Hollow Knight is one of the first games I ever attempted to 100% and I got pretty darn close (110%). I don't do this often I do one playthrough of a game try to get everything I can whatever I missed be damned. Hollow knight was different in many aspects in the ways it had me in a vice grip.

First the Art & Music. From what I've seen in general game discourse online, I feel like the importance of these aspects in a game has dwindled and on a logical level I do understand games as a medium are more of a physical tangible "experience" instead of something you view passively and often times we've seen countless times where studios prioritize graphical fidelity over actual good moment to moment gameplay but I do think we can praise titles immensely for their art when something as stylish and stunning as hollow knight comes around. The Music especially just elevates exploration and combat my personal favourites from the OST being Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm and the art just makes you want to find more of it via exploration.

Level design also feels like one of those things similar to UI where you don't think about it unless it's really bad safe to say I wasn't thinking about the level design during my time with hollow knight, it does get quite challenging in some areas which is good considering if there was nothing to use all your movement abilities on there's really no point in having them.

Combat was another stand out, each boss having a very clear tells for attacks but you still need to execute things perfectly or as close to perfect as possible or you will get absolutely decked by any boss for that matter.

All in all If you haven't played hollow knight, fix that.

I think it's quite crazy how this studio went from pong-tier illustration (this isn't a dig at the previous game's art fyi It's an observation) work in the previous game to THIS. Super stylized pixel art(?) with stellar looking stages and player character's that don't just blend into each other. However on the gameplay front for me it was really nothing to write home about I do like the addition of new weapons (love how you can parry arrows) but I think this is definitely a title you only pick up if you're fortunate enough to have friends who'd be willing to drop some cash on a game you're likely to only play for a day and then never pick up again.

I think I would have gotten a lot more out of this game had I played with friends but unfortunately I couldn't because as someone who actively writes reviews on games on niche game websites I don't have any, the game was a fun romp with with cool combat and a neat gimmick with the objective being to repeatedly bash the other dude's skull in so you can reach his goal on the right side of the screen to be eaten. So essentially football but..you are the ball?

Unfortunately it was still deeply unmemorable for me despite the unique win condition. Which I admit doesn't mean much for you, the one reading this as our perceptions of things and or memory capabilities might be vastly different but I think ultimately you can't really go wrong giving it a shot you can probably get through it in a single sitting anyway.