Why Is Hollow Knight Not Reviewed by More People

Hollow from the other side, I must have died a thousand times

I got my Nintendo Switch day one and I've put around 10 hours into The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild, the latest game from my favorite series. Non because I don't dear information technology, but considering I've been obsessed with Hollow Knight. It is that damned skilful.

In a year that has been absolutely filled to the brim with groovy games, I can say Hollow Knight is easily downwards without a incertitude in my mind my favorite and surely an early on contender for game of the year.

Hollow Knight(Nintendo Switch, PC [reviewed])
Developer: Team Ruby
Publisher: Team Crimson
Released: February 24, 2017 (PC), TBA (Nintendo Switch)
MSRP: $xiv.99

Hollow Knight is a beautifully mitt-fatigued metroidvania that is equal parts fun, difficult, beautiful, and horrifying. All of the 100-plus characters are animated to be ambrosial and/or hideous, and the different areas of the humongous map each have their own fine art styles with some of the best apply of parallax I've ever seen. Ane area has ghosts floating in the foreground, while others have sprawling jungles or caves with layers that move independently of each other to create much livelier levels than about 2D games can offer. Afterward only seeing videos and screenshots of the game'south first area, a dreary cave where everything is a shade of blue, I had my breath taken abroad the moment I got to the second area, a jungle. It was so colorful and alive.

On top of that, the soundtrack is ane of the most memorable and whimsical scores I've heard in a long time. At that place are tracks hither that I'd rank beside the music of Zelda and Star Wars. Information technology is that damned skillful. Fifty-fifty the general sound design is swell, as every enemy has unlike realistic scuttling sounds, and many characters speak in seemingly fabricated-up languages I constitute myself quoting by the end of the game. One grapheme yous'll constantly run into is a cartographer, who can always be located by post-obit pieces of newspaper found on the footing and the song he hums. In most games buying maps is possibly one of the most boring experiences, merely in Hollow Knight, I got excited every time I heard the faint hum of the cartographer from distant, growing louder as I got closer to his often hidden locations.

The game takes place in an surreptitious kingdom of bugs where many heroes have ventured for diverse reasons, nonetheless never returned. Players assume the role of an adorable little insect (a beetle?) armed with nothing but a nail, which just happens to be the size of a sword for a bug. Why is this cutie venturing into the forgotten kingdom? Information technology isn't clear at the beginning but the truth soon reveals itself in a lore that leaves a lot up to estimation, in my opinion, but that is non a bad affair at all. Being spoon fed is non always the best way to take in a story.

Speaking of not beingness spoon fed, Hollow Knight encourages you to go explore as you wish. Most areas of the map are attainable early on, with certain areas in them only beingness accessible afterward acquiring items and abilities elsewhere. This meant that by the time I'd reached the credits for the first time, which took me 27 well-spent hours, I was pretty comfortable navigating most of the kingdom without looking at my map. Backtracking to areas I'd been never felt tedious. Forth the way I'd be killing enemies to collect Geo, the in-game currency, equally well as discovering previously unreachable areas and secrets, including a slew of challenging bosses.

Bosses aren't pushovers, even with grinding to get some of the amend equipment to help out. Reflexes are definitely put to the test, peculiarly considering most bosses are unique in their move sets, meaning each of the 30 boss battles provide a whole new challenge to overcome. Players that get frustrated easily might be turned off by some of the difficulty, just I never found any of the bosses to be unfair in their tactics. I tin safely say this is ane of the only games where I felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards every unmarried boss was slain, because there were no cheap tactics to speak of, be it on the player's part or the bosses'.

Thankfully the controls here are tight, responsive, and on betoken. Past the end of the game you'll be dodging, double jumping, slicing, dicing, shooting projectiles, and charging upwards attacks with ease and finesse. Mechanically y'all'll find well-nigh of the things you'd look in the genre, only the one big difference here is the Night Souls-like ghost y'all exit behind when dying. This ghost of your former self must exist slain to regain the money yous were carrying when you died, as well as make your 'problems juice holder' complete again. 'Issues juice,' as I've taken to calling it, is used to heal at any fourth dimension past holding a button. This procedure takes a few seconds to start upwards and complete, significant yous'll be difficult-pressed to exercise it during most battles, just boy did I notice ways to do it during boss fights since it is most necessary unless yous're a aureate god of gaming.

I dearest both of those mechanics. They circumvent a couple of problems games have always had, namely appropriate punishment for failing, and a risk-reward system. In almost games when you die, yous're forced to redo a portion of a level, or even to beginning from the very beginning, but here yous're but spawned back at the most contempo save signal — in this case benches that are all begging to exist screenshotted — and tasked with making it back to where y'all died and slaying your ghost. Dying earlier y'all get there means losing all of your money, which sucks, but I'd debate is a good penalization. It drives players to try their best at all times. The same could be said nearly healing, particularly during boss fights, as you've got to detect the perfect moment to heal.

Another thing to love almost Hollow Knight is the wealth of content. At 28 hours, I finished the game with effectually 85% completion rating, getting the bad ending. Judging past how much I still have left to discover, plus the two other endings I know exist, I could easily see myself ending up taking somewhere around 35 hours to 100% the game. This includes finding equitable charms that human activity as abilities, upgrades, and buffs, rescuing cute caterpillar babies, taking out optional bosses, and talking to a mysterious mushroom person among other things. I can't stress simply how much there is to do and find here, with all of it feeling worthwhile and exciting. I guess you could say the game is anything merely hollow — on the reverse, information technology is cram-packed.

If it isn't clear, Hollow Knight is not but what I'd say is the best game and so far this year, it also very well may be the best metroidvania title out there correct now, and information technology is easily i of my favorite games of all-time. Truly a masterpiece of gaming if there ever was ane, and certainly art worthy of being in a museum. This fact is even more impressive when you consider the game only pulled in effectually $43,000 USD on Kickstarter and was made by a very minor team of indie developers. Having played it on PC, I'll probably revisit it once it eventually comes to the Nintendo Switch at a yet-to-be-determined appointment, hopefully with an amiibo to boot (brand it happen, Team Cherry!).

For a moment there I thought I was growing out of video games, but damn has this past six months restored my faith thanks to Hollow Knight, Owlboy, and Breath of the Wild. Nosotros are truly living in a new golden age of gaming.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

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Source: https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-hollow-knight/

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