This “award” often goes to a game I still enjoyed but just not as much as I expected to. The problem for BD2 is the really high bar set by its predecessors. I loved Bravely Default and Bravely Second. BD2 was a solid game in its own right but easily the worst of the three-game series. The characters and plot didn’t connect the same way as the other two. The gameplay was pretty good though and did some interesting things with the class balance that led to me playing the game differently than most job system games.
Hollow Knight was the game I knew about the least on the list. Despite being a Metroid fan that’s the only Metroidvania series I’d played until Hollow Knight. I’d heard praise for it here and there over time and it did not disappoint. A unique setting, challenging but fair combat, and a fun and expansive land to explore. Games like this make me want to branch out more, especially to indies.
As I said, it was a challenging game. Deaths were common especially on boss fights. You have to be careful when moving because unlike Metroid you never get a ton of health. Lots of fights I might notice a pattern and know how to dodge but knowing and executing are two different things. Lots of fights have high reflex checks.
I’ve talked for a while about how much I love Legend of Mana and how much it could benefit from a remake. This wasn’t a remake but I’ve learned to not underestimate the power of quality of life adjustments. Portability, instant saves, toggle non-boss encounters, and a cleaned up translation. This version made me love a game I already loved even more. With portability it’s conceivable I return to playing this every other year or so.
I already sung Hollow Knight’s praises quite a bit above. Its accolades were well earned. It was a metroidvania but distinguished itself from Metroid in many key ways, proving you don’t need to follow the formula exactly to make a great game. The setting was great to explore, the powerups were fun, and the bosses were fun and challenging.
The long wait for a non-remake 2D Metroid did not disappoint. This game combined many of the best parts of Metroid Fusion and Samus Returns. It had an atmosphere and map that reminded me of Super Metroid. I finished it and immediately wanted to play through it again. And since it’s like many Metroids and is pretty short once you get the hang of it I can see this being a game I come back to again and again, just like Super Metroid.
Ambush spiders, weird noises in the dark, and a doppleganger you can't catch. Everything about Deepnest is unsettling. #HollowKnightpic.twitter.com/TpIOT8v92q
Deepnest set me on edge. Pretty much the whole area is dark. Lots of ambush foes like spiders that come out of nowhere. Also a lot of rooms where you can hear something crawling around and not see what it is.
The spiders are the least horrifying foes here. There are a lot of basic enemies from the Forgotten Crossroads here. Or so it seems. Strike them down and their corpse will start to wiggle. They’ll sprout new limbs and become a much faster abomination. In another area a boss lures you in by appearing as your doppleganger, wandering just out of reach. Catch up and it’s an abomination behind a disguise.
Colloseum of Fools
There’s an arena sidequest in the game. Three levels each with several waves of enemies. I only did the first two levels. Not only do different enemies come at you but the terrain also changes. At one point I had a fight against aerial foes with the walls closed in and all spikes on the ground, necessitating all aerial combat for me. Not my strong suit.
It’s a good demo of combat in the game in various situations. Ground melee, aerial melee, enemies with shields, projectiles, etc. The toughest for me was platforms over spikes with two groups of enemies: one that divebombs and one that shoots at you. Getting close without getting hit was tough.
Plot: Hunting the Dreamers
To unlock the endgame you need to hunt down the three Dreamers. It’s reminiscent of the four bosses from Super Metroid unlocking the end. One interesting bit is all the Dreamers are locked in sleep and defenseless. They have guards but the Dreamers themselves are not a fight.
Herrah the Beast is in Deepnest. Fight through the Weavers to get there and kill her. Afterwards Hornet appears to pay her respects. Though she didn’t know Herrah, Herrah was her mother with the Pale King as her father.
Monomon the Teacher is in the Teacher’s Archives. The Archives have cryptic, hard to understand messages. They speak of a Void, Kinglight, enthinking, and unthinking.
Queen’s Gardens
While not a Dreamer you can optionally find the White Lady, mate of the Pale King. She knows who the knight is and who Hornet is. She says the “Vessel” is weakening and urges the knight to usurp the Vessel. Otherwise, all minds will be subject to the plague.
With the three Dreamers dead the seal on the Black Egg Temple is undone. The Forgotten Crossroads, where the temple is, has become infested with infection already.
Inside is the Hollow Knight, the Vessel. The knight undoes the chains on the Hollow Knight. Battle begins. Sealed Vessel is the theme and it’s awesome.
Hollow Knight is similar to the Broken Vessel in that a lot of its moves are similar to yours. It has a combo with its nail, dashes, and jump attacks. It can also teleport. It took me a bit to get used to his speed but this was the easier portion.
As you do damage the Hollow Knight will roar and begin incorporating the infection into its attacks. It can shoot out infection projectiles. It’ll drive its nail into the ground and pillars of infection shoot up. This one was particularly difficult for me. You get a fraction of a second to position yourself, there’s not much room between pillars, and it does two damage. When the Hollow Knight uses the infection it sprouts disgusting, infectious growths on its body.
An awesome plot-tied development happens as the fight goes on. Hollow Knight roars again. Now it has an attack where its body is covered in growths and tries to slam you. It’ll get tired and fall down, allowing you to recover or get free hits. Most shockingly, Hollow Knight will start stabbing himself with his own nail. This is when the sorrowful portion of Sealed Vessel plays. Hollow Knight wants to be free of the infection. It has suffered long.
Finally, the Hollow Knight is rendered motionless. The knight goes up to him. They came from the same place. They were made for the same purpose. They are siblings, both with each other and with the shades left in the Abyss. The knight absorbs the infection from the Hollow Knight.
The infection is resealed. The knight’s eye holes glow orange with infection. Chains reform and wrap the knight. The knight now serves the purpose the Hollow Knight did: to seal the infection within the Black Egg Temple.
The above is the first ending. There is more to be done to learn more about the game’s lore and get a better ending. To do this, you need to go to a new area called the White Palace.
The White Palace is filled with difficult platforming around spikes, buzzsaws, and pits. The rest of the game has some tricky platforming but White Palace is on a whole ‘nother level.
After getting some ways in I got to a spot I didn’t know how to proceed. Since I got one ending I let myself look up how to do this segment. Then I saw what came next. Hoo boy, there was some stuff coming up. The part that struck me was fast moving retracting spears you need to bounce off of in a precision segment. That did not look fun.
I ended up stopping my playthrough there. Given time I think I could eventually get past. But it wouldn’t be fun for me. And at a point in my life where gaming time is most at a premium I decided I wouldn’t do it. I already had a good playthrough to get to the first ending.
Difficulty
Hollow Knight breaks triple digits! It got a 101.51, compared to a mean of 24.46 and a median of 15.08. That’s 6th out of 175, 97th percentile. Of games I’ve finished, that puts it behind only FTL. It’s even ahead of Fire Emblem: Conquest! While Hollow Knight had tough fights I would say Conquest was still easily tougher. For me, its difficulty was closer to the Mega Man Zero games on my first playthrough, before getting a ton of upgrades.
Conclusions
Hollow Knight was a bunch of fun. It started a bit slow but picked up before long. The setting was unique, the lore cryptic but intriguing, and the setting looked very good. Exploring was good and platforming good. The boss fights were difficult but felt very well designed, making me want to get better to get past them. I’ve played a couple great indie games back-to-back now.
Hollow Knight is a metroidvania game released in 2017. It was developed by Team Cherry, an indie developer out of Australia. I’ve heard the name said here and there over the past couple years but hadn’t looked into it until recently. Hearing it was a metroidvania got my interest, though the only metroidvanias I’ve actually played are the Metroid series itself.
The game takes place in a world of bugs and vermin. There are bug nests and burrows everywhere. Some bugs wield nails as swords and insect shells as shields. But this isn’t some cutesy bug tale; the tone is a medieval land after the fall of a great kingdom.
The unnamed protagonist, sometimes called the knight or the ghost, is a bug that comes across the ruins of Hallownest, a once great kingdom. The knight begins exploring the ruins, running into several other explorers along the way. And as he goes he learns more about what caused Hallownest’s downfall.
The Knight’s Abilities
Hollow Knight has 2D platforming and the knight wields a nail as his primary weapon. He can bounce off some enemies with a down slash. Since he’s so little there’s some recoil anytime he hits a foe. He starts with five masks which are his health. Most things do one damage but some do two.
Mana in this game is called Soul. You get Soul from striking foes. The first ability you get is a healing ability. You need to charge it to use and you’re immobile while doing so. I’ve found the charge time is just enough that you need to be really careful before healing or you’ll just get pelted while healing. You also learn Vengeful Spirit as a sort of fireball you fire forward and Desolate Dive as a diving attack.
You find a few great movement abilities as you explore. It was a bit slow at the beginning. Getting the Mothwing Cloak gave a dash ability which really improved the gameplay. The Mantis Claw grants wall jumping, which can be used to climb walls like in Mega Man X. The Crystal Heart allows the knight to jettison forward as though out of a cannon. The Monarch Wings grant a double jump. Put them all together and our little bug can really get around.
Dying makes you lose all your geo (money) and your Soul meter is limited to 2/3 capacity. In the spot you died a Shade now appears. Defeating it will restore your lost geo and Soul meter. I’ve seen this sort of thing in other games like Dark Souls but never actually played a game with this sort of mechanic. Not sure I’m a fan. It almost necessitates you return to where you fell. And sometimes the Shade gets left in a boss room or ambush spot where if you already died there now you have the enemy that killed you and the Shade to deal with.
Similar to the Metroid series Hallownest is split into a collection of zones, each with its own theme, look, and enemies. Each zone has its own map too. One bit I’m not a fan of is you can’t see a map of even where you’ve been until you find Cornifer the map maker in that zone. In Metroid you go to a new area and go through three rooms and your map will have those three rooms on it. Here your map of the area is blank until you find Cornifer. Sometimes I missed him by not choosing the correct direction at a fork.
Forgotten Crossroads – The beginning area. A cave system with simple platforming and enemies compared to later areas.
Greenpath – An area with thriving green plants that’s reminiscent of Metroid’s Brinstar. Introduces a lot of ambush monsters so you have to stay alert. You also get the dash here.
Fungal Wastes – Significant step up in difficulty here. Lots of different fungus enemies including assholes that shoot homing explosives at you in platforming segments. Also has platforming segments bouncing on objects using the downstab. Has the Mantis Village subarea where you fight the quick mantis tribe and challenge their lords.
City of Tears
The remains of a once glorious city. Get your combat on because there’s a bunch of bugs with nails and shells here. There are foes to challenge your nailplay, flyers, and bigger foes. One sub-area sics ghosts that appear, disappear, and throw projectiles. Gotta learn the enemy patterns and response. The city’s theme is appropriate, evoking feelings of a once glorious city.
Crystal Peak
My favorite area. Bright caves of crystal and it’s a lot different from other areas. There’s mining machinery all around, including converor belts. The crystal enemies periodically shoot lasers. The bosses here also love their lasers.
Ancient Basin – Deep underground this area give strong vibes that something is wrong. The color scheme is lacking in color. Enemies ambush by burrowing from under.
Bosses in Hollow Knight have been challenging but a lot of fun. I’m really impressed with the attack design on most of them. Pretty much every boss has clear tells on its attacks. You might only have a half second to react but you can react. The speed and variety of patterns are what make the fights tough but fresh. I’m by no means an action game expert but a lot of this game’s attack patterns were new for me.
Hornet
Confronting Hornet at Kingdom’s Edge
You fight Hornet twice and the second time she’s trickier and more aggressive. She’s only a little bigger than you and wields a needle and thread. Hornet is a good example of what I mean by tells. She has three different aerial attacks. Reading which she’s doing is pivotal for dodging. One she’ll pause at the apex and dash attack down, one is just a jump so if you hesitate she’ll land on you, one is her whipping her needle around as an AoE attack.
Fight gets trickier as she takes some hits. She begins putting out spike balls that stay in the arena. You can swipe them away but it’s another thing to deal with. And if you don’t swipe them your room to maneuver will keep shrinking.
There are three Mantis Lords. One fights you on her own and after beating her the others strike together. The first one is pretty much a warm-up for the two-on-one. The Lords teleport between every strike. There’s a dash attack, strike from above, and a wide thrown blade. There’s a moment to gather yourself between teleports on the one-on-one but when it’s two at least one of them is always going at you, making the fight a lot faster.
Broken Vessel
The Broken Vessel has some attacks similar to your own. It can dash attack low and slightly high. It has a quick jump like Hornet. That quick jump throws me off so much. Trying to read for tells and instead he comes right at you. Throw in his other jump where he hesitates in the air, comes down, and infectious projectiles come out and curve upwards.
After some deaths I could get the hang of the fight. But similar to Hornet there’s a twist: self-acting infectious blobs begin appearing and flying for you. Managing the blobs and Vessel’s attacks proved to be quite a challenge. The fight theme is both ominous and sorrowful, hinting at the tragedy of this foe.
Watcher Knights – Six of these guys, two at a time. If there was only one at a time this wouldn’t be bad. They can roll on the ground, bounce and roll, swing their nail, and run forward. Now have there be two at once, with no synchronization of attacks. It’s pretty tough to manage two at once.
***** PLOT SECTION *****
The knight looks upon the remains of Hallownest
A Non-Straightforward Tale
The story of Hollow Knight is told in a way that makes me think of Metroid Prime: rather than dialogue and cutscenes you get it from investigating the ruins and finding writings from before the fall. Hollow Knight also seems far less straightforward than Metroid in that I spent most of the game feeling like I didn’t know what was going on.
A Ruined Kingdom
The beginning of the game sees the knight going through once travelled roads. The Forgotten Crossroads were once heavily traveled. Greenpath was home to a tribe that had a treaty with the king of Hallownest. There are writings praising and worshipping the king, called the Pale King.
The knight encounters other travelers and explorers. One, wielding a needle and thread, acts hostile. Her name is Hornet and she says she knows what the knight is and what he’d try to do. She calls him a “ghost.” After a brief fight, she retreats. The knight finds the Mothwing Cloak on a corpse of a bug that looks similar to him. Then he sees a vision of three other bugs who tell him to leave them to rest and not open the seal. They call him a “little shadow.”
Throughout the ruined kingdom there are signs of an infection. The corpses of Hallownest’s citizens are reanimated by this infection and that’s the source of many of the game’s enemies. This is most apparent in what was once the capital city, now a City of Tears. The streets are filled with reanimated citizens and warriors.
The Dreamers and the Seal
The knight meets Hornet again at the City of Tears. In front of a monument she says the “little ghost” will learn of the sacrifice that sustains Hallownest. She leaves, inviting the knight to find her again.
The monument is to the Hollow Knight. The engraving states that it is by its sacrifice that Hallownest is made eternal. The Black Egg Temple is marked on the map, the site where the Hollow Knight is sealed.
Later, the knight comes to a monument to three Dreamers: Monomon the Teacher, Lurien the Watcher, and Herrah the Beast. They maintain the seal on the Black Eggs Temple. They try to stop the knight by banishing him to the dream realm.
The knight is aided by a mysterious Seer. She gives the knight the Dream Nail, which can be used to hit some people to release their essense. Meanwhile, it’s the Watchers who provide theseal on the Hollow Knight. Finding and killing the Dreamers will unseal the Black Egg Temple. As the knight proceeds the Forgotten Crossroads at the start of his journey become overrun with infection. The beasts there become twisted and engorged with infection. It seems as though the infection is spilling out of the Black Egg Temple.
Lurien the Watcher
The Knight’s Origins
The knight goes to Kingdom’s Edge to meet with Hornet. Hornet tests the knight’s resolve, both physically and mentally. She fights the knight and asks if he can handle the truth. After winning, the knight comes to the Cast-Off Shell and gains the King’s Brand. The Brand is the mark of the Pale King. Clearly the knight and the Pale King have some connection. The mark allows the knight to open a sealed door at the bottom of the Ancient Basin, leading to a place called the Abyss. The knight also learns Hornet is the daughter of the Pale King, princess of Hallownest.
The Abyss is littered with corpses that look like the knight. Shades appear throughout that look like the knight’s shade when he dies, though slightly different. Hauntingly, these other shades are referred to as “Siblings” in the bestiary. Dark power pervades the place. It would seem the knight came from this place. As he explores he gains a dark power.
The Abyss
Upon leaving he is met by Hornet again. Hornet states their strength comes from a similar source though she doesn’t have the knight’s darkness. She has come to see hope in the knight. She says he will face a choice: to prolong the kingdom’s stasis or strike at the source of the infection.
Super Romo Brothers 