I Keep Returning To Hollow Knight

Read nothing about the game. Bought it on Switch as the art looked cute, thought it was a fun platformer my kid might enjoy. She gave up after three minutes so I gave it a go. 120 hours later I played something else again. An absolute masterpiece.

One of the few games I have no problem calling a true masterpiece.

I always say this when it comes to Hollow Knight’s soundtrack: “Christopher Larkin made a deal with the Devil, but that wasn’t good enough so he went to God Himself”

It honestly blows my mind how expansive this game is, especially being made by only a few people. I’ve played through it a couple times now and yet still seem to find new things from watching YT videos. I really do think it’s the best metroidvania ever made. I know a lot of people see it as kind of a Souls type difficult game, but that difficulty makes finding upgrades that much more exciting and gives exploration a purpose. The world design is immaculate, the bosses are all varied and mostly really fun, everything in this game just comes together beautifully. I apologize for rambling but it has easily become one of my favorite games and, like BOTW, is one I’ll find myself revisiting again and again over the years as well.

Hollow Knight is so good and with the mods, it feels like we can keep playing forever

Hollow Knight is one of the best games I have ever played. It offers a far more fulfilling experience at $15 than any $60 AAA game of the last 10 years.

For every single Hollow Knight analysis video, we get further and further away from Silksong

I used to dream of this game while playing it. But After completing it, I dream no more.

I've tried getting into Dark Souls, but the combat feels like wading through mud. Another reason why I love Hollow Knight so much, it's difficult, but by god does the combat feel like doing a graceful dance!

I played Hollow Knight for the first time a year ago, when we were all still quarantined in France and I didn't see anybody for months, it was the perfect experience at the perfect time

A silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Hollow knight.

I felt the way Hollow Knight tells its story is also unique. Not just because of its use of environmental story telling, but because of how its protagonist doesn't feel like just an empty vessel for the player. You have a character arc. You return to Hallownest not knowing why and explore just because that's what you do in a game. But as you uncover more, you find purpose. You single-mindedly pursue that only to realize it's all for nothing. Becoming the new hollow knight just means perpetuating the cycle. But you can persevere and learn the full truth, then use that to defeat the evil once and for all. It's practically the full hero's journey, but with you completely in control of it.

You've convinced me to re-install Hollow Knight and take a second crack at it

Indie games often have the goal of making an experience the creators can be proud of. AAA games often have the goal of making a profit

There's a quiet calm in hopelessness, the sweet catharsis of nihilism. Everything you were worried about has come to pass, so what more do you have to fear? Might as well just wander around the wreckage, now that you have no more expectations on your shoulders. Maybe you can make things a bit better, but they certainly can't get much worse. I feel that peace in Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight is great. It's so good. It shares space with Celeste and a couple other games as a "Contemporary Masterpiece", if you ask me. I can't recommend them enough.

5:56 I'm of the mind to rename Souls-like games to methodical action games.

I guess I need to give Hollow Knight a playthrough now. Your description at 12:30 about feeling down, lost, despondent at the state of the world and Hollow Knight meeting you there is why I have a well worn boxed set of The Magicians novels by Lev Grossman at convenient height on my office shelf. I found it fresh out of college and feeling disillusioned and depressed at the banality of working for a living, and the stories in there helped me through those moments. Sounds like this might be another piece of media to keep on hand for those weeks when the dark dog comes around. Thanks for sharing.

Hollow Knight blew me away. I was just in awe at the art, the music, the setting, and the story. It's one of my absolute favorites and had me ranting for weeks that it was the closest to art I'd seen a game get. Obviously debatable, but that's the effect it had on me.

My first Metroidvania type experience was Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. It was my first Kirby game and it always surprised me that not many games in the series had a interconnected game map and that was always my favorite part of that game. It wasn't until playing Hollow Knight that actually experiencing that kind of deep emersion into a game's world really hit me and I've since searched out other Metroidvanias to play.