Hollow Knight is getting a ton of hype now that it’s out on Switch, and it looks pretty cool. I love the entomology theme. Has anyone played it? Is it worthwhile?
Yes I really like Hollow Knight. It feels good to move around and smack enemies and stuff with your sword. Each screen is full of destructable stuff that serves no purpose but to be smacked to bits. The art and music and sound design is beautiful. It’s joyful, it’s somber, it’s bleak, and it’s lush.
The game is a much bigger and more difficult metroidvania than I was expecting. I’m about 25 hours in, and I reckon I’m only half way through.
You have to buy maps for each area. You have to buy a pen to update area maps with additional rooms that you discover. Your map only updates once you make it back to a save point. You need to buy and keep equipped an accessory to see your location on the map. That accessory can only be equipped or removed at save points.
Progression is of course gated behind ability upgrades, but the game is generous with how much it let’s you explore before you run out of options. I’m certain a subsequent playthrough would see me going through areas in a different order, and I’m fairly certain NPC interactions might occur differenty too.
Anyhow, Hollow Knight’s easily the best game I’ve picked up this year.
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I just finished the game this morning actually! Couldn’t stop thinking about the final boss as I lay in bed so got up before I had to go to work to finish it off.
I’m surprised so many places (including me) slept on it when it released for the PC last year. God-tier metroidvania with obvious heavy Soulsbourne influences in story and tone if that’s your thing.
Considering how long and full of stuff it is I’d probably say the switch version is the best pure gaming value on the market right now at $15
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This is true. I think it surpasses any Metroid or Symphony of the Night-style Castlevania.
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that good?
I’d ignored it because it looked way too souls-derivative to be particularly great and because I really haven’t gotten into a “regular” metrovania since la mulana, but…
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Yes, I think so (though I can’t speak to how it would compare to La Mulana). I’ve played enough regular metroidvania by now that the style of game can often feel like a purely mechanical exercise in sweeping through rooms and filling out the map. But the navigation in Hollow Knight feels much more involved, exploratory, and demanding.
Hollow Knight has many thematic and mechanical elements that are Souls-derivative, for sure. But it’s atmosphere and storytelling are much more sensuous than a Souls game, and it’s an action platformer–you’re constanly bouncing and flinging yourself about. For me, this sets a distinct tone apart from Souls games.
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I found Hollow Knight to be kind of tedious and plodding. It’s gigantic and felt rather empty to me; there was nothing pulling me forward. I played about 10 hours and in that time everything felt very samey, the item/badge system didn’t create any interesting choices, and none of the new areas I had access to looked much different than the ones I’d already seen.
Wish it had grabbed me! There just wasn’t enough variety to justify the long play time for me.
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It’s a 2d metroidvania with added platforming challenges.
Definitely doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and there are valid arguments that the genre basically died in the PS1/GBA era for a reason, but I’d say it’s at least as good of an overall package as mainstays like SotN or Super Metroid, with the caveat that there are platforming challenges in HK that are significantly more difficult than anything in either of those two games.
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my interest is piqued and I’ve ignored it long enough now that I’m going to give it a shot, but I won’t be surprised if I come away with a similar impression; advertising such a long game made on such a small budget does make me skeptical, and this point was raised in the eurogamer review (which was filed by an irregular contributor and seemed a bit of an afterthought, though perhaps unfairly).
I will note again that despite feeling similarly about what I played of Ori I’m looking forward to its sequel in spite of all this since I learned they hired the Intrusion 2 guy
If you like metrovanias where you fling yourself about, try Environmental Station Alpha. Very underrated
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I’ll keep that in mind if I ever have a device that will play it.
OK, I played half an hour of hollow knight, narrowly beat one boss I accidentally encountered, narrowly lost to a second. it’s OK! but if it’s like that for ten hours I’m right out
I also just picked up Hollow Knight based on the recommendations here and I’m at the same point as Felix and feel exactly the same as him about the game! It feels good, it’s very pretty, and the two bosses I fought were fair and satisfying. It’s also pretty by-the-book so far aside from the map stuff, and the whole dark greyscale gloomy cave vibe is doing very little for me. I have faith that the gameplay will evolve, but do the aesthetics? Am I doomed to wander gloomy muted-color cave systems for 30 hours?
The aesthetic never goes beyond gloomy monochrome, but it does have a decent amount of variation within that style, like green gardens, cities, snowy peaks, crystal caves etc. It does a few creative things with how the different areas are in relation to each other, for example an area where you see occasional bodies raining from the sky, only to find later on that there is a colloseum in the area above
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If you aren’t feeling it you aren’t feeling it, but the first hour is not representative of the rest of the game. Once you unlock the map and the shopkeep (both in the first 15-30 minutes of the game proper) you’ll quickly learn how the game signposts everything and that unfortunate feeling of accidentally stumbling around (as opposed to moving with purpose) goes away.
At the risk of throwing good money after bad, I’d recommend trying to get to at least the second major area (City of Tears) before throwing in the towel, as you should have a few more movement options by that time and a better understanding of how the game feels in the long run.
(I absolutely walked way from my first hour feeling the same way you did, FWIW, though in my case I’m glad I stuck it out because once I got in the groove I found the game very rewarding)
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Very with @cask on Hollow Knight.
It looked like that palette and simply clean character/creature art (though animated nicely) couldn’t hold up for 25-30 hours. And holding the DaS mirror so close would keep it lame.
As I kinda said in another thread that all grew on me. No doubt some parts exhaust, inevitably a few bosses will stomp your little skull. Even so Sadsoulsbutwithbugs actually turns out a perfect range of cute, hilarious and horrifying. Very little content without craft. I didn’t use half the relics/charms/etc but there’s some creative variety.
The only real gripe I have is how long it takes to traverse and frequently backtrack but even that lends itself to the scale of the world. Once you have more than a few abilities the GameFeel is arguably best among type. DLCs are good and I’m hyped for the last one.
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I agree, but if you play it for the length of a typical Metroidvania (~6 hours), it’s a fantastic 6 hours of Metroidvania. I love to quit games!
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I agree with your point, but I didn’t find the first 6 hours all the engaging either! I think I’d probably enjoy the final 6 hours of the game more because that’s where I assume the difficulty increases and your powers get interesting and the loadout choices are more varied.
Does all this Hollow Knight talk merit a split into it’s own thread? We’re giving a very long answer to a quick question.
I’m down to see Hollow Knight get its own thread. Seems there’s room for discussion.