Hollow Knight

To be honest, I really like this game. The art style is beautiful. The game play is entertaining and the enemies have great character design.

If you like metroidvania games, a bit (a lot sometimes) of difficulty, it's for you

Devs said they didn't want to pigeonhole their creation as a metroidvania. Fair enough. They absolutely killed it, though. I bought this game a long time ago and never really played it because the combat is so tight and the KB+mouse combo was giving me grief. I recently picked up a controller and let me tell you: 100% better. I rarely die now. So the controls are super tight, even though I'm occasionally miffed by spike hitboxes, but I think this might be a defining characteristic for metroidvanias. Combat is very tight, to the point where if you're not paying attention you'll get roughed up by sword-fodder mobs. When you get the flow of combat a little ways into the game, it starts to feel awesome. The art is just gorgeous. Very cute, but very grim and solemn at the same time. Exploration for these games is also a big deal. I normally avoid big open platformers because the backtracking is so fkn tedious. But Team Cherry nailed this perfect balance of impenetrable and vague lore, sprinkled areas you're going to need to return to, intelligent fast travel, and slow but rewarding discovery and progression. I kept THINKING I was up against a wall and dead-ended and stymied and so bored but actually another route to another place I hadn't been was just right near me, or I had just unlocked a skill that let me take another path, or I realized I had a traversal technique I used to suck at but now could pull off so reaching that ledge was plausible now. Part of this is a brilliant map that was hand-drawn and how the Knight adds to it as you go. You can also drop little markers on it to remind yourself where to come back to, and it's HUGE. The exploration and slow reveal of the world and lore is 10/10. It absolutely blows other games like this out of the water. You're never not able to explore, and you never know when you're going to fall down a chasm and walk into an altar to ancient gods only to have them trap you in a dream. Or find a new skill. Or meet a friend. Amazing.

Love the game mechanics, the art, and music. I think they built an amazingly grim world you want to keep exploring.

The core of this game is so well orchestrated that it never cease to amaze me.I already completed it once and I'm revisiting it for a second time while waiting for Silksong. Truly a wonderful experience