Story is basically Dark Souls

[MacDougall]

So I just beat the game. Haven't tried the DLC yet but I really enjoyed it. I was pretty disappointed though how similar the story is to Dark Souls. I don't really care about the similar mechanics (bonfires/benches, bloodstain/ghost thing, etc). But the story was extremely vague right up until about the end so I was excited to have all the mysteries answered. Then I realized it's basically just dark souls with a few twists, and even then I feel like it's kind of all over the place. There's the infection (hollowing) that's destroyed the ancient kingdom of Hallownest (Lordran). In order to prevent the spread of the infection you have to break the seals (find the Lord Souls) so that you can travel inside the egg (Kiln of the First Flame) to sacrifice yourself and replace the Hollow Knight (Gwyn). What I did like was the artistic style of the game though, I thought the bugs and all their variations as warrior type characters was pretty creative.

[Kanra]

Have you explored the other endings yet? The first ending does sound like it's pretty similar to DS stuff, but I think the rest of the lore past that ending is more interesting.

[Sunsetter]

Only well written and presented.

[(Edgy) Asriel Dreemurr]

There is a major difference where the infection is caused by an entity that the vessels were created specifically to kill.

Whereas Hollowing in Dark Souls is a natural progression.

There’s also a bit of role reversal where the sacrifice in Hollow Knight is to destroy the false light that offers desires, while in Dark Souls the sacrifice is to keep the false light alive.

Hollow Knight is more clear with the fact that what you’re doing has a positive effect on the world. In Dark Souls it’s more ambiguous. Whether you choose to rekindle the flame or not there are pros and cons to either side.

[<Username Not Found>]

Yeah, check out the other endings dude. Because the true final boss is a highly undarksoulsy.

[Boksha]

Everybody knows the story of Dark Souls is just a rehash of Zeliard.
A stranger from another land (The Chosen Undead/Duke of Garland) travels to a holy land (Lordran/Zeliard) to rid it of an infection (hollowed undead/monster infestation). To do so he must collect items of power (the Lord Souls/Tears of Esmesanti) and travel to the cause of the infestation (Kiln of the First Flame/Jashiin's lair) and defeat the current ruler of the land (Lord Gwyn/Jashiin) and make a choice to either rule the land but potentially leave the world a dark place (become the lord of darkness/take the throne) or sacrifice themselves for peace (light the kiln/follow the spirits).

Seriously, if you leave out 90% of the details and twist the remaining 10% around a bit, most stories can be presented as if they're basically the same as a completely different story. Obviously, Dark Souls has absolutely ♥♥♥♥ all to do with Zeliard, but if you actually pay any kind of attention to HK and DS, you'll find that apart from the very broad lines they are pretty unrelated as well. <headcanon> Except for the main character being only a few centimeters tall and the entire world effectively being at the scale of insects. That's totally stolen from Dark Souls. </headcanon>

[MacDougall]

Fair points guys, I remember the moth dream nail lady saying they used to worship Radiance but they switched to the light of the new kingdom. That is why Radiance was vengeful and spread the infection (I think). Pretty interesting stuff.

But from what actually happened on screen, it immediately struck me as very reminiscent of Dark Souls. It could be because the game had a lot of mechanics from Dark Souls so it had already given me a Souls vibe.