I fear that I’m going to get flamed for saying this, but I thought that this was one of the most overrated games I’ve ever played. I know the game is beloved, and many have extolled its virtues. I’m going to offer a counterpart to this game’s well documented qualities.

Right from the beginning, the game seemed like it had second-tier audio and video quality, which surprised me. As a professional designer myself, I’m very sensitive to those kinds of shortcoming, and the game has many. The lead visual designer does not seem to understand or be able to apply principles of human perception effectively. There are a myriad of issues, from details that are unintentionally obscured, to all kinds of issues with depth perception, and issues with controlling and understanding foreground and background contrast principles. The end result is a myriad of “cheap” depths because of this, where the game demands you learn and memorize, because these design principles are inconsistently applied. Audio is underwhelming and also inconsistent, which also leads to “cheap” deaths when certain audio cues sound confusingly similar. Even worse, there are audio processing errors generating digital distortion in some areas, particularly the Crystal Caves. Controls also have a myriad of technical issues. The end result is a game that is way more difficult than it needs to be. Considering its accolades, I assumed this would be a much more polished experienced. The truth is that it’s a terribly inconsistent game. Certain aspects of game balance, like item and enemy attributes, are expertly well done. Most impressively, the scope and quality of the level design is staggering. Clearly an obsessive amount work went into this. But that level of effort or expertise isn’t evident in many other aspects of the game.

Lastly, the game has serious accessibility problems. It is the epitome of a “get good” game. Unfortunately for many people, we just can’t get that good. I was only able to get to 108 / 112%, and that took me over a hundred hours. I don’t see how I can do any better to see the real ending. Without going through my medical history, suffice to say, many individuals like myself can only move our hands with so much precision, and this gets worse for every human being as we age. This game has absolutely no accessibility settings. Not even a basic difficulty level. And even worse, completion has a major difficulty spike in the final few elements. Proper design should NEVER require the player to be young enough and free of complicating medical issues in order to see the true ending. The heavy difficulty spike content should be optional, with bonus content and lore.

To be clear, it is a good game. A very good game. But it’s not the great game many would have you believe. Does it have one of, if not the greatest metroidvania map and level design? Absolutely. But it lacks the cohesive balance of quality in its execution to be truly considered one of the greats.

Steel Heart/Speedrun 2 Achievement Run

Pure Vessel - Radiant, Nail Only, Charmless
Absrad - Radiant

Level design: 10\10;
Gráfico: 10\10;
Gameplay: 10\10;
Diversificação: 10\10;
Trilha: 10\10;
História: 10\10;
Fator replay: 10\10;
Motivo de não zerar: Acabou meu gamepass.

"Hollow Knight" is the cutest, "git gud" 2D platformer I've ever played. The graphics are beautiful, with the backgrounds being the best eye candy I've seem since "Dead Cells". The progressive unlocking of areas and items were borderline impossible, with me wandering off into a new area more times than not - usually paying for that curiosity with death. Speaking of in-game death, the game is so punishing in the Souls-like, 'die here, go back and get loot' mechanic that I have counted at least 4 times where I uninstalled the game after losing 4-figure amounts of Geo, only to reinstall it the next day purely to satiate my curiosity with where the game goes next.

I found the game just short of too minimalistic for my liking; I wasn't hoping for an Ubisoft-like checkbox 'quest list', but I needed a bit more visual assistance than simply putting icons on a map. The story was as evasive as I had to be during boss fights; there if you're looking for it, but super easy to miss if you're pre-occupied with exploring or trying to get back to your dead body for loot recollection.

I think what bothered me by the end of the game the most was the internal 'grind' for upgrades; the amount of times I had to double-triple-quadurple back to places I've been (albeit, was more OP than the previous times) went from quaint and airy to 'where is the nearest fast travel point' and 'is this upgrade REALLY worth it?'

I'll summarize the review with this: This is the best Metroidvania that I've completed from beginning to end, but I was overcome with joy not for the stories ending (got the bad ending), but for the ending of the story.