Hollow Knight: 2025 Mar 29

If you were wondering how bad my "Games To Play" backlog was, here I am in 2025 playing a videogame that released in 2018. This isn't even really a recent purchase. I'm fairly certain that I bought Hollow Knight in 2023. Which is absurd, but pretty typical for me. When I saw previews of this game back in the day, I decided to not watch anyone talk about it or stream it- I felt like it was something that I should experience for the first time completely by myself, and I'm usually right when I choose to do that. So I don't know a goddamn thing about this game, and it's magical. I probably shouldn't be playing a game about bugs while writing a wordless ero-horror comic about bugs, but there shouldn't be a whole lot of overlap considering that I could never hope to match something this beautiful. Every little piece of set dressing in Hollow Knight is absolutely beautiful. I'm in constant awe at how incredible this game looks. Even though this is more relevant to 3D, I still feel the need to say that videogame prop artists do not get enough flowers. I actually feel bad breaking stuff in this game? Even though I know that the lamppost will just regen on the next screen, I feel like I'm a bull in an archaeological dig.

Fakeouts and Hard Lessons

The game is definitely good at teaching you how to play without saying much. I still haven't gotten the timing or distance of swinging my sword right, but I'm getting better. I know that knock-back (a mechanic in which your character is physically pushed backwards when they attack or take damage) is very divisive for folks, but personally, I got used to it in Shovel Knight (3DS) and I am already getting used to it again here. I generally really enjoy how the game communicates. I like that the music shifts and changes pretty organically when you've walked into a dangerous area, but that how much danger you need to expect varies greatly. When I saw the hallway in the Greenpath full of teeth, I was pretty sure that I was going to get jumped, and the Hunter not jumping me was a pleasant surprise. Somewhat along those lines, the Snail's orange-ish eyes put me on guard because of the similar coloring of the Husks' eyes, but they were completely normal. I like that the big guard in the Forgotten Crossroads kind of teaches you to fight the False Knight before you encounter him (unless you recognize him from that one room and use the platform to avoid his ass like I did.) The game is definitely punishing of mistakes, but I always feel like the punishment was fair. I was worried that this game was going to produce Limbo-like feelings such as "Are you kidding me? He drowned in water that doesn't even go past his knees?!", but that has not been a problem at all. (I told myself that I was not gonna get further into those feelings, and I have to hold myself at my word until I give that game a second try.)

Gauging Hazards

I don't know how to explain this, because it's probably more about game feel than mechanics exactly, but I like that the game lets you just... try things. You have to go get your Shade back when you die, but so far I've just found that you have to go get it eventually. Maybe if I die two times in a row without going to go pick up my shrieking inner enemy from daycare, I'll eat my words. Yes, your hateful little doppelganger has your money, but it's not too hard to make money. It's like having one of your piggy banks held hostage by a younger sibling that just so happens to emanate creepy music box noises and try to kill you on sight. Concerning, but they're not spending it on anything. It reminds me of playing 1-on-1 soccer with my dad. When I was losing a lot I would just sit on the ball and laugh. Eventually I would have to give the ball back to keep playing. You can test your mettle against the tormented souls of Hallownest whenever you want, and if you lose, you don't lose a whole lot. I never feel like the game is punishing me for trying something new. But I have no idea how to quantify that feeling, which is why these are not reviews.

Closing thoughts for now

I will probably keep playing today (I'm writing this on March 30th). It's probably not great for my experience of games that I tend to only start new games when I'm feeling very despondent about my life outside of them, but I guess it's probably a good thing that I'm so far behind on my to-play list if I'm only picking games up when I feel horrible. I have also been playing LISA: The Painful, but I am not even remotely ready to fucking talk about that.