I'm now well on my way to 100% and finally feel comfortable drawing a few conclusions about this wonderful game. In many aspects from the gorgeous art and graphic design, to the exceptional music and sound, to the deeply satisfying combat system, this is one of the greatest installments I have ever played in the action-platforming genre of which I have long been a fan. There are a few minor gripes that mar an otherwise near-perfect experience however. 1) Strange gamepad control scheme. Why exactly does the spell cast button have to be mapped to both the dedicated R1/RB button AND dual mapped to the heal button (B/circle) as well? This only serves to ensure that the player will occasionally accidently use a spell when attempting to heal or back out of a menu. There NEEDS to at least be an option to use only the R1/RB button to cast. Frankly, it would be a more sane default. In addition, on PS4 controllers the button to open the inventory menu is mapped to the touchpad even though the "share" button is unused and would be much more convenient in my opinion. If only this function were remappable like most others... 2) Charm balancing needs some work. A few examples (item spoilers ahead): Spore shroom is mostly useless, particularly late-game. It could be made more usable by scaling damage per tick with maximum health and releasing the cloud at the beginning of healing rather than after. Grubberfly's Elegy is not worth 3 notches in current form. 2 would be more reasonable. Baldur Shell simply sucks. Allow healing to continue until broken, or refund the soul used afterward. Hiveblood needs an overhaul. Regenerating continuously up to full health, but blocking focus a la Joni's Blessing would be more worthy of 4 notches. Overall, my complaints are minor and fixable, and do not detract much from the journey that is Hollow Knight. I bought it on sale for $10. Normal price is $15. To me this game would be worth every penny of $20-30. Absolutely recommended.
