being able to go back and open up a new area, Hollow Knight oft abandons the notion of backtracking because so much of it is open from the get-go. Abilities are spread out across hours of play and usually most of the most engaging parts of the game (the bosses) don't give you them and instead are just there to add clutter to the world. Now, in defense of the game, the boss fights are above average for sure. Snappy, fast combat that doesn't over-rely on tired tropes in action-platformers is satisfying to pull off and there's decent variety, but they don't feel meaningful. The fact is you'll probably in the end get more mileage out of random enemies rather than half of the optional bosses in this game since your most effective and active progression you'll be having is collecting Geo; the currency of Hallownest. The best way to collect Geo, is to farm respawning enemies. And there-in lies the issue with Hollow Knight. For a game with such scope and ambition, nothing feeds into another. You get currency to get trivial upgrades while sitting around to get the big cool abilities and fight optional bosses which more often than not give you absolutely nothing. I'm not opposed to a game being fundamentally unrewarding, but I'm opposed to it when all I have are blue mazes to explore. There's another game about blue mazes that released four decades ago, but at least that one has space dinosaurs.
O ápice dos jogos indie, na minha opinião. Hollow Knight pode fazer maravilhas com esse pequeno besourinho que você vê na capa. Nessa review mostrarei o porque de Hollow Knight se tornar o meu jogo favorito e o que faz ele tão popular.
Começando com a estética do jogo que muito de vocês já viram que é incrível de linda. Os cenários, os inimigos, a qualidade é realmente de ponta no joguinho do besouro! Não é surpresa pra ninguém que o jogo é um Indie de milhares de formas de exploração, contém dezenas de bosses, trilhas sonoras épicas que te acompanham em sua jornada e diversos puzzles para desvendar enquanto explora.
O jogo possui uma mecânica de combate EXTREMAMENTE relaxante e prazerosa, um dos melhores sistemas de luta que já experimentei. As lutas contra os inimigos são legais e aproveitam muito bem o cenário e o contexto num geral para gerar dificuldade e estresse.
Hollow Knight é um jogo que faz muitos que não estão acostumados com uma exploração tão livre desistirem logo de começo. Já tive experiências que jogava um pouco, não entendia nada e parava, mas logo engatei e fui conquistado por esse adorável besourinho que eu tanto amo!!
Não poderia deixar de falar da história do jogo. Aviso que não darei spoilers sobre. A história é super imersiva e agradável que deixa o queixo cair da cara. O enredo te leva para o mágico, majestoso e abandonado reino de Hallownest, com uma caracterização única e de ponta. Cada área do mapa fascina e gera a vontade de ver todo o potencial daquela pequena localização de um mapa GIGANTESCO.
Fora tudo isso citado acima, o jogo para a surpresa de um total de 0 pessoas é feito com um carinho enorme pelos desenvolvedores que cresceram jogando jogos nesse estilo. Gerando uma qualidade gráfica perfeita e majestosa durante a gameplay inteira, a movimentação do jogo é bem suave.
Simplesmente uma obra-prima dos games e um dos mais marcantes em minha opinião.
The Hollow Knight is not dead!
Começando com a estética do jogo que muito de vocês já viram que é incrível de linda. Os cenários, os inimigos, a qualidade é realmente de ponta no joguinho do besouro! Não é surpresa pra ninguém que o jogo é um Indie de milhares de formas de exploração, contém dezenas de bosses, trilhas sonoras épicas que te acompanham em sua jornada e diversos puzzles para desvendar enquanto explora.
O jogo possui uma mecânica de combate EXTREMAMENTE relaxante e prazerosa, um dos melhores sistemas de luta que já experimentei. As lutas contra os inimigos são legais e aproveitam muito bem o cenário e o contexto num geral para gerar dificuldade e estresse.
Hollow Knight é um jogo que faz muitos que não estão acostumados com uma exploração tão livre desistirem logo de começo. Já tive experiências que jogava um pouco, não entendia nada e parava, mas logo engatei e fui conquistado por esse adorável besourinho que eu tanto amo!!
Não poderia deixar de falar da história do jogo. Aviso que não darei spoilers sobre. A história é super imersiva e agradável que deixa o queixo cair da cara. O enredo te leva para o mágico, majestoso e abandonado reino de Hallownest, com uma caracterização única e de ponta. Cada área do mapa fascina e gera a vontade de ver todo o potencial daquela pequena localização de um mapa GIGANTESCO.
Fora tudo isso citado acima, o jogo para a surpresa de um total de 0 pessoas é feito com um carinho enorme pelos desenvolvedores que cresceram jogando jogos nesse estilo. Gerando uma qualidade gráfica perfeita e majestosa durante a gameplay inteira, a movimentação do jogo é bem suave.
Simplesmente uma obra-prima dos games e um dos mais marcantes em minha opinião.
The Hollow Knight is not dead!
Despite being set in a kingdom in ruins, with dead bodies littered everywhere, I've played few games as teeming with life as Hollow Knight. The world of Hallownest has such a rich history, and every area you explore, each with its own distinctive, memorable ecosystem, is dripping in hints towards what came before and the true nature of what is happening now. As a piece of storytelling Hollow Knight is very subtle, but as an act of worldbuilding it feels so rewarding to experience and full of depth. It feels like it's impossible not to learn something new every time you return to Hallownest.
The characters of this world exude so much personality too, written with such clear, individual voices. Even minor side characters feel like they have their own motivations, their own history leading them to this point, and like they exist beyond this game and your interactions with them.
As far as gameplay is concerned, I've never before played a metroidvania that gives such a compelling sense of freedom to its players, letting them genuinely choose their own path through the game. There's a huge amount of the game you can explore without access to the majority of your unlockable traversal abilities, and only the gentlest hints of where to head next. The downside to this is that very little of the world map can truly push your ability to use these traversal abilities to their fullest since it's simply not designed with the knowledge that you'll have them all available when you reach any individual place (thankfully The White Palace exists for this purpose), but the huge upside is that it feels like your first journey through Hallownest is distinctly yours; so many moments you experience will feel like your own personal story because of the fact that you're given so much freedom as to how to approach things and what order to do things in.
The design of this world you explore is even more impressive due to how much it understands player psychology. Deepnest is the clearest example of this, inverting a bunch of things you'd been taking as givens in regards to gameplay in order to contribute to the oppressive atmosphere and feeling of helplessness, but this sort of understanding of player expectations and how to either play into them or exploit them is, on a subtler level, everywhere. I had to use a guide and have some slight hints for a few bits and pieces I missed throughout my playthrough as I wanted to find every major thing in the game, but considering how many secrets Hallownest holds and how vast it is I really didn't have to look up that much and in part that's because the game knows how to direct you towards its secrets without ruining the feeling that you were the one actually uncovering them.
Finally, whilst it starts out very basic, the combat grows to become something incredibly elegant and satisfying; there's a moment as you're unlocking movement abilities where everything just clicks as you float from one enemy to the next, and that moment is so satisfying that it is worth the slow build-up to that point. There are a ton of different approaches you can take to fighting, the charm system allows you a lot of versatility in terms of complimenting your play-style or even creating a new one, and the game is very good at forcing you out of your comfort zone and making you fight in new ways as its creative, thrilling boss fights ramp up in difficulty. I expect to spend a fair amount more time in Godhome before I finally put down this Hollow Knight, and I'm not someone who's usually interested in replaying boss fights over and over in games.
Hollow Knight is certainly far from flawless, but this game was just so good at making me feel things; the joy of exploration, experimentation and growth, the adrenaline rush of barely clinging on against the game's hardest fights, all the emotions that come from digging into the past of Hallownest and its residents, soaking in its atmosphere alongside its gorgeous soundtrack. A true joy.
The characters of this world exude so much personality too, written with such clear, individual voices. Even minor side characters feel like they have their own motivations, their own history leading them to this point, and like they exist beyond this game and your interactions with them.
As far as gameplay is concerned, I've never before played a metroidvania that gives such a compelling sense of freedom to its players, letting them genuinely choose their own path through the game. There's a huge amount of the game you can explore without access to the majority of your unlockable traversal abilities, and only the gentlest hints of where to head next. The downside to this is that very little of the world map can truly push your ability to use these traversal abilities to their fullest since it's simply not designed with the knowledge that you'll have them all available when you reach any individual place (thankfully The White Palace exists for this purpose), but the huge upside is that it feels like your first journey through Hallownest is distinctly yours; so many moments you experience will feel like your own personal story because of the fact that you're given so much freedom as to how to approach things and what order to do things in.
The design of this world you explore is even more impressive due to how much it understands player psychology. Deepnest is the clearest example of this, inverting a bunch of things you'd been taking as givens in regards to gameplay in order to contribute to the oppressive atmosphere and feeling of helplessness, but this sort of understanding of player expectations and how to either play into them or exploit them is, on a subtler level, everywhere. I had to use a guide and have some slight hints for a few bits and pieces I missed throughout my playthrough as I wanted to find every major thing in the game, but considering how many secrets Hallownest holds and how vast it is I really didn't have to look up that much and in part that's because the game knows how to direct you towards its secrets without ruining the feeling that you were the one actually uncovering them.
Finally, whilst it starts out very basic, the combat grows to become something incredibly elegant and satisfying; there's a moment as you're unlocking movement abilities where everything just clicks as you float from one enemy to the next, and that moment is so satisfying that it is worth the slow build-up to that point. There are a ton of different approaches you can take to fighting, the charm system allows you a lot of versatility in terms of complimenting your play-style or even creating a new one, and the game is very good at forcing you out of your comfort zone and making you fight in new ways as its creative, thrilling boss fights ramp up in difficulty. I expect to spend a fair amount more time in Godhome before I finally put down this Hollow Knight, and I'm not someone who's usually interested in replaying boss fights over and over in games.
Hollow Knight is certainly far from flawless, but this game was just so good at making me feel things; the joy of exploration, experimentation and growth, the adrenaline rush of barely clinging on against the game's hardest fights, all the emotions that come from digging into the past of Hallownest and its residents, soaking in its atmosphere alongside its gorgeous soundtrack. A true joy.
Hollow Knight is one of the greatest metroidvanias of all-time. Getting lost in this beautiful world and slowly unravelling the mysteries of Hallownest’s past made me want to never stop exploring. The score and art really elevate the beauty of this game. From the dreary and terrifying depths, to the melancholic and pensive city of tears; each and every area has its own unique and different feel. Finding a new ability or charm is always around the corner and by the end of the game you feel like an absolute beast. Everything from the movement to the combat is so buttery smooth and it makes fighting the endless supply of amazing bosses such a blast. Once you figure out their patterns it’s like an elegant dance between the two of you. This game is incredible and I cannot rave about this game enough. The fact that this game was made by THREE people is beyond impressive. Play this game.
Silksong, I don’t know if you even exist, but I am ready.
Silksong, I don’t know if you even exist, but I am ready.
So insanely good that it made people question whether metroidvanias could get any better than this. Imagine that: it's so insanely good that people are wondering if it's even possible to do any better in the genre
I don't know how long it's been since a game made me feel the way I did when I was a kid. Like it was all I wanted to do, when I was outside I was thinking "oh i could be playing injustice gods among us right now." And picturing what zod combos I could think up in my head while zoning out in class. Wait actually yeah i do know how long it's been. Literally 10 years. See the injustice sentence? That game came out 10 years ago. When I was outside, hanging out with friends, exercising, doing whatever. I always think oh man i could be playing hollow knight. I lied down at night thinking oh man maybe tomorrow I could check out this area over here now that I have this ability. And I would imagine what stuff I could find there. Also perfectly captures that dark souls 1 feel while being a lot more forgiving. It's so easy to just do whatever and go in one direction and explore. There's always something there. And the movement and everything is so easy and snappy that it's not a chore at all. At first when my friend said there's DLC that triples the length of the game i'm like oh man that sounds so stretched out and long and boring. But now i'm like ... only triples??!? give me more!!! hahahaha. ohh what a day what a motherfuckin day. I can't believe I found the injustice gods among us of a new generation. I'm telling everyone about this. I'm goin back and im doin the DLC and finding every little one of those tiny collectibles. Cause this game is sick.
Nunca había estado tan cerca de dormirme jugando a algo. Tengo poco que comentar de su diseño que no se haya dicho ya. Parece el juego que saldría si introdujeras todos los vídeos de Mark Brown en un algoritmo.
Más allá de eso, ¿por qué bichos? ¿Cuál era la idea? No se qué diferencia los insectos que mato de los npcs con los que hablo o los gusanos que rescato. Supongo que es lo que tiene imitar a ciegas, es fácil quedarse con lo superficial y olvidar algo tan básico como el propósito. Matar a Drácula puede ser una chorrada pero basta para establecer una motivación y un contexto mínimo. Aquí solo tenemos una sombra sin consciencia que extermina mecánicamente toda forma de vida con la que se cruza.
A veces parece que quiere evocar algo con sus escenarios pero la desgana con la que lo intenta es irrisoria. Hay una localización que se llama Ciudad de lágrimas donde llueve constantemente y suena música melancólica. Ese es el nivel.
Más allá de eso, ¿por qué bichos? ¿Cuál era la idea? No se qué diferencia los insectos que mato de los npcs con los que hablo o los gusanos que rescato. Supongo que es lo que tiene imitar a ciegas, es fácil quedarse con lo superficial y olvidar algo tan básico como el propósito. Matar a Drácula puede ser una chorrada pero basta para establecer una motivación y un contexto mínimo. Aquí solo tenemos una sombra sin consciencia que extermina mecánicamente toda forma de vida con la que se cruza.
A veces parece que quiere evocar algo con sus escenarios pero la desgana con la que lo intenta es irrisoria. Hay una localización que se llama Ciudad de lágrimas donde llueve constantemente y suena música melancólica. Ese es el nivel.
The Fifty Seven Precepts Of Zote
Precept One: 'Always Win Your Battles'.
Losing a battle earns you nothing and teaches you nothing. Win your battles, or don't engage in them at all!
Precept Two: 'Never Let Them Laugh at You'.
Fools laugh at everything, even at their superiors. But beware, laughter isn't harmless! Laughter spreads like a disease, and soon everyone is laughing at you. You need to strike at the source of this perverse merriment quickly to stop it from spreading.
Precept Three: 'Always Be Rested'.
Fighting and adventuring take their toll on your body. When you rest, your body strengthens and repairs itself. The longer you rest, the stronger you become.
Precept Four: 'Forget Your Past'. The past is painful, and thinking about your past can only bring you misery. Think about something else instead, such as the future, or some food.
Precept Five: 'Strength Beats Strength'.
Is your opponent strong? No matter! Simply overcome their strength with even more strength, and they'll soon be defeated.
Precept Six: 'Choose Your Own Fate'.
Our elders teach that our fate is chosen for us before we are even born. I disagree.
Precept Seven: 'Mourn Not the Dead'.
When we die, do things get better for us or worse? There's no way to tell, so we shouldn't bother mourning. Or celebrating for that matter.
Precept Eight: 'Travel Alone'.
You can rely on nobody, and nobody will always be loyal. Therefore, nobody should be your constant companion.
Precept Nine: 'Keep Your Home Tidy'.
Your home is where you keep your most prized possession - yourself. Therefore, you should make an effort to keep it nice and clean.
Precept Ten: 'Keep Your Weapon Sharp'.
I make sure that my weapon, 'Life Ender', is kept well-sharpened at all times. This makes it much easier to cut things.
Precept Eleven: 'Mothers Will Always Betray You'.
This Precept explains itself.
Precept Twelve: 'Keep Your Cloak Dry'.
If your cloak gets wet, dry it as soon as you can. Wearing wet cloaks is unpleasant, and can lead to illness.
Precept Thirteen: 'Never Be Afraid'.
Fear can only hold you back. Facing your fears can be a tremendous effort. Therefore, you should just not be afraid in the first place.
Precept Fourteen: 'Respect Your Superiors'.
If someone is your superior in strength or intellect or both, you need to show them your respect. Don't ignore them or laugh at them.
Precept Fifteen: 'One Foe, One Blow'.
You should only use a single blow to defeat an enemy. Any more is a waste. Also, by counting your blows as you fight, you'll know how many foes you've defeated.
Precept Sixteen: 'Don't Hesitate'.
Once you've made a decision, carry it out and don't look back. You'll achieve much more this way.
Precept Seventeen: 'Believe In Your Strength'.
Others may doubt you, but there's someone you can always trust. Yourself. Make sure to believe in your own strength, and you will never falter.
Precept Eighteen: 'Seek Truth in the Darkness'.
This Precept also explains itself.
Precept Nineteen: 'If You Try, Succeed'.
If you're going to attempt something, make sure you achieve it. If you do not succeed, then you have actually failed! Avoid this at all costs.
Precept Twenty: 'Speak Only the Truth'.
When speaking to someone, it is courteous and also efficient to speak truthfully. Beware though that speaking truthfully may make you enemies. This is something you'll have to bear.
Precept Twenty-One: 'Be Aware of Your Surroundings'.
Don't just walk along staring at the ground! You need to look up every so often, to make sure nothing takes you by surprise.
Precept Twenty-Two: 'Abandon the Nest'.
As soon as I could, I left my birthplace and made my way out into the world. Do not linger in the nest. There is nothing for you there.
Precept Twenty-Three: 'Identify the Foe's Weak Point'.
Every foe you encounter has a weak point, such as a crack in their shell or being asleep. You must constantly be alert and scrutinising your enemy to detect their weakness!
Precept Twenty-Four: 'Strike the Foe's Weak Point'.
Once you have identified your foe's weak point as per the previous Precept, strike it. This will instantly destroy them.
Precept Twenty-Five: 'Protect Your Own Weak Point'.
Be aware that your foe will try to identify your weak point, so you must protect it. The best protection? Never having a weak point in the first place.
Precept Twenty-Six: 'Don't Trust Your Reflection'.
When peering at certain shining surfaces, you may see a copy of your own face. The face will mimic your movements and seems similar to your own, but I don't think it can be trusted.
Precept Twenty-Seven: 'Eat As Much As You Can'.
When having a meal, eat as much as you possibly can. This gives you extra energy, and means you can eat less frequently.
Precept Twenty-Eight: 'Don't Peer Into the Darkness'.
If you peer into the darkness and can't see anything for too long, your mind will start to linger over old memories. Memories are to be avoided, as per Precept Four.
Precept Twenty-Nine: 'Develop Your Sense of Direction'.
It's easy to get lost when travelling through winding, twisting caverns. Having a good sense of direction is like having a magical map inside of your head. Very useful.
Precept Thirty: 'Never Accept a Promise'.
Spurn the promises of others, as they are always broken. Promises of love or betrothal are to be avoided especially.
Precept Thirty-One: 'Disease Lives Inside of Dirt'.
You'll get sick if you spend too much time in filthy places. If you are staying in someone else's home, demand the highest level of cleanliness from your host.
Precept Thirty-Two: 'Names Have Power'.
Names have power, and so to name something is to grant it power. I myself named my nail 'Life Ender'. Do not steal the name I came up with! Invent your own!
Precept Thirty-Three: 'Show the Enemy No Respect'.
Being gallant to your enemies is no virtue! If someone opposes you, they don't deserve respect or kindness or mercy.
Precept Thirty-Four: 'Don't Eat Immediately Before Sleeping'.
This can cause restlessness and indigestion. It's just common sense.
Precept Thirty-Five: 'Up is Up, Down is Down'.
If you fall over in the darkness, it can be easy to lose your bearing and forget which way is up. Keep this Precept in mind!
Precept Thirty-Six: 'Eggshells are brittle'.
Once again, this Precept explains itself.
Precept Thirty-Seven: 'Borrow, But Do Not Lend'.
If you lend and are repayed, you gain nothing. If you borrow but do not repay, you gain everything.
Precept Thirty-Eight: 'Beware the Mysterious Force'.
A mysterious force bears down on us from above, pushing us downwards. If you spend too long in the air, the force will crush you against the ground and destroy you. Beware!
Precept Thirty-Nine: 'Eat Quickly and Drink Slowly'.
Your body is a delicate thing and you must fuel it with great deliberation. Food must go in as fast as possible, but fluids at a slower rate.
Precept Forty: 'Obey No Law But Your Own'.
Laws written by others may inconvenience you or be a burden. Let your own desires be the only law.
Precept Forty-One: 'Learn to Detect Lies'.
When others speak, they usually lie. Scrutinise and question them relentlessly until they reveal their deceit.
Precept Forty-Two: 'Spend Geo When You Have It'.
Some will cling onto their Geo, even taking it into the dirt with them when they die. It is better to spend it when you can, so you can enjoy various things in life.
Precept Forty-Three: 'Never Forgive'.
If someone asks forgiveness of you, for instance a brother of yours, always deny it. That brother, or whoever it is, doesn't deserve such a thing.
Precept Forty-Four: 'You Can Not Breathe Water'.
Water is refreshing, but if you try to breathe it you are in for a nasty shock.
Precept Forty-Five: 'One Thing Is Not Another'.
This one should be obvious, but I've had others try to argue that one thing, which is clearly what it is and not something else, is actually some other thing, which it isn't. Stay on your guard!
Precept Forty-Six: 'The World is Smaller Than You Think'.
When young, you tend to think that the world is vast, huge, gigantic. It's only natural. Unfortunately, it's actually quite a lot smaller than that. I can say this, now having travelled everywhere in the land.
Precept Forty-Seven: 'Make Your Own Weapon'.
Only you know exactly what is needed in your weapon. I myself fashioned 'Life Ender' from shellwood at a young age. It has never failed me. Nor I it.
Precept Forty-Eight: 'Be Careful With Fire'.
Fire is a type of hot spirit that dances about recklessly. It can warm you and provide light, but it will also singe your shell if it gets too close.
Precept Forty-Nine: 'Statues are Meaningless'.
Do not honour them! No one has ever made a statue of you or I, so why should we pay them any attention?
Precept Fifty: 'Don't Linger on Mysteries'.
Some things in this world appear to us as puzzles. Or enigmas. If the meaning behind something is not immediately evident though, don't waste any time thinking about it. Just move on.
Precept Fifty-One: 'Nothing is Harmless'.
Given the chance, everything in this world will hurt you. Friends, foes, monsters, uneven paths. Be suspicious of them all.
Precept Fifty-Two: 'Beware the Jealousy of Fathers'.
Fathers believe that because they created us we must serve them and never exceed their capabilities. If you wish to forge your own path, you must vanquish your father. Or simply abandon him.
Precept Fifty-Three: 'Do Not Steal the Desires of Others'.
Every creature keeps their desires locked up inside of themselves. If you catch a glimpse of another's desires, resist the urge to claim them as your own. It will not lead you to happiness.
Precept Fifty-Four: 'If You Lock Something Away, Keep the Key'.
Nothing should be locked away for ever, so hold onto your keys. You will eventually return and unlock everything you hid away.
Precept Fifty-Five: 'Bow to No-one'.
There are those in this world who would impose their will on others. They claim ownership over your food, your land, your body, and even your thoughts! They have done nothing to earn these things. Never bow to them, and make sure to disobey their commands.
Precept Fifty-Six: 'Do Not Dream'.
Dreams are dangerous things. Strange ideas, not your own, can worm their way into your mind. But if you resist those ideas, sickness will wrack your body! Best not to dream at all, like me.
Precept Fifty-Seven: 'Obey All Precepts'.
Most importantly, you must commit all of these Precepts to memory and obey them all unfailingly. Including this one! Hmm. Have you truly listened to everything I've said? Let's start again and repeat the 'Fifty-Seven Precepts of Zote'
Precept One: 'Always Win Your Battles'.
Losing a battle earns you nothing and teaches you nothing. Win your battles, or don't engage in them at all!
Precept Two: 'Never Let Them Laugh at You'.
Fools laugh at everything, even at their superiors. But beware, laughter isn't harmless! Laughter spreads like a disease, and soon everyone is laughing at you. You need to strike at the source of this perverse merriment quickly to stop it from spreading.
Precept Three: 'Always Be Rested'.
Fighting and adventuring take their toll on your body. When you rest, your body strengthens and repairs itself. The longer you rest, the stronger you become.
Precept Four: 'Forget Your Past'. The past is painful, and thinking about your past can only bring you misery. Think about something else instead, such as the future, or some food.
Precept Five: 'Strength Beats Strength'.
Is your opponent strong? No matter! Simply overcome their strength with even more strength, and they'll soon be defeated.
Precept Six: 'Choose Your Own Fate'.
Our elders teach that our fate is chosen for us before we are even born. I disagree.
Precept Seven: 'Mourn Not the Dead'.
When we die, do things get better for us or worse? There's no way to tell, so we shouldn't bother mourning. Or celebrating for that matter.
Precept Eight: 'Travel Alone'.
You can rely on nobody, and nobody will always be loyal. Therefore, nobody should be your constant companion.
Precept Nine: 'Keep Your Home Tidy'.
Your home is where you keep your most prized possession - yourself. Therefore, you should make an effort to keep it nice and clean.
Precept Ten: 'Keep Your Weapon Sharp'.
I make sure that my weapon, 'Life Ender', is kept well-sharpened at all times. This makes it much easier to cut things.
Precept Eleven: 'Mothers Will Always Betray You'.
This Precept explains itself.
Precept Twelve: 'Keep Your Cloak Dry'.
If your cloak gets wet, dry it as soon as you can. Wearing wet cloaks is unpleasant, and can lead to illness.
Precept Thirteen: 'Never Be Afraid'.
Fear can only hold you back. Facing your fears can be a tremendous effort. Therefore, you should just not be afraid in the first place.
Precept Fourteen: 'Respect Your Superiors'.
If someone is your superior in strength or intellect or both, you need to show them your respect. Don't ignore them or laugh at them.
Precept Fifteen: 'One Foe, One Blow'.
You should only use a single blow to defeat an enemy. Any more is a waste. Also, by counting your blows as you fight, you'll know how many foes you've defeated.
Precept Sixteen: 'Don't Hesitate'.
Once you've made a decision, carry it out and don't look back. You'll achieve much more this way.
Precept Seventeen: 'Believe In Your Strength'.
Others may doubt you, but there's someone you can always trust. Yourself. Make sure to believe in your own strength, and you will never falter.
Precept Eighteen: 'Seek Truth in the Darkness'.
This Precept also explains itself.
Precept Nineteen: 'If You Try, Succeed'.
If you're going to attempt something, make sure you achieve it. If you do not succeed, then you have actually failed! Avoid this at all costs.
Precept Twenty: 'Speak Only the Truth'.
When speaking to someone, it is courteous and also efficient to speak truthfully. Beware though that speaking truthfully may make you enemies. This is something you'll have to bear.
Precept Twenty-One: 'Be Aware of Your Surroundings'.
Don't just walk along staring at the ground! You need to look up every so often, to make sure nothing takes you by surprise.
Precept Twenty-Two: 'Abandon the Nest'.
As soon as I could, I left my birthplace and made my way out into the world. Do not linger in the nest. There is nothing for you there.
Precept Twenty-Three: 'Identify the Foe's Weak Point'.
Every foe you encounter has a weak point, such as a crack in their shell or being asleep. You must constantly be alert and scrutinising your enemy to detect their weakness!
Precept Twenty-Four: 'Strike the Foe's Weak Point'.
Once you have identified your foe's weak point as per the previous Precept, strike it. This will instantly destroy them.
Precept Twenty-Five: 'Protect Your Own Weak Point'.
Be aware that your foe will try to identify your weak point, so you must protect it. The best protection? Never having a weak point in the first place.
Precept Twenty-Six: 'Don't Trust Your Reflection'.
When peering at certain shining surfaces, you may see a copy of your own face. The face will mimic your movements and seems similar to your own, but I don't think it can be trusted.
Precept Twenty-Seven: 'Eat As Much As You Can'.
When having a meal, eat as much as you possibly can. This gives you extra energy, and means you can eat less frequently.
Precept Twenty-Eight: 'Don't Peer Into the Darkness'.
If you peer into the darkness and can't see anything for too long, your mind will start to linger over old memories. Memories are to be avoided, as per Precept Four.
Precept Twenty-Nine: 'Develop Your Sense of Direction'.
It's easy to get lost when travelling through winding, twisting caverns. Having a good sense of direction is like having a magical map inside of your head. Very useful.
Precept Thirty: 'Never Accept a Promise'.
Spurn the promises of others, as they are always broken. Promises of love or betrothal are to be avoided especially.
Precept Thirty-One: 'Disease Lives Inside of Dirt'.
You'll get sick if you spend too much time in filthy places. If you are staying in someone else's home, demand the highest level of cleanliness from your host.
Precept Thirty-Two: 'Names Have Power'.
Names have power, and so to name something is to grant it power. I myself named my nail 'Life Ender'. Do not steal the name I came up with! Invent your own!
Precept Thirty-Three: 'Show the Enemy No Respect'.
Being gallant to your enemies is no virtue! If someone opposes you, they don't deserve respect or kindness or mercy.
Precept Thirty-Four: 'Don't Eat Immediately Before Sleeping'.
This can cause restlessness and indigestion. It's just common sense.
Precept Thirty-Five: 'Up is Up, Down is Down'.
If you fall over in the darkness, it can be easy to lose your bearing and forget which way is up. Keep this Precept in mind!
Precept Thirty-Six: 'Eggshells are brittle'.
Once again, this Precept explains itself.
Precept Thirty-Seven: 'Borrow, But Do Not Lend'.
If you lend and are repayed, you gain nothing. If you borrow but do not repay, you gain everything.
Precept Thirty-Eight: 'Beware the Mysterious Force'.
A mysterious force bears down on us from above, pushing us downwards. If you spend too long in the air, the force will crush you against the ground and destroy you. Beware!
Precept Thirty-Nine: 'Eat Quickly and Drink Slowly'.
Your body is a delicate thing and you must fuel it with great deliberation. Food must go in as fast as possible, but fluids at a slower rate.
Precept Forty: 'Obey No Law But Your Own'.
Laws written by others may inconvenience you or be a burden. Let your own desires be the only law.
Precept Forty-One: 'Learn to Detect Lies'.
When others speak, they usually lie. Scrutinise and question them relentlessly until they reveal their deceit.
Precept Forty-Two: 'Spend Geo When You Have It'.
Some will cling onto their Geo, even taking it into the dirt with them when they die. It is better to spend it when you can, so you can enjoy various things in life.
Precept Forty-Three: 'Never Forgive'.
If someone asks forgiveness of you, for instance a brother of yours, always deny it. That brother, or whoever it is, doesn't deserve such a thing.
Precept Forty-Four: 'You Can Not Breathe Water'.
Water is refreshing, but if you try to breathe it you are in for a nasty shock.
Precept Forty-Five: 'One Thing Is Not Another'.
This one should be obvious, but I've had others try to argue that one thing, which is clearly what it is and not something else, is actually some other thing, which it isn't. Stay on your guard!
Precept Forty-Six: 'The World is Smaller Than You Think'.
When young, you tend to think that the world is vast, huge, gigantic. It's only natural. Unfortunately, it's actually quite a lot smaller than that. I can say this, now having travelled everywhere in the land.
Precept Forty-Seven: 'Make Your Own Weapon'.
Only you know exactly what is needed in your weapon. I myself fashioned 'Life Ender' from shellwood at a young age. It has never failed me. Nor I it.
Precept Forty-Eight: 'Be Careful With Fire'.
Fire is a type of hot spirit that dances about recklessly. It can warm you and provide light, but it will also singe your shell if it gets too close.
Precept Forty-Nine: 'Statues are Meaningless'.
Do not honour them! No one has ever made a statue of you or I, so why should we pay them any attention?
Precept Fifty: 'Don't Linger on Mysteries'.
Some things in this world appear to us as puzzles. Or enigmas. If the meaning behind something is not immediately evident though, don't waste any time thinking about it. Just move on.
Precept Fifty-One: 'Nothing is Harmless'.
Given the chance, everything in this world will hurt you. Friends, foes, monsters, uneven paths. Be suspicious of them all.
Precept Fifty-Two: 'Beware the Jealousy of Fathers'.
Fathers believe that because they created us we must serve them and never exceed their capabilities. If you wish to forge your own path, you must vanquish your father. Or simply abandon him.
Precept Fifty-Three: 'Do Not Steal the Desires of Others'.
Every creature keeps their desires locked up inside of themselves. If you catch a glimpse of another's desires, resist the urge to claim them as your own. It will not lead you to happiness.
Precept Fifty-Four: 'If You Lock Something Away, Keep the Key'.
Nothing should be locked away for ever, so hold onto your keys. You will eventually return and unlock everything you hid away.
Precept Fifty-Five: 'Bow to No-one'.
There are those in this world who would impose their will on others. They claim ownership over your food, your land, your body, and even your thoughts! They have done nothing to earn these things. Never bow to them, and make sure to disobey their commands.
Precept Fifty-Six: 'Do Not Dream'.
Dreams are dangerous things. Strange ideas, not your own, can worm their way into your mind. But if you resist those ideas, sickness will wrack your body! Best not to dream at all, like me.
Precept Fifty-Seven: 'Obey All Precepts'.
Most importantly, you must commit all of these Precepts to memory and obey them all unfailingly. Including this one! Hmm. Have you truly listened to everything I've said? Let's start again and repeat the 'Fifty-Seven Precepts of Zote'
Okay, I understand games being hard, but why do they also have to be hostile?
Yeah, the boss can be hard, sure, but why does there also have to be stretches of spike traps and mantis sword bros and laser fuckmoths on the way to that boss because the save point is nowhere near that boss and every time you lose, you know, to LeArN tHe PaTtErnS and GeT bEtTeR or whatever, you have to traverse that path each and every time? Why does dying also mess with your coins? Sure, the bank feature might have been useful, if there was more than one! Why would I ever want to freely explore this place if it meant at any step I could bump into a boss or a bullshit Celeste spike corridor that will murder me and take away like a thousand of my coins because I also got murdered again on the way back to that boss? Why does difficulty have to be married to wasting my time? Why can’t the “consequence” of losing just be, you know, you can’t go any further until you win? Why do I need to be punished for the hubris of wanting to play Hollow Knight but not knowing how to do it exactly right the first time? Do you guys, I dunno, do you like that or something? Do you like games that are not just hard but also just give you the finger and laugh at you? Do you go on the switch store and be like hm, let’s see, what’s out there that’s not only challenging but also gives me a net negative amount of progress to effort? What’s out there that can actively mock my endeavors to experience something greater than myself all the way through by reminding me that I have limited time and then actively smashing that time right in front of me? Because I love that feeling, I really enjoy it and it makes me feel warm and cozy, I love it more than hot fudge sundaes, more than my girlfriend, more than even my own birthdays.
No no, that’s you, that’s what you sound like when you play Hollow Knight.
Yeah, the boss can be hard, sure, but why does there also have to be stretches of spike traps and mantis sword bros and laser fuckmoths on the way to that boss because the save point is nowhere near that boss and every time you lose, you know, to LeArN tHe PaTtErnS and GeT bEtTeR or whatever, you have to traverse that path each and every time? Why does dying also mess with your coins? Sure, the bank feature might have been useful, if there was more than one! Why would I ever want to freely explore this place if it meant at any step I could bump into a boss or a bullshit Celeste spike corridor that will murder me and take away like a thousand of my coins because I also got murdered again on the way back to that boss? Why does difficulty have to be married to wasting my time? Why can’t the “consequence” of losing just be, you know, you can’t go any further until you win? Why do I need to be punished for the hubris of wanting to play Hollow Knight but not knowing how to do it exactly right the first time? Do you guys, I dunno, do you like that or something? Do you like games that are not just hard but also just give you the finger and laugh at you? Do you go on the switch store and be like hm, let’s see, what’s out there that’s not only challenging but also gives me a net negative amount of progress to effort? What’s out there that can actively mock my endeavors to experience something greater than myself all the way through by reminding me that I have limited time and then actively smashing that time right in front of me? Because I love that feeling, I really enjoy it and it makes me feel warm and cozy, I love it more than hot fudge sundaes, more than my girlfriend, more than even my own birthdays.
No no, that’s you, that’s what you sound like when you play Hollow Knight.
I just finished the normal ending of hollow knight with 88% completion marked. I have some boss rush content and a few small sidequests to finish up but otherwise I think I'm perfectly comfortable with where I'm at with the game.
This game is amazing honestly! I don't play a lot of metriodvanias so coming back to this was refreshing. But you're mileage on this one may vary, so let's dig into why that may be the case.
Firstly, I say coming back, because at one point a couple years ago I put a solid 20 hours into this game and hated it, but I've almost certainly warmed up to it because in a sense I think my priorities and sense of appreciation for ambient story telling has changed.
I'll return to the ambient exellence in a moment, allow a short tangent on my past perceptions. You see, back then I think I was annoyed, in part because I found the game far too simple and easy, none of the music or art stuck out, and I think I quickly had picked up on the lack of diagonal platforms or general lack of collision platform complexity.
It's also a very slow experience. When you start playing, there's no functional way to put it, the game is boring you can only jump, you walk absurdly slow, and your not bound to pick up a dash for around the first couple hours or so. When you start, you're coming out of a cave, reading some esoteric plaques about the Pale King, etc. And every area to the west of the starting place is fairly unexceptional until you get to the Lost City (which is absolutely breathtaking).
So what kept me hooked this time? Certainly it wasnt my attention span, if anything its gotten worse. The main thing, aside from some company to keep me comfortable during downtime, is actually something that would be a bit invisible to a lot of people. For one, opening up the map and finding secret areas is extremely satisfying in itself. Almost every room has a cove that connects and a lot of the time that sense of exploration actually gives you something better than just the material benefit of saving the Grubs or a Pendant, but instead shortcuts back through and around areas your in. Connecting the map is an incredible gameplay loop, because they seemed to have gone out of their way to make the game as compact and interconnected as possible for this type of game. By comparison a lot of other Metriodvanias, like say axiom verge try to tire you by giving you a giant planetary world, Hollow Knight feels appropriately scaled down, the tram stations, stag stations, and elevators eventually make you realize getting to almost anywhere on the map takes about at most 2 minutes, which is not something you can say about most of these games.
The other reason is far more invisible. The developers were incredibly mindful about the rumble effects in this game. I play a lot of my games on an xbox controller because the rumble effects can be tactile and satisfying, and would usually rather exchange it over better aim or higher button variety in most games, especially since I play a lot of my games lazy from my bed. In this case, whenever you dash a faint small rumble is emitted. Whenever you get hit a very large rumble input is let out, and whenever you are attacking an object a slightly medium sized rumble is released on impact. What this means is, combined with a soothing orchestral ambience, with notably no percussive or juttering beats in the tracks, a lot of being outside combat is not necessarily to avoid dying, since it's fairly easy to get your currency back but instead keeping the percussion as quiet as the music and tone of the game, whenever you get hit its loud and disruptive. In the meantime the very small non attention seeking rumble set off by a dash is so incredibly enjoyable you could simply dash around for hours exploring and have that carry the quiet moments on its own. You're playing as a small bug, so of course your job should be to keep a low profile and not cause too much disruption all at once and your own presence would be bold but quiet. Meanwhile, when you get hit back to back it feels like a small earthquake is happening. In this way the core mechanics of the game build in with the environment and character you are actually playing.
Now I could sit here and gush about how amazing all of the areas of the game are, but this wouldn't provide much utility as a review or memoir of the experience to my later self, not only because it would be far harder to actually read back and reminisce on, but also because I could simply look up a video or open the game in 3 minutes and simply see this to be the case, so instead I'll bring attention to one of my favourite encounters in the game. Underneath the City of Tears, the main City region of the game, is the sewers area referred to as the 'Royal Waterways'. The area is shrouded in darkness and dew, most of the time you hear creatures far before you come into contact with them, and a lot of stuff is toppled over, with your bench in the area being tilted sideways. It's supposed to be messy. Ominous, and foreboding. This all comes to a head when you meet the little bugger asshole called in game a 'Flugenon', a small worm that lets out this nasty frenzied gutteral sound like nothing else in the game, and on sight with you chases right after you as a turret. Once you realize what is happening of course you smack it down, only to then moments later have 2 smaller pieces chase after you, one in the sky and the other on ground. Both making smaller and slightly distinct sounds from the larger version. These zombie worms cover a lot of the darker regions of the sewers, they impress me both because of their enemy movement and attack pattern design feeling so disorienting in how smooth it is, but it also filled me with dread, despite the fact I didn't die to them even once! It just added so much to my experience that these little guys were there.
The reason I thought to highlight these incredibly small pleasantries is that I quite honestly think it's this, and not how difficult or complex a game is, that matters to me more these days. If I were to assess this game on its difficulty I would of course feel disappointed, as even though I did die a lot, I only felt 'challenged' by the Prince Zote level 4+ fight, and some of the Dreamer fights. This is absolutely because the Souls series has warped my perception of how long I should be spending on a boss. I'm generally of the impression if I didn't spend over 20 minutes on a boss, it wasn't a very good boss, this is definitely a sentiment I'd do best to get away from, as by that metric almost all games are going to disappoint. But I hope you can understand its a sentiment that was not consciously cultivated by any means. I should note however this was quite the game to do it, as I felt my encounter with none of the bosses this time around were wasted, I particularly want to give notice to the Lost Kin and Prince Zote fights. Along with a wonderful final boss. These fights were absolutely brilliant with the zoning and focus it requires to take on Prince Zote, and the story that goes along with him, making him likely one of my favorite boss encounters in a videogame in recent memory.
Zote's story and his 62 precepts alone were worth the experience, but a lot of the small cast in this game are great in terms of offering both functional and storytelling purpose. I love the fact that when you hit up many of them with the mind reading device, you find out most of their thoughts are actually as equally mundane as what they express aloud a lot of the time. It's a nice touch, because you could have easily made for example the map makers wife Iselda have a mind completely panicing about her surroundings, but I think it makes a lot more sense that shes actually still just brooding about her husband and giving a small insight into her past life through that, rather than something contradictory. It's very easy to write a lot of thinking dialogue as contradictory or histrionic, and occasionally that is the case, but in reality I think a lot of peoples thoughts tend to reflect their outward presence. There's a charming realism about it. Plus its not exactly like there would be much point to putting on social masks for most of these characters at this point anyway. And the relationship between Bretta and Zote, the 2 most primary in their attention seeking behaviours reflect how futile doing so actually is.
Unfortunately, what stops the game from really being stellar, is when the small pleasantries clash with equally small frustrations. To its effect there's not as many, but they still stick out in a way that takes from the experience rather than adding to it.
For one, the economy of the game is understandably stagnant, so after you get to around the distant village or so, you'll stop having money to actively spend on. Perhaps earlier or later, depending on how mercurial you are, but I cant really see people getting more than halfway through the game without having most of the charms and upgrades bought out or at least the money to do so when they get around to it. This on its own is completely fine, you dont want to ramp the difficulty of the game too hard on grinding and, pairing that in with an economic depression from there being no population and therefore almost no shops left is great storytelling. But there is one exception: Divine. Divine takes your strongest charms (basically the build modifiers) and asks for huge sums of money to make them unbreakable. The issue is she asks for 10,000+ Geo per charm, and you cant get the breakable version back once you gave it to her. But, there's functionally no place to get that much geo that doesnt require large amounts of grinding. I understand shes a greedy prying mantis insect, but it would take me probably about an hour and a half of straight grinding one area to do this effectively, and farming has a lot of narrative issues because I start to treat the game as a calculator rather than as an experience, I know this enemy spawns here therefore I can farm it.
On top of this, the only real purpose of doing this is to exchange one tedium for another, since the character who can repair them is just in a slightly annoying spot on the map you have to go back to every time you die. It doesn't help that the charms in question also are just objectively better than most of the other charms in the game making it no question that unless you're not in the mood you make the run back anyway. I personally almost think this breakable charm mechanic would have been better off not being in the game despite its obvious narrative flourishes around it. Not to mention it makes choosing which charms to equip rather juvenile, you always equip Fragile Strength because it makes you do 50% more damage, making the possibility and build choice space that much smaller ultimately.
Following this, theres also the fact that one of the main powerups you get allow you to go through black laser doors but never mention this to you. It mentions you can shadow dash, but not through the door. I spent quite a few hours not doing much of anything because I assumed I had to do something else first. It seems primarily like a playtesting oversight; they didn't mention this in the blurb on pickup. After recognizing this I played the rest of it with a walkthrough armed. There are also giant coin pouches you have to hit over and over again for Geo, and seperate from the other considerations on geo drops, you usually only get about 30 Geo from each, as an external reward, the benefits of this are so incredibly low its almost not worth doing, I think for some of the later sections of the game they could have increased the coin drop rate from this to about 300, but they remain this same drop rate throughout the whole game.
One last complaint I have is that while the game is great in terms of boss designs, only knowing to top off moves at around 5 or 6 and knowing when to challenge the player with appropriate gap closers on most fights, the game really falls short in terms of its platforming. There's one section of the game in particular that attempts to test your platforming skills called the White Palace. Here, the game tests you by offering several difficult to navigate platforming sections, but the issue is that your vertical fall is not quite floaty or precise enough to support this. I think that your character accelerates vertical speed in the air, which is fine, but it also hits maximum velocity incredibly quickly. This maximum speed is frankly far to difficult to comfortable control. On top of this, most of the platforming involves buzzsaws. My girlfriend joked this was the 'super meat boy section' just because of how many buzzsaws there are. It makes sense in meat boy, a game hostile and arcadelike enough to get away with moving buzzsaws, but it doesnt make sense in a giant palace, even if it is a dream! I think they just ran out of ideas for what an appropriate obstacle to overcome would be.
And to be frank this is an issue I have with metriodvanias in general, but especially this one with the way the art direction is in particular: there is absolutely no way I'm going to passively explore the world for more secrets. The secrets are often hidden behind invisible walls in this game, making the assumed function of doing a full clear for the grubs or random missed goodies and charms, absurd. They make it slightly easier with the limited markers, which I admit are also quite fun to use to chart the map and note difficult/interesting areas to return to. However when it comes to finding grubs and charms, you would be doing quite a bit more wall hugging than you would probably like. I cant imagine pushing up to 97% and then trying to till the whole world for the last 2 relics or Grubs or whatever. They easily could have added a post game charm that makes the process of a clean sweep easier, as it is, this game could never convince me to 100% it, especially not without a guide. Now to be fair, a guide and simply not choosing to elect myself into stupid platforming sections in a game that doesnt support it that well solves both these problems. I also personally don't need the best charms anyway by the end of the game, and they are 'unbreakable' in the dream sections by default anyway, so the lack of external rewards make the difference for divine is not a big deal, but I cant really see myself doing a replay of the game anytime soon.
One last thing before I let you go, there's a justifiable amount of comparisons to be made between the story thematics and general gameplay of this game in relationship to Dark Souls. I don't want to overstate it, but the base ending of Hollow Knight read quite literally as a 'linking of the fire' rehash of Dark Souls. The story being esoteric and told mostly through descriptions and random hidden notes. The general gothic quality and themes of infection and decay. The futility of resurrecting kingdoms, etc. Also, the fact that it uses a checkpoint mechanic similar to the Souls series.
Personally, I think the only part where it drops the ball a bit is on the main ending Hollow Knight fight, I'm not really sure the game gives a proper send off of him as an antagonist despite it being the name of the game, a couple characters in town timid about the guy might have helped, since a lot of the commentary was about the Pale King! It just left me scratching my head. On every other front, I think it's okay to ape the influences of Dark Souls. It shouldn't really disrupt your experience all that much, and personally I just think calling antagonists and areas things like 'Lost Kin' or 'Royal Waterways' just has a certain gothic allure to it you don't see elsewhere. I wish well to more games taking advantage of what Dark Souls brought forward, especially on the point of environmental storytelling, which is monumentally well done in this case as well.
High props to the devs for also making all the DLC free as well! I'm comfortable considering all this DLC content along in my perception of the main game. Despite the game not being mechanically or emotionally challenging, this experience will stick with me for a long time and it ticks off a lot of the boxes for what I tend to be drawn to in terms of game design and atmosphere building in games as an artistic medium. Thumbs up all around!
This game is amazing honestly! I don't play a lot of metriodvanias so coming back to this was refreshing. But you're mileage on this one may vary, so let's dig into why that may be the case.
Firstly, I say coming back, because at one point a couple years ago I put a solid 20 hours into this game and hated it, but I've almost certainly warmed up to it because in a sense I think my priorities and sense of appreciation for ambient story telling has changed.
I'll return to the ambient exellence in a moment, allow a short tangent on my past perceptions. You see, back then I think I was annoyed, in part because I found the game far too simple and easy, none of the music or art stuck out, and I think I quickly had picked up on the lack of diagonal platforms or general lack of collision platform complexity.
It's also a very slow experience. When you start playing, there's no functional way to put it, the game is boring you can only jump, you walk absurdly slow, and your not bound to pick up a dash for around the first couple hours or so. When you start, you're coming out of a cave, reading some esoteric plaques about the Pale King, etc. And every area to the west of the starting place is fairly unexceptional until you get to the Lost City (which is absolutely breathtaking).
So what kept me hooked this time? Certainly it wasnt my attention span, if anything its gotten worse. The main thing, aside from some company to keep me comfortable during downtime, is actually something that would be a bit invisible to a lot of people. For one, opening up the map and finding secret areas is extremely satisfying in itself. Almost every room has a cove that connects and a lot of the time that sense of exploration actually gives you something better than just the material benefit of saving the Grubs or a Pendant, but instead shortcuts back through and around areas your in. Connecting the map is an incredible gameplay loop, because they seemed to have gone out of their way to make the game as compact and interconnected as possible for this type of game. By comparison a lot of other Metriodvanias, like say axiom verge try to tire you by giving you a giant planetary world, Hollow Knight feels appropriately scaled down, the tram stations, stag stations, and elevators eventually make you realize getting to almost anywhere on the map takes about at most 2 minutes, which is not something you can say about most of these games.
The other reason is far more invisible. The developers were incredibly mindful about the rumble effects in this game. I play a lot of my games on an xbox controller because the rumble effects can be tactile and satisfying, and would usually rather exchange it over better aim or higher button variety in most games, especially since I play a lot of my games lazy from my bed. In this case, whenever you dash a faint small rumble is emitted. Whenever you get hit a very large rumble input is let out, and whenever you are attacking an object a slightly medium sized rumble is released on impact. What this means is, combined with a soothing orchestral ambience, with notably no percussive or juttering beats in the tracks, a lot of being outside combat is not necessarily to avoid dying, since it's fairly easy to get your currency back but instead keeping the percussion as quiet as the music and tone of the game, whenever you get hit its loud and disruptive. In the meantime the very small non attention seeking rumble set off by a dash is so incredibly enjoyable you could simply dash around for hours exploring and have that carry the quiet moments on its own. You're playing as a small bug, so of course your job should be to keep a low profile and not cause too much disruption all at once and your own presence would be bold but quiet. Meanwhile, when you get hit back to back it feels like a small earthquake is happening. In this way the core mechanics of the game build in with the environment and character you are actually playing.
Now I could sit here and gush about how amazing all of the areas of the game are, but this wouldn't provide much utility as a review or memoir of the experience to my later self, not only because it would be far harder to actually read back and reminisce on, but also because I could simply look up a video or open the game in 3 minutes and simply see this to be the case, so instead I'll bring attention to one of my favourite encounters in the game. Underneath the City of Tears, the main City region of the game, is the sewers area referred to as the 'Royal Waterways'. The area is shrouded in darkness and dew, most of the time you hear creatures far before you come into contact with them, and a lot of stuff is toppled over, with your bench in the area being tilted sideways. It's supposed to be messy. Ominous, and foreboding. This all comes to a head when you meet the little bugger asshole called in game a 'Flugenon', a small worm that lets out this nasty frenzied gutteral sound like nothing else in the game, and on sight with you chases right after you as a turret. Once you realize what is happening of course you smack it down, only to then moments later have 2 smaller pieces chase after you, one in the sky and the other on ground. Both making smaller and slightly distinct sounds from the larger version. These zombie worms cover a lot of the darker regions of the sewers, they impress me both because of their enemy movement and attack pattern design feeling so disorienting in how smooth it is, but it also filled me with dread, despite the fact I didn't die to them even once! It just added so much to my experience that these little guys were there.
The reason I thought to highlight these incredibly small pleasantries is that I quite honestly think it's this, and not how difficult or complex a game is, that matters to me more these days. If I were to assess this game on its difficulty I would of course feel disappointed, as even though I did die a lot, I only felt 'challenged' by the Prince Zote level 4+ fight, and some of the Dreamer fights. This is absolutely because the Souls series has warped my perception of how long I should be spending on a boss. I'm generally of the impression if I didn't spend over 20 minutes on a boss, it wasn't a very good boss, this is definitely a sentiment I'd do best to get away from, as by that metric almost all games are going to disappoint. But I hope you can understand its a sentiment that was not consciously cultivated by any means. I should note however this was quite the game to do it, as I felt my encounter with none of the bosses this time around were wasted, I particularly want to give notice to the Lost Kin and Prince Zote fights. Along with a wonderful final boss. These fights were absolutely brilliant with the zoning and focus it requires to take on Prince Zote, and the story that goes along with him, making him likely one of my favorite boss encounters in a videogame in recent memory.
Zote's story and his 62 precepts alone were worth the experience, but a lot of the small cast in this game are great in terms of offering both functional and storytelling purpose. I love the fact that when you hit up many of them with the mind reading device, you find out most of their thoughts are actually as equally mundane as what they express aloud a lot of the time. It's a nice touch, because you could have easily made for example the map makers wife Iselda have a mind completely panicing about her surroundings, but I think it makes a lot more sense that shes actually still just brooding about her husband and giving a small insight into her past life through that, rather than something contradictory. It's very easy to write a lot of thinking dialogue as contradictory or histrionic, and occasionally that is the case, but in reality I think a lot of peoples thoughts tend to reflect their outward presence. There's a charming realism about it. Plus its not exactly like there would be much point to putting on social masks for most of these characters at this point anyway. And the relationship between Bretta and Zote, the 2 most primary in their attention seeking behaviours reflect how futile doing so actually is.
Unfortunately, what stops the game from really being stellar, is when the small pleasantries clash with equally small frustrations. To its effect there's not as many, but they still stick out in a way that takes from the experience rather than adding to it.
For one, the economy of the game is understandably stagnant, so after you get to around the distant village or so, you'll stop having money to actively spend on. Perhaps earlier or later, depending on how mercurial you are, but I cant really see people getting more than halfway through the game without having most of the charms and upgrades bought out or at least the money to do so when they get around to it. This on its own is completely fine, you dont want to ramp the difficulty of the game too hard on grinding and, pairing that in with an economic depression from there being no population and therefore almost no shops left is great storytelling. But there is one exception: Divine. Divine takes your strongest charms (basically the build modifiers) and asks for huge sums of money to make them unbreakable. The issue is she asks for 10,000+ Geo per charm, and you cant get the breakable version back once you gave it to her. But, there's functionally no place to get that much geo that doesnt require large amounts of grinding. I understand shes a greedy prying mantis insect, but it would take me probably about an hour and a half of straight grinding one area to do this effectively, and farming has a lot of narrative issues because I start to treat the game as a calculator rather than as an experience, I know this enemy spawns here therefore I can farm it.
On top of this, the only real purpose of doing this is to exchange one tedium for another, since the character who can repair them is just in a slightly annoying spot on the map you have to go back to every time you die. It doesn't help that the charms in question also are just objectively better than most of the other charms in the game making it no question that unless you're not in the mood you make the run back anyway. I personally almost think this breakable charm mechanic would have been better off not being in the game despite its obvious narrative flourishes around it. Not to mention it makes choosing which charms to equip rather juvenile, you always equip Fragile Strength because it makes you do 50% more damage, making the possibility and build choice space that much smaller ultimately.
Following this, theres also the fact that one of the main powerups you get allow you to go through black laser doors but never mention this to you. It mentions you can shadow dash, but not through the door. I spent quite a few hours not doing much of anything because I assumed I had to do something else first. It seems primarily like a playtesting oversight; they didn't mention this in the blurb on pickup. After recognizing this I played the rest of it with a walkthrough armed. There are also giant coin pouches you have to hit over and over again for Geo, and seperate from the other considerations on geo drops, you usually only get about 30 Geo from each, as an external reward, the benefits of this are so incredibly low its almost not worth doing, I think for some of the later sections of the game they could have increased the coin drop rate from this to about 300, but they remain this same drop rate throughout the whole game.
One last complaint I have is that while the game is great in terms of boss designs, only knowing to top off moves at around 5 or 6 and knowing when to challenge the player with appropriate gap closers on most fights, the game really falls short in terms of its platforming. There's one section of the game in particular that attempts to test your platforming skills called the White Palace. Here, the game tests you by offering several difficult to navigate platforming sections, but the issue is that your vertical fall is not quite floaty or precise enough to support this. I think that your character accelerates vertical speed in the air, which is fine, but it also hits maximum velocity incredibly quickly. This maximum speed is frankly far to difficult to comfortable control. On top of this, most of the platforming involves buzzsaws. My girlfriend joked this was the 'super meat boy section' just because of how many buzzsaws there are. It makes sense in meat boy, a game hostile and arcadelike enough to get away with moving buzzsaws, but it doesnt make sense in a giant palace, even if it is a dream! I think they just ran out of ideas for what an appropriate obstacle to overcome would be.
And to be frank this is an issue I have with metriodvanias in general, but especially this one with the way the art direction is in particular: there is absolutely no way I'm going to passively explore the world for more secrets. The secrets are often hidden behind invisible walls in this game, making the assumed function of doing a full clear for the grubs or random missed goodies and charms, absurd. They make it slightly easier with the limited markers, which I admit are also quite fun to use to chart the map and note difficult/interesting areas to return to. However when it comes to finding grubs and charms, you would be doing quite a bit more wall hugging than you would probably like. I cant imagine pushing up to 97% and then trying to till the whole world for the last 2 relics or Grubs or whatever. They easily could have added a post game charm that makes the process of a clean sweep easier, as it is, this game could never convince me to 100% it, especially not without a guide. Now to be fair, a guide and simply not choosing to elect myself into stupid platforming sections in a game that doesnt support it that well solves both these problems. I also personally don't need the best charms anyway by the end of the game, and they are 'unbreakable' in the dream sections by default anyway, so the lack of external rewards make the difference for divine is not a big deal, but I cant really see myself doing a replay of the game anytime soon.
One last thing before I let you go, there's a justifiable amount of comparisons to be made between the story thematics and general gameplay of this game in relationship to Dark Souls. I don't want to overstate it, but the base ending of Hollow Knight read quite literally as a 'linking of the fire' rehash of Dark Souls. The story being esoteric and told mostly through descriptions and random hidden notes. The general gothic quality and themes of infection and decay. The futility of resurrecting kingdoms, etc. Also, the fact that it uses a checkpoint mechanic similar to the Souls series.
Personally, I think the only part where it drops the ball a bit is on the main ending Hollow Knight fight, I'm not really sure the game gives a proper send off of him as an antagonist despite it being the name of the game, a couple characters in town timid about the guy might have helped, since a lot of the commentary was about the Pale King! It just left me scratching my head. On every other front, I think it's okay to ape the influences of Dark Souls. It shouldn't really disrupt your experience all that much, and personally I just think calling antagonists and areas things like 'Lost Kin' or 'Royal Waterways' just has a certain gothic allure to it you don't see elsewhere. I wish well to more games taking advantage of what Dark Souls brought forward, especially on the point of environmental storytelling, which is monumentally well done in this case as well.
High props to the devs for also making all the DLC free as well! I'm comfortable considering all this DLC content along in my perception of the main game. Despite the game not being mechanically or emotionally challenging, this experience will stick with me for a long time and it ticks off a lot of the boxes for what I tend to be drawn to in terms of game design and atmosphere building in games as an artistic medium. Thumbs up all around!
maybe the strongest example of an indie developer missing the entire point of contemporary gameplay trends
Yeah this game is hollow alright
In wilds beyond they speak your name with reverence and regret,
For none could tame our savage souls yet you the challenge met,
Under palest watch, you taught, we changed, base instincts were redeemed,
A world you gave to bug and beast as they never dreamed.
-From 'Elegy for Hallownest' by Mormon the teacher
a tragédia desse poema, pós contexto, sumariza perfeitamente o por que desse jogo ser tão bom.
For none could tame our savage souls yet you the challenge met,
Under palest watch, you taught, we changed, base instincts were redeemed,
A world you gave to bug and beast as they never dreamed.
-From 'Elegy for Hallownest' by Mormon the teacher
a tragédia desse poema, pós contexto, sumariza perfeitamente o por que desse jogo ser tão bom.
well holy fucking shit
This review contains spoilers
A lot of video games try to use their worlds to create a sense of wonder in the player. This is most often seen in the open world genre - games like New Vegas have a slew of interesting locations for you to stumble upon. A lake full of strange, Creature from the Black Lagoon type monsters that felt like a strange dream when I first encountered them to the south. New Vegas in particular is really impressive in how tightly packed its world ends up being, and I adore that about it.
With that being said, this wonder isn't typically achieved for me in video games. A lot of people love Breath of the Wild, but it falls flat for me just due to the world being incredibly repetitive. So many of the areas are just generic enemy encampments. I feel no compelling reason to even care. The act of exploration on its own doesn't interest me: there has to be something interesting for me to find, or I'll feel like I've wasted my time.
The other genre that banks on this idea of wonder in the world quite a bit is the metroidvania. It usually achieves it to greater effect with me due to there being a tighter focus on a smaller world and progression. Metroid Fusion is a fantastic game about the brutality of government experimentation and biological warfare. The exploration, and lack of choice, is designed with purpose to it. It feels like a claustrophobic adventure where you're being strung along by the government. The sense of wonder comes from the mystique of when you do get to go off the beaten path, the unease you get when you feel like you're doing something you're not supposed to. It's palpable.
The world of Hallownest, however, doesn't give me a sense of wonder. I feel no reason to explore it. There's no motivation, no direction. You're just plopped into the world and expected to enjoy it inherently. The game feels like a vast, empty wasteland. There are quite a few fun characters you can encounter along the way, but the majority of things you'll find aren't related to that. Many secret passageways you find from exploring will just bring you to literal garbage that only exists to be sold. It's... disheartening to pull of an incredibly difficult platforming challenge and find nothing of value. Why bother risking your life when so often it leads to nothing of value?
The corpse running mechanic adds to this lack of interest in exploration. Upon death in this game, you lose all of your money and have to go find your soul and fight it to the death in order to get it back. It adds a lot of tedium to the game, backtracking in order to get to where your soul is, and it makes it so you won't want to explore, lest you compound the time you spend backtracking after failing a difficult challenge.
It certainly doesn't help that most of the areas in Hollow Knight have a very similar feel to each other. So many of them are drab recolors - it's hard to care about finding new areas when it all has the same atmosphere. Forgotten Crossroads, Deepnest and Kingdom's Edge all have very similar feel to each other, just with a different coloration. I understand the game is trying to be oppressive, but I think that it's too large for its own good. You end up feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted by the end of the experience.
While I do think the characters of Hollow Knight are often well-written, and a great reward for exploration, I also think that they're too cryptic for their own good. They often allude to vague notions of what's going on, with the assumption that the listener has already been filled in on it - with the obvious situation being that, no, you don't know. You have to spend a long portion of time in this game doing the homework on what's going on for yourself, and I simply find that unappealing. By the ending, it becomes clear, but before then, you're essentially an aimless wanderer, which isn't compelling to me. There's no diegetic reason for what you're doing. You're just there.
Hollow Knight is a story about finding meaning in futility, and the level design reflects that. If you can find a way past the literal junk that is thrown at you constantly throughout the levels and the monotony of going back to where you died, then I suppose you've solved the game. However, I think there were better ways of illustrating these ideas - and I certainly don't think the game had to be this long to do it.
Hollow Knight could have been a short game about a cyclical world, one where the ones in power choose to not solve problems but temporarily dress them with a band-aid. Instead, it's a long game about those ideas, and a cast of characters who are often unrelated to these ideas despite how entertaining and meaningful they can be. It's often charming, but ultimately, huge and unwieldy.
With that being said, this wonder isn't typically achieved for me in video games. A lot of people love Breath of the Wild, but it falls flat for me just due to the world being incredibly repetitive. So many of the areas are just generic enemy encampments. I feel no compelling reason to even care. The act of exploration on its own doesn't interest me: there has to be something interesting for me to find, or I'll feel like I've wasted my time.
The other genre that banks on this idea of wonder in the world quite a bit is the metroidvania. It usually achieves it to greater effect with me due to there being a tighter focus on a smaller world and progression. Metroid Fusion is a fantastic game about the brutality of government experimentation and biological warfare. The exploration, and lack of choice, is designed with purpose to it. It feels like a claustrophobic adventure where you're being strung along by the government. The sense of wonder comes from the mystique of when you do get to go off the beaten path, the unease you get when you feel like you're doing something you're not supposed to. It's palpable.
The world of Hallownest, however, doesn't give me a sense of wonder. I feel no reason to explore it. There's no motivation, no direction. You're just plopped into the world and expected to enjoy it inherently. The game feels like a vast, empty wasteland. There are quite a few fun characters you can encounter along the way, but the majority of things you'll find aren't related to that. Many secret passageways you find from exploring will just bring you to literal garbage that only exists to be sold. It's... disheartening to pull of an incredibly difficult platforming challenge and find nothing of value. Why bother risking your life when so often it leads to nothing of value?
The corpse running mechanic adds to this lack of interest in exploration. Upon death in this game, you lose all of your money and have to go find your soul and fight it to the death in order to get it back. It adds a lot of tedium to the game, backtracking in order to get to where your soul is, and it makes it so you won't want to explore, lest you compound the time you spend backtracking after failing a difficult challenge.
It certainly doesn't help that most of the areas in Hollow Knight have a very similar feel to each other. So many of them are drab recolors - it's hard to care about finding new areas when it all has the same atmosphere. Forgotten Crossroads, Deepnest and Kingdom's Edge all have very similar feel to each other, just with a different coloration. I understand the game is trying to be oppressive, but I think that it's too large for its own good. You end up feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted by the end of the experience.
While I do think the characters of Hollow Knight are often well-written, and a great reward for exploration, I also think that they're too cryptic for their own good. They often allude to vague notions of what's going on, with the assumption that the listener has already been filled in on it - with the obvious situation being that, no, you don't know. You have to spend a long portion of time in this game doing the homework on what's going on for yourself, and I simply find that unappealing. By the ending, it becomes clear, but before then, you're essentially an aimless wanderer, which isn't compelling to me. There's no diegetic reason for what you're doing. You're just there.
Hollow Knight is a story about finding meaning in futility, and the level design reflects that. If you can find a way past the literal junk that is thrown at you constantly throughout the levels and the monotony of going back to where you died, then I suppose you've solved the game. However, I think there were better ways of illustrating these ideas - and I certainly don't think the game had to be this long to do it.
Hollow Knight could have been a short game about a cyclical world, one where the ones in power choose to not solve problems but temporarily dress them with a band-aid. Instead, it's a long game about those ideas, and a cast of characters who are often unrelated to these ideas despite how entertaining and meaningful they can be. It's often charming, but ultimately, huge and unwieldy.
A really great game with a ton of interesting lore all going on in the background. I was never a fan of the "Souls"-like respawning so that was a bit frustrating but overall I really enjoyed this game.
Every now and then a game comes along that announces itself as special from the moment you start up. More rare are games so impactful that the genre can be cleanly divided into before, and after. Such is Hollow Knight: There's metroidvanias before it came out, and after it's earth-shaking impact.
At the surface of Hollow Knight is the sprawling, beautifully constructed and interconnected world design, the evocative and often rousing music, the hand-drawn art and animation, the perfect gameplay. The tremendous freedom with which we can explore the world. There are vividly realized characters, sharply characterized with through art, voice and dialogue that bring them to life. It's truly incredible the way Myla and Hornet - to pick but two examples - become fully-realized characters we care deeply about despite their relatively short screen time.
Another level down, the initially typical story of a fallen kingdom being explored is steeped in an original and compelling story. Through rich worldbuilding we learn of ancient enemies, tragedy, heroism, tribal pacts. We encounter characters simultaneously silly and affecting (somehow), like a dung beetle whose joyful demeaner and optimism mask a tragic past.
Amidst a heavy story Hollow Knight is also utterly hilarious, including the payoff to a joke developed so carefully that the punchline lands as unexpectedly as it is perfect. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a game (let's just say the object of someone's obsession takes on a very odd fantasy). And yet somehow the humor melds with the world rather than clashing with it, a balancing act that is really tough to pull off.
Yet another level down, we find the deeper secrets of the story, the nooks and crannies of the world, the deep lore - and the themes of what it's really about. Hollow Knight has come to mean a great deal to me. It's a special game, yes. It plays beautifully, sure. But it's also a game with an insight into human - and bug - nature. Ultimately, all things must accept an end, whether we want to or not. It's how we respond to that end that defines us.
At the surface of Hollow Knight is the sprawling, beautifully constructed and interconnected world design, the evocative and often rousing music, the hand-drawn art and animation, the perfect gameplay. The tremendous freedom with which we can explore the world. There are vividly realized characters, sharply characterized with through art, voice and dialogue that bring them to life. It's truly incredible the way Myla and Hornet - to pick but two examples - become fully-realized characters we care deeply about despite their relatively short screen time.
Another level down, the initially typical story of a fallen kingdom being explored is steeped in an original and compelling story. Through rich worldbuilding we learn of ancient enemies, tragedy, heroism, tribal pacts. We encounter characters simultaneously silly and affecting (somehow), like a dung beetle whose joyful demeaner and optimism mask a tragic past.
Amidst a heavy story Hollow Knight is also utterly hilarious, including the payoff to a joke developed so carefully that the punchline lands as unexpectedly as it is perfect. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a game (let's just say the object of someone's obsession takes on a very odd fantasy). And yet somehow the humor melds with the world rather than clashing with it, a balancing act that is really tough to pull off.
Yet another level down, we find the deeper secrets of the story, the nooks and crannies of the world, the deep lore - and the themes of what it's really about. Hollow Knight has come to mean a great deal to me. It's a special game, yes. It plays beautifully, sure. But it's also a game with an insight into human - and bug - nature. Ultimately, all things must accept an end, whether we want to or not. It's how we respond to that end that defines us.
"Because it's there." - British climber George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Everest (also me, when my wife asks me why I want to finish the burger and all the fries when I'm no longer hungry)
It's no Everest, but the world of Hallownest is huge, intimidating, and wondrous; in a game where the 'plot breadcrumbs' style of storytelling means a general lack of narrative thrust, the mere existence of Hallownest is reason enough to want to explore it. Hollow Knight is sensationally good at worldbuilding through level design, and even through the so-called "slow start" I found myself wanting to get down and dirty exploring every nook of the game world; it helps that a huge portion of the world is almost immediately accessible without extra movement abilities, meaning that my journey of discovering Hallownest for the first time felt unique by virtue of how Hollow Knight seems more open-ended than other Metroidvanias.
Better writers than me have discussed the mechanics in much depth, but I do have to mention them anyway. Combat and movement is tight, consistent, and refined - this is evident in the sheer depth that your relatively small moveset brings to the boss fights, but also in how each new movement option adds more fluency and expressivity in how you traverse each area, bringing a joy to exploration that even the game's slight over-reliance on 'gotcha' hits cannot extinguish.
The 3.5 score at the top of this entry is probably a spoiler that there is a pretty big caveat to my praise above, and that comes in the form of something seemingly inconsequential to anyone who hasn't played the game: the benches (reload points) are on many occasions placed so far from bosses that it feels borderline spiteful. My issue here isn't that the game is hard; I think the difficulty level of the bosses is perfect and it really makes you earn your victories! But punishing failure with 5 minutes of backtracking so you can try again, only to get your ass kicked in 30 seconds, only to repeat the process ad nauseam, is a really frustrating way to git gud. It doesn't help that a fair few of the pre-boss 'gauntlets' are rather unengaging (the tunnel mazes before facing Nosk, or waiting for the series of elevators leading up to the Soul Warrior + Follies).
And much like the affliction that has spread to even the furthest reaches of Hallownest, this 'little' issue of bench placement has infected many other aspects of the game. The bosses are one of the big highlights of Hollow Knight but the bench placement makes the process of learning how to beat them more frustrating than it needs to be. And even the exploration is not spared - backtracking from bench to boss reduces the wonder of charting a living breathing world to a perfunctory and linear commute through a series of rooms I've seen dozens of times before, its effect on my play experience not unlike a long unskippable cutscene in the way it kills my momentum.
It would be easy for me to sum up my experience as thus: Hollow Knight is an otherwise-nearly-perfect game which was tarnished by one small flaw. And yet it's not that simple either! After completing the game and watching the end credits, I found myself experiencing not relief (as I usually do on finishing long games I'm ambivalent on) but profound melancholy. I watched excerpts of speedruns. I watched some videos on the the lore. I reloaded my save and tried some of the challenges that I previously decided were not worth my time cough White Palace cough. Tried and failed, but still. It's hard for me to leave it behind and move onto the next game - there's something alluring about the ruined world of Hallownest and I feel it will occupy my mind for some time.
Because it's there.
(101% completion, standard ending)
It's no Everest, but the world of Hallownest is huge, intimidating, and wondrous; in a game where the 'plot breadcrumbs' style of storytelling means a general lack of narrative thrust, the mere existence of Hallownest is reason enough to want to explore it. Hollow Knight is sensationally good at worldbuilding through level design, and even through the so-called "slow start" I found myself wanting to get down and dirty exploring every nook of the game world; it helps that a huge portion of the world is almost immediately accessible without extra movement abilities, meaning that my journey of discovering Hallownest for the first time felt unique by virtue of how Hollow Knight seems more open-ended than other Metroidvanias.
Better writers than me have discussed the mechanics in much depth, but I do have to mention them anyway. Combat and movement is tight, consistent, and refined - this is evident in the sheer depth that your relatively small moveset brings to the boss fights, but also in how each new movement option adds more fluency and expressivity in how you traverse each area, bringing a joy to exploration that even the game's slight over-reliance on 'gotcha' hits cannot extinguish.
The 3.5 score at the top of this entry is probably a spoiler that there is a pretty big caveat to my praise above, and that comes in the form of something seemingly inconsequential to anyone who hasn't played the game: the benches (reload points) are on many occasions placed so far from bosses that it feels borderline spiteful. My issue here isn't that the game is hard; I think the difficulty level of the bosses is perfect and it really makes you earn your victories! But punishing failure with 5 minutes of backtracking so you can try again, only to get your ass kicked in 30 seconds, only to repeat the process ad nauseam, is a really frustrating way to git gud. It doesn't help that a fair few of the pre-boss 'gauntlets' are rather unengaging (the tunnel mazes before facing Nosk, or waiting for the series of elevators leading up to the Soul Warrior + Follies).
And much like the affliction that has spread to even the furthest reaches of Hallownest, this 'little' issue of bench placement has infected many other aspects of the game. The bosses are one of the big highlights of Hollow Knight but the bench placement makes the process of learning how to beat them more frustrating than it needs to be. And even the exploration is not spared - backtracking from bench to boss reduces the wonder of charting a living breathing world to a perfunctory and linear commute through a series of rooms I've seen dozens of times before, its effect on my play experience not unlike a long unskippable cutscene in the way it kills my momentum.
It would be easy for me to sum up my experience as thus: Hollow Knight is an otherwise-nearly-perfect game which was tarnished by one small flaw. And yet it's not that simple either! After completing the game and watching the end credits, I found myself experiencing not relief (as I usually do on finishing long games I'm ambivalent on) but profound melancholy. I watched excerpts of speedruns. I watched some videos on the the lore. I reloaded my save and tried some of the challenges that I previously decided were not worth my time cough White Palace cough. Tried and failed, but still. It's hard for me to leave it behind and move onto the next game - there's something alluring about the ruined world of Hallownest and I feel it will occupy my mind for some time.
Because it's there.
(101% completion, standard ending)
"Hmm? Ah, hello there. Come down to explore these beautiful old ruins? Don't mind me.
I've a fondness for exploring myself. Getting lost and finding your way again is a pleasure like no other. We're exquisitely lucky, you and I." ❤️
Throughout my journey in Hallownest it felt as though a timetraveler went back to write the game to specifically mock me at several points, to terrify and sadden me at others; something I can't say I expected to feel from Hollow Knight, but the game has multiple moments instilling every type of emotion in me within a world so full of death with life that persists in decay. There's a nearly overwhelming sense of melancholy to nearly everyone and how they conduct themselves, but they all handle it differently. Some seem blissfully unaware, but even the seemingly arrogant and naive Zote has a deeper motivation buried in his being beyond fame and glory.
I simply adore the writing and attention to detail, Elderbug at the beginning of the game for example has 3 different greetings depending on if: 1) you greet him immediately, 2) you walk past him and come back, or 3) you walk past him, enter the well, then come back. He's far from the only example of this, the game is utterly chock full of flavor text and worldbuilding in such an unobtrusive way that I'd wager the casual gamer who isn't an autist like me who tries to exhaust every dialogue exchange will end up missing 2/3 of it. I find that absolutely incredible, and as far as any game goes I've only seen this level of care put into every minute detail rivaled by Supergiant's Hades.
Mechanically speaking this is perhaps the simplest part to talk about, but let me get it out of the way: The start is SLOW. Like, REALLY slow. It's not the slowest I've ever played but it's almost zen-like in its pacing for the first few hours until you find the dash ability and not too long after the walljump. Everything else is anything but slow though, for what I can only describe as MegaMan X/NES platformer kind of movement where your momentum is (practically) fixed pace and jump height is dictated extremely granularly by how long you hold the jump button. The act of exploration, uncovering more of the map, finding new or recurring characters is always exciting; it's a little bewildering just how massive the map is yet it's navigable with a fairly sparse quick travel system.
One system I'd like to highlight in particular though because it seems to be a weird point of contention is the Shade. Upon death, you leave a "Shade", which contains all of the Geo (the game's currency) you had on your person similar to bloodstains in the Souls games; difference here is you must attack it to absorb it. Again, similarly, if you die before doing so that money is just gone. I've seen a number of people complain about this but despite losing nearly 2k(!!) at one point it never really bothered me, because secretly this game keeps handing out items you can sell for 200, 400, 800, even 1000 geo to a vendor you meet at the halfway point (when geo starts to become relevant at all). I personally do not understand the frustration with this system, it's far less important than in something like Dark Souls which I know y'all love and the game periodically hands out a way to bypass having to manually collect it anyways (once per use, but by the end of the game I had 15~ of these lol). It incentivizes me to think about how I'm picking my wallet back up once in a while which is more than I can say about mashing X (Sony) while sprinting over a funny puddle. Even Zote knows better.
The combat is snappy and tight, very clearly designed around the instantaneous or otherwise fixed-distance movements; in a similar vein of dismissiveness I see nobody mentioning how you can adjust your playstyle dramatically through the use of Charms, if you want to be a spell-spamming glass cannon there's nothing stopping you and it's perfectly viable. Bosses are almost all excellent, with the finale being one of my favorite in any video game. (spoilers) "GIT GUD!"
Artistically probably one of my all-time favorites, in every department. I will say though, I became progressively upset in the latter half with each new area I found--BECAUSE Y'ALL KEPT TELLING ME THEY LOOKED THE SAME?? THEY LITERALLY DON'T?! THEY'RE DIVERSE AND BEAUTIFUL IN BOTH TRADITIONAL AND HAUNTING WAYS??? Seriously what the fuck!!! Game has a callout for this seemingly LOL
Real talk though it's incredble how cohesive the art direction is while still maintaining clear identities of each region. I have no problem distinguishing, without opening the full map, (minor spoilers start) that I'm at for example Greenpath, Fungal Waste, or Fog Canyon (minor spoilers end) despite these looking vaguely similar and all in approximately the same area. I also have no problem distinguishing the "edges" (no way to be more specific without giving away one of the coolest parts of the entire game imo). On a far more personal level I adore the character designs for the sole reason that they are simple yet extremely identifiable, which makes them encouraging to want to draw myself!
I want to put in so many different quotes from the residents of Hallownest, but if I put in the ones I "liked" I could fill out three more of these reviews. I opened with the one I did because I think it most accurately reflects my main joy in the game, or tied at least; I also just think that the game brilliantly shows all the different outlooks on the same circumstances people can have. My depression is not the same as yours, we have different struggles even if we potentially have the same trauma. It's as confounding as it is beautiful, right? Maybe... I don't know how to eloquently close that. The music and art and writing all come together to aid in that perfectly. I could have ended my playthrough 15~ hours earlier than I did, but I chose to delve deeper into the game and that only made it better as I learned more about each characters, their plights, their relationships and bringing the gay couple together.
In a world a world where every AAA studio is racing to see who can fit the most absurd amount of filler sidequests per dollar, even going so far as to start pondering the use of rancid A.I. tools to inflate this even more, (archive link), it's hard to see Hollow Knight as anything less than incredible.
One more.
“In every heart, there is nobility. Proof of this lies before us, dormant within you, when you’re blinded… but only by its grace may you ascend to that plain where truth and essence lie.”
...One more.
“Are we not all just wandering souls in search of purpose? To find meaning in this vast existence… It is the greatest quest of all.”
...Just one more.
“To protect the weak, that is this kingdom’s last and only wish. Where life might have ended, hope has remained.”
...
“Maybe dreams aren’t such a bad thing after all.”
In one word: Remain.
Favorite track from the OST
I've a fondness for exploring myself. Getting lost and finding your way again is a pleasure like no other. We're exquisitely lucky, you and I." ❤️
Throughout my journey in Hallownest it felt as though a timetraveler went back to write the game to specifically mock me at several points, to terrify and sadden me at others; something I can't say I expected to feel from Hollow Knight, but the game has multiple moments instilling every type of emotion in me within a world so full of death with life that persists in decay. There's a nearly overwhelming sense of melancholy to nearly everyone and how they conduct themselves, but they all handle it differently. Some seem blissfully unaware, but even the seemingly arrogant and naive Zote has a deeper motivation buried in his being beyond fame and glory.
I simply adore the writing and attention to detail, Elderbug at the beginning of the game for example has 3 different greetings depending on if: 1) you greet him immediately, 2) you walk past him and come back, or 3) you walk past him, enter the well, then come back. He's far from the only example of this, the game is utterly chock full of flavor text and worldbuilding in such an unobtrusive way that I'd wager the casual gamer who isn't an autist like me who tries to exhaust every dialogue exchange will end up missing 2/3 of it. I find that absolutely incredible, and as far as any game goes I've only seen this level of care put into every minute detail rivaled by Supergiant's Hades.
Mechanically speaking this is perhaps the simplest part to talk about, but let me get it out of the way: The start is SLOW. Like, REALLY slow. It's not the slowest I've ever played but it's almost zen-like in its pacing for the first few hours until you find the dash ability and not too long after the walljump. Everything else is anything but slow though, for what I can only describe as MegaMan X/NES platformer kind of movement where your momentum is (practically) fixed pace and jump height is dictated extremely granularly by how long you hold the jump button. The act of exploration, uncovering more of the map, finding new or recurring characters is always exciting; it's a little bewildering just how massive the map is yet it's navigable with a fairly sparse quick travel system.
One system I'd like to highlight in particular though because it seems to be a weird point of contention is the Shade. Upon death, you leave a "Shade", which contains all of the Geo (the game's currency) you had on your person similar to bloodstains in the Souls games; difference here is you must attack it to absorb it. Again, similarly, if you die before doing so that money is just gone. I've seen a number of people complain about this but despite losing nearly 2k(!!) at one point it never really bothered me, because secretly this game keeps handing out items you can sell for 200, 400, 800, even 1000 geo to a vendor you meet at the halfway point (when geo starts to become relevant at all). I personally do not understand the frustration with this system, it's far less important than in something like Dark Souls which I know y'all love and the game periodically hands out a way to bypass having to manually collect it anyways (once per use, but by the end of the game I had 15~ of these lol). It incentivizes me to think about how I'm picking my wallet back up once in a while which is more than I can say about mashing X (Sony) while sprinting over a funny puddle. Even Zote knows better.
The combat is snappy and tight, very clearly designed around the instantaneous or otherwise fixed-distance movements; in a similar vein of dismissiveness I see nobody mentioning how you can adjust your playstyle dramatically through the use of Charms, if you want to be a spell-spamming glass cannon there's nothing stopping you and it's perfectly viable. Bosses are almost all excellent, with the finale being one of my favorite in any video game. (spoilers) "GIT GUD!"
Artistically probably one of my all-time favorites, in every department. I will say though, I became progressively upset in the latter half with each new area I found--BECAUSE Y'ALL KEPT TELLING ME THEY LOOKED THE SAME?? THEY LITERALLY DON'T?! THEY'RE DIVERSE AND BEAUTIFUL IN BOTH TRADITIONAL AND HAUNTING WAYS??? Seriously what the fuck!!! Game has a callout for this seemingly LOL
Real talk though it's incredble how cohesive the art direction is while still maintaining clear identities of each region. I have no problem distinguishing, without opening the full map, (minor spoilers start) that I'm at for example Greenpath, Fungal Waste, or Fog Canyon (minor spoilers end) despite these looking vaguely similar and all in approximately the same area. I also have no problem distinguishing the "edges" (no way to be more specific without giving away one of the coolest parts of the entire game imo). On a far more personal level I adore the character designs for the sole reason that they are simple yet extremely identifiable, which makes them encouraging to want to draw myself!
I want to put in so many different quotes from the residents of Hallownest, but if I put in the ones I "liked" I could fill out three more of these reviews. I opened with the one I did because I think it most accurately reflects my main joy in the game, or tied at least; I also just think that the game brilliantly shows all the different outlooks on the same circumstances people can have. My depression is not the same as yours, we have different struggles even if we potentially have the same trauma. It's as confounding as it is beautiful, right? Maybe... I don't know how to eloquently close that. The music and art and writing all come together to aid in that perfectly. I could have ended my playthrough 15~ hours earlier than I did, but I chose to delve deeper into the game and that only made it better as I learned more about each characters, their plights, their relationships and bringing the gay couple together.
In a world a world where every AAA studio is racing to see who can fit the most absurd amount of filler sidequests per dollar, even going so far as to start pondering the use of rancid A.I. tools to inflate this even more, (archive link), it's hard to see Hollow Knight as anything less than incredible.
One more.
“In every heart, there is nobility. Proof of this lies before us, dormant within you, when you’re blinded… but only by its grace may you ascend to that plain where truth and essence lie.”
...One more.
“Are we not all just wandering souls in search of purpose? To find meaning in this vast existence… It is the greatest quest of all.”
...Just one more.
“To protect the weak, that is this kingdom’s last and only wish. Where life might have ended, hope has remained.”
...
“Maybe dreams aren’t such a bad thing after all.”
In one word: Remain.
Favorite track from the OST
Playing Hollow Knight and coming out of it saying: "Uh, yeah, it's like, Metroidvania Dark Souls dude." is a take so shallow that a mere glance at the store page's screenshots would prove that to be the case. Yet, after finishing the game it's also the most glowing compliment I can give it, as it marries the components of both styles in a remarkably elegant way.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is Castlevania, the environments Metroid, the level progression and music both at the same time! Add to that the atmosphere typical of a dying world, as well as elements like recovering lost resources after death, and you should already know where this sentence is heading.
The atmosphere of Hallownest is one of the densest, thickest and most engrossing you can find in gaming, where all characters, the warm and hospitable, the engimatic and elusive and the outright hostile, give the world a feeling of being lived in and a life and identity of its own. With the compliments out of the way, I would also like to vent about the size of the map. It is way too dang big, to the point where traversing it is a chore and I found myself constantly praying for quicker traversal tools.
Where the game should have taken less from Dark Souls is the main story (which is the only part of the plot I can discuss, having not bothered with the add-ons). That one is too much like FromSoft's seminal work. But we're getting into spoiler territory.
Another point of contention I have with Hollow Knight is its spells and nail techniques. The former feel a bit useless if you're willing to grow a spine and face the enemy head-on, locking eyes and unleashing a storm of attacks. Normal attacks that is. I rarely ever used the special nail techniques, since they are situational at best. Why would I want to charge up special moves when the additional effects they have aren't worth the effort compared to a simple string of normal attacks?
All things said, the game really is a cute little gem and i see why people like it so much, but it just didn't blow me away. I've seen a lot of (overblown) praise from my friend circle about this, so my expectations, as with any game which receives too much hype and acclaim, were somewhat let down. But it speaks volumes that a game I only played because it was in a bundle and gave me something to talk about with some nerdy girls at a party kept me going way after the day of that celebration.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is Castlevania, the environments Metroid, the level progression and music both at the same time! Add to that the atmosphere typical of a dying world, as well as elements like recovering lost resources after death, and you should already know where this sentence is heading.
The atmosphere of Hallownest is one of the densest, thickest and most engrossing you can find in gaming, where all characters, the warm and hospitable, the engimatic and elusive and the outright hostile, give the world a feeling of being lived in and a life and identity of its own. With the compliments out of the way, I would also like to vent about the size of the map. It is way too dang big, to the point where traversing it is a chore and I found myself constantly praying for quicker traversal tools.
Where the game should have taken less from Dark Souls is the main story (which is the only part of the plot I can discuss, having not bothered with the add-ons). That one is too much like FromSoft's seminal work. But we're getting into spoiler territory.
Another point of contention I have with Hollow Knight is its spells and nail techniques. The former feel a bit useless if you're willing to grow a spine and face the enemy head-on, locking eyes and unleashing a storm of attacks. Normal attacks that is. I rarely ever used the special nail techniques, since they are situational at best. Why would I want to charge up special moves when the additional effects they have aren't worth the effort compared to a simple string of normal attacks?
All things said, the game really is a cute little gem and i see why people like it so much, but it just didn't blow me away. I've seen a lot of (overblown) praise from my friend circle about this, so my expectations, as with any game which receives too much hype and acclaim, were somewhat let down. But it speaks volumes that a game I only played because it was in a bundle and gave me something to talk about with some nerdy girls at a party kept me going way after the day of that celebration.
It is a common misconception that Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods. In actuality it was this absolute masterpiece of a videogame, which the gods saught to keep hidden from us.
On a serious note, Hollow Knight and its small team of developers both represent a resounding victory against the current state of the gaming industry. No microtransactions, not even close to a triple-A price tag with more quality content than one, beautiful art direction and exceptional gameplay. Not to mention all the DLC, all of which are peak quality and packed with additional content, are free.
And unlike the inhabitants of Hallownest, there are few bugs to be found. Hollowknight, in my humble opinion, overshadows all other metroidvanias on most levels and will forever be one of the few games that deserves a perfect 5 star review and also one that is serious.
Even if it is not your kind of game, it is a resounding victory for all game developers that are like Team Cherry. Bravo.
On a serious note, Hollow Knight and its small team of developers both represent a resounding victory against the current state of the gaming industry. No microtransactions, not even close to a triple-A price tag with more quality content than one, beautiful art direction and exceptional gameplay. Not to mention all the DLC, all of which are peak quality and packed with additional content, are free.
And unlike the inhabitants of Hallownest, there are few bugs to be found. Hollowknight, in my humble opinion, overshadows all other metroidvanias on most levels and will forever be one of the few games that deserves a perfect 5 star review and also one that is serious.
Even if it is not your kind of game, it is a resounding victory for all game developers that are like Team Cherry. Bravo.
I like bugs. I like maps. I like bugs that sell you maps and then make you buy a way to actually use their maps from their bugwife.
for whatever reason, I didn't love hollow knight after my first playthrough. I found it enjoyable enough, but I kinda forgot about it after finishing it. on my second playthrough though, everything started to click, and I adored every second playing it. brilliant world design, incredible atmosphere, fun combat, challenging bosses, and zote.
"A mask! A face! Does it need one? Does it not? To define. To focus. To exist"
The bugs of Hallownest are not really bugs. They may share some attributes but underneath each hood and every shell lies a purpose greater than the sum of its parts. The Maskmaker tells me to don this visage. A Collector hides in the Tower of Love, jealously hoarding grubs, while somewhere far beneath the earth, where the underland itself has grown stale, my knight came back from the grave. In this tale, we all have our part to play. The people of Hallownest, then, are archetypes with hopes and aspirations much like ours, pushed to toil even as their kingdom crumbles to dust, minds going with it, stuck in the vast network of formula. Pray, do scurry little one, in the nooks and crannies of this Wyrm's body ; through dream your desires become manifest, so do not hesitate to fashion yourself in the image of your father, the King.
Unfortunately for us in this instance, the King is dead. The King was always dead - that's when games come alive and we can only go full-circle from here ; having dragged ourselves out of the pit we drive back down, in remembrance of a time when Metroidvania meant something which is to say never, the term never meant anything - or, if anything, the meaning was ahistorical, misdirected, imprecise, it doesn't really matter anyway because the language of play was built on nostalgia and approximations and there was always a dark, wide gap separating us from old Samus. The sense that this world was not ours to tread, that this architecture belonged to "others", a hostile plane that could suddenly snarl with tendril-teeth, lost in this "labyrinthian airport" with a creep.
Hollow Knight is built on the absence of such emotion. Its insects have gained sentience, the ability to dream themselves and therefore communicate to us in a language devoid of any mystery, each of their purpose clear from the start and destined to unravel the deeper we venture towards the heart of Hallownest. The knight - our vessel - functions the other way ; below is where its loose focus begins to coalesce, below is the place where power starts to make sense for It on the level of lore - the accumulation of charms and trinkets aiding us in mending the broken order of the world. In other words, we make our own purpose in this web of reward nodes through swift exploration and world-building but mostly devour at the expense of everyone else. Reason matters little. Aren’t we the most honest of creatures, down here where everything tries to kill us ?
Interiority is what moves us through these cavernous tapestries as players compared to the rest of the bugs - the bubble that refuses to burst in Samus’ air-tight silence - but interiority is also what the knight fundamentally lacks as an operator so obviously designed with hallways in mind. Its reason for existing in the world never quite aligns with ours nor veers away from it, into violence, or hurt, or hypnosis, or whatever other reason one could find to not do exactly what the game demands from us. Interiority - or lack thereof - is interestingly what also makes the knight a prime candidate as protagonist ; in the story’s true ending - Godmaster notwithstanding -, it is revealed that our sibling vessel (the titular Hollow Knight) was tainted by an “idea instilled” - that an offspring, even one manufactured such as us, could take affection for its progenitor the King ; this half-filled promise in turn made the Hollow Knight into an impure seal for the god on which Hallownest was built, resulting in the progressive decay of every lifeforms within as they returned to their radiant, hiveminded state.
We, on the other hand, are one of the experiments who did not made it onto the King’s lap and as such harbour no fruitless desires - we’re a cavity without purpose, therefore being the only one able to fulfill the game’s. What TeamCherry seems suggest here is a form of cynical abandon; divest yourself from the dream and embrace the stakes for what they are - a challenge, a boss rush, an undeath. This world’s a little too paper-thin and we both know it - the only way to put an end to Hallownest’s endless wrestling with the cycles is to void one’s heart of any desires, to only go through compulsory motions and follow the nervous system towards its natural conclusion : The percentaged map.
Hollow Knight can’t help itself, though, because dream is the location - it always is - and as part of our attempt to acquire this platinum soul the game throws on us one penultimate challenge in the form of the White Palace, a paranoid delusion inside which the King hid himself to die at the moment of failure.
In there everything about Hollow Knight begins to make (late) sense ; instead of a classic “genre” piece, the White Palace unfolds as a series of encroaching platforming challenges designed with a deliciously cruel twist - whereas most other regions of the game emerged from the natural world, this vault was trapped and fabricated with one intention in mind : to kill the player as mercilessly as possible, squeezing it tight spots after tight spots, impaled on razor’s edge in accordance with the flight system, generous windows and wriggle-rooms now replaced with tortuous breathers beating me into submission. I couldn’t get enough of it. Five hours of Hollow Knight’s truest attempt at discouraging me from ever finishing it, and in doing so, finally, a crevice filled with the most videogame, with less-than-precious designer intentions finding parallels in what the space expresses as character, about one of its characters. My stakes, at last, aligned with the knight’s. But then you do find the King. Of course it’s dead. Surprise. Hallownest awaits, again. Down I went, and in this movement, I think, lies the beautiful exegesis of Hollow Knight :
It tells us exactly who we are, what we want and how it compels us to want so yet is incapable of offering its players a way out - or in - or put it another way, of looking through the world and seeing that maybe, even as the ground swallows up on itself and everything goes to shit, the dream is worth maintaining.
-
The Stone Sanctuary of Greenpath contains an epitaph that once singed to me in prose and poetry. Bullshit. I banished the ghost and claimed the Essence for myself.
The next time I visited it simply said :
“A face carved from stone.”
The bugs of Hallownest are not really bugs. They may share some attributes but underneath each hood and every shell lies a purpose greater than the sum of its parts. The Maskmaker tells me to don this visage. A Collector hides in the Tower of Love, jealously hoarding grubs, while somewhere far beneath the earth, where the underland itself has grown stale, my knight came back from the grave. In this tale, we all have our part to play. The people of Hallownest, then, are archetypes with hopes and aspirations much like ours, pushed to toil even as their kingdom crumbles to dust, minds going with it, stuck in the vast network of formula. Pray, do scurry little one, in the nooks and crannies of this Wyrm's body ; through dream your desires become manifest, so do not hesitate to fashion yourself in the image of your father, the King.
Unfortunately for us in this instance, the King is dead. The King was always dead - that's when games come alive and we can only go full-circle from here ; having dragged ourselves out of the pit we drive back down, in remembrance of a time when Metroidvania meant something which is to say never, the term never meant anything - or, if anything, the meaning was ahistorical, misdirected, imprecise, it doesn't really matter anyway because the language of play was built on nostalgia and approximations and there was always a dark, wide gap separating us from old Samus. The sense that this world was not ours to tread, that this architecture belonged to "others", a hostile plane that could suddenly snarl with tendril-teeth, lost in this "labyrinthian airport" with a creep.
Hollow Knight is built on the absence of such emotion. Its insects have gained sentience, the ability to dream themselves and therefore communicate to us in a language devoid of any mystery, each of their purpose clear from the start and destined to unravel the deeper we venture towards the heart of Hallownest. The knight - our vessel - functions the other way ; below is where its loose focus begins to coalesce, below is the place where power starts to make sense for It on the level of lore - the accumulation of charms and trinkets aiding us in mending the broken order of the world. In other words, we make our own purpose in this web of reward nodes through swift exploration and world-building but mostly devour at the expense of everyone else. Reason matters little. Aren’t we the most honest of creatures, down here where everything tries to kill us ?
Interiority is what moves us through these cavernous tapestries as players compared to the rest of the bugs - the bubble that refuses to burst in Samus’ air-tight silence - but interiority is also what the knight fundamentally lacks as an operator so obviously designed with hallways in mind. Its reason for existing in the world never quite aligns with ours nor veers away from it, into violence, or hurt, or hypnosis, or whatever other reason one could find to not do exactly what the game demands from us. Interiority - or lack thereof - is interestingly what also makes the knight a prime candidate as protagonist ; in the story’s true ending - Godmaster notwithstanding -, it is revealed that our sibling vessel (the titular Hollow Knight) was tainted by an “idea instilled” - that an offspring, even one manufactured such as us, could take affection for its progenitor the King ; this half-filled promise in turn made the Hollow Knight into an impure seal for the god on which Hallownest was built, resulting in the progressive decay of every lifeforms within as they returned to their radiant, hiveminded state.
We, on the other hand, are one of the experiments who did not made it onto the King’s lap and as such harbour no fruitless desires - we’re a cavity without purpose, therefore being the only one able to fulfill the game’s. What TeamCherry seems suggest here is a form of cynical abandon; divest yourself from the dream and embrace the stakes for what they are - a challenge, a boss rush, an undeath. This world’s a little too paper-thin and we both know it - the only way to put an end to Hallownest’s endless wrestling with the cycles is to void one’s heart of any desires, to only go through compulsory motions and follow the nervous system towards its natural conclusion : The percentaged map.
Hollow Knight can’t help itself, though, because dream is the location - it always is - and as part of our attempt to acquire this platinum soul the game throws on us one penultimate challenge in the form of the White Palace, a paranoid delusion inside which the King hid himself to die at the moment of failure.
In there everything about Hollow Knight begins to make (late) sense ; instead of a classic “genre” piece, the White Palace unfolds as a series of encroaching platforming challenges designed with a deliciously cruel twist - whereas most other regions of the game emerged from the natural world, this vault was trapped and fabricated with one intention in mind : to kill the player as mercilessly as possible, squeezing it tight spots after tight spots, impaled on razor’s edge in accordance with the flight system, generous windows and wriggle-rooms now replaced with tortuous breathers beating me into submission. I couldn’t get enough of it. Five hours of Hollow Knight’s truest attempt at discouraging me from ever finishing it, and in doing so, finally, a crevice filled with the most videogame, with less-than-precious designer intentions finding parallels in what the space expresses as character, about one of its characters. My stakes, at last, aligned with the knight’s. But then you do find the King. Of course it’s dead. Surprise. Hallownest awaits, again. Down I went, and in this movement, I think, lies the beautiful exegesis of Hollow Knight :
It tells us exactly who we are, what we want and how it compels us to want so yet is incapable of offering its players a way out - or in - or put it another way, of looking through the world and seeing that maybe, even as the ground swallows up on itself and everything goes to shit, the dream is worth maintaining.
-
The Stone Sanctuary of Greenpath contains an epitaph that once singed to me in prose and poetry. Bullshit. I banished the ghost and claimed the Essence for myself.
The next time I visited it simply said :
“A face carved from stone.”
Hollow Knight is the most overrated game I have ever played.
Its first area leaves the worst first impression for a video game I have seen in a long ass time. There are no story elements just "go in :)" nor any elements while you are in there, and your movement options are limited to a slow walk, a jump, and an attack. The enemies are dull and uninteresting and a boss is a bigger version of the enemies. The level layout and textures are just as equally dull and uninteresting and it just feels like "standard cave level" For a first impression it should have looked at Super Metroid or Symphony's first few minutes, as they do something very important this game fails to do: Build intrigue. Hollow Knight's curiosity gets better when you get out of there thanks to the introduction of Hornet, something to pique my curiosity, but I was never on the edge of my seat wondering what'd happen next.
The story takes a much more backseat approach which may work for some, but it never got me to care about anything that was happening in the world. Having some hidden lore is good, but you should still present something upfront to provide a reason for the player to care about why they are going to the next area. I had no clue my ending was just the standard ending until I looked it up after because the game really has no interest in telling you anything, just read it yourself. Problem is, if I don't care at the start, why would I use my own free time to read the lore in hopes I would suddenly care? Hollow Knight fails to give much reasons to care. It does from time to time, revisiting the first area near the end and seeing it infected is peak environmental storytelling, but that's the exception rather than the norm.
Speaking of how the bosses in the first area are bigger versions of regular enemies, that's about half the bosses in the entire game! Special Shoutouts to the Flukemarm which is the laziest boss I have seen in eons: All it does it spawn enemies and nothing else! The bosses that aren't lazy are very well done, and special shoutouts to the Mantis Lords which are absolute masters of Boss Design. Unfortunately those top tier bosses are again the exception rather than the norm.
The map system is atrocious: You can eventually have a map once you find the cartographer in each area, but until then it will only mark where you've been. This is like most Metroidvanias, but unlike most Metroidvanias this map is much less detailed and it won't tell you if there are any places you haven't been (IE doorways or hidden paths) and worst of all: It won't mark any landmarks! You have to do that yourself! Which is more exploring, which would be fine, but...
The death system. I've even seen hardcore Hollow Knight fans describe just how bad of an idea this is. When you die, you lose about half your money, kinda like Shovel Knight. Doesn't sound bad, right? Well you don't JUST lose half your money, you ALSO lose half your meter. Much worse. ON TOP OF THAT, Hollow Knight isn't a platformer, so you're not just gonna walk into these things naturally on your way. No you can't go and explore somewhere else because that area may be a bit too hard or something, the game is practically putting a gun to your head telling you to go to that area again to get your stuff back, since if you die again the money's gone forever. And without half your meter, you're gonna have a much harder time going in any other direction. Why you would discourage your players from exploring in a Metroidvania is absolutely baffling to me, and I hope a sequel removes the meter loss or the death penalty altogether.
They have a bank you can store your money in to lessen that penalty, but there are two problems with the bank: 1. There's only one bank in the entire game across this massive massive map and 2. The bank is a scam and will rob you after depositing past a certain amount, so it's pointless in the first place. Why.
I like the Charm system but wish it was a little less limited. Same goes for weapon upgrades, but in both instances there is only one location for these things on the entire map (and there's no library card-like item where you can warp there) which is absurd. Shops should be more spread out, or at least there should be one shop type at a warp point which makes a lot of sense for store owners to do.
And that's not getting into the big spacious maps themselves: Until you get the run function, you're slowly walking across that fucker. Running isn't much faster either, so it won't help too much. Landmarks/fast travel points are too far away from one another so even with fast travel you'll still be doing minutes worth of backtracking. And like I mentioned before, that also means doing the same areas over and over on death!
Getting the Dreamweaver in the second half is just go back and backtrack the map for three boss fights. Some are in new areas but others you're mostly just re-exploring old areas. Sure Castlevania does something like this with the Vlad parts, but you have abilities that you didn't have the first time when they come up and you can get those as soon as you have the power if you want rather than waiting for a questline to open up. That's not the worst criticism though, a minor one.
Sorry I had to tear this game apart but Hollow Knight is by no means a perfect game (I don't even think it's a good one, just alright with lots of highs and lows) and I wish people would stop treating it like it's the best game ever made.
I also hope Silksong improves on Hollow Knight, whenever that comes out. Hollow Knight has potential but runs into a lot of bumps in the road that keep it from reaching, but Silksong can learn from Hollow Knight and improve.
Its first area leaves the worst first impression for a video game I have seen in a long ass time. There are no story elements just "go in :)" nor any elements while you are in there, and your movement options are limited to a slow walk, a jump, and an attack. The enemies are dull and uninteresting and a boss is a bigger version of the enemies. The level layout and textures are just as equally dull and uninteresting and it just feels like "standard cave level" For a first impression it should have looked at Super Metroid or Symphony's first few minutes, as they do something very important this game fails to do: Build intrigue. Hollow Knight's curiosity gets better when you get out of there thanks to the introduction of Hornet, something to pique my curiosity, but I was never on the edge of my seat wondering what'd happen next.
The story takes a much more backseat approach which may work for some, but it never got me to care about anything that was happening in the world. Having some hidden lore is good, but you should still present something upfront to provide a reason for the player to care about why they are going to the next area. I had no clue my ending was just the standard ending until I looked it up after because the game really has no interest in telling you anything, just read it yourself. Problem is, if I don't care at the start, why would I use my own free time to read the lore in hopes I would suddenly care? Hollow Knight fails to give much reasons to care. It does from time to time, revisiting the first area near the end and seeing it infected is peak environmental storytelling, but that's the exception rather than the norm.
Speaking of how the bosses in the first area are bigger versions of regular enemies, that's about half the bosses in the entire game! Special Shoutouts to the Flukemarm which is the laziest boss I have seen in eons: All it does it spawn enemies and nothing else! The bosses that aren't lazy are very well done, and special shoutouts to the Mantis Lords which are absolute masters of Boss Design. Unfortunately those top tier bosses are again the exception rather than the norm.
The map system is atrocious: You can eventually have a map once you find the cartographer in each area, but until then it will only mark where you've been. This is like most Metroidvanias, but unlike most Metroidvanias this map is much less detailed and it won't tell you if there are any places you haven't been (IE doorways or hidden paths) and worst of all: It won't mark any landmarks! You have to do that yourself! Which is more exploring, which would be fine, but...
The death system. I've even seen hardcore Hollow Knight fans describe just how bad of an idea this is. When you die, you lose about half your money, kinda like Shovel Knight. Doesn't sound bad, right? Well you don't JUST lose half your money, you ALSO lose half your meter. Much worse. ON TOP OF THAT, Hollow Knight isn't a platformer, so you're not just gonna walk into these things naturally on your way. No you can't go and explore somewhere else because that area may be a bit too hard or something, the game is practically putting a gun to your head telling you to go to that area again to get your stuff back, since if you die again the money's gone forever. And without half your meter, you're gonna have a much harder time going in any other direction. Why you would discourage your players from exploring in a Metroidvania is absolutely baffling to me, and I hope a sequel removes the meter loss or the death penalty altogether.
They have a bank you can store your money in to lessen that penalty, but there are two problems with the bank: 1. There's only one bank in the entire game across this massive massive map and 2. The bank is a scam and will rob you after depositing past a certain amount, so it's pointless in the first place. Why.
I like the Charm system but wish it was a little less limited. Same goes for weapon upgrades, but in both instances there is only one location for these things on the entire map (and there's no library card-like item where you can warp there) which is absurd. Shops should be more spread out, or at least there should be one shop type at a warp point which makes a lot of sense for store owners to do.
And that's not getting into the big spacious maps themselves: Until you get the run function, you're slowly walking across that fucker. Running isn't much faster either, so it won't help too much. Landmarks/fast travel points are too far away from one another so even with fast travel you'll still be doing minutes worth of backtracking. And like I mentioned before, that also means doing the same areas over and over on death!
Getting the Dreamweaver in the second half is just go back and backtrack the map for three boss fights. Some are in new areas but others you're mostly just re-exploring old areas. Sure Castlevania does something like this with the Vlad parts, but you have abilities that you didn't have the first time when they come up and you can get those as soon as you have the power if you want rather than waiting for a questline to open up. That's not the worst criticism though, a minor one.
Sorry I had to tear this game apart but Hollow Knight is by no means a perfect game (I don't even think it's a good one, just alright with lots of highs and lows) and I wish people would stop treating it like it's the best game ever made.
I also hope Silksong improves on Hollow Knight, whenever that comes out. Hollow Knight has potential but runs into a lot of bumps in the road that keep it from reaching, but Silksong can learn from Hollow Knight and improve.