Hollow Knight

Wot I liked - The setting - Dark Souls meets Bleach meets an ant farm - The controls. I always play my games with kb+m (whenever I can and even if I suffer). Hollow Knight responsiveness is a blessing for jumping/dashing/wall clinging sections. - Nice voiceactors/sfx. - Huge world to explore. Wot I disliked - The awful boredom of the fighting system reminds a brick in its simplicity. I'm ~5 hrs into the game and I can do 3 things - slash and use my soulball. That's a real strong detriment for a game, where all you do is fight! - The awful boredom of backtracking. There're a LOT of sections in that game you can reach only when you have some corresponding ability. But you cannot mark those areas and they are nu-me-rous! So, to get around you either use wiki, jot it down somewhere or you your phenomenal memory. So, for me Hollow Knight should've been a nice meeting that turned out to be an insipid drab date. Sad.

I played it on PS4 because it was "free" on PSNOW. I didn't expect much at first. But hearing everywhere that this game was awesome, I decided to give it a try. And I'm actually glad I played this game, even if I gave up after 32 hours. The art direction grew on me, reinforced by a great soundtrack and an interesting universe. Also, this game is huge for a metroidvania (and it may be considered as more than a metroidvania). Last but not least, the gameplay is just perfect : if you screw up, it is your fault... ... Or, is it ? I don't mind a game not taking you by the hand, but I think that at least some directions or clues are required. Boss battles are a good example of how that lack of information can really alter the gaming pleasure : let's say that you come accross a boss that is hard and you cannot beat no matter how many times you try. Well, there is absolutely no clue indicating that this boss is mandatory, optional or even if a piece of equipment or ability is required to make the fight more manageable. And the fact that the game is really punishing, like Dark Souls level of punishment, does not help. Even if you manage to guess correctly the best course of actions to take, as well as locate — very — well hidden or — very — expensive upgrades, the game can still find a way to screw you over. That is why I stopped playing. I won't spoil the specific cause, but let's say that there is a feature that really seems like a game mechanic and, after some point in the game, this feature is literally taken away... with everything you invested in it. I loved this game, and I tried to love it until the end. I loved the gameplay, but hated the punishing difficulty, I loved its universe but hated the lack of hints, I loved some of the bosses, but hated many others, I loved the upgrades and abilities, but hated the fact that they were too well hidden. In the end, this game demanded a lot from me, and it delivered back. Just not enough to invest more than 32 hours.

I found this gem by pure chance when searching for some *ekhm* easy platformers for my kids. Ended up spending 300+ hours on it myself *so far* and I can't get enough of it. Just need to get that final achievement... Honestly this game is just perfect. You can beat it in a few hours if you want, but you can also explore the world, do the small side quests, fight all the crazy bosses, there's just no end to it. Oh, and of course you NEED to discover all the endings! And free all the grubs! And complete the hunter's journal! And play the Steel Soul mode! And... the list goes on. So going back to my search for easy platformers - this game is NOT easy. Prepare to die A LOT. But the whole concept of dying and retrying is so well built into the game that dying doesn't feel like a player's failure, it is just a part of the game's design. Personalyl I love both the visual part and the splendid soundtrack. The controls are super tight and you have full control over the character, which is essential in a few criitcal moments (although apart from one specific area, you dont need mad platforming skills to excel at this game; for comparison both Ori games are in my opinion more difficult platforming-wise). But the thing that really makes it so appealing is the story and the way in which it is told. You start knowing next to nothing (really - WHO am I and WHAT am I even doing here?) and have to actively search for clues that fill in the blanks. Talking to NPCs is actually meaningful if you want to understand WHAT is happening and WHY. You also find bits of lore scattered around the world and it's up to the player to decide if they want to learn it or not. This game (with a humble assistance of Ori and the Blind Forest) is what madde me return to gaming after a good 15+ years.

This is an absolutely charming and fantastic game -- one of the best I've played in years. The world in which it takes place is beautiful, mysterious and melancholic, aided by a wonderful soundtrack and gorgeous visuals. The gameplay is absolutely tip-top and the way your abilities evolve through the game is perfect. It's hard, but not Cuphead-hard, and it's a manageable level of frustration that keeps you trying. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes platformers and generally anyone who likes a polished game. One or two tips I would offer to new players that I wish I'd been made use of from the start: (1) Use markers constantly and use different ones for different things. You discover a fairly big world quickly, but you will be limited with exploring it until you gain certain abilities -- so no doubt you will find yourself forgetting about unexplored areas quickly if you don't use markers to remember to come back to things. (2) Take time to listen and read everything. The story is not presented linearly -- it's also unravelled slowly and bit by bit. It's tempting to just get carried away with the button-bashing and running to the next thing, but the story is great in its own right. (3) Rescue the grubs! They're just lovely, as is the Grubfather. All the best on your adventures, little knight. :D

There are many great things about this game: - the gameplay is responsive and precise - the art, music, and sound are all top notch - everything is wonderfully crafted, the devs obviously cared a lot BUT Jesus does its pacing suck. Being a Metroidvania, this game expects a lot of backtracking and fighting the same enemies over and over and over and over again. Fine, except unlike Metroid games, you move slower, primarily fight with melee, and have to cross MANY damage sponge enemies repeatedly. What really rubs salt into the would is that save points are much more spread out AND the game is MUCH more unforgiving than Metroid (5 hits and you're dead, and there are no health pickups). The problem with this design is that all fights, especially boss fights, rely on pattern-recognition and trial-and-error. But the game punishes you for for error by taking away your resources and your time. Save points are often placed pretty far from bosses, which is an issue because it breaks up how much practice time you get with tough bosses and pads out the gameplay like crazy. What makes this worse is that you can't mess up on your way TO the boss because you have so little health and the bosses are huge damage sponges, so every boss fight becomes a war od attrition that is as nerve-wrecking as it is tedious. I don't blame the game for being difficult, challenge is nice. I blame the game for wasting your time doing and patting out its run time with your failure.