Review - Hollow Knight

“Hollow Knight” is a Metroidvania released on all major platforms in 2017. I steered clear of Hollow Knight for years due to its "Souls-like" description, but a recent whim turned my opinion and made me open up a bit more to the genre.

It's no secret that I hate Souls games, and as much as I love Metroidvania games, I didn't want to get frustrated by a prohibitively difficult experience. As Silksong was coming out around that time and the original Hollow Knight was on sale, I decided to pick it up and give it a try. You can't say you don't like something without ever trying it, and I considered that my love of the Metroidvania genre might make up for the Souls elements.

After no more than an hour in, I was pretty hooked. Sure, I could see how aspects of Hollow Knight did resemble Souls in certain ways, but I didn't hate it. Benches are just like bonfires, and going back to retrieve your geo from your corpse after you die was a concept I was pretty familiar with already. If anything it was perhaps more forgiving than a lot of old school Metroidvania games. Where you used to lose all progress since the last save when you died, Hollow Knight just took your currency and made you go get it back. You keep any explicit progress like items and upgrades.

The more I played and found myself enjoying Hollow Knight, the more I wondered what exactly I hated about Souls games. I went into Hollow Knight WANTING to hate it, and ended up loving it. What was different between Souls games that I hated and this oddly enjoyable Metroidvania? Eventually, I arrived at the difficulty, the builds, and the 3D combat. Hollow Knight is hard, don't get me wrong, but nowhere near as punishing as most Souls-like games I've tried. Not having to pump currency into skills that I don't quite understand is SO refreshing. Plus, I've preferred 2D games to 3D games almost universally since the move to 3D.

Another similarity with Souls that I really enjoyed was the availability of shortcuts. There are several spots, typically marked with some constructed beams, that you can break down from one side to open the path. A few are basically just exits from hidden areas, but several offer significant improvements for getting around. It's very rewarding to search for these and open them up to make boss run-back substantially faster and easier.

One big difference is the availability of healing. Most Souls-like games have some sort of healing mechanic that has limited uses until you stay at another checkpoint, as well as single use items that you only have so many of. Hollow Knight has a mechanic that allows you to consume Soul to heal. It takes time to use, so it's tough to use during combat (but not impossible). However, you can build Soul whenever by attacking enemies. I can stay near a spot with enemies I'm confident fighting to fully restore my health and Soul.

Perhaps the best part about Hollow Knight is that you can use charms to suit your play style. If you're worried about the difficulty, you can use charms that increase your survivability and make the game easier. If you're pretty confident in your ability, you can pump up damage to kill bosses faster. If you like magic more than physical combat, use charms to generate more soul (the mana equivalent) and use spells more often. And you aren't penalized for trying out different styles and combinations. Instead of being permanently bound to the decisions I make or having to pay with resources to respec, I can just adjust my charms the next time I'm at a bench - no commitment necessary.

I was nearly at a point of blocking any game marked as "souls-like" from my Steam search results before I played Hollow Knight. The genre is so prolific and I've previously had such bad experiences with them, it seemed easier to just filter it out entirely. Now that I've played and enjoyed Hollow Knight, it's a much more nuanced dilemma. Some of them are absolutely still games I have zero interest in playing (looking at you, Stellar Blade). That's what [demos](stellar blade demo) are for.

I played the game mostly blind at first. I wanted to experience it organically, the way the developers intended. Once I got the bad ending, I did some research for what all was necessary for the other endings. There would be some punishing areas, but I had already finished most of the content.

As I started cleaning up collectibles and optional bosses, the game started that familiar direction towards becoming a chore. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't necessarily look forward to playing it. At times, I've pushed through that and gone on to finish games, but I quickly grow tired of them and I didn't want to ruin Hollow Knight for myself.

Since then, Silksong has released and seen very high praise. I've been talking with a friend who is actively playing it, and his assessment is that Silksong is much harder. I've enjoyed Hollow Knight enough that I'm certainly interested in Silksong, but I won't be taking that plunge myself for a while.

Eventually I'll return to Hollow Knight and at least get the good ending. I can't say I'll 100% the game, and I'm definitely not going to bother with Steel Soul mode, but I'm invested enough to see it through for my current run.

Story - 6/10

There isn't a lot of story to Hollow Knight, but that's okay. I think the gameplay is much more important for both Souls-like and Metroidvania genres, so it makes sense you could sorta gloss over the plot and not really take anything meaningful from it. There are "dreamers" who want to maintain the status quo, and dialog in the game is very clear that the player character is going against the path of least resistance. You're fighting an uphill battle from the moment you begin, but like Sisyphus, you push onward even when facing failure.

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of the Hollow Knight story is what happens when you find the dreamers. There are a LOT of things in this game that try to kill you. In fact, MOST things try to kill you. Even if a particular creature isn't hostile, they usually fight back if you hit them first. The dreamers, though? They don't. They don't fight you, they don't avoid you, they just sit and let you kill them hit after hit. It feels morally wrong to kill something that isn't posing a direct threat to you, and I think that's what gives Hollow Knight a better than just average story. What differentiates us from the evil that was once like us?

General Gameplay - 9/10

The gameplay of Hollow Knight is VERY satisfying. It starts simple: run, jump, attack with the nail. As you play, you unlock progressively more powerful abilities and movement tech. A dash, a double jump, you can even go Super Saiyan and fly infinitely in a single direction until you hit something.

The most nuanced ability is the nail "pogo." It's unlocked from the beginning, if memory serves, and the game never explicitly teaches you about it. If you perform a downward slash and make contact with anything, you bounce upward. This includes enemies and ground spikes. If you can time it right, you can pogo infinitely across hazardous areas. You can pogo off enemies to reach areas you can't normally access. It has an incredibly high skill ceiling, but it is super fun once you get the hang of it. Being able to pogo effectively is probably THE most important skill in the game.

In any Metroidvania, the map is absolutely critical. A well-implemented map can be the difference between a fun game and a painful slog. Hollow Knight takes the interesting approach that gives you a basically empty map, but you can pay for upgrades. A particular charm allows you to see your current position on the map, but it takes the place of potentially more useful charms you may want to equip. Individual markers can be purchased from the shop, both static things like benches and markers that you can place on your own, but none of those are active by default. I crutch very heavily on my map in these games, so I leaned into those upgrades. If you don't like the safety of having a map, or if you already know the map well enough to navigate from memory, you can spend the currency and charm slots on other upgrades. It's a very cool tradeoff.

Combat - 8/10

The combat of Hollow Knight strikes an excellent balance of precision, complexity, and variety. The nail is the only weapon you obtain, but it can be upgraded in both damage and range. I've heard some complain that you can't select different weapons for different builds the way you can with Souls games, but I think the simplicity of just the nail makes it more attractive. Plus, there are more magic-based builds if you really hate the nail that bad. Most speed runs of Hollow Knight opt for magic combat just because it is so much more powerful, but I personally like the way the nail handles.

Regular enemy encounters hit that sweet spot of engagement. A lot of traditional Metroidvania games are criticized in how standard enemies are just boring. You don't have as many options with how you tackle them, so you either 1-shot them or you ignore them completely. In contrast, a lot of Souls enemies are like miniature boss fights back to back and that can be extremely tiresome. Hollow Knight has a good variety of enemies that you can smack once with the nail or pogo over, but there are also a few that you have to be careful about. It keeps world traversal interesting and engaging without making me struggle to just get from point A to point B.

Bosses are generally very well designed. At the end of the day, it's like nearly every other Metroidvania: watch their movements, pay attention to the patterns and how they telegraph attacks, and learn to dodge them. It's a fairly established routine, but don't take that as hackneyed or old. It's moreso comfortable, like a favorite pair of jeans. Some of the bosses are easy enough that I killed them on the first try (and I'm not great at most games), where others took me quite a few attempts. The way you handle these fights is often more like a dance than just beating up on a large target. The Mantis Lords fight was especially graceful, and I really like how you have the option to hang back and deal damage where it's convenient or really lean in and get more greedy with your damage. Very good balance of risk versus reward.

Difficulty - 7/10

To say that Hollow Knight isn't hard would be misleading and just wrong. It's a hard game, but it's a fair game, and it isn't SO hard that it isn't fun. I would like a few more accessibility options for people who would struggle with the difficulty as it is. A lot of the pogo timing is pretty precise, and you have to maintain it for a pretty good while in some places. Mods do exist for invincibility or the ability to equip all your charms at once, but obviously those are exclusive to PC players.

With the Souls-like moniker, I do want to qualify that Hollow Knight is significantly easier than most Souls-like games that I've played. It's punishing, but it isn't tricky or unfair that I experienced. Plus, in contrast to Souls games that give you a semi-permanent debuff when you die, Hollow Knight only asks that you go back to find your shade. You're missing 1/3 of your Soul meter when you die and your currency is left where you died. If you can make it back to your shade and defeat it (never more than a couple of hits against a slow target), you're right back to full strength with everything you had before. Sure, a death when you're a long way from a bench is annoying, but there are also options to pay to retrieve your shade without actually going to that location. This game can be very forgiving in a lot of ways with nearly no long-term consequences.

Graphics - 10/10

Hollow Knight is a beautiful game, and still images just don't do it justice. There are multiple layers of parallax scrolling, particle effects, and all kinds of visuals that make the world feel alive. Some snowy areas feel tangibly cold and isolating. Movements and animations are super smooth. Plus, the art style should make the visuals still feel fresh years or even decades from now.

Music - 7/10

The music of Hollow Knight is fitting, even if none of the tracks are particularly memorable. I downloaded the soundtrack to see how it stuck, and it was good as background music, but I didn't find myself gravitating to any particular pieces. As much as the graphics were superb, the music just can't quite meet the same exceptional level in my opinion.

Performance

I was surprised with how well Hollow Knight ran on all of my devices. The Steam Deck maintained a pretty consistent 60 fps, and the Surface Pro 7 was at least 45 fps or so the little bit that I tried it. I'm not sure if Team Cherry optimized that well, or if the game is just less demanding than what I anticipated.

My Take

The Good

Exploration is super fun, the combat is tough but rewarding, and the graphics are simply beautiful. This is a stellar example of a modern Metroidvania.

The Bad

Like most games in this genre, story isn't really a priority and the plot isn't particularly compelling.

The Ugly

Some criticize the combat as being too simple, and the difficulty may be more than what some are comfortable with or capable of.

Overall - 8/10

Hollow Knight is a fantastic Metroidvania and it opened up the Souls-like genre as something I'll consider rather than outright avoid. Team Cherry nailed all of the critical parts of of the former, and pulled in selective components of the latter in a great combination. It is punishing, but never unfair, and I'm so glad I decided to play it.