What makes Hollow Knight great?

[Bubonicfart]

The title speaks for itself, I really just want other people's opinions on why this game is amazing! I myself have played over 200 hours, on Steam and Playstation, so this isn't to convince me why it's great, I'm just wondering what others think.

[Darkskinned King]

the hand drawn art style,simplistic combat,soundtrack and the lores kind of nice. nice game for $15.

[Syndiciate]

It's a combination of the tough but fair gameplay, the control you're given over your character's movement and the story and atmosphere imo.

[Boksha]

It was really the sense of mystery and exploration, emphasized by the art style and music, that drew me in at first, but in the end, the challenge is what caused me to end up with ~200 hours.

[PeaHaitchGee]

The game was very fair the whole way through. Whenever I screwed up it always felt like it was my fault. The art style is nice and with a larger budget hopefully the next game will look even better! The game play is tight and responsive which makes combat fun. All of the areas are memorable meaning that when you get a new ability you always have an idea of where to go. And the story is shown in a way where you kinda understand what's going on even though you don't have a clue what's actually going on. The atmosphere is good and is accompanied by great music! There's a lot of optional content that makes the world worth coming back to as well. And it only cost $15!

[JapanGamer29]

I was frustrated at the game for a long time because I found it so difficult, but 200 hours later and it’s now my favorite game of all time (narrowly ahead of Sensible World of Soccer).

For me, I think I love Hollow Knight so much because every challenge is a sort of puzzle with a solution that works every time once you’ve figured it out. It’s enormously satisfying.

[Sunsetter]

Any game whose gameplay makes me want to gouge my eyes in frustration yet still keeps me playing is masterful.

[Phirestar]

Well, it's really just the combination of everything: excellent boss design, amazing music, a beautiful artstyle. But there's one aspect that I think is most important: a real sense of exploration.

I played a handful of other titles in the genre, including a couple of the more beloved titles. And for as much as I enjoyed them, and thought they were good games, they made the same mistake of being incredibly linear and lacking meaningful secrets.

Ori and the Blind Forest was the game that felt most disappointing for me. I really loved the world and atmosphere that had been put into the game, and I was looking forward to going out and seeing what was there... except that I couldn't. Because the game doesn't allow you options on where to go. Quite the opposite, actually - you have quest markers and map stones that fill in the page and show you the path to your objective. And aside from the one small area that was added in the Definitive Edition, you are otherwise restricted to following the main path.

(This is what I'm really hoping will change in the sequel, since they've mentioned "taking inspiration from Dark Souls", which is a game / game series that is known for fantastic exploration.)


Mark Brown made a good point of it in his Axiom Verge video, where he talks about the idea of getting "lost" in the world of a metroidvania.
https://youtu.be/ZGWHxQ2WcBE
I have seen some other games that've done it this way. Even though it's not technically a metroidvania, despite the tagging, I think that Rain World managed to capture that same sense of wonder that's present in Hollow Knight.

[Slug Camargo]

For me, Hollow Knight pushed all the right buttons in a way no game since the first Dark Souls had.

Specifically, I'll mention the engulfing atmosphere, the simple but gorgeous hand drawn art style, the masterfully designed interconnected gameworld (and all its hidden secrets), the unexpectedly deep combat system and the impossibly tight and responsive controls. These last three were major direct callbacks to my love for Dark Souls. In a lot of non-trivial ways, Hollow Knight felt like a more deserving successor to Dark Souls than any of its actual sequels.

I cursed out loud and often in Hollow Knight, but I never had anyone but myself to blame. This speaks of top-notch game design. Adding to that, the way that checkpoints are set up during platforming sections and the management of pickups, are small but very clever details that turn what could have been an exercise in frustration into a challenge in which you're always making some degree of progress.

I like Phirestar's comparison to Ori, because -even though it's a lovely game and I mostly enjoyed my time with it- in a lot of ways Ori is the absolute anti-Hollow Knight: The metroidvania-looking design turns out to be anything but, the world -lush and colourful though it is- doesn't really feel like a world that's lived on, and -even though the animations are gorgeous and the controls very responsive- the gameplay resorts way too much to trial and error, RNG and infuriatingly misplaced checkpoints.

The White Palace is one of the most intimidating, terrifying places I've ever seen in a game; but before every stretch you get to stand up, take a breath, analyse the layout and the threats, and plan your way through. And if you manage to beat a sequence, you're rewarded with a checkpoint.

In Ori's escape sequences, you're running away on a punishingly tight timer and you're expected to make snap decisions -some of which depend on absolutely random but very specific events that might or might not happen as you need them, so even after you memorize all the path you can still fail randomly through no fault of your own-, all over an incredibly busy background. And if you fail one inch before the end of the sequence, you're back all the way to the beginning.


When I finally beat the Radiance, I was exultant, filled with pride and drowned in an overwhelming sense of accomplishment; and I adored the ending sequence to bits. It had taken me over an hour of banging my head against the wall, to the point I seriously considered giving up; but I didn't give up and I couldn't be more proud of myself after that. All the Radiance-induced rage was gone the moment the Hollow Knight's shade held it up and I got to lash out at it with my void tentacles.

When I finished Ori, I was sure that I was looking at a beautiful cutscence where lovely things were happening; but I was still so pissed off at all the random nonsense I had to put up with during that last platforming section that I couldn't enjoy the ending in good faith. I even felt kind of guilty for feeling so angry when the game was awarding me with all that gorgeous art, but I was just so genuinely fuming I couldn't enjoy it.

[Salvale]

Even if you look past the visuals, lore, music, atmosphere, etc (which, mind you, are all perfection) The game is mechanically just, well, perfect. The seamless and beautifully looping level design builds and progresses in such a perfect and unexpected way, much like the first Dark Souls. Many bosses are amazing, and even the worse ones are mechanically fine and only really suffer from the DS2 syndrome of calling things bosses even though they probably aren't worthy of the title of boss. The combat mechanics are well balanced for the game's design and just works. The game is balanced impeccably to ensure that it is consistently rewarding. And the sense of exploration is just off of the charts. The world is much larger than you'd expect and never fails in any capacity. I can't emphasize just how well the world really is designed, and can't really explain it without going into great detail. But you'd better believe I'm more than hyped for the sequel.

[Dr0wsyCat]

In my opinion it would be the pure simplicity of the game. You are thrown into this world left in ruins in asking yourself as to what was going on in this forsaken kingdom. Many characters like the Hollow knight suffering of a tragic end or the dung defender protecting his kingdom in spite to the end. Also lets not forget the Shade Lord. I'm down to worship that higher being.

[awanderingswordsman]

The full package really. Great combat, great art, great exploration, great atmosphere, great platforming, great music, really fluid and complete control of the character (that air control and frame one attack), and just a stupid amount of content for 15 dollars. This game is worth like 100 dollars.

[Darkskinned King]

Silksong better be over $15

[Darth Revan]

I think the fact that people want to pay more for the game says a lot about its quality

[The Judas Goat]

Originally posted by zpgafdoom:

Silksong better be over $15

What if making the game so cheap means that TC sells so many more copies that they make more money than if they had sold it for $40? I want TC to make the maximum amount of money they can.

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Anyway, the greatness of Hollow Knight is predicated on two things. Story, and gameplay. The story isn't great in what it is - dead society + precursor war is a pretty common setup. What makes it great is how it is told. Team Cherry tell their story not just in the dialogue, but also visually in the bacground, with the music, and with character animations. That Team Cherry has a classically trained animator as a member is ciritical to their success there.

The gameplay is good because they know how to design every part of the game to bear on player character's abilities. If you fight a boss, the boss doesn't just shįt projectiles all over the screen and call it a day. The projectiles aren't just placed in a way that you can dodge. The bossisn't only attackable in the windows between its patterns. The projectiles are placed in a way that gives you options. If you dodge easily, then you'll be safe until the attack is over, but if you dodge with one of your characters high-level mechanics, you'll probably end up somewhere where *you* can punish the boss. That sense of give-and-take makes boss battles not just hard, but rewarding as your skill increases.

I won't talk about the metroidvania side, because others here have said what needs to be.

[Boksha]

Originally posted by The Judas Goat:

What if making the game so cheap means that TC sells so many more copies that they make more money than if they had sold it for $40? I want TC to make the maximum amount of money they can.

I wouldn't mind a 'pay what you want' option. I always feel bad paying very little for something I enjoy a tremendous amount when I pay more for things I don't enjoy nearly as much.