izigame.me

"Perhaps dreams aren’t such great things after all..."

Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. A bizarre concept executed with such big love and care, that it is reflected in its depth, atmosphere and sheer quality. Funded by over 2k people on Kickstarter, Team Cherry's metroidvania is certainly my new favorite and one of the best games I’ve played, at least this year. I love when people can transform seemingly lame ideas into amazing works of art.
Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. As a simple, humble bug you arrive at the fallen Kingdom of Hallownest. Is it the riches and glory you seek... or something else?
After being greeted and warned about the dangers below by the Elderbug, you descend into the ruins, full of hostile, ill bugs roaming this giant tomb of a city. You meet a slew of different excentric characters, explore unique and dangerous places and uncover countless secrets that this land hides. What is it that You are really doing here however?
The game’s model of storytelling is more lore-focused. While the events on the screen don’t tell you much about the world on their own, the dialogues of other bugs, environmental storytelling and item descriptions are all pieces of a larger puzzle. That is not to say that the player is supposed to understand everything around him at once. More curious people will seek the answers on their own, put this mystery together and uncover its truths - or have someone explain it to them on a wiki, a video essay perhaps (it’s cool man, we’re all busy).
There needs to be a proper balance in such a way of telling a story though. Too big of an exposition dump will just bore the player like during a history class. Keeping the player in the dark is alright, but you need to give him regular hints and pieces that are also not too vague or else people will just lose interest. If you manage to achieve this perfect balance though, you are able to build a much deeper and gripping narrative which will naturally prompt the player to actively seek the answers on their own, instead of mindlessly going through the game. The vibe and atmosphere are enough to get you hooked on the story.
Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. Ones that use Nail and Shell for combat. They are pretty much an equivalent of sword and shield. Fighting in The Bug Game is remarkably simple – you can slash left, right, upwards and, if you’re in the air, even downwards, which lets you “pogo” off enemies and spikes. Can be very useful if done right.
The other important aspect of combat is Soul. You collect it into your vessel by hitting enemies with your Nail. Then you can use it to Focus to heal your lost HP, presented as Masks - or use it to cast powerful Spells. There are several of them with possible upgrades.
All these things, while simple on their own, make combat really engaging. There are numerous things to consider during each encounter – hitting with your Nail pushes you away, since the Knight is rather tiny; should you whether use Spells to deal with a boss faster or save it for healing; when is it safe to heal - do you have enough time to do that; when the enemy is staggered should you heal or deal extra damage to them. Improving in this game is not only learning the general mechanics of it, but also bosses’ specific patterns.
Speaking of bosses, they are amazing – every encounter is unique, their attack designs, visual designs, their themes – all constitute an epic battle.
Throughout the game you can find various Charms that aid you in either combat, exploration or other things. Each Charm takes a different number of notches, which you have a limited supply. Well, you can try fit even more Charms, but do that at your own risk. Charms let you improve your own style of gameplay and sometimes even lead to very interesting, special combinations.
The world is enormous for a 2D game. At least it feels like it, with each location packed with secrets, interesting encounters and a lot of content. The game never feels like it’s holding your hand, you feel like it’s an actual adventure. Exploration is very rewarding, with new spells, valuable items and mysteries hidden throughout the world.
During the game you also collect Geo which is a currency with which you buy items from all these wacky merchants. One mechanic that I can criticize in this game (which feels like nitpicking, but I must criticize something in a review) is the respawn mechanic. It’s incredibly cool aesthetically – you die, lose all your Geo and leave your Shade close to the place of your demise. Then you need to go back and defeat your own Shade, otherwise your Geo will be lost, and you won’t be able to fully focus Soul until you recover it. The thing is, Shade is not a particularly hard enemy, defeating it is pretty much a formality and during my first full playthrough of the game, I was always able to recover it first try, since just traveling to your place of death is not as chaotic as in Dark Souls for example. It’s a great mechanic, just not as punishing as it was supposed to be, I guess.
Later the game got even more additional content. The Grimm Troupe added a new storyline with unique bloody-red aesthetic I loved and Godmaster, adding basically a boss rush and an ultimate challenge of the game, unlocking a new ending.
Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. Who knew that their adventures would be accompanied by such an exquisite soundtrack. Christopher Larkin made each moment of this game feel like an epic adventure. I can listen to the game’s album on repeat every day. It’s a big part of the story’s character.
Sound design in general is fresh and high quality (ohh, this sound of Nails clashing, give it to me more).
Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. It shows, as you travel through nests and hallways filled with empty shells and as you meet all the wacky characters. We have a lot of beautiful 2D indie marvels, and Hollow Knight is no different. But besides it just looking great, with an amazing art style, visible through the environments and designs of characters, there is such depth in its aesthetic that it complements the story and world in a great way.
The game is not graphic, for the most part, but the simplicity and maybe even cuteness of the art style does not interfere with this game’s dark atmosphere. You are still shaken by seeing dead corpses of your brethren, by friendly characters dying or overcome by infection (RIP Myla). While maybe not as grim and hopeless as Lordran, it is still a sad and somber story.
Hollow Knight is a game about bugs. Yet a strong, somber feeling of melancholy overcame me as I stood in front of the pure knight’s memorial in the middle of a crying city, rain pouring down on my tiny, little warrior, not knowing yet, what’s to come. Hallownest is a dark place. There is light in it however – not the burning one that haunts everyone’s dreams mind you – but one coming from the friendly bugs’ smiles and time spent together with friends.

"Perhaps dreams aren’t such bad things after all..."