To celebrate its fourth birthday, I decided to finally play through Hollow Knight. I have heard nothing but amazing things about this game. Which made me pick it up the day of release… But… I never played it. Well, let me be more accurate; I did try it at release, but it quickly kicked my ass. I tried for a couple hours to beat the very first boss. I could not do it. I did not know what I was doing and was too lazy to learn his extremely easy patterns. I sort of just gave up. I always wanted to return to the game and see what it was all about, but I just never did.

Until recently.

I picked the game back up and decided to go all in. I was going to, well, get good.

I decided to chase the dream and complete every single thing in this game. But I had no idea what that was going to lead to. Was it worth it? Let’s dive right in with my review of Hollow Knight!

Hollow Knight is a beautiful 2D Metroidvania made by Team Cherry. The game is set in the land of bugs. Every enemy, your character, and NPC is a simple bug living in a nest. It follows the titular Knight as he discovers what happened to Hallownest, an expansive kingdom that once flourished with bugs of all shapes and sizes. But Hallownest came under “the infection” and bugs left (or died) in droves. That’s honestly it as far as the story goes. There is a lot to find out hiding within your interactions with other bugs and characters throughout the game, however. The story is really somber and beautifully told. But, it’s really up to you on how much of the story you want to uncover. I think this works BEAUTIFULLY! It’s almost like you really are just being thrusted into this world. You know nothing and it’s completely up to you to figure out, or not… If that’s what you’re into. I recommend finding everything though, because there are so many wonderful stories to hear and horrible things to learn about hiding in this game. Especially finding the fate of the stags after they had no passengers to carry across Hallownest.

As for finding things, that’s what this game is all about. Like any good Metroidvania, there are a ton of upgrades: charms (which do things like make your weapon longer or sharper, or even give you little spiderlings that follow you around), life upgrades, and secret abilities. They are scattered across a huge map. But, I think Hollow Knight excels in this. Its map, and all of its locations, are so incredibly beautiful and distinct, that none of it feels bland or repetitive. The enemies also change from location to location and there are a ton of different enemies. Each of which comes with new challenges and different strategies. The world of Hallownest is wonderful in every way and I found myself just wandering throughout the different locations.

Now for the important part, the combat. Hollow Knight’s combat is spectacular. Your main weapon (a simple nail) is tight and extremely precise. Not to mention that you get to aim your nail in the four cardinal directions. Meaning you can aim your nail downwards and pogo on top of enemies and spikes. As well as strike enemies above you or on either side. The movement and dodging abilities in this game are also perfect. Which makes the skill ceiling extremely high. You slowly get better and better at this game until you are dodging a flourish of projectiles and weaving between enemies to precisely strike in the few frames of vulnerability on some bosses. It is perfect. I don’t know how else to say it. The combat in this game is addictive and always feels rewarding, even on the smallest of enemies.

Now the part that Hollow Knight is famous for; this game is extremely difficult. So, it’s a good thing that the combat is so precise. Because you are going to need it. Sure, most of the bosses are easy once you get the pattern, but sometimes learning the pattern takes dozens of attempts. Then… You get to the really hard stuff. Interestingly, the final boss of the game (the regular ending) is really easy… He poses no threat for those of us stupid enough to complete the game at 112%. But, if you want to complete everything, get ready to die… A lot. I did do 112%, but I honestly thought I was going to give up numerous times. But this game kept pulling me back. I’m going to talk about some of the highlights of this game and just how difficult they are. The first major wall I found myself against was the Colosseum of Fools. The first two trials are rather easy, in fact I don’t think I died in either one. But, the Trial of the Fool, truly steps up the difficulty. It is twelve minutes of straight fighting. Enemies constantly spawn and you must stay on your toes the entire time. That’s fine, we know how to do that. But eventually, the game takes away the floor and makes you fight while jumping from wall to wall. This section is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in a video game. You’re fighting for two minutes straight while trying to stay clung to the walls, wall jumping the entire time. But that’s not the hard part… You see, in Hollow Knight you can heal yourself if your meter is full enough. But not during this section. You have to be grounded to heal. Since you can’t touch the ground, you can’t heal. You have to make it through this section on whatever life you made it to that part with. THEN, you have to fight a room full of incredibly difficult to dodge enemies once the wall-clinging part is over. It took me 70 attempts probably before I even made it past this part. Then, as if that’s not enough, you have to finish the whole thing off by fighting a boss that has a ton of health and does a ton of damage. It is incredibly hard. I tried for probably six hours to make it through this trial. But I am proud to call myself a “Fool.”

But, that is not the hardest part of the game! The Trial of the Fool is nothing compared to Godhome, Nightmare King Grimm, or The Radiance. Each of which took me hours and hours to complete. But… ALL of these things are completely optional. But, I strongly recommend going for all of them. Nothing feels better than finally completing Everything. (I did not complete all of Godhome with the bindings as an fyi, that is just too insanely difficult. Meaning I never fought Absolute Radiance. I just cannot do it.)

I’m realizing I can wax poetic about this game forever. So, I’m going to wrap this up; Hollow Knight gets a 4 out of 4. Every single aspect of this game is perfect. Its combat, its movement, its characters, its world, its story are all perfect. Once I got good enough to make my way through this game, I was addicted. There is a reason that I have not updated this website for two weeks. Because I was too addicted to this game. I kept going until I completed everything there was to complete. I love this game and it belongs on my favorite games of all time list. I am so happy that I finally came back to this game. I see myself playing this game multiple times in the future and I honestly have been dreaming and thinking about this game for weeks now. Please play this game. It will not disappoint. Just remember that there is a hard learning curve on this one. But it is oh so worth the price of entry.

Now I am another one of the fools waiting for Silksong. Maybe some day.