Hollow Knight is one of the best metroidvanias, but was killed by over-ambitioned devs.


Difficulty  ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (base story for casual gamers, rest for pure hardcore gamers)


Best things

* huge world with a lot of interesting places and content
* nice character ideas (for example Zote the Mighty)
* a lot of special things to discover (the financial lesson with the bank is a nice one)
* cool bossfights (25+ bosses) and a boss rush mode
* charm system is very vesatile to adapt to your playstile or to certain bossfights
* solid game for a kickstarter
* EDIT: my speedrun in under 120 minutes following a video with a lot of skipping was actually quite fun

Biggest flaws

* opening the inventory does not pause the game
* you loose your money permanently if you get killed before you can reobtain your dark soul
* the world is so huge that you get lost in the beginning without Cornifers maps
* checkpoints (benches) are often too far away from the bossfights (produces long travels between bossfight retries)
* the difficulty is swaying from casual directly to hardcore gamer, there is nothing in between
* the story telling is so chaotic and cut in too little pieces
* 2 out of 5 endings are not possible to reach for normal gamers

The two main flaws is the story telling and the difficulty balancing. Both is way off the course.

In the first half I was not even realising why on earth my character is running around and doing stuff. There was neither a certain goal, nor a logical concept noticable. Probably I missed a lot, because of all the tiny story pieces you collect here and there. Don't ever expect the devs help you in putting them together. The basic game ending is very unspectacular, the other endings, besides extra special boss fights, are not much better, even if they try to give them a scent of epicness. The devs just failed, because they skipped a proper story telling totally.

As soon as you leave the trails of the story bosses, the game becomes really mean. The base difficulty is suitable for casual gamers. If things get too tough, collect better charms or more notches and come back later. Fair enough.
Some of the dream bosses (like Lost Kin), the NKG (Nightmare King Grimm) or Radiance was driving me crazy. Most bosses had a concept, if you get it and adapt to it you will win, but some just didn't. Too chaotic, no proper signs of which attack will be initiated next was rendering these fights very luck based if you have not very godlike reflexes. Even the jumping sequence in the White Palace with the asynchronous lance corridor (which was far away from any bench) was freaking me out.

Really, devs, I don't get it. Did you wanted to make a game for anybody or just for hardcore gamers? Make up your mind. There was nothing in between in your game. And for completionists like me it is a slap in the face if you cover up special endings behind impossible bossfights. And to point it out: it was just the "normal" mode I was playing atm! This is nothing anyone can enjoy and destroys any replayability. Even after I did it I felt no satisfaction at all, just bitterness. And hey, congrats devs, you are the first ones who actually managed to make me destroy one of my PS4 controller in anger. You owe me one, and this is absolutely no joke.

This is why I cannot recommend this game to any person out there.
Unless you are up to a lot of pain or want to watch half of the game on Youtube.

A good game was ruined for the sake of some few harcore gamers. Congrats to that.

Hollow Knight is one of the best metroidvanias, but was killed by over-ambitioned devs. [table][tr][th] Overall      ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ - 5/10 Music        ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ - 7/10 Graphics   ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ - 7/10 Gameplay ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ - 5/10 Story         ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ - 2/10 [/th][/tr][/table] Difficulty  ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (base story for casual gamers, rest for pure hardcore gamers) Best things * huge world with a lot of interesting places and content * nice character ideas (for example Zote the Mighty) * a lot of special things to discover (the financial lesson with the bank is a nice one) * cool bossfights (25+ bosses) and a boss rush mode * charm system is very vesatile to adapt to your playstile or to certain bossfights * solid game for a kickstarter * EDIT: my speedrun in under 120 minutes following a video with a lot of skipping was actually quite fun Biggest flaws * opening the inventory does not pause the game * you loose your money permanently if you get killed before you can reobtain your dark soul * the world is so huge that you get lost in the beginning without Cornifers maps * checkpoints (benches) are often too far away from the bossfights (produces long travels between bossfight retries) * the difficulty is swaying from casual directly to hardcore gamer, there is nothing in between * the story telling is so chaotic and cut in too little pieces * 2 out of 5 endings are not possible to reach for normal gamers The two main flaws is the story telling and the difficulty balancing. Both is way off the course. In the first half I was not even realising why on earth my character is running around and doing stuff. There was neither a certain goal, nor a logical concept noticable. Probably I missed a lot, because of all the tiny story pieces you collect here and there. Don't ever expect the devs help you in putting them together. The basic game ending is very unspectacular, the other endings, besides extra special boss fights, are not much better, even if they try to give them a scent of epicness. The devs just failed, because they skipped a proper story telling totally. As soon as you leave the trails of the story bosses, the game becomes really mean. The base difficulty is suitable for casual gamers. If things get too tough, collect better charms or more notches and come back later. Fair enough. Some of the dream bosses (like Lost Kin), the NKG (Nightmare King Grimm) or Radiance was driving me crazy. Most bosses had a concept, if you get it and adapt to it you will win, but some just didn't. Too chaotic, no proper signs of which attack will be initiated next was rendering these fights very luck based if you have not very godlike reflexes. Even the jumping sequence in the White Palace with the asynchronous lance corridor (which was far away from any bench) was freaking me out. Really, devs, I don't get it. Did you wanted to make a game for anybody or just for hardcore gamers? Make up your mind. There was nothing in between in your game. And for completionists like me it is a slap in the face if you cover up special endings behind impossible bossfights. And to point it out: it was just the "normal" mode I was playing atm! This is nothing anyone can enjoy and destroys any replayability. Even after I did it I felt no satisfaction at all, just bitterness. And hey, congrats devs, you are the first ones who actually managed to make me destroy one of my PS4 controller in anger. You owe me one, and this is absolutely no joke. This is why I cannot recommend this game to any person out there. Unless you are up to a lot of pain or want to watch half of the game on Youtube. A good game was ruined for the sake of some few harcore gamers. Congrats to that.