After playing through this game twice, I think it is hard to justify a $15 price. It should be charged for much, much more than $15. From the moment you fall down to the King's Pass up to the moment you're about to deal the last hit on the game's final boss, it never stops captivating your attention and raising your interest. There is just. so. much. stuff to do in this game that it's ridiculous that you're paying only 15 dollars for it.

I enjoyed thoroughly exploring hallownest's caverns and scavenging for secrets and other items, and I got excited every time I found a new region of the map, with it's own theming, vibes, enemies and secrets to find. I hear many people say that they don't want to play this game because they don't enjoy getting lost. It is not nearly as big of a deal as people make it seem. Just go wherever you want if you don't have a map on you. That's it. It's that simple. If you end up in an area that you need an ability to reach, just turn back and go in some other direction. It was never a chore for me.

The hand-drawn sprites and Christopher Larkin's amazing composition work so well to create an immersive environment for each of the regions in the game that sucked me in for hours, unaware of how much time was passing(if you are a student, set an alarm or something while playing this). Team Cherry succeeded in making a world that felt very real, despite how fantastical the scope of the game is. Hallownest is an undead kingdom, filled with husks of bugs roaming the roads who attack the passerby. No explanation for what led Hallownest to its' current state is ever directly told to you, you have to find out yourself. I think hollow knight having a traditional storytelling method would completely ruin it and take away from how special it is. Hollow Knight has options for every kind of player. If you somehow don't care about the story, you can skip it by not reading the various lore tablets found throughout the kingdom, and not using the dream nail unnecessarily, making the game go by much faster. This brings me to another aspect I think makes this game very special, the Dream Nail.

The Dream Nail is a genius item given to you that in addition to being necessary to complete the game, allows you to learn the secrets of the world, and gives access to several other boss fights scattered throughout the game, and let's you access the area you'll spend the most time in after beating the game. There is so much that can be done with the dream nail, and it is all up to the player to decide if they want to complete the new objectives.

That brings me to the charm system. Charms are equippable items that change how you play the game. The charms are made so that you can accommodate how you want to play the game by changing around what charms you have equipped. It works very well and there isn't much more I can say about it besides that it is a well-designed system.

This game is a metroidvania, so expect a lot of backtracking to areas you encountered that you could not reach before getting a new ability. This game does provide a method for you to mark suspicious areas on your map, or you could make a mental note. But, if this isn't your thing, then don't pick up the game, because there are a LOT of abilities. But if this is your kind of thing, I could not recommend more for you to buy this game. The gameplay is tight and satisfying, the story is heartbreaking and well written, the visuals are beautiful, and it is horribly undercharged. So many things in this game are optional, and despite me not being a completionist at all, it was very hard for me to miss out and not want to complete those optional objectives. This is a masterpiece of a game and I am excitedly waiting for Silksong.