A challenging yet hauntingly beautiful adventure.
I'd seen many people on gaming websites giving praise to Hollow Knight, so when it finally came to the Playstation 4 I had to try it. Starting as a Kickstarter project (people fund to pay for the game getting made based on the idea pitch) Hollow Knight became a smash hit now on multiple platforms which in itself is a feat considering Team Cherry the developer is made up of only two people. The main question though is, does it deserve it? is it good?
No it's not good, it's great! Hollow Knight is a metroidvania in style. For those unaware that's a term mixing Metroid and Castlevania, classic 2D side scrolling games designed around exploration and finding new items and abilities to unlock new paths to continue to progress. The exploration in Hollow Knight is superb. Each area is distinct in design with it's own enemies and challenges yet all work well with each other to form a cohesive world. You will travel through crumbling ruins, old tram stations, overgrown gardens, crystal mines among many other locales each of which has their own place in the world with cryptic clues given from occasional lore, an assortment of odd characters hidden around and visual clues from the level designs themselves. The story in Hollow Knight is not laid out bare before you but instead drip fed to you as you explore piecing together aspects to understand what's going on. To be honest I never fully understood the game from a narrative point of view but I really enjoyed the elements, atmosphere and gameplay behind it all.
As you explore there will be a huge amount of enemies in every area constantly in the way. All of them are pretty distinct from flying lancers, to small knights, giant worms, and everything in between. Combat is pretty challenging throughout, especially the bosses, some of which take multiple attempts and tweaking with your equipment to eventually beat. A few I had to leave and come back once i'd explored more to fight again once stronger. Most of them are because of this, really memorable though learning their moves and patterns. I really respected that the game wasn't just a push over to progress through. Though there are ways to increase your characters health, increase the power of their nail (sword) the biggest factor is the games badge system. Your character can equip a certain amount of these based on their power level which will increase as the game goes on. Each badge is unique and gives a particular bonus to your character, for example one might increase your swords range, another boosting your attack at full health, one gives you a mini shield, others boost your healing charge etc. The combination of these badges can make different builds fitting your play style and in a couple of cases some bosses had me changing up my badge equipment to deal with them and it made all the difference. To see your character on the map you even need to equip a badge so learning each area and balancing what you can equip becomes really important.
Each of the enemies and bosses also looks amazing due to the games both distinct and utterly brilliant art design. The whole game is based on a world of insects with Mantis, flies, Dung Beatles etc. all changed into knights and fallen warriors to fight. The lines are thick and clear cut with a lot of solid colors yet the backgrounds have amazing hues of purples, greens and yellows. It looks simple yet is amazingly detailed, I absolutely love how it looks and the animations are absolutely top notch to boot. Along with looking great the sound effects and music are equally of high quality (Nightmare King Grim's boss theme is especially ace). For a two person team they put most larger developers to shame with the overall production quality on display here.
Exploring everything and fighting through the bosses takes quite a bit of time though technically it isn't a huge game. You could probably beat it if you were pretty good in around 15 hours but Hollow Knight is full of hidden content from whole hidden areas, bosses, badges and easter eggs so you would be missing out if you didn't explore. The PS4 version also comes with all the DLC like The Grimm Troupe and Godmaster which piles on a lot of extra content. All in all exploring everything for every item and getting the platinum trophy took me 50 hours.
My one complaint if I had to choose one is that the Godmaster DLC is a little too hard to actually finish. The final challenge is a boss rush that involves fighting over 40 bosses in a row, every boss in the game including the super hard ones. If you die, there is no check point and you have to start again. That needed toning back especially as it had a full game ending attached to it.
That aside the game is amazing. It's imaginative, fun to explore, looks gorgeous with a lot of content and I can't wait for the already announced sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong.
+ Exploration is really fun.
+ Combat is tough but satisfying.
+ Badge system is a great way to vary the characters builds.
+ Amazing art design.
+ A lot to find, fight and explore content wise with all DLC included free.
- It may be too challenging in places for some people, one part of the optional DLC is particularly unforgiving to finish.
I'd seen many people on gaming websites giving praise to Hollow Knight, so when it finally came to the Playstation 4 I had to try it. Starting as a Kickstarter project (people fund to pay for the game getting made based on the idea pitch) Hollow Knight became a smash hit now on multiple platforms which in itself is a feat considering Team Cherry the developer is made up of only two people. The main question though is, does it deserve it? is it good?
No it's not good, it's great! Hollow Knight is a metroidvania in style. For those unaware that's a term mixing Metroid and Castlevania, classic 2D side scrolling games designed around exploration and finding new items and abilities to unlock new paths to continue to progress. The exploration in Hollow Knight is superb. Each area is distinct in design with it's own enemies and challenges yet all work well with each other to form a cohesive world. You will travel through crumbling ruins, old tram stations, overgrown gardens, crystal mines among many other locales each of which has their own place in the world with cryptic clues given from occasional lore, an assortment of odd characters hidden around and visual clues from the level designs themselves. The story in Hollow Knight is not laid out bare before you but instead drip fed to you as you explore piecing together aspects to understand what's going on. To be honest I never fully understood the game from a narrative point of view but I really enjoyed the elements, atmosphere and gameplay behind it all.
As you explore there will be a huge amount of enemies in every area constantly in the way. All of them are pretty distinct from flying lancers, to small knights, giant worms, and everything in between. Combat is pretty challenging throughout, especially the bosses, some of which take multiple attempts and tweaking with your equipment to eventually beat. A few I had to leave and come back once i'd explored more to fight again once stronger. Most of them are because of this, really memorable though learning their moves and patterns. I really respected that the game wasn't just a push over to progress through. Though there are ways to increase your characters health, increase the power of their nail (sword) the biggest factor is the games badge system. Your character can equip a certain amount of these based on their power level which will increase as the game goes on. Each badge is unique and gives a particular bonus to your character, for example one might increase your swords range, another boosting your attack at full health, one gives you a mini shield, others boost your healing charge etc. The combination of these badges can make different builds fitting your play style and in a couple of cases some bosses had me changing up my badge equipment to deal with them and it made all the difference. To see your character on the map you even need to equip a badge so learning each area and balancing what you can equip becomes really important.
Each of the enemies and bosses also looks amazing due to the games both distinct and utterly brilliant art design. The whole game is based on a world of insects with Mantis, flies, Dung Beatles etc. all changed into knights and fallen warriors to fight. The lines are thick and clear cut with a lot of solid colors yet the backgrounds have amazing hues of purples, greens and yellows. It looks simple yet is amazingly detailed, I absolutely love how it looks and the animations are absolutely top notch to boot. Along with looking great the sound effects and music are equally of high quality (Nightmare King Grim's boss theme is especially ace). For a two person team they put most larger developers to shame with the overall production quality on display here.
Exploring everything and fighting through the bosses takes quite a bit of time though technically it isn't a huge game. You could probably beat it if you were pretty good in around 15 hours but Hollow Knight is full of hidden content from whole hidden areas, bosses, badges and easter eggs so you would be missing out if you didn't explore. The PS4 version also comes with all the DLC like The Grimm Troupe and Godmaster which piles on a lot of extra content. All in all exploring everything for every item and getting the platinum trophy took me 50 hours.
My one complaint if I had to choose one is that the Godmaster DLC is a little too hard to actually finish. The final challenge is a boss rush that involves fighting over 40 bosses in a row, every boss in the game including the super hard ones. If you die, there is no check point and you have to start again. That needed toning back especially as it had a full game ending attached to it.
That aside the game is amazing. It's imaginative, fun to explore, looks gorgeous with a lot of content and I can't wait for the already announced sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong.
+ Exploration is really fun.
+ Combat is tough but satisfying.
+ Badge system is a great way to vary the characters builds.
+ Amazing art design.
+ A lot to find, fight and explore content wise with all DLC included free.
- It may be too challenging in places for some people, one part of the optional DLC is particularly unforgiving to finish.