Hollow Knight
Publisher: Team Cherry Developer: Team Cherry Platform: Switch Release: 2017 Players: 1 Genre: 2D Platformer / Action Rating: 8.7 \ 10.0: Fantastic
Above is the Knight fighting in the Coliseum of Fools
I admittedly have always had an aversion to games well known for their crushing difficulty. I am, however, drawn to indie platformers with great presentation, and Hollow Knight met both of those prerequisites. Although Hollow Knight is part of the exploration-driven Metroidvania sub-genre that I'm not well acquainted with, I was still drawn to it from the gameplay I saw, and if I hadn't overcome my skepticism, I would have missed out on an absolutely fantastic experience.
Hollow Knight sparingly reveals any explicit details of its story or lore to the player. All that is immediately clear is that you are exploring a fallen kingdom of insects, and it soon becomes apparent that this downfall was caused by an infection that devastated the population. Partway into the game, you are given one explicit goal: to defeat the three Dreamers that are sealing the entrance to the Black Egg Temple where the vessel of the infection lies. Their locations are marked on your map, but the explicit path to reach one is not clear. This prevented me from ever feeling completely lost or from feeling overwhelmed with things to do as I might in an open world Ubisoft game.
Once you acquire the ability to dash from Greenpath, the second major area, the game truly opens up. Not since playing Breath of the Wild have I been so engrossed by a game's world. Hollow Knight is absolutely packed with content, and unlike many other massive games I've played, hardly any of the the activities feel pointless, repetitive, or boring. I always had a small goal in mind, and even once I
had seemingly uncovered the entire map, there was more to do and discover. This is helped by simple but satisfying combat and systems that reward exploration. When you begin the game, all you can do is swipe your blade in each direction and heal by consuming a portion of your soul meter, which is refilled by striking enemies. As you uncover more of the map, you will acquire abilities that make new areas accessible and increase your combat prowess in typical Metroidvania fashion, such as a double jump and the ability to slide down and jump off walls. You will also discover spells and charms. There is one spell corresponding to each attack direction, and by using them you will consume part of your soul meter without gaining any back by hitting enemies with them, which forces you to carefully consider whether using spells is worth delaying your next healing opportunity. Charms have a great number of effects ranging from simply boosting the amount of damage your spells do to generating a shield that circles around you or summoning a group of minions that will fly towards enemies and explode. Each charm requires a certain number of notches to use depending on their power, and coming up with ideal charm combinations as I expanded my maximum number of notches was a consistent source of fun during my many hours spent with the game. Should you die, you will awake at the last bench you sat at. These serve as the game's save points, and there are a few dozen scattered across the Hallownest. You will have no money and one third of soul meter will become unusable, which limits your healing and spell usage, until you kill your shade, the ghost that is left behind at the location of your death. Once you slay the shade, your money will be returned and you soul meter will be replenished, but if you perish again before defeating it, all your money that you were carrying will be gone for good. This system created some very tense situations, but due to the great distance between each bench, it often led to me spending multiple minutes backtracking my way to my place of death, which was hardly ever enjoyable.
I previously mentioned that few activities in Hallow Knight felt repetitive, but there are a couple exceptions, and those are uncovering the map and unlocking fast travel points. As you explore new areas, you will come across trails of paper scraps that, when followed, will lead you to a map salesman named Cornifer who is located in every major area. Before finding him, you will be unable to see exactly where you are in each area, and if you come across him without possessing enough money to buy a map, you will have to return to the town of Dirtmouth on the surface of the Hallownest to buy it from his wife's shop. Each area also possesses Stag stations, where you can summon a large bug, the last of his kind, to ferry you from one station to another. The dialogue with these characters was amusing and interesting, but encountering them began to wear off its welcome after I found each of them well over a dozen times.
The bulk of Hollow Knight's challenge comes from its numerous boss battles, and this is what intimidated me the most going in the most. While I died more times than I can count throughout my encounters with the bosses, almost each one was a pleasure to fight. They were entertaining tests of reflexes that rarely felt unfair and were accompanied by fantastic music. Healing requires standing still, a factor that was seemingly insignificant during exploration but resulted in many near-miss moments during boss battles that were downright nerve-wracking. Figuring out which charm combinations was a blast and never felt like tedious trial and error because the fights are often designed in ways that prevent any charm combination from being truly useless. However, the aforementioned backtracking issue affects a great number of boss battles. While there is sometimes a bench placed right next to the arena and the dream battles place you right next to the boss when you fail, many bosses have at upwards of several minutes of backtracking to do between them and the nearest bench. While I did enjoy the fights themselves, having to retread the same steps over and over to finish some of the harder encounters slowly eroded my strength of will by making the prospect of trying again seem like a worse option each time.
Defeating this boss was one of the most triumphant moments in any game I've played, and I unfortunately may not have experienced it I wasn't in contact with friends who had spent dozens of hours in the game. The path to achieve this true ending is incredibly obscure, and given how many extra hours I put in in order to reach it, I have no idea why. Once the aforementioned essence requirement is met, you must travel to two unspecified spots on the massive map to get two halves of a charm, then access a previously inaccessible area that is opened in another unspecified location, and you must do so while wearing the completed charm. All of these steps are merely hinted at, and while a process such as this would be acceptable for smaller side quests, having a true ending be so hidden is excessive.
When it comes to presentation, Hollow Knight is no doubt one of the most impressive indie games ever released. While I do enjoy the pixel art that's incredibly common among indie platformers, this game's stunning hand-drawn art is refreshing. The graphics and music contribute to a wonderful atmosphere that ranges from peaceful to somber to unsettling during exploration, and increase the intensity of the many boss battles. The game's wonderful audiovisual elements impressed me even more when I discovered that the art was solely worked on by one person, Ari Gibson, and the soundtrack was composed by Christopher Larkin alone.
Hollow Knight is a superb experience almost from start to finish. It manages to look and sound amazing despite being worked on by so few people, it manages to stay consistently engaging despite having a colossal world, and it manages to be very challenging but rarely unfair. I haven't played many Metroidvanias but I can safely assume that it will be one of my favorites for the foreseeable future and I would strongly recommend experiencing it for yourself.
Ups
Stunning art style
Excellent soundtrack
Engrossing atmosphere
Hard but fair boss fights
Charms are fun to mix, match, and use
Numerous secrets to uncover
Highly rewarding exploration
Satisfying combat
Downs
Excessive backtracking
Frequently cryptic optional objections
Several mildly irritating boss battles
Some slightly repetitive tasks
ESRB: E 10+ Content: Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood Price: $14.99 (Digital)
