Hollow Knight is so good in so many ways. The art is really beautiful, the worldbuilding is crazy, the gameplay is simple at first but is so complete and detailed when you are into the game. The soundtrack is exceptionnal, the combat mechanisms are incredible.
Even if you did never try any Metroidvania before, this game will make you fall in love with the genre. It did to me, at least.
Do not wait a single second. Just buy it.
This game is great, and sets the new standard for the Metroidvania genre.
I have precisely three complaints to make. The first will probably mean nothing to you if you haven't played the game, it is that you have to waste a charm notch to get a "you are here" indication on the game map. This game world is huge and it is very easy to get lost without the compass. There are so many interesting charms that change the game play, and having to waste one of the limited number you can wear at once really irks me. My second complaint is that there usually is not a rest point right by a boss fight, so if you die repeatedly to a certain boss you will be going through an area many times. My third complaint is that the final boss was too easy. Every other boss involved getting the snot slapped out of me before getting good, but this one was a total pushover.
There is plenty of praise to be heaped on this game. In a ~45 hour playthrough I did not come across one single glitch. The graphics are beautiful and nicely stylized, and my aging Radeon 200 series graphics card performed excellently. The soundtrack was wonderful and added a lot to the already abundant ambiance. The many environments of the game are distinct from one another and a pleasure to explore. The combat is extremely well-polished, gratifying, and the perfect level of challenging. The numerous bosses were all significantly different in appearance and combat style. The charm system offers a wide variety of play styles and none is obviously superior to the others, which is the goal for a buff system. The setting is novel and the lore intriguing, albeit slow to unravel. There is so much to do in this game that you probably won't accomplish it all in one playthrough, and I intend to play this game again.
This game is well worth your time and money.
I mostly like the game. It has beautiful art and I like that authors have created interesting non-human world with some mythology and history. But I have some critics of it.
1. I like exploring and I wanted to see good story. Unfortunately nothing was clear at the moment when i have reached first ending. To understand everything what happened and game lore I have to go to internet and read about. Story was beautiful and solid but I wanted it to be clear from GAME, not from fans' WIKI.
2. I'm not gamer. And for me game shood be funny time. This game is sometimes superdifficult which is frustrating. Very difficult boses, very difficult areas with spikes. Most boses could be killed after you memorize theirs' attack and movement pattern and adjust own moving. For me it sometimes needs dozens and dozens of tries, before I manage to do it. I really can't understand why it should be so difficult. The worst of it after you have been killed you often need run for long until you reach boss again (and in process you will easily lose life or soul or even could be killed by usual enemies or spikes).
After some time you will have teleportation that simplifies process but before this you will lose so many time!
3. You will recieve special sword attacks but they are so slow you almost never will use it against bosses.
I thin game is not as hard as for example "Blashemous" but it needs either being cool gamer or have a lot of time.
Some criticized it for bad map system, but I don't have problem with it. Exploring was fun and interesting until hardcore spikes and bosses areas.
Also I dislike games with multiple endings. And of course to have another ending you have to read wiki and be hardcore gamer. This is again frustrating.
With all of this I'm waiting for sequel.
