(Originally published to Glitchwave on 5/19/2023)
[Image from glitchwave.com]
Hollow Knight
Developer: Team Cherry
Publisher: Team Cherry
Genre(s): Metroidvania, Soulslike
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Release Date: February 24, 2017
On the surface, Hollow Knight doesn’t seem like the ideal indie title to strike fear in the hearts of big business. Australian developer Team Cherry took their endearing flash game “Hungry Knight” and formulated it into a Metroidvania title upon its fully-fledged final release, along with changing the descriptive H word in the title to the more mystifying “hollow.” What would most likely make the legion of triple-A developers make an obnoxious chorus of *pshaws* upon hearing this description is that Metroidvania games are cheap and simple from a production standpoint. Despite the critical acclaim the genre has received, most Metroidvania titles seemed to have been relegated to the inferior hardware of the portable consoles that merely supplemented their console contemporaries, as the more modest capabilities of these handhelds felt more appropriately designed for the inherently 2D Metroidvania genre. It wasn’t until the eighth generation of gaming in the mid-2010s that the Metroidvania genre had a reinvigoration in the gaming landscape with indie titles like Axiom Verge and Ori and the Blind Forest. Suddenly, games in a genre associated with the limited perspective of yore were sharing the limelight with the grand 3D spectacles.
There are plenty of admirable entries in the new wave of Metroidvania games, but Hollow Knight possesses a specific attribute that these more traditional Metroidvania titles didn’t. What is this killer app that Hollow Knight weaves into the fabric of its gameplay? Dark Souls: the triple-A series that I’ve been touting as the gaming messiah for the 2010’s decade. Even though Dark Souls is produced by a triple-A company with the mechanical and graphical prowess of a game fitting the modern gaming standard, Dark Souls’ influences stem from the then unfashionable Metroidvanias, RPGs, and action-adventure titles of gaming’s yesteryears. This range of influences is most likely why Dark Souls was a crisp breath of fresh air in the triple-A climate that was injecting cinematics into the gameplay like botox fillers. One can infer that Dark Souls’ success contributed to at least a fraction of the revitalized spark of interest for the Metroidvania genre, as it was a triple-A game that infiltrated the mechanically milquetoast triple-A climate with a mix of a Metroidvania design philosophy and its own brand of idiosyncrasies. Because Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania that incorporates a hefty heaping of Dark Souls in its mechanics and world design, the game has a clear advantage over its peers. However, I must disclose that Hollow Knight was not the first title of the Metroidvania Renaissance to feature Soulslike characteristics, for I can hear Salt and Sanctuary clearing its throat to call attention to itself. Unlike Salt and Sanctuary, Hollow Knight isn’t merely a derivative Dark Souls clone with a regressive perspective shift. Hollow Knight’s deeper understanding of what makes Dark Souls an effective, gratifying experience is really what elevates its quality on equal standing with its primary influence.
While Hollow Knight may not feature graphics that rival James Cameron’s Avatar like the standards of modern triple-A titles, only someone who is legally blind wouldn’t describe Hollow Knight’s aesthetic as visually splendorous. Like fellow 2017 indie title Cuphead, Hollow Knight’s art direction is crafted with hand-drawn animation. If you thought illustrating a cartoon frame by frame was an absurdly cumbersome endeavor, imagine doing the same process with layers of overlapping binary code to contend with. For that integration alone, Team Cherry earns my sincerest sense of admiration. In saying that, Hollow Knight’s visuals still ascend past the novelty of simply showcasing this kind of uniquely painstaking artistic achievement. If I had to assign a specific style of Hollow Knight’s overall aesthetic, “twee goth” would be an accurate summation. A dour, defeated sense of melancholy permeates throughout the land of Hollownest. Still, the lurid, light-hearted animation on display sort of negates the garish and brooding aspects of a goth aesthetic while retaining that heightened sense of romanticism. Colors running the gamut of the rainbow are consistently portrayed in deeper hues to uphold that sensation of doom and gloom. This aspect of the visuals is certainly impressive considering the eclectic range of biomes that compose the country of Hollownest. Whether it be the twinkling twilight of the Howling Cliffs, the lush verdure of Greenpath and the Queen’s Gardens, to the ornate architecture of the City of Tears, a sublime beauty encapsulates the setting and leaves the player awe-stricken. Even the rank shithole of the Royal Waterways or the creepy, dark catacombs of Deepnest still exude a sense of wonderment. It could also be that light filter that gives each area an ethereal quality, but I think Hollow Knight’s visual achievements can be attributed to more than this simple implementation. More impressive is the acute attention to detail on display in Hollow Knight’s world. Backgrounds present a widespread scope of what looks like miles of its inhabitable stretches. Crystal Peak is situated between a massive geode of valuable pink gems that protrude from this high-elevation area of Hollownest. The Hive displays a valley of sweet honeycomb glimmering brightly in the distance. Both backgrounds are still illustrations that could fit appropriately in the finest of animated features like the stunning Disney’s Fantasia. In the foregrounds, not one speck of visual detail is compromised. Soil has never looked so rich and loamy in gaming, and one can even marvel at the fine craftsmanship of the manmade decor that comprises the City of Tears. Benches in real life can’t even compete with the detailed design quality of those in Hollow Knight. A less talented developer would’ve meshed the gradience between the foregrounds and backgrounds, but Team Cherry consistently balances the two to create an incredibly decadent, mystical world. Gorgeous doesn’t even begin to describe the graphics that Hollow Knight bestows.
The titular knight in Hollow Knight is also fitting for the charming and whimsical world he resides in. I can imagine the individual design for Hollow Knight’s protagonist being a particularly sensitive matter. In a game whose universe consists of a smattering of insect types, placing the wrong kind of creepy crawly at center stage for the duration of the game could’ve unsettled most players. The Knight, who I can assume is his official title since he does not have a canon name, is a perfect compromise that will not trigger any bug-related phobias. The scrappy little guy’s bug phenotype would confuse even the most experienced of entomologists, and that ambiguity is precisely what makes The Knight so appealing. The Knight’s character design is more akin to an amorphous ghost crudely attempting to take the form of an insect rather than one that exists in the natural world. That diminutive stature, the curved, white horns sticking out of his skeletal cranium, and the vacuous craters intended to be The Knight’s eyes encapsulate its state as a husk creature perfectly. Yet, all of these physical characteristics are also what make The Knight adorably charismatic, like a puppy who stumbles around while it walks. Memorable video game protagonists before the 2000s used to have something of a “mascot potential,” and I could imagine The Knight from Hollow Knight appearing on cereal boxes and as the model for gaming figurines and plushies alongside Mario and Sonic.
More important than his fun-sized stature and pale complexion is how The knight controls. Fortunately, The Knight wonderfully excels in this department. Combat in Hollow Knight is the simple slashing of The Knight’s “nail,” which The Knight unsheathes from his sidearm in a quick flash. Many Souls enthusiasts might decry the fact that The Knight is limited to this insectoid sword substitute as opposed to the bevy of blades at the player’s disposal in that series. Still, I can assure you that this shiny, sharp tool is more than enough for the duration of the game. The player will consistently assess every enemy encounter by the speed and distance of the nail and dodge accordingly until the enemy is dead. Once the dash move is learned, defense maneuvers during combat are made easier. Swiftly juggling attacking and dodging as The Knight is always a smooth process that makes the player feel like a masterful warrior. On top of slashing the nail horizontally, The Knight can also strike upwards and downwards to cover all necessary offensive angles. Performing the downward nail slash mid-air is also a common traversal tactic in tense platforming challenges in which the momentum is difficult to maintain. Perilous sections such as these are littered all over the foregrounds of Hollownest, and the player must use a combination of the dash ability, the adze-like Mantis Claw, and the extra lift of the Monarch Wings to dart through some of the tensest platforming segments seen in the Metroidvania genre. Fortunately, Hollow Knight is on the same scale of fluidity as the precision platformers these sections borrow from, as every mistake can honestly be chalked up to the player’s lack of tact rather than the game's technical incompetence. Roaming around the land and laying waste to its denizens feels so liberating because The Knight is such an acrobatic force of nature.
There are indeed simpler parallels between Hollow Knight and Dark Souls that don’t require extensive, borderline pretentious analysis to connect. Hollow Knight’s most applicable commonality with Dark Souls is its stiff penalty for dying. Checkpoints across Hollow Knight’s dense and diverse world are in the form of benches, the equivalent to the bonfires from Dark Souls where the player can contemplatively rest while their health is restored to its maximum capacity. Also like the bonfires, their position as checkpoints is strictly enforced when it comes to the player’s likely numerous deaths. Even if the player has trekked from one point of the map’s prime meridian to the other, if they weren’t observant enough to seek out a new bench or neglected to consider the ramifications of not resting at one, the game will automatically catapult the player back to the last bench miles away from where they were vanquished. Needless to say, it’s a real bitch to retread all that ground to restore one’s lost progress. To make dying seem more like starting from square one, another borrowed aspect from Dark Souls is that the player’s collective experience points materialize as a lost item at the player’s last dying spot to incentivize them to revisit their place of failure. In Hollow Knight, The Knight’s progress takes the form of a floating black spirit with an eerie musical cue indicating its presence. The shadowy effigy will even slash at The Knight like an unruly git, making the player feel especially pathetic when struck by it. Hollow Knight emulates the penalty system from Dark Souls competently, but it doesn’t have the same high stakes. Hollow Knight forgoes the RPG-leveling system from Dark Souls, so the player will retrieve their cumulative amount of Geo, Hollownest’s currency, when they defeat their floating phantom. Considering how vital experience points always are in Dark Souls to surviving the game’s brutal challenges, recovering the Geo needed mostly to purchase a few items in the early sections of the game doesn’t garner the same sense of urgency.
However, the state of being “hollow” in Hollow Knight after being torn asunder from their spirit essence feels like more of a handicap than it is in Dark Souls because the healing potential is halved. Hollow Knight’s healing mechanic is Team Cherry’s own creation, and it is one of the game’s standout mechanical attributes. In the top left corner of the screen situated alongside The Knight’s units of health like a bass clef on a sheet of music is the healing gauge. As The Knight strikes any type of enemy, a modest amount of a milky liquid I’ll just refer to as “bug juice” is stored in the gauge. It’s as if a factor of The Knight’s askew mortal coil gives him vampiric powers that allow him to literally drain the life force of his enemies. After accumulating enough of the translucent substance, The Knight expends the juice in the gauge, restoring a single unit of health by one-third of the gauge’s maximum. Dying will shatter the gauge in half and also make the stored gratuity of the three bonus reserves useless. Comparisons to the Estus Flasks from Dark Souls arise when observing how the healing system is practical in combat. Holding down the heal button in Hollow Knight requires a meditative state of brief stillness that leaves The Knight vulnerable to more damage, interrupting the flow of combat as abruptly, if not even more so, as taking a swig of estus in Dark Souls. Finding an opportunity to heal during a hectic boss encounter is one of the most harrowing occasions in Hollow Knight, and seeking out that narrow window factors into a boss battle as much as the chance to deal damage to it. Having the player’s potion amount coincide with their attack output is brilliant, as performing well in battle will consistently be rewarded with compensation. The underlying trick, however, is when to reap the benefits.
Being confined to one weapon doesn’t mean that there is no gameplay variation in Hollow Knight. The customizable aspect of Hollow Knight’s gameplay takes the form of charms, badges with their own special attributes. Charms are found across Hollownest with the same shimmering glow as any other item, and they can also be purchased from various merchants for a fee, namely from the flamboyant blob Salubra in the eastern corner of the Forgotten Crossroads. Charms can be equipped at any bench, and the player’s selection of charms coincides with the amount of “charm notches'' relating to an arbitrary cost. Increasing the total amount of charm notches can also be done by searching in hidden corners on the map as well as purchasing them from Salubra. However, Salubra will only deem The Knight worthy of possessing more charm notches if the player has a varied mix of them in their arsenal. It makes sense considering that only someone who uses these charms would warrant an addition to their capacity. I don’t know why someone wouldn’t bother with the charms because their aid makes a world of difference. The player can stack a selection of charms to make their nail as long as a rapier or increase The Knight’s rapidity to the point where they’re running circles around foes. One charm build will turn The Knight into a glass cannon, while another build will conversely assure that The Knight will never sustain even a scratch of damage. Mixing and matching the charms is the closest that Hollow Knight gets to a role-playing mechanic, something that certainly made the gameplay of Dark Souls invigorating. Like the myriad of builds correlating with the attributes in Dark Souls, not one combination is inferior to another as long as the player can use them to pave their path to success.
Using charms also comes recommended because Hollow Knight is quite a difficult experience. Comparing Hollow Knight to Dark Souls in every paragraph should have already implied this revelation, so be prepared to grit your teeth and schedule a confession time during Sunday mass to come clean about all of the unholy curses you’ll shout in the struggle. Tense combat combined with sparse checkpoints is one thing, but the third ingredient in the mix that really elicits dread is the intentional blindspots on the map. The crucial aid in excavating the sprawling lands of Hollownest is not something that is automatically generated. Once The Knight stumbles upon (literally) uncharted territory, they must find the map maker Cornifer who will sell The Knight his map of the area at a meager price. Where Cornifer is located in the area is anyone’s guess, which is why digging deeper into a new area without a reference can be daunting. Sometimes, he’s hanging out near an area’s soonest entry point. Still, because each area has so many intersecting pathways, the player will inadvertently unlock the entire map layout before encountering Cornifer. In times when the latter scenario occurred, I’d scramble frantically down every corridor in an attempt to find Cornifer, even if I found a bench that cemented my place here beforehand. Every time I discovered a trail of discarded papers that lead me to hearing Cornifer’s jaunty hum, I was relieved beyond words. Some may argue that forcing the player to roam around in the proverbial dark like this is unfair, but I find the process of finding the map and filling in the blanks after some organic exploration to be invigorating.
On top of scrounging about an individual area, there is still the overarching progression of Hollow Knight that comes with discovering every new area. Again, I must draw comparisons to Dark Souls because of the overlap in their approach to progression. Then again, Dark Souls shows clear inspiration from the Metroidvania genre in this regard, as one could make parallels between the quest to ring the bells and Metroid’s descent down a hellish rabbit hole. Dirtmouth, the tranquil hub of Hollownest, resides at the world’s peak as most areas of interest are located south like the docking grove of Crateria. Forgotten Crossroads and Greenpath are both appropriately more hostile than the respite place that they stem from, yet not enough to distract the player from delving into the game’s doleful tone. One could even compare Greenpath to the Undead Parish for how deceptively pleasant the area seems despite the challenges it poses. It is after defeating the central boss of Greenpath that the player is faced with a trifling dilemma with their intended trajectory. It’s more likely that the player will come across the jellyfish-filled Fog Canyon before the untamed wilds of Fungal Wastes as intended since it borders Greenpath. This area is not meant to be explored this early in the game, but the game judges that the player will come to this moment of clarity without overtly spelling it out for them like when Samus’s health disintegrates in Norfair or being bombarded by skeletons at the graveyard adjacent to the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls. What tipped me off was the fact that Cornifer was locked behind an impenetrable black border and that the jellyfish cores dealt twice the damage upon exploding. I adore it when Metroidvania games present situations like these because they are indicative of the genre’s nuanced design that flirts with liberal progression confines.
City of Tears is the metropolitan capital of Hollownest The Knight finds next, and I can only assume it got that name from how morose the area looks with perpetual storm clouds constantly showering the area in rainwater. Any cityscape area in a Soulslike game would normally garner parallels to Anor Londo, but the City of Tears is not the pinnacle of The Knight’s first major quest. The City of Tears is easily the largest area of Hollownest, so the developers decided to have the player revisit a whole other district of the capital at any given point in a clever way to still establish that the city is an essential destination point. One could compare the City of Tears to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley because of its contrasting relationship with the Royal Waterways to the latter’s dungeon area, illustrating a dichotomy between fancifulness and filth in close quarters. The claustrophobic dankness of the Royal Waterways along with its neighboring webbed labyrinth of Deepnest definitely showcases that The Knight has profoundly plunged into the bowels of Hollownest. Soon after descending even further, The Knight must leap all the way back up past even the point of Dirtmouth to acquire an ability from Crystal Peak to finish his first quest. Sound familiar? Thank God for the determined stag beetles that The Knight can use as his transit system. They are the true heroes of Hollow Knight. Oh, and the more industrialized tramway that leads to the Resting Grounds where the second main quest is given is useful too, but that's a sensitive topic for the Stags
Once The Knight has sunk to the ground floor of Hollownest, they don’t find grandeur like arriving at Anor Londo. The deepest depths of Hollownest lead The Knight to the Ancient Basin, a sterile place that feels like The Knight has accomplished their arduous journey only because of how still everything is compared to the progressive hostility for every previous area. Beating the Broken Vessel here, an infected knight cut from the same cloth as the protagonist, is the middle point that starts the second half of the game along with arriving at the Resting Grounds. As anticipated, the overlapping quest in Hollow Knight’s second half almost mirrors the second half of Dark Souls. Using a sacred tool called “the dream nail,” The Knight must seek out three significant figures called “the dreamers” who have been locked behind a seal in their eternal cryogenic chambers and penetrate their subconsciousness. These three are located all across creation in Hollownest and can be approached in a non-linear order like the Lord Souls, signifying that the game has become significantly less restricted due to the progress made during the first half. The content of the second quest screams the first Dark Souls, but the resulting action reminds me of the midway point of Bloodborne when the moon takes a dip in a lake of blood. Lore and story are as superfluous to the overall Hollow Knight experience as it is in any FromSoft title, as the setting and atmosphere do enough leg work to immerse the player adequately. Any occurrence and how it pertains to the lore is only given context by the player’s own incentive to delve deeper. Still, it’s hard to ignore the terrible new condition of the Forgotten Crossroads in the second half of the game. The looming force of despair that has rendered Hollownest to its apocalyptic downfall is something called “the infection,” which takes the form of an overwhelming mass of pulpy, bulbous orange matter seen previously in the Broken Vessel fight. No longer is Dirtmouth’s first underground level a moody turnpike but the ghastly sight of a tumorous, tangy breeding ground of disease. The basic thugs and winged grunts that reside here are now more formidable and feral, combusting after being defeated to signify their unnatural state of existence. Thankfully, this infection is contained to Forgotten Crossroads and not the other areas as it would be tiring dodging the explosive impact of every downed enemy. As it is, the disastrous condition of the Forgotten Crossroads effectively illustrates how severe this infection is, making the player concerned for the wellbeing of Hollownest and what is going on behind the veil of vagueness.
Referencing Dark Souls for the umpteenth time, why should the player care if Hollownest succumbs to the debilitating scourge? Isn’t a heavy sense of nihilism supposed to be conveyed in its lugubrious atmosphere like Dark Souls? Despite the lingering sorrow expressed in Hollow Knight’s atmosphere, it does not stem from a place of futility. Unlike the sullen land of Lordran, we sympathize with Hollownest’s plague instead of treating the matter with contempt as if the land somewhat deserves it. This sympathy stems from Hollow Knight’s cast of NPCs that The Knight encounters on his journey. I’ve already expressed my fondness for the scribe Cornifer, and I’ll express the same for his weary wife Iselda that mans their shop in Deepnest. Sly is another merchant in Dirtmouth who is quite adept in nail combat. The other nail masters are the passionate sort, with the nailsmith requesting that The Knight slay him with the ultimate nail he receives from upgrading it to its fullest potential to feel the effects of the perfect weapon he's waited his whole life to forge. God damn, now that’s passion! The Grubmaster in the northern corner of the Forgotten Crossroads is very grateful for rescuing his cute little grub cubs, who are the game’s long-standing collectible. What he does with them all after The Knight collects them all I dare not spoil, for it’s as hilarious as it is shocking. Other NPCs are more nomadic like the overly eager warrior-wannabe Cloth and the masked pill bug Quirrel. These NPCs will aid The Knight sporadically for one boss fight, so their relationship with The Knight stems from a sense of respect. Then there are the NPCs whose side quest lines revolve around coming to their rescue, specifically the pathetic and ironically named “Zote the Mighty.” He obviously doesn’t see the irony in his name considering how brazenly arrogant the snot-nosed shrimp is. Saving him twice from the dangers of Hollownest only results in him scolding you for “interrupting his triumphant victory.” Batting around this whelp like a ping-pong ball in the Colosseum is pure catharsis. The only person who buys into his ego-fueled drivel is a timid bug girl named Bretta who The Knight saves from the southernmost corner of Fungal Wastes. Still, even the irksome NPCs are brimming with personality and charm. They’re much less cynical and caustic than the NPCs of Dark Souls, and even the exception of Solaire contracted the madness by the end of the game. Every NPC in Hollow Knight is precious and is the reason why Hollownest is worth saving.
Of course, I was going to go the distance to uncover the true source of the infection anyways because, like any solid Soulslike game, I wanted to experience every boss the game offered. Hollow Knight’s selection of bosses is an outstanding approximate of at least thirty. The most significant duel pertaining to the progression of the game’s story is against Hornet in Greenpath as you follow her through the green bramble patches. Hornet is Hollow Knight’s half-sister who is determined to protect the sanctity of Hollownest and test The Knight’s worth in aiding her on her mission. The dreamers themselves aren’t boss battles, but fights like the tanky Watcher Knight guards and the thick and gooey jellyfish Uummuu provide a challenge before the main quest objective can be accomplished. The mimic Nosk in the hidden crevices of Deepnest is downright creepy, and the Soul Master’s fake out leading to a second phase of his fight genuinely caught me off guard. The player’s adrenaline will be pumping during the God Tamer fight as it’s the pinnacle challenge of the exhausting final colosseum enemy gauntlet, and the gank boss dynamic between the man and his beast is as effective as Ornstein and Smough. My personal favorite fights in the game are the Mantis Lords and the Dung Defender for different reasons. The Mantis Lords are arguably the first true “brick wall” challenge of the game as the boss becomes progressively tenser as you memorize the patterns of three formidable mantises attacking you at once. Upon defeating them, you feel as if the newfound respect the mantis colony of the Fungal Wastes gives you for conquering their masters is entirely deserved. As for the Dung Defender, I can’t help but fall in love with the man’s jovial demeanor. I can’t judge him too harshly for his dirty hobby because of the pure, unbridled enthusiasm he expresses for it. In fact, he’s so damn charismatic that he’ll make you want to take a dip with him in the feces for a fun time. I feel remiss for the bosses I had to gloss over, for there isn’t a single dud in the bunch (except for Zote as a joke boss).
If the staggering number of bosses is too overwhelming for you, you’ll be relieved to know that most of them are optional. Now that I think about it, it’s amazing how much of Hollow Knight’s content isn’t consequential to finishing the game. Hollow Knight has the most liberal progression of any Metroidvania game I’ve played, taking the genre’s already loose parameters and making the main game seem bare bones without all those meaty additional objectives. Entire areas such as the Kingdom’s Edge and Queen’s Gardens can be totally omitted, along with tons of boss battles and side quests. I implore everyone to play Hollow Knight to its full extent because the game will not feel satisfyingly finished without it. The cumulative total of Hollow Knight’s full efforts will result in unlocking the game’s final boss and the source of the world’s contagion: The Radiance. If The Knight heads directly to the Temple of the Black Egg after murdering the dreamers in their ethereal headspace, they’ll fight the titular hollow knight. Although he’s important to the lore as a martyr for sealing away the infection, he’s a strangely easy final boss which might perplex some players. Only by fully filling the dream nail with essence and taking it down past the Ancient Basin to The Knight’s otherworldly birthplace known as “The Abyss” will The Knight don the Void Heart key to unveil the Radiance. The true final fight will occur if The Knight uses the dream nail on The Hollow Knight when pinned down by Hornet, and this avian demigod is as formidable as she seems. After absorbing the Radiance essence, the saddest of the multiple endings will occur as Hornet looks back on The Knight’s severed head laying cracked wide open on the ground. In Dark Souls, either ending puts the protagonist in a position of power no matter the outcome. Here, the death of the protagonist is the ultimate sacrifice that needed to occur in order to truly save Hollownest, something that the Pale King failed to realize in his attempts to merely shut the Hollow Knight in with the source. The other endings where The Knight either takes his brother’s place or joins him in his crucifixion-esque chains compound the cyclical nature of the problem instead of solving it. Where in Dark Souls there is no solution, the fact that Hollow Knight offers one at a great price shows the game’s sentimental, optimistic core as opposed to being trapped to endure endless despondency.
It might be irritating to some that I’ve spent every paragraph of this review comparing Hollow Knight to Dark Souls but hey, the writing is written clearly on the wall with graffiti. Despite how much Dark Souls makes up the foundation of Hollow Knight, the game is anything but a flavorless pastiche of Fromsoft’s series. Hollow Knight saw the building blocks made from the giant towers made from both Dark Souls and the Metroidvania games and built the Burj Khalifa out of them. Does this analogy connote that Hollow Knight eclipses its influences, making it the grandest example of its genre? Arguably, yes. Hollow Knight is a pristine experience without the same blemishes that marred its inspirations in every single aspect. Gameplay as rich as cheesecake is implemented in a breathtakingly bountiful world that beguiled me into going the distance to save it from utter destruction, and that world is filled with a bunch of bugs for Christ's sake! The fact that this masterpiece was developed by only a trio of people with a shoestring budget shows that there are gods among us, and they’re held up in a game studio in Australia. Hollow Knight doesn’t competently emulate its influences made by major developers: it blows them out of the water with an atomic bomb. Because of this, Hollow Knight is the Macbeth of indie gaming that could kill the kings of the triple-A industry.
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Hidden Dreams: The first DLC pack involves revisiting the grounds of previously defeated bosses and using the dream nail to fight them once more, including the False Knight, Dung Defender, and Broken Vessel to name a few. A recurring theme in Hollow Knight is the dreamscape and how these nightly mental fabrications represent hope and confidence in one’s state of being. Because the surreal arena gives the person that extra dash of conviction, the dream state versions of these bosses are marginally more difficult than they are in reality. Dueling the likes of a quicker Dung Defender and a False Knight scaled for the end game is cool and all, but this reused content garners nothing but a moderate shrug from me. At least the game provides more alternatives for substantial essence harvesting if the dream bosses in the base game are giving you a hard time or something. The Knight will need a lot of essence to charge the new teleportation move with the dream nail, which I’m certain is going to piss off the Stags.
The shining moment of this DLC pack can only be accessed if The Knight frees Britta and Zote to the point where both of them are hanging out in Dirtmouth. Since Zote has returned to a point of safety, he has evidently had enough time here to take advantage of the fact that Britta has a lack of self-respect. All that pontificating has seeped into her dream realm, where all of Zote’s bullshit has manifested into a borderline offensive abomination called “Grey Prince Zote.” His full title contains about thirteen glowing descriptive words, but I refuse to submit to referring to him as such because he’s the antithesis of every word in it. For all the fellas out there who might be reading this, this boss is why confidence is key when talking to girls. Zote performing his usual routine of bolstering himself beyond his actual capabilities has worked wonders on Britta. Her mental image of him is like if Zote was crossbred with a beefy NFL linebacker, sitting in her luxurious purple chamber watching her knight in shining armor protect her from harm. His truck-like stature mixed with abusing the lack of physics found in the dream world to change the trajectory of his pile driver move actually makes this version of Zote one of the hardest bosses in the game. Of course, this scene is just plain wrong, so it should be sniped out of Britta’s mind for the sake of good taste. Once The Knight does this, I can’t help but guffaw at the minute detail of Britta lowering her eyes to signify that she now can barely stomach that Zote fucker like everyone else as he rambles on and on to her. Priceless.
The Grimm Troupe: Now we’re talking. The Grimm Troupe DLC pack offers a whole new side quest that is totally removed from anything in the base game. A set of strange characters will appear after unearthing a dead bug behind a cracked wall in the Howling Cliffs and igniting a fire in the dead bug’s lingering dreamscape. The leader of this troupe of weirdos is a debonair figure named Grimm, who requests that The Knight help him conduct a ritual in Dirtmouth. Before the ritual can commence, The Knight must charge a tiny Grimmling by defeating Grim Kin located on the map. The little Grimmling acts like a familiar from Symphony of the Night floating around The Knight, and the player beams with joy seeing the Grimmling grow up through the process like a proud parent. Once The Knight stuffs the Grimmling full of flame, Grimm decides to become a poncey stickler and test The Knight’s nail dexterity in a theatrical bout against him before he rewards you. Being the scoundrel he is, he gives The Knight nothing and doubles down by refusing to take his bright red eyesore of a circus tent and leave town.
Before giving him a piece of your mind, be forewarned that in order to make him skedaddle, you’ll have to fight the dream version of the previous fight aptly named Nightmare King Grimm. There are some boss fights across several kinds of video games that caused me so much grief, pain, and suffering that I believe I have a kind of gaming PTSD that makes me break out in a nervous sweat when someone mentions them. Laurence the First Vicar from Bloodborne, the Spider Guardian from Metroid Prime 2, and The Grim Reaper from the first Castlevania are just a few examples. If I had to choose a fourth herculean foe to erect a Mt. Rushmore of unrelenting bastard boss fights in gaming, Nightmare King Grimm would fit comfortably in Abraham Lincoln’s spot on the far right. Remember when I said that any charm build could potentially lead the player to victory? Well, that was total bullshit. Swell The Knight’s total health as much as humanly possible because Nightmare King Grimm will be damned if he lets you heal. Hell, he’ll hardly give the player any room to breathe. He's so goddamn fast that your eye can barely keep up with him. Yet, where I feel every boss from the other games I’ve mentioned can be criticized for design flaws, Nightmare King Grimm is still as bonafide as any other boss and a solid penultimate fight as the game’s challenge addendum. After three to four hours of avoiding his flames and spiky pillars, finally kicking his ass to the curb and ridding Dirtmouth of his presence made me feel more ecstatic than anything from the base game.
Lifeblood: Apparently, Hive Knight was not a boss in the base game and was added to the Hive area to spruce up an area that already (and unfortunately because it oozes wasted potential) felt like an afterthought from the developers. Hive Knight is a fine boss even if he sometimes feels like Hornet’s second fight with extra steps. Defeating him will reward The Knight with the defensive, regenerative Hiveblood charm, which was a lifesaver while trying to zip around the sawblades in the White Palace. Neato!
Godmaster: Team Cherry ostensibly felt sorry for the Royal Waterways in that there was barely any reason to return to it after reaching the Ancient Basin from it for the first time. Hence, why they gave The Knight a sacred key to open the realm of the Godmaster located on the western outskirts of the City of Tear’s sewer. If you thought the Colossum was the peak of endurance tests in Hollow Knight, the fourth and final DLC pack will make you forget about it in seconds. The golden, regal throne of the Godmaster involves The Knight fighting a gauntlet of the game’s bosses from both the base game and other DLC packs. There is a range of difficulty tiers like those seen in the Colosseum, and the collection of bosses coincides with their relative range of formidability (ie. the first one includes the Mosscharger and Venegefly King). The Knight is provided a hot spring with a bench before the gauntlet begins, but can only heal manually with their juice supply between bouts. The Nail Masters are pleasantly surprising as the final fights of each gauntlet, so Godmaster actually provides more than enough new content to entice the player. Godmaster was a fun challenge until the third or fourth gauntlet where Nightmare King Grimm was grouped with Grey Prince Zote AND an advanced version of the final boss called “Absolute Radiance” who is a mercilessly fast as NKG is. In the mortal words of Three Six Mafia, fuck that shit. I am content with being a mere mortal man and do not wish to entertain this charade that seems to be convinced that I’m some kind of divine being.
The shining moment of this DLC pack can only be accessed if The Knight frees Britta and Zote to the point where both of them are hanging out in Dirtmouth. Since Zote has returned to a point of safety, he has evidently had enough time here to take advantage of the fact that Britta has a lack of self-respect. All that pontificating has seeped into her dream realm, where all of Zote’s bullshit has manifested into a borderline offensive abomination called “Grey Prince Zote.” His full title contains about thirteen glowing descriptive words, but I refuse to submit to referring to him as such because he’s the antithesis of every word in it. For all the fellas out there who might be reading this, this boss is why confidence is key when talking to girls. Zote performing his usual routine of bolstering himself beyond his actual capabilities has worked wonders on Britta. Her mental image of him is like if Zote was crossbred with a beefy NFL linebacker, sitting in her luxurious purple chamber watching her knight in shining armor protect her from harm. His truck-like stature mixed with abusing the lack of physics found in the dream world to change the trajectory of his pile driver move actually makes this version of Zote one of the hardest bosses in the game. Of course, this scene is just plain wrong, so it should be sniped out of Britta’s mind for the sake of good taste. Once The Knight does this, I can’t help but guffaw at the minute detail of Britta lowering her eyes to signify that she now can barely stomach that Zote fucker like everyone else as he rambles on and on to her. Priceless.
The Grimm Troupe: Now we’re talking. The Grimm Troupe DLC pack offers a whole new side quest that is totally removed from anything in the base game. A set of strange characters will appear after unearthing a dead bug behind a cracked wall in the Howling Cliffs and igniting a fire in the dead bug’s lingering dreamscape. The leader of this troupe of weirdos is a debonair figure named Grimm, who requests that The Knight help him conduct a ritual in Dirtmouth. Before the ritual can commence, The Knight must charge a tiny Grimmling by defeating Grim Kin located on the map. The little Grimmling acts like a familiar from Symphony of the Night floating around The Knight, and the player beams with joy seeing the Grimmling grow up through the process like a proud parent. Once The Knight stuffs the Grimmling full of flame, Grimm decides to become a poncey stickler and test The Knight’s nail dexterity in a theatrical bout against him before he rewards you. Being the scoundrel he is, he gives The Knight nothing and doubles down by refusing to take his bright red eyesore of a circus tent and leave town.
Before giving him a piece of your mind, be forewarned that in order to make him skedaddle, you’ll have to fight the dream version of the previous fight aptly named Nightmare King Grimm. There are some boss fights across several kinds of video games that caused me so much grief, pain, and suffering that I believe I have a kind of gaming PTSD that makes me break out in a nervous sweat when someone mentions them. Laurence the First Vicar from Bloodborne, the Spider Guardian from Metroid Prime 2, and The Grim Reaper from the first Castlevania are just a few examples. If I had to choose a fourth herculean foe to erect a Mt. Rushmore of unrelenting bastard boss fights in gaming, Nightmare King Grimm would fit comfortably in Abraham Lincoln’s spot on the far right. Remember when I said that any charm build could potentially lead the player to victory? Well, that was total bullshit. Swell The Knight’s total health as much as humanly possible because Nightmare King Grimm will be damned if he lets you heal. Hell, he’ll hardly give the player any room to breathe. He's so goddamn fast that your eye can barely keep up with him. Yet, where I feel every boss from the other games I’ve mentioned can be criticized for design flaws, Nightmare King Grimm is still as bonafide as any other boss and a solid penultimate fight as the game’s challenge addendum. After three to four hours of avoiding his flames and spiky pillars, finally kicking his ass to the curb and ridding Dirtmouth of his presence made me feel more ecstatic than anything from the base game.
Lifeblood: Apparently, Hive Knight was not a boss in the base game and was added to the Hive area to spruce up an area that already (and unfortunately because it oozes wasted potential) felt like an afterthought from the developers. Hive Knight is a fine boss even if he sometimes feels like Hornet’s second fight with extra steps. Defeating him will reward The Knight with the defensive, regenerative Hiveblood charm, which was a lifesaver while trying to zip around the sawblades in the White Palace. Neato!
Godmaster: Team Cherry ostensibly felt sorry for the Royal Waterways in that there was barely any reason to return to it after reaching the Ancient Basin from it for the first time. Hence, why they gave The Knight a sacred key to open the realm of the Godmaster located on the western outskirts of the City of Tear’s sewer. If you thought the Colossum was the peak of endurance tests in Hollow Knight, the fourth and final DLC pack will make you forget about it in seconds. The golden, regal throne of the Godmaster involves The Knight fighting a gauntlet of the game’s bosses from both the base game and other DLC packs. There is a range of difficulty tiers like those seen in the Colosseum, and the collection of bosses coincides with their relative range of formidability (ie. the first one includes the Mosscharger and Venegefly King). The Knight is provided a hot spring with a bench before the gauntlet begins, but can only heal manually with their juice supply between bouts. The Nail Masters are pleasantly surprising as the final fights of each gauntlet, so Godmaster actually provides more than enough new content to entice the player. Godmaster was a fun challenge until the third or fourth gauntlet where Nightmare King Grimm was grouped with Grey Prince Zote AND an advanced version of the final boss called “Absolute Radiance” who is a mercilessly fast as NKG is. In the mortal words of Three Six Mafia, fuck that shit. I am content with being a mere mortal man and do not wish to entertain this charade that seems to be convinced that I’m some kind of divine being.
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