I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate this game it's one of the best and most addicting games i've ever played i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love it so much i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate it.
tldr version at the bottom

I am not a person that's into difficult games like the most difficult game i've played is probably is probably God Of War 3 or something lmao.
Buying this game i was like "huh, the artstyle looks nice and i heard the soundtrack is nice this must be one of those critically acclaimed indy games that take a few hours to finish i'll buy it it'll probably be fun" and my god did this game take a twist. First half an hour and i was confused as ♥♥♥♥ with no idea what i'm doing or where should i go and it was so hard and i was so confused but slowly i got more and more into it and after a few hours i finally beat my first boss so yay that exciting and i was like "I bet i can finish this game in the next few days" then i checked how long it takes most people to beat it and it was atleast 25 hours and i was like "what the ♥♥♥♥ why does it take so long ugh idk if i'm gonna finish it" Then after like 15 hours i finally made it to fu*cking Soul Sanctum. Yeah. 15 hours just to get there, then i finally gave up because soul masters were everywhere and they too damn hard and after 17 hours of gameplay i gave up and abandoned it but i still appreciated the game for the masterpiece that it is it just wasn't for me i'm not that pro of a gamer.
Cut to a year later i'm still listening to it's soundtracks on daily bases and part of me is still very interested in it and watching it's speedruns in GDQ got me so hyped up for it that i just decided i'm gonna finally try my luck this time and set my expectations as they were supposed to be set and not be overwhelemed by anything like last time. So i decided to download it and start after i finish Breath of the wild and rdr2, but instead i just hopped on it right away and this time i tried to do it different by playing it on a keyboard because i was too lazy to get my ps4 controller from downstairs. So I started a new game because i don't wanna continue from where i left off because i'm no longer used to it's mechanics so it was better if i started fresh, and by like 2 hours of gameplay i had made it further than 8 hours of gameplay last year and i got deeper into it than i have before. By 8 hours of gameplay i had already achieved more than i have with 17 hours of gameplay from last year and even tho the game was hard and i suck ass at it because most of the damage i give myself is self inflected cuz i'm stupid, i still wanted more than anything to beat this game and no matter. Like i'll be at work and the only thing i'm feeling in my body is pure energy just because of how excited i was to finish my shift and get home to continue playing it. Then lockdown 2.0 happened and i got more time at home and i spent most of it playing breath of the wild until yesterday something just told me to open hollow knight for a few hours and play it while listening to some podcasts. I played for 14 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HOURS STRAIGHT I AM ABSOLUTELY ADDICTED TO THIS GAME ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Even tho the game is really hard for me cuz i'm a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gamer and sometimes i spend hours just to defeat 1 boss like that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Traitor Lord or Watcher's Knight, I still want to beat them more than anything and sometimes I rage quit and i end up hopping back in less than 10 minutes later i'm not kidding when i say i'm addicted to it lmao. It got to the point where I no longer want to play other games that i love I want nothing more than to finish it. I'm 45 Hours into the 2nd playthrough rn, I got all the dreamers but i haven't approached the hollow knight yet cuz i'm scared and there's so much else that i have yet to do before i'm ready to fully face him. Currently i'm stuck at the third trial of the Colosseum Of Fools and i rage quit like an hour ago but when i tried to play breath of the wild and chill i just couldn't, i love botw but there's this unstoppable fire inside of me that wants to continue playing this game that's when i realized i'm addicted to it.

Other things I wanna talk about:
The Soundtrack: Holy fu cking balls, this game has one of the best soundtracks in any game i've ever played, "Sealed Vessel" might be one of the best pieces of art my ears have been blessed with.
The Lore: The lore of this game is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool and interesting i really love it and it matches so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ well with the soundtrack like "If you play this game and you don't feel some type of emotion come over you, then wipe yourself off man, because you my friend are dead."
Gameplay: Really satisfying gameplay that will not bore you not one bit, like you can punch the same enemy for the next 24 hours and you will not feel bored at all the sound design and animation put into is really cool and works so well.
Myla: Devs are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Evil for making us kill her, I can still hear her dying at night when i'm trying to sleep it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ depressing dude.
Also can we talk about how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cute the characters in it are i just wanna hug them all aaaaaaaaaaa i love them.


TLDR:
Great game, before you play it you should have higher expecations of this game and expect it to be very hard, long, fun and addicting.
Great animation, great sound design, great art-style, interesting and deep lore.
Incredible soundtrack.