GAME REVIEW: Hollow Knight (2018)
A modern classic with the most enticing music
I love Hollow Knight. Up-front, this is one of my favorite video games, so in my effort to review some of my all-time favorite games (especially modern classics), Hollow Knight was among the games that I felt that I simply needed to review. Made by Team Cherry in 2018, I have this game on both PS4 and Nintendo Switch and I am currently on my third playthrough, so it goes to show just how much joy I get from playing this game. There are a sparse few new games that I’ve played through that many times and with so much enjoyment.
First of all, as I often mention right away, the music and art in this game are 5-star, top-notch perfect. I literally cannot listen to the score for this game without feeling a strong compulsion to go and exist in its world again for a while. The score was written by Christopher Larkin and even if you don’t like video games at all, you should listen to this soundtrack. If you’re looking for music for your TTRPG session, look here. If you love beautiful, mystical, fantasy, foresty, natural music, this soundtrack might be for you. “Greenpath” is a personal favorite and I would absolutely die of joy if I ever got the chance to hear “Dung Defender” played live by an orchestra. It’s just beauty and magic at every corner. The same goes, as mentioned, for the art. Every character design is beautiful, every creepy thing is haunting, there’s so much mystery and magic to be found in the artwork, it’s wonderful. You can bet that I’ll get something from this game tattooed on my arm of inspiration whenever I get around to designing it.
I also love the Souls-like way Hollow Knight’s lore was composed. If you asked me to tell you what the game is about, I’d have a hard time summarizing it, in the same way I don’t really know what Dark Souls is about if I were to try to put it briefly. It is about a Knight appearing in Hallownest and descending underground. Since the main character doesn’t speak, you don’t ever know his motivations, though you do learn where he came from and a great deal of lore about the world while you’re at it. It has messages for higher beings (the players), while the player character (the Knight) interacts with the NPCs who chat in cute voices. The lore does make sense as to why the character doesn’t speak (I can’t say so much for Link, heh) and, did I mention that the NPCs are all amazing? There’s so many wonderful and occasionally messed up characters: creepy Salubra and Jiji, suspicious Sly and Milibelle, the unsettling Grimm Troupe, lovely Cornifer and Myla, bored Iselda, hungry Leg Eater, and the oh so cool Nailsmith… and so many more! There are dozens of adorable, badass little bugs scattered throughout Hallownest, each with their own weird, cute little voice (they don’t speak English, of course, but it’s not as goofy-sounding as games like Banjo-Kazooie either). Every time I find one of them, I get a little spark of delight.
Speaking of Souls-like, Hollow Knight is also pretty great on that front as well. The bosses have clear patterns and hit hard and fast, but with patience and technique (and/or a really good selection of charms), you can definitely do some cool stuff and even find a few amusing cheeses. I will say that a few of the bosses are pretty much BS nonsense and a few of them require a ludicrous amount of platforming before reaching them (some more rest benches in the world would have probably been better). On the whole though, if I could get through the game, that says it wasn’t nonsensically difficult. However, I will admit that I’ve never completed Godhome or gotten the final ending, unfortunately. Extended boss rushes should be optional, not mandatory for the best ending… IMO that part of the game was bull-honkey.
There’s also a lot to do in the game beyond just pursuing the story. You often have multiple paths to choose from, which is great if you encounter something you can’t get past or find a boss you can’t beat. I managed to go through my third playthrough more or less putting off bosses as I needed and allowing myself to get upgrades and charms to make things considerably easier. You can save grubs and return them to their grubfather (fun tidbit: there’s something astounding in their little side story as well), you can make friends who go insane, you can free dream spirits. Of course, being a metroidvania, you also pick up upgrades like a dash, a double-jump, and a shadow cloak that help you proceed to areas you haven’t reached before, and find hidden items, areas, NPCs, and the like. In my first few playthroughs, gathering everything was very tedious, but by the third time I played, I remembered enough to keep my eyes open and peeled for sounds queues and that sort of thing that told me a secret was near. By the time I defeated the boss that lets you see where the grubs are located, for example, I only had about eight of them left (out of forty-six).
I will admit that if there is one crippling flaw in Hollow Knight, it’s the lack of fast-travel/return options. Unlike most metroidvania games that generally allow quick access by introducing shortcuts that can only be opened during game progress, Hollow Knight’s main way of fast-travel is via the stag stations, which allow the Knight to get a ride with a stag beetle to and from the stations the Knight unlocks, or the Knight can take the tram once it is unlocked. However, there are only a handful of stag stations in the game and only five-ish tram stops, which means everything else must be traversed repeatedly on foot. This wouldn’t be a huge issue if it wasn’t for the fact that you need to revisit many places repeatedly at different times of the game (especially in early playthroughs when there’s a lot to collect). As mentioned before, I would also say that the game could benefit from a few more benches (which are rest/save points/where you re-spawn on death). As an example, the approach to the Mantis Village when you fight the Mantis Lords is an unholy drudging trek that makes you despair at the thought of it on replaying the game. Same with reaching the Traitor Lord in the Queen’s Garden. Any time you have to visit Deepnest or the Ancient Basin, as well, there’s nothing. In my opinion, there should have been a stag station in a somewhat central location of every biome, or at least a secret shortcut, and that’s simply not the case at all. Even Dark Souls has homeward bones to take you to your last bonfire. Some item to get you back to your last bench or to Dirtmouth (the main hub) would have surely been appreciated by many.
On the whole, despite a sparse couple of complaints, Hollow Knight simply features one of the most enticing worlds that I’ve ever gamed in that I am constantly yearning to return to. I love the story, I love the characters, I love the lore, I love the world, I love the gameplay… I love pretty much everything. Metroidvania are some of my favorite types of games and if they had only snuck some more inter-world secret shortcuts or something to make you not need to do 10 minutes of repetitive platforming any time you want to visit an area to pick up something you missed, this game would be nothing short of perfect. Here’s hoping that its successor, Silksong, will live up to its hype whenever it comes out.
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