The story and setting are very well done and you really feel like a powerless little cog in a much larger machine. The game is very stressful and has a really unique way of destroying your morale, but in a good way. It also finds a really nice balance between offering you risky but moral decisions, but also offering you immoral but much more pragmatic options. Highly recommended.
I haven't finished the game yet, but this game needs some adjustments. Most of the time it is not too difficult, but it has some elements and sections that are reaaaaaly arduous and frustrating (much more than the first Hollow Knight). Like having a section consisting of ~4 rooms where several somewhat difficult normal enemies are mixed with somewhat difficult parkour elements and at the end you have to fight multiple difficult enemies in a (too) small arena. Each of these elements alone would have been fine, combining the first two together would have been fine, but finishing the section with the arena fight results in lots of deaths (mostly in the arena). Then you get sent back to the nearest bench, which is 3 to 5 minutes away, and now getting through this entire section turns into a doable but very repetitive and tedious experience. Honestly devs, if your arenas and boss fights are already pretty diffilcult (and sometimes unfair), then just respawn me in front off them if I die. It's just annoying game design. And there's a lot more of those smaller but annoying issues (like the stingy economy and lack of meaningful upgrades) that really affect my enjoyment of the game. Overall exploring the world is a much more sluggish, arduous experience than in the first Hollow Knight, and to me that kills a lot off the fun.
