Enfim, uma das maiores pendências da minha vida se esvai, deixando pra trás um sentimento de arrependimento por nunca ter mergulhado nesse universo antes.

Desde a ascensão do sub-gênero dos "metroidvania", acredito que nada se compara ao nível absoluto de Hollow Knight. Não se trata apenas de uma experiência definitiva, se trata de uma experiência incomparável a qualquer outro similar.

Hollow Knight está no panteão de colossos dentre os maiores e melhores jogos independentes da história.

Muito me fascina o quanto traços de Dark Souls estão presentes por aqui, e não falo da dificuldade, mesmo que seja um ponto muito abordado no jogo.

A forma como cada cenário conta uma história à sua maneira, de um modo sutil e extremamente imersivo, nos ambientando em um universo tomado pela melancolia, fadado a ceder a uma infecção que se alastra cada vez mais, mas que em contraponto nos apresenta pequenas fagulhas de esperança fixadas a personagens únicos e inesquecíveis.

Há muitas memórias que eu gostaria de apagar, apenas para poder reviver todas elas pela primeira vez. Como quando chegamos na Cidade das Lágrimas pela primeira vez, viajamos pelos túneis com o Velho Besouro ou até mesmo quando enfrentamos os Lordes Louva-a-Deus, uma das lutas mais satisfatórias que já experienciei.

Hollow Knight caminha para se tornar um confort game pessoal, e acredito que minha passagem por esse universo ainda esteja distante de um fim.

Guys, guys, guys…
It has all the dlc
What’s not to love
110% baby
God home is next to impossible

Esse jogo é uma obra prima, perfeito em tudo o que se propõe. Tem o toque perfeito de dificuldade, que deixa o fator replay gigantesco (quase infinito, eu diria). Sem contar que a lore de HK é extremamente complexa e cheia de detalhes disponíveis nas entrelinhas, em uma animação, na trilha sonora, em uma expressão, ou, até mesmo, escondida no cenário impecável, tornando seu mundo cada vez mais imersivo. E que mundo... todas as áreas se conectam perfeitamente e tem seu nível de importância, dando uma AULA de level design. Muitas pessoas até comentam sobre a necessidade de fast travel entre os bancos, mas, sou totalmente contra. Pra mim, ser obrigado a atravessar o mapa pelos seus atalhos faz parte da mágica do jogo.

É até difícil pra mim descrever, a Team Cherry alcançou o inalcançável com um jogo indie.

Minhas 5 estrelas são até pouco pra esse primeiro ato. HK nunca será esquecido e estou torcendo do fundo do meu coração para que Silksong seja um excelente sucessor, porque apenas UM jogo dessa grandeza não é o suficiente. Precisamos de mais jogos assim.

Ps. Minha única crítica é em relação a "obrigatoriedade" de terminar o panteão 5 para a platina, é um desafio >desumano< e que na maioria dos jogos costuma ser conteúdo extra... E não requisito de platina. Mas é isso né... Hollow Knight não é a maioria dos jogos.

After a push to replay this game, I've grown an immense amount of respect for it. The gameplay EVENTUALLY gets incredible despite is starting off a bit too simple for me personally. However when it does get there it is top tier in that regard. However, what surprised me most is how much I cared about the story this time around. A fallen kingdom in a state of stagnation with only the tiniest bits of memories scattered around. A hero choosing to fight against it all despite its original function, past and dark origin. To create the change and end this stagnation. Not falling victim to the lack of will shown by its citizens that led to the fall in the first place, manipulated and needing a higher being to command them.

Really fell in love with this game far more than I was expecting to. It has an amazing atmosphere and gorgeous colour palette, lots of dim blues and greens, beautifully lit. I loved how much freedom it gives you to explore, how it buries away secrets and encourages you to find them. There’s a great balance between how cute and funny the characters can be, and how dark and dangerous the setting and plot is. Straight away I fell in love with the Knight, the grubs, Hornet, Greenpath and the City of Tears, and knew I wanted to see more.

The soundtrack took me by surprise with how beautiful and melancholic it is. It adds to the atmosphere and adds to the identity of each area. There’s a great mix of areas that feel like the heart of civilisation, to wilder gardens and further reaches, to others feeling very mysterious and dangerous. The controls also feel superb too. The jumps, dashes, wall climbing, pogo-ing with your nail, it’s all introduced very well until the point it became second nature. It has a bug-like springiness to it, giving you both a sense of overcoming great odds, but also feeling a growing sense of power and expertise in your own character and abilities. I was also impressed by the upgrade charms, which all felt distinct, worthwhile, and fun to experiment with.

This game is BIG, especially if you delve into the optional stuff, which I did after I beat the story. I’ve still got some to do, which I’ll pick up as and when I feel like it. But I’ve done a lot of it and have beaten the Radiance, which felt like a good cut off point. I’m sad that there’s not really much more for me to discover, as that aspect of the game is second to none, but it’s still a lot of fun to jump into and try to beat a challenge. Really I just want to keep playing it, and like many people I will now be waiting eagerly for Silksong to arrive. No pressure!

This game is beautiful, there's no other way to describe it. It's hauntingly beautiful, as any good post apocalyptic world should be. The controls are tight and the stages challenging, but in the way that when you die, its your fault... and also your job to learn from that mistake or continue to die over and over... and over. I spent so many hours trying to 100% it, but there were somethings I just couldn't do.

The only negative is that the story isn't super obvious, and that's a shame! I wanted to know the story, but I didn't want to hunt it down by the time I realized i had missed it. Fantastic game for any platformer fan!

I acknowledge my belated entry into the conversation, and I'm aware of the potential cliché in praising this game. However, I cannot help but express my admiration for how the atmosphere of Hollow Knight skillfully transported me into its magical world. The music, the design, and the dystopian salvagepunk elements collectively create a sensation of playing in a realm beyond the accepted boundaries of civilization. It truly feels like a place where the Pale King made his final stand against the relentless onslaught of chaotic disintegration.

While I haven't delved into other metroidvania games, I dare say Hollow Knight stands as the pinnacle of its genre. It consumed 50 hours of my time to reach the end, albeit without facing the Radiance. Now, here lies my quandary. The more I explored the game's lore and pondered its intricacies, the more I detected an unsettling aspect surrounding the mid-game introduction of the dream element. I didn't care to fight extra bosses, nor did I have any interest in the gods and the arena.

Aye, there's the rub. Hollow Knight is an intimate game, and the sense of loneliness and isolation is an integral part of the world. Therefore, any attempt to increase the number of bosses and introduce unnecessary complications for the players, just for the sake of it, feels immature—especially in contrast with the restrained style that prevailed before encountering the moth.

I don’t want to fight Radiance. Not just because it’s hard, but because it feels like a violent twisting of the arms. You don’t get the true ending unless… you find the dream nail and upgrade it, spending more hours on silly tasks instead of playing the game you enjoyed so far. I don’t need stupid gods and mythology for this abandoned world because that’s the point – it is abandoned, there are no gods, everyone is alone unti this melancholy knight comes around and starts helping. Like in a Kurosawa movie. The knight should remain a stranger, and The Hollow Knight should stay his possible future.

One of the few games I'm glad I went for platinum, or else the score would have been slightly lower. The game gets better and more challenging bit by bit, there isn't really a part where I can say "This game starts for real here", no, progression is smooth, and there isn't a difficult spike unless you explore the areas out of order. I thought the difficulty was overrated and it kinda is, it feels slightly above average for the most part (since you also get better bit by bit), but as I said, it gets harder and better over time, and when you get closer and closer to the end or even better, closer to getting the Platinum/all achievements/100%/whatever, oh boy... You're gonna have your ass kicked in a good way. Absolute greatness.