5/5 ★ – sirreldar's review of Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight was an amazing experience. The game is filled to the brim with wonderful artwork, an emotional OST, interesting NPCs, satisfying combat, and deep lore. Despite having some very minor criticisms, I enjoyed nearly every second of the game, and I can already feel the urge creeping back to play some more. To begin with, Hollow Knight is very “metroidvania”. You cannot explore everywhere at first, and you must unlock new abilities to traverse different obstacles, or reach new areas. I think this was done very well. The pace of unlocking these new abilities was well thought-out, and each ability was sufficiently teased ahead of time, so that when it was finally unlocked, I suddenly had a whole list of places to go back and explore. Additionally, all of the abilities had utility beyond simple traversal or access to new areas of the map. They each brought a new facet to the combat as well, which was interesting and engaging. One aspect of the Metroidvania recipe that I thought could be improved was the exploration. While the entire world is beautifully designed, and rife with hidden secrets, shortcuts, and wonderful aesthetics, navigating it left me more frustrated than anything. By default, the map does not update when you explore it. A special item must be bought to make updates to your map. Furthermore, before you can make ANY map updates to an area, you must buy an incomplete map from a hidden map vendor. And lastly, even if the previous two prerequisites are met, any newly explored areas will only be added to the map when resting at a bench. On top of all of that, the map does not show your current location, without purchase of a unique item, AND equipping it, which occupies one of your very precious charm notches. Overall, I felt that these mechanics bogged down general exploration, and added unnecessary tedium to exploring the world. Keeping true to the Metroidvania formula, Hollow Knight also had a LOT of boss fights. They all felt quite unique, each having their own move set, arena, style, and lore. As with any game with many boss fights, everyone seems to have their personal opinions of each boss. One boss that I struggled on might feel like the easiest boss to someone else. A boss I might enjoy, someone else might hate. I think this indicates fantastic game and boss design. It highlights the different play styles, builds, and player strengths and preferences, and opens the door for deep conversation about the mechanics of the game and how they can be used for each boss. Fighting the bosses and working through different strategies was by far my favorite part of the game. Let’s talk about the platforming. Unfortunately, the platforming left me pretty disappointed. It was sufficient enough to travel around, but nothing about it felt particularly enjoyable or satisfying to me. Even the Path of Pain, while certainly rewarding to complete, was not very fun for me. In general, I found the platforming to feel very floaty, inconsistent, and more “hopeful button-mashing” than precisely executed maneuvers. I frequently found myself slipping off edges, missing wall jumps, or just generally struggling to control my character. Thankfully, my overwhelmingly high regard for other aspects of the game make this into more of a minor nitpick than a serious criticism, but I was still surprised since I had heard very high praise, specifically for the platforming in Hollow Knight. I will say I really did enjoy the pogoing and thought that was a unique and interesting addition. Any review of Hollow Knight would be incomplete without mentioning the absolutely beautiful OST. Each track reflected the aesthetic of the game and the area it was used in, conjuring up appropriate emotions and wrapping each scene in another layer of world building. The music was extremely varied and technically complex highlighting the composer's ability and range of talent. Overall, I am very glad that I was finally able to click with this game and let it sink its hooks into me. I would very highly recommend it to nearly anyone, with the advice that they stay patient with exploration and navigation. The lore is deep and convoluted with plenty to uncover and digest, the combat is satisfying and varied, NPCs are interesting, bosses are rewarding, and the world building is top tier. I will definitely be returning to Hollow Knight eventually for more.