![]() ![]() ![]() They circumvent a couple of issues games have always had, namely appropriate punishment for failing, and a risk-reward system. ![]() I can safely say this is one of the only games where I felt a sense of accomplishment after every single boss was slain, because there were no cheap tactics to speak of, be it on the player’s part or the bosses’. Players that get frustrated easily might be turned off by some of the difficulty, but I never found any of the bosses to be unfair in their tactics. Reflexes are definitely put to the test, especially considering most bosses are unique in their move sets, meaning each of the 30 boss battles provide a whole new challenge to overcome. Along the way I’d be killing enemies to collect Geo, the in-game currency, as well as discovering previously unreachable areas and secrets, including a slew of challenging bosses.īosses aren’t pushovers, even with grinding to get some of the better equipment to help out. Backtracking to areas I’d been never felt tedious. This meant that by the time I’d reached the credits for the first time, which took me 27 well-spent hours, I was pretty comfortable navigating most of the kingdom without looking at my map. Most areas of the map are accessible early on, with certain areas in them only being accessible after acquiring items and abilities elsewhere. Speaking of not being spoon fed, Hollow Knight encourages you to go explore as you wish. In most games buying maps is possibly one of the most boring experiences, but in Hollow Knight, I got excited every time I heard the faint hum of the cartographer from afar, growing louder as I got closer to his often hidden locations. One character you’ll constantly run into is a cartographer, who can always be located by following pieces of paper found on the ground and the song he hums. Even the general sound design is great, as every enemy has different realistic scuttling sounds, and many characters speak in seemingly made-up languages I found myself quoting by the end of the game. There are tracks here that I’d rank beside the music of Zelda and Star Wars. On top of that, the soundtrack is one of the most memorable and whimsical scores I’ve heard in a long time. After only seeing videos and screenshots of the game’s first area, a dreary cave where everything is a shade of blue, I had my breath taken away the moment I got to the second area, a jungle. One area has ghosts floating in the foreground, while others have sprawling jungles or caves with layers that move independently of each other to create much livelier levels than most 2D games can offer. All of the 100-plus characters are animated to be adorable and/or hideous, and the different areas of the humongous map each have their own art styles with some of the best use of parallax I’ve ever seen. Hollow Knight is a beautifully hand-drawn metroidvania that is equal parts fun, difficult, cute, and horrifying. ![]()
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