Hollow Knight Review

Hollow Knight (PC, Nintendo Switch)

A Vessel For Brutal Beauty

Score: 9.5/10

A couple months ago I heard there’s this crazy indie game coming out on the Switch called Hollow Knight. Everyone was ranting and raving about it a year ago, so I figured why not. It looked cute, but dreary, with all kinds of bug people swinging swords. So I bought it, at first, for my girlfriend to play because it looked like something she would enjoy visually. Little did I know that I would fall in love with this game, and pour almost as many hours as I would into a giant AAA game. Hollow Knight is a beautiful, brutal, and compelling experience from start to finish, and it is easily one of the best games I have played this year.

      Hollow Knight was created by a tiny Australian indie studio called Team Cherry. These guys gained ground in the gaming industry by making browser-based games for design competitions. A “prequel” to Hallow Knight, titled Hungry Knight, was created by them in less than two days and uses the model of The Knight featured in Hollow Knight. Needless to say, Hungry Knight is not a well fleshed out game, but it is responsible for spawning the idea of Hollow Knight.

Metroid/Castlevania mashed together made an entire genre of games

      At the basic level, Hollow Knight is a side-scrolling, Metroidvania style, platforming game. For those who don’t know this concept, this means the game features a large interconnected map, that The Knight can enter in and out of seamlessly. Throughout the game, The Knight acquires different powers, such as a wall jump or a dash attack, that allow him to get to new areas and discover secrets. This means there is a fair amount of backtracking involved, but the way the map is set up, along with a fast travel system, makes everything fairly easy to get around in. These features are reminiscent to the Metroid and Castlevania series of games but are ramped up and made more accessible to a newer generation of gamers.
      Hollow Knight follows an unnamed, voiceless Knight as he travels through a subterranean world populated by anthropomorphic bugs. The Knight's main objective at first is to find untold riches, but that is eventually thrown to the wayside. The Knight is plunged into a story that is far more compelling than one would think a game of this style could be. The story unfolds similarly to Dark Souls, only being told through character dialogue, item descriptions, and the environment. There are very few cutscenes that tell you what is happening. It’s also possible to completely miss parts of the story if you don’t explore enough. Also, like Dark Souls, the game features boss fights that put you to the test, requiring multiple attempts to figure out how each boss functions.

      I have to say, the boss fights are what really shine for me. Each fight is unique, brutal, and frustrating. I’ve never had so much fun going into a fight over and over just to get my ass handed to me for getting greedy with my sword swings. Some of the later bosses took me literal hours to complete, and some are completely impossible until you acquire new abilities. Every fight is finely tuned, so when you get hit, you know it's your own fault. This made each loss even more frustrating because I knew I was to blame. However, unlike Dark Souls the consequences are little fairer and allow you to keep trying over and over until you figure the fight out. There is nothing more satisfying than beating that boss that you have been stuck on for hours. However, In Hollow Knight this high is heightened by the fact there is no co-op to speak of. If you beat a boss, it’s all because you made it happen.
       Other than the bosses, navigating the world, and fighting the smaller enemies can be a challenge. There is a staggering amount of enemy variety, and each can take you down just as easily as a boss if you get sloppy. If you die, and you will, a shade will appear, and you will have to navigate back to where you died in order to get your money and magic power back. If you don’t map out the areas you're in you can get lost, but there are plenty of shortcuts that are a breath of fresh air when you unlock them. The environment itself is deadly too. Probably half my deaths were from taking a leap of faith I shouldn't have into a bed of spikes. I played the Switch version of the game, and the controls are solid. There are no motion controls that I could find, but honestly, the game doesn't need them.
       The world can kill you, but it can also leave you in awe. The caves, jungles, and Gothic cities The Knight explores are insanely beautiful. The animation is all hand drawn, something I hope finds more footing in the coming years. The Knight meets many other adventures along the way each with their own personality and own reason to be traveling the world. A traveling priest and wandering warrior with delusions of grandeur are among my favorite NPCs encountered. Every time I talked to them I got a funny speech or lore that came into play later. The music is very simple and elegant when just exploring, similar to Kingdom Heart’s soundtrack, but can become loud and epic in an instant when conflict arises. Most of the music is piano based to go along with the more somber scenes. Everything about the presentation just works.

       The one aspect of the game that keeps this from a  perfect score, for me, is the Charm system. Charms enhance The Knights abilities and are easily equipped at every checkpoint. These can include increasing the range of your sword swings, increasing magic damage, or picking up money you left behind. Charm management is essential to later boss fights, but getting charms can be a little tedious. In order to equip charms, you have to find new “Charm Slots” in the world. Slots are reasonably easy to acquire in the world itself, but most are bought from shops. In order to have access to them in shops, though, you have to buy more charms. Charms that can’t be equipped in the first place because you don’t have enough slots. The whole system seems a bit backward to me and leads to a small amount of grinding in the late game. This didn’t take me out of the game much, maybe only an hour or two total was spent grinding for money to buy charms, but it was noticeable.
        I don’t play many Metroidvania games. It was hard for me to get into them growing up. However, Hollow Knight has me wanting to try these games out again. It has the perfect blend of Dark Souls and Metroidvania that will keep everyone enthralled while they play. Between a ton of optional bosses, a story with three different endings, and free DLC, Hollow Knight has a staggering amount of game jammed into it. If a sequel does happen, cutting down on the already minimal grinding will make the game even more of a masterpiece than it already is. Even if you are intimidated by this kind of game, I implore everyone to give it a try.