Not to sound like an epic gamer contrarian but Hollow Knight is a game I've never really understood the overwhelming hype for. It feels incredibly safe, lacking any originality whatsoever and desperately trying to appeal to the masses (which it obviously succeeded at). Most things it does pretty badly to fine with few things it's truly outstanding in.

Let me start off by explaining what I mean by saying Hollow Knight is <safe> and <desperately tries to appeal to the masses>. I think this is most obvious in its aesthetic, being minimalist scrimblo (bug)guys in a dark world. These things obviously work and have wide appeal. The easily ignorable lore-based story is also a victim of Hollow Knight's addiction to playing it safe, I really wish metroidvanias in general would get over lore-based storytelling, it's really boring. I could go on and on about how safe this game is from the world design, to the simplistic combat, to the movement upgrades being as bland as possible, but the point is that these things make game feel like it lacks any personality, putting that aside to be safe and easily marketable to the masses. It's basically The Minions but for adults. This isn't a problem depending on who you ask, but to me it really just made this feel super unremarkable. I love when games try new things being as creative as possible, this game is the opposite of that, some may even call it ehehhehehehehhehehehehhehe hollow.

Anyways on to the aspects of this game I actively dislike and think are bad. I think the easiest things to call bad are the bosses, while there are 2-3 great bosses the majority of them feel extremely underwhelming to outright bad. They just kinda feel like nothing and are very forgettable. Shoutout to the dream bosses for being especially nothing. The walk of shames back to bosses are also pretty bad but none of the bosses are really difficult enough for them to be that annoying, still worth nothing tho. The lack of good fast travel also makes some areas feel like an extreme slog to return to, very often having to retread the same ground you have before, the pretty w/e level design also doesn't help this at all. Most of the souls-inspired mechanics in general feel tacked on for no real purpose and only add tedium, I really wish games would stop taking inspiration from Souls when they have no clue what makes those games so good. I also wish there was more customization, the badges don't really give you much to play around with and aside from those there's practically nothing customizable which isn't great when this game is as long as it is.

That being said it's not like I despise this game, there's honestly a good bit of things I think Hollow Knight does absurdly well. Despite the boring setting the game visually looks fantastic and the sound design I'd easily place on top of the genre. This game also feels fantastic to control. I may think the bosses suck ass but the actual enemy design is really good, with plenty of enemy variety to make every area feel unique. It's absolutely worth noting that what this game does well it does VERY well. It just doesn't have much that really goes over the bar of <ok>.

tldr this is like basically the golf of video games when u rlly think abt it

There are some moments where Alternative's strengths shine and I can see why some hail it as a masterpiece, but there are enough flaws with everything in between those moments that I don't think I can rate it solely on the basis of its best aspects.

As something that came out in 2006, I do have to commend Alternative (and the prior Muv Luv game) for its innovation. There are a handful of interesting ideas at play here and the genre shift between Extra, Unlimited, and Alternative made for a surprisingly engaging experience. But while innovation can elevate a product beyond what its other aspects would allow, that can only go so far.

Apart from a few of the main cast members, the characters are generally not that great. Even with the foundation built by the prior games, it still feels like Alternative was harping on the same points as before with only a change in context. While it does offer some significant improvements for a few of these characters (Takeru, Meiya, and Yuuko were the stand-out examples here) the game still had issues with repeating its point so many times that it got tiring. Pair this with some rather severe pacing issues towards the latter half and a shift in focus towards military spectacle and Alternative really felt like it was in desperate need of trimming.

Ultimately, I still liked the series overall. While it has a lot of weaknesses, there are occasional moments of brilliance that were enough to compensate. And while that doesn't eliminate the flaws, it does make them a lot more bearable especially considering they're the type that are more likely to be forgotten in retrospect. As long as you're not pressed for time, I'd say Muv Luv is worth giving a shot.