This review contains spoilers
God damn
For years I’ve been in and out of playing Hollow Knight, basically since like 2018 or 2019, I’ve played a bit of this game, but didn’t get like super far, before this playthrough the farthest I got was like the first Hornet fight, but I always stopped cause I guess it didn’t really click with me
Until this playthrough of course
You’ve heard it from everyone else and you’re about to hear it from me too, Hollow Knight is a fucking masterpiece, an absolutely punishing but satisfying adventure from the little town of Dirtmouth all the way to the void beatdown of the radiance, the bosses are fantastic, the level design is superb, the combat is flashy and fast and oh so good to pull off, the game looks just absolutely breathtaking, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the lore is straight up fire.
As both a Metroidvania AND a soulslike game, it is of course incredibly difficult, taking the exploration and level design of Metroid and Castlevania, while also having the combat and death system of Dark Souls, it is superb, it’s fast and will often punish you but it just feels so damn good to master.
You can’t have amazing combat without some amazing fights, luckily this game delivers, bosses like Hornet, the Mantis Lords, the Watchers, Grimm, The Hollow Knight itself, The Radiance, and so many more, aside from a few slip ups here and there (I’m looking at you massive moss charger), it’s overall just a great line up of bosses.
I mean bro, JUST LOOK AT HOW GOOD THIS GAME LOOKS, it feels like this game took every fiber of the atmosphere from Dark Souls and Metroid and combined them into one, the game has an incredible style, truly immersive atmosphere, and no matter where you are in the game, it just looks so pretty.
The soundtrack adds to this, shit is an absolute bop, I especially love the city of tears’ theme, the kingdom’s edge theme, and the theme for the Hollow Knight boss.
Everything in this game is all tied up together with some of the most detailed, well put together, and super interesting lore I’ve seen in a minute, Hallownest is a tragic and broken place, no matter where you go you feel like you’re only seeing remnants of what it once was, warriors and civilians who have either gone mad or have just died are scattered all throughout the kingdom, so many characters going through so many tragic scenarios, it’s beautiful.
Of course it isn’t all doom and gloom, there are plenty of funny little moments throughout, there’s the funny map guy, Zote, the dude who helps you on the Uumuu fight, the one guy who brags about how he’s an ultimate fighter throughout the whole game and then once you do your first coliseum tournament, you can literally find his corpse in the kingdom’s edge, I would feel sympathy for him but ngl when I saw his body kinda laughed my ass off.
My two favorite characters have got to be Hornet and The Hollow Knight, Hornet is such a mysterious and interesting character, I love the few moments you see her throughout the game, it really builds her up and it such a satisfying moment when she swings in and staggers the hollow knight long enough for you to either finish him off or enter its dream, and speak of the devil, the hollow knight himself is probably one of the best written characters I’ve seen, he completely symbolizes the tragic nature of hallownest, born only to be a vessel to keep the radiance sealed, he ultimately failed cause he wasn’t fully hollow, he had a love for his father, the pale king, and this ultimately leads him to basically being the Radiance’s little torture subject, when you find the hollow knight, he’s just nearly gone, a husk of a proud knight, who quite literally stabs himself just to end his torment, you can kill him and take his place which would end his suffering, but the more satisfying option is to head into his dream, fight the Radiance, and finally corner it, which leads to a great final sequence where you get to beat the shit out of the radiance in your shade form, and it’s even better cause moments earlier the hollow knight himself was the one who opened the weak spot on the Radiance, it’s such a satisfying narrative and gameplay pay off, I love it.
Hollow Knight is a work or art, a beautiful game from beginning to end, I highly recommend it……..if you can handle difficult games.
Now to wait for Silksong…………..ah fuck.
For years I’ve been in and out of playing Hollow Knight, basically since like 2018 or 2019, I’ve played a bit of this game, but didn’t get like super far, before this playthrough the farthest I got was like the first Hornet fight, but I always stopped cause I guess it didn’t really click with me
Until this playthrough of course
You’ve heard it from everyone else and you’re about to hear it from me too, Hollow Knight is a fucking masterpiece, an absolutely punishing but satisfying adventure from the little town of Dirtmouth all the way to the void beatdown of the radiance, the bosses are fantastic, the level design is superb, the combat is flashy and fast and oh so good to pull off, the game looks just absolutely breathtaking, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the lore is straight up fire.
As both a Metroidvania AND a soulslike game, it is of course incredibly difficult, taking the exploration and level design of Metroid and Castlevania, while also having the combat and death system of Dark Souls, it is superb, it’s fast and will often punish you but it just feels so damn good to master.
You can’t have amazing combat without some amazing fights, luckily this game delivers, bosses like Hornet, the Mantis Lords, the Watchers, Grimm, The Hollow Knight itself, The Radiance, and so many more, aside from a few slip ups here and there (I’m looking at you massive moss charger), it’s overall just a great line up of bosses.
I mean bro, JUST LOOK AT HOW GOOD THIS GAME LOOKS, it feels like this game took every fiber of the atmosphere from Dark Souls and Metroid and combined them into one, the game has an incredible style, truly immersive atmosphere, and no matter where you are in the game, it just looks so pretty.
The soundtrack adds to this, shit is an absolute bop, I especially love the city of tears’ theme, the kingdom’s edge theme, and the theme for the Hollow Knight boss.
Everything in this game is all tied up together with some of the most detailed, well put together, and super interesting lore I’ve seen in a minute, Hallownest is a tragic and broken place, no matter where you go you feel like you’re only seeing remnants of what it once was, warriors and civilians who have either gone mad or have just died are scattered all throughout the kingdom, so many characters going through so many tragic scenarios, it’s beautiful.
Of course it isn’t all doom and gloom, there are plenty of funny little moments throughout, there’s the funny map guy, Zote, the dude who helps you on the Uumuu fight, the one guy who brags about how he’s an ultimate fighter throughout the whole game and then once you do your first coliseum tournament, you can literally find his corpse in the kingdom’s edge, I would feel sympathy for him but ngl when I saw his body kinda laughed my ass off.
My two favorite characters have got to be Hornet and The Hollow Knight, Hornet is such a mysterious and interesting character, I love the few moments you see her throughout the game, it really builds her up and it such a satisfying moment when she swings in and staggers the hollow knight long enough for you to either finish him off or enter its dream, and speak of the devil, the hollow knight himself is probably one of the best written characters I’ve seen, he completely symbolizes the tragic nature of hallownest, born only to be a vessel to keep the radiance sealed, he ultimately failed cause he wasn’t fully hollow, he had a love for his father, the pale king, and this ultimately leads him to basically being the Radiance’s little torture subject, when you find the hollow knight, he’s just nearly gone, a husk of a proud knight, who quite literally stabs himself just to end his torment, you can kill him and take his place which would end his suffering, but the more satisfying option is to head into his dream, fight the Radiance, and finally corner it, which leads to a great final sequence where you get to beat the shit out of the radiance in your shade form, and it’s even better cause moments earlier the hollow knight himself was the one who opened the weak spot on the Radiance, it’s such a satisfying narrative and gameplay pay off, I love it.
Hollow Knight is a work or art, a beautiful game from beginning to end, I highly recommend it……..if you can handle difficult games.
Now to wait for Silksong…………..ah fuck.