So this game was always on my radar due to all the praise people have given it and with it being free on PSN+ this month I was finally able to give it a shot and I liked it a lot. I've tried a few metroidvanias before but never made it too far into any of them However Hollow knight was able to hook me. It has a really strong art direction. The mash up between Berserk and Dark Souls but using adorable looking bugs surprisingly works really well. The game's humor landed much better than one would've thought and could make me laugh when it tried. And even though I have no idea wth was going on story wise, the overall atmosphere and vibe was still really cool. The sense of exploration was also really excellent. It was super fun wandering around and discovering new locations.
However the game wasn't without flaws imo. The game walks a very thin line between good difficulty and frustrating difficulty. I think about 80% of the time it's on the good difficulty side but the remaining 20% can be really frustrating bordering on Bullshit. One of my main issues is how long it takes to upgrade your nail. It's your primary weapon yet I was almost done with the game by the time I got the 3rd upgrade. The enemy's damage and health scale up pretty significantly with each new area but your nail doesn't, which leaves constantly feeling underpowered. This may have been intentional but I wasn't a fan of it all.
My biggest issue however is the lack of interconnectivity. The game does have shortcuts and fast travel but not nearly enough imo. The game's maps are fucking massive and most only have 2 maybe 3 benches and only 1 (sometimes 0) fast travel points. Towards the end of the game I was really feeling burned out due to the massive amounts of backtracking I had too do. This is even worse when you reach a tough section that causes you to die a lot. Some of the walks this game puts you through are fucking brutal, the dreamgate can help mitigate some of this but I didn't even get that until I almost beat the game, and even then it's not a complete panacea for all of the backtracking. Backtracking to get a new item or find a new route is great, backtracking because you keep dying or are just try to get to point B is annoying. Unfortunately the game has way more of the latter than the former. I wanted to go for one of the better endings and was pretty close to getting it but I was honestly feeling super burned out by the end. Both from the backtracking and the massive amount of content the game has. Maybe I'll go back in the future to try to get more endings but I'm content for now.
Overall I still really liked the game. And it's making me want to go back and play one of the many Metroidvania's In my backlog.
Also fuck this guy
and this bitch too
However the game wasn't without flaws imo. The game walks a very thin line between good difficulty and frustrating difficulty. I think about 80% of the time it's on the good difficulty side but the remaining 20% can be really frustrating bordering on Bullshit. One of my main issues is how long it takes to upgrade your nail. It's your primary weapon yet I was almost done with the game by the time I got the 3rd upgrade. The enemy's damage and health scale up pretty significantly with each new area but your nail doesn't, which leaves constantly feeling underpowered. This may have been intentional but I wasn't a fan of it all.
My biggest issue however is the lack of interconnectivity. The game does have shortcuts and fast travel but not nearly enough imo. The game's maps are fucking massive and most only have 2 maybe 3 benches and only 1 (sometimes 0) fast travel points. Towards the end of the game I was really feeling burned out due to the massive amounts of backtracking I had too do. This is even worse when you reach a tough section that causes you to die a lot. Some of the walks this game puts you through are fucking brutal, the dreamgate can help mitigate some of this but I didn't even get that until I almost beat the game, and even then it's not a complete panacea for all of the backtracking. Backtracking to get a new item or find a new route is great, backtracking because you keep dying or are just try to get to point B is annoying. Unfortunately the game has way more of the latter than the former. I wanted to go for one of the better endings and was pretty close to getting it but I was honestly feeling super burned out by the end. Both from the backtracking and the massive amount of content the game has. Maybe I'll go back in the future to try to get more endings but I'm content for now.
Overall I still really liked the game. And it's making me want to go back and play one of the many Metroidvania's In my backlog.
Also fuck this guy
